Oct 31 - Happy Halloween

   I won't go into gruesome detail but I was not feeling well this morning.  Thankfully I still managed to get to work on time to open the office and by just after lunch I was feeling mostly better.  The highlight of my morning though, was that I weighed in at 108.1kg!  That's my total loss up to 18.6kg (41 lbs).  Dietary hot spots permitting I'm hoping to get to the 20kg mark by mid-November!  I'm hoping I make it because it would be a nice milestone to get to this side of Christmas.  The aim during December is just going to be not to gain back any weight.
  Work was a little bit more interesting today.  I was working on a large Powerpoint presentation.  My knowledge of Powerpoint is very miniscule so it's a sharpish learning curve which always makes for a more interesting day.  It still wasn't a particularly difficult task, but a change is as good as a holiday sometimes.
  I got a fun email today at work from my Granny.  She did indeed, as suspected, get great amusement from seeing the word buttocks so many times.  It reminded her of something she'd written (and which I remembered reading years ago, hence why I knew she'd find 'buttocks' amusing).  She and Grandad managed to find it on their ancient Mac and convert it to a Word doc for me.  It was fun to read again and I forwarded it to Mr Smart and Earnest as well.  Earnest said he could definitely see where my writing style comes from which I took as a great compliment.
  Tonight, once home, I managed to get to those tasks I procrastinated on yesterday.  I put on a load of laundry and I took out my rubbish and recycling and dragged the bins to the kerb (true, it's not bin night until tomorrow, but it needed doing while I felt motivated lest I forget to do it tomorrow).  Then I heated up ate dinner, hung out the load of washing, picked a large bag of lemons, and sat down to proof read an essay Mr Smart had emailed to me this afternoon.
  The essay in question covered a number of short stories by various authors, one of which was The Persimmon Tree by Marjorie Barnard. 

Photo from Healthy Green Kitchen

There was one sentence that made me raise my eyebrows.  "The persimmons themselves also serve as a metaphor as they are described in their various stages, from buds to shooting bulbs, to their fully ripened form that is likened to a woman’s breasts." 
  Now while I expect this is a perfectly accurate assessment of the metaphor in this particular narrative, pictured to the right is a ripe persimmon.  The very thought of them being a metaphor for a woman's breast made me laugh and type a note to Mr Smart "Egad.. I hope no one ever likens my breasts to persimmons!"
  That aside though, I can't recall if I've ever actually eaten persimmon, ripe or otherwise.  Perhaps I'll try one next time I see them.  I might even be tempted to try the Coconut Persimmon Smoothie recipe that I found the photo next to.

  Today's food and exercise were:

• Breakfast was a slice of toasted banana bread served with yoghurt, honey, slivered almonds and pumpkin seeds.
• Morning snack was a pink lady apple.
• Lunch was a Mission wholegrain wrap spread with about 50g of Yumi's Eggplant Dip, topped with baby spinach and re-heated leftover roast lamb (the other half of my mini roast from yesterday).
• Afternoon snack was a slightly unripe banana.
• Exercise was back bends and glute flexes throughout the day.  I'm surprised, given how many times a day I'm doing them, that no one has caught me face down on the carpet at work yet!
• Dinner was a serve of veggie heavy chilli con carne.
• Dessert was 20g of Lindt 85% Cocoa dark chocolate.
• Blood sugar two hours after dinner was 6.3
• Halloween candy was one 11.6g orange flavoured Fizzer!  Om nom nom nom.  I had no trick or treaters whatsoever, not really that surprising I suppose.  Luckily I didn't buy any additional candy for Halloween.  What I had was leftover from Bertie's on Saturday night.
• Blood sugar two hours after candy was 5.5

  Not much else happened this evening.  I started a shopping list for tomorrow.  I'm going to swing by the supermarket after physio tomorrow night and grab a few things, though slightly fewer than originally planned as I'm now going out for dinner on Friday night too.  I suppose I could have said no to the invitation, but what fun would that have been!?  My only other home tasks for this week involve some progress on my scheming (all shall be revealed soon), some dishes, kitchen and office ongoing tidy up.  Oh, and getting around to proof reading for Jack.  I've fallen a bit behind on that!  I must just mention in closing too, I am listening to an album on repeat at the moment: I Speak Because I Can by Laura Marling.  I've really really gotten into it.  Thanks Gub!
  That's it for me for another day.  Talk to you all again tomorrow.
  Jess