Keep it real

If you look back one day will you say you should have, could have, would have? Or will you be able to say - I did. I made the hard decisions. I took the chances. I cried myself to sleep. But the tears eventually faded. The sun shone once more. Perhaps not as bright as before. But I took charge. I took time. I did it all for me. Because the only wasted life is the one spent living for reasons other than being you. So be. Live. Feel. Keep it real.

No compass in tech media

After having worked in the media industry in one way or another for close to 20 years I can't help but wonder if the time of "traditional" media really is coming to an end. Yes this is not a topic that hasn't been explored before, in fact its been bandied about since the late 90s and the sinister launch of web sites as news portals. My point is a lot more hinged on what the media seems to be consuming as news, and this is with particular reference to technology media in South Africa, although if you feel the shoe fits please feel free to share. So what makes a good news story? Well I would swear it was actually nothing. Because unless it was blinks, burps or is linked to social media it is seldom picked up these days. It just makes me wonder if the media actually follow up on leads, read what is sent to them, or simply just don't understand what is being said to them. Now before you blast me please understand I am speaking specifically from a "technology media" point of view. The tech media just seem to have slipped into inertia, and now to them only consumer tech matters (read he with the biggest gadgets), the cloud bores them and heaven forbid you pitch enterprise tech to them - they simply don't get it. So what does this really mean? It means we are going to have to become more creative in firstly how we package news, and as consumers of news we are going to have to take what we see with a pinch of salt. Why? Because literally all "tech" news, unless its in a newspaper or bar maybe one local portal, has had to pay to be placed. Its a sad and very worrying state of affairs and I can't help but wonder if we are just going to have to go back to the good old days of direct touch, direct contact with customers and self-publishing. The other option is you can keep consuming the dog food that is being fed to you - even though you may be a cat.

Three steps forward ... Or lets call it 19kgs down

So the last time I blogged I promised to keep you up to date with the progress of my weight loss. Well I was pretty rubbish at keeping that promise so I am just going to tell you its been pretty good and its still going. Since the end of September, so lets say officially from the start of October, I have lost 19.4 kgs... Has it been easy? Hell no. Is it rewarding? Hell yes. Will I keep going? Damn straight I will. While I still have a whopping 16kg's to lose at least I have tipped the scale in my favour. The original task of 35kgs seemed like a mammoth unsurmountable one. The 16kgs of today feel like a much easier figure to swallow. Or to not swallow as it were. Being on diet and all - swallowing bad! Some key learnings to date? Diet is not just about food and quantities and exercise. It is very very much about nutrition. Garbage in, garbage sits. Eating a crackerbread and some cucumber is not a meal. And while you think robbing yourself of calories is going to shift weight, the reality is, it isn't. You need to feed a diet with nutrition. I am by no means an expert but with the help of an expert who is helping open my eyes to all of this I am over 19 kgs lighter and a whopping 73cms slimmer. Dum dum dummmmm....

Still at it and winning

So some of you may or may not have followed my journey. If you have I just wanted to give you a short sharp update that I am officially down by 15.5kgs now. With still over 20 to go I am cautiously optimistic. I think the big thing with weight loss and dieting is the personal inner struggle we have when we feel like we might be missing out on something. But you know, thin people miss out on things each day. They make conscious decisions to either partake or to abstain from food stuffs every single day. Purely because you might not have ever had to make that kind of decision doesn't mean that you shouldn't be. As much as life is about choices - so is the battle to either look good or to just looking ok. I know which one I am aiming for and its tough as hell - but I will get there.

Fun and Games with George... The horse.

Meet George... He is an off the track thoroughbred an a complete and utter hooligan. He won a race, got placed 17 times in other races, and then blew a tendon before they pulled him from racing. His "real" name is Goodwill Games. We love our George... Albeit he thinks he is 2 and is in fact 13 and has decided that opposed to being a good horse and actually putting his head down into the contact he is going to run around with his head in the air like a g-raff.

So yes... We do love our George.

Not rid of me yet... Yes still going

Just when you thought it was safe to come out of the water .... I am back. I never really went anywhere. Besides of course a quick business jaunt to Spain and a nasty brush with 400 deadlines that all came hauling at me once in case I thought I could avoid one or two while I was away. You probably thought I went to ground because I had failed my diet. MWHHAHAHHAHHAAAA... Well actually I haven't. Its 10kg's down in 4 weeks. Yes... *drum roll* a whole 10... So it really was just me getting busy that has kept me from posting my musings here. I don't have much more time today either. But I thought it best to throw that tidbit at you incase I had fallen off the wagon. 10 down... 25 more to go. And LETS GO!

Week one... DONE.

It is not my intention to turn this blog into one of those annoying diet diaries. But I need a place where I can pen this all down and as I am writer, and a large part of that being a corporate writer, I tend to write a lot for other people and not for myself. So coming here is forcing me to remind myself of this journey. Righty ho. Week one. Done and dusted. Hard as hell... There have been a couple of days I have wanted to (in the words of my diet consultant) "Eat the ass off of a low flying duck". The absolute worst is the cooking for my family. Bacon. Crispy fried bacon, steak, mushrooms in cream, greek style chicken... Who would have thought that packing away the biltong and seeing the nice fatty chunks, calling me, would be such a challenge. That merely sitting at the dinner table watching my kids and hubby tuck into what I have made would ... just about... send me over the edge. Lets not talk about packing leftovers into containers and not putting it straight into my mouth! But I am getting stronger and there is an incredible sense of achievement at the end of each night when you go to bed and realise you actually haven't cheated, not even by licking your fingers after packing Ghost Pops into a small packet for your daughter's traveller cooler box. The results? I have lost 3.5kgs and 20cm. Its rapid for a week but remember that first week is your detox week. That week where all the rubbish and water retention start to let go. Personally if I could keep it at this pace I would be a happy camper. Nothing more soul destroying than losing 500g a week when you are on a diet! So its all systems go. Go and GO. I may report in throughout the week with other snippets and to share the angst of packing a school lunchbox... When did we surround ourselves by so much fooD?!?!?!?!? Otherwise it will only be after the next weigh in. And happy International Coffee Day... Thank GOD they never took coffee away from me ;-)