My start tactic ...

Beginning my weight loss journey this year did not come about as a result of a new years resolution. Rather it was something I decided to do once my littlest one started primary school.

This is for two reasons. Firstly because I have made the commitment to walk and do drop off and pick up at school everyday and secondly because I walk past my gym everyday that I walk him to school. So it seemed an easy transition, school drop off, gym, then home to do some work.

Our walk to school is 25 minutes. So for me that's 4 x 25 minutes walk by the time I go there and back home for each trip. That in itself is a big addition to my daily exercise.

 I work for myself, which mostly entails sewing at a machine, sitting at a computer or my one shift a week in the shop that I have my stock in. So I'm guessing, I don't even get 1000 steps a day in, let alone the recommended 10,000 a day we all should be doing just to be healthy.

To begin with my plan is to commit to walking to school and back everyday as well as going to gym 3 times a week to do resistance training.

It probably seems quite a small start but I know that I am so unfit that I could only manage a small beginning without burning myself out.

All the things  I read about resistance training tell me that it's the number one thing to do to boost your metabolism and give you more energy.

Energy is something I struggle with big time.
I have been diagnosed as having chronic fatigue syndrome, but ... a big part of me thinks that this is a diagnosis that doctors give you when they can't find any other reason for you  being so tired and depleted of energy all the time.

I think I eat bad, I sleep terribly, I don't exercise and I stress far too much about ridiculously unimportant things.
So I tend to believe these are reasons why I am so lethargic ALL THE TIME.

My plan anyway is to ease myself into this bout of healthfulness a bit gentler then I usually would, so that  hopefully I can sustain it a bit longer and of course if my energy comes back I will change it around and up my program.

Will keep you posted.
Jay xx

The stats ...

All important in these weight loss journeys is marking the beginning
so we have somewhere to gauge our efforts against.
So for the record:

I weigh 114.5kg. 

I'm 5 foot 6

Female

37 years old.

I have written down my body measurements somewhere, so will add them later but so you can paint the picture, I'm a size 22 in pants and size 18-20 in tops.
My stomach measurement is bigger then my bust measurement, suffice to say that my greatest aim is to lose my gut.
It hasn't always been like that. Probably just the last ten years really. I usually carry weight around my hips, thighs and butt, for some reason though I now appear to be 8 months pregnant at all times!
Not sure if that's something to do with getting older, but what I do know s that it's the worst place to be carrying extra weight as far as your health is concerned.

So it's gotta go!

Image via: here

Another beginning ...

I say another beginning, as like most overweight people, this is not the first time I have tried to lose this extra weight that insists on following me around.

I have been over 100kg my entire adult life, with exception of two times that I managed to get myself down to 89kg ish.

I'm 37 now, so that makes it 20 odd years that I have battled with weight issues.

The two times I lost weight and got down to the 80's were both at the sacrifice of social life, and so much more. I didn't go out, I worked two jobs, ate barely anything and worked out everyday. So it's no surprise that both those times it didn't stick. It wasn't at all sustainable.

I've tried the soup diet, herbalife, weight watchers, no carbs, high protein, etc...Like most overweight people, I've tried it all.

I think... I know, where I fall down is lacking consistency. I don't ever do any of these for any consistent period of time. So I can not say to you that all the previous mentioned diet plans don't work, cause they do and they worked for me. But only for a week or two, or a month or two, till I went back to my old ways.

Going back to your old ways of course, means going back to your old weight.

We are such creatures of comfort and if it's easy, requires no effort and warms the cockles of my heart like only a good sticky date pudding can ... then that's what I'm gunna fall back on every time.

So what's different this time ...

 Image via:  here

Well, after many years, I have come to the realisation that what I lack is the commitment to see something through beyond that honeymoon period.

I honestly have a 3 month threshold, where i will be so strict and really motivated and then I'll think I'm working so hard, sacrificing so much and achieving so little. I don't lose 1 kilo a week like those chicks on t.v I lose .2 or .5 if I'm lucky. So I just become defeated.
I don't see the glory in my small achievements, I just see the failure in not losing it quick enough or not being able to live life like my friends who seem to eat and drink whatever they want whilst maintaining goddess like bodies.

So what happens is I make new years resolutions, i work like a dog for 3 months, lose 7 kilos then give up. The next 3 months I put the 7 kilos back on, then it hits mid year and I want to look good for summer so I start again. I go well for 3 months, then party season starts, good weather, daylight savings etc. lots of things that make me say why do I need to diet I should be out enjoying life.

So again...I give up.

You see my vicious cycle hey!

I lose the same 7 kilos , over and over and over again.

So here's my tactic this year.

DON'T GIVE UP.

don't stop after 3 months, push through.
Push through for a year, just keep on keeping on and see if we can overcome the helpless cycle. I know ...god knows I know, it will be slow. But even at .5 per week after one year that would be 26kg, which is a hell of a lot better then 7kg.

So that's it in a nutshell.

I know and you know how to lose weight.
Eat less, move more.
It's not rocket science. It's just a matter of applying what we know and sticking to it.

Now in honesty I'm writing this reflectively, I have been on this new beginning for four months now.
At a few stages I have had to reassess, change things up and keep myself motivated.
At each little bump in the road I find myself going to the journal and writing it all down to try and clarify things in my head. Well I don't actually have a journal, so there are just ramblings scattered around the house here and there on odd notepads.
Reminders of struggles, nutritional facts and things I've learnt about myself.
Seeing these the other day made me think I should really put those ramblings all in one place so I can make sense of them, hence beginning this blog.
I'll try and backtrack a bit an add the aha moments and the things I've discovered over the last four months to bring me up to today.

I don't really plan to share it with the community that I have built through my craft blog as it's a side of me that is a bit mental really. A defeated me, a me that struggles and stresses far too much about little things and the only people that might want to read about that are peeps in the same boat.

So if you have found me through some random search or weight loss forum, welcome.
Lets defeat these demons together.

If you have found this blog through my Finki exploits and you are thin, healthy and energetic...feel free to comment and share your insights to help me on my journey.

So onward and upward, here's hoping 2013 is the year I get on top of this, once and for all.
Jay xx