Figuring out what's working ...

Weigh in day today and I'm down to 104.7 woohoo. 

 Image via: here.

That's almost 10kg gone, and so much closer to my goal of getting under 100kg ... hoobloodyray!
I had a huge loss this week of 1.7kg. Well huge for me, as I'm usually a .5kg loser.

So of course I have had to sit back and analyze a little, as I do, to see what it was that may have done the trick this week. In retrospect I think it's not one thing I did or didn't do, more-so a combination of a few things.

Firstly, I have upped my workouts.
After my little rant on the last blog post about how doing the 80/20 thing of being good 5 days of the week and having the weekends off just doesn't work for me. I decided to test the theory of working out 6 days and having one day rest.
What I was doing before was actually having Thursdays off gym (so I could be a good mummy and do reading at school) as well as making the weekends gym free.
I was telling myself that I'm walking my preppy to and from school everyday ...collectively 80 minutes of walking a day for me, so that should allow me Thursdays off.

 Me walking in my spiffy, new runners.

Reality is, that all that walking is 10,000 steps a day for me, which is what is classed as a NORMAL amount of activity. You know ... normal for all those peeps who work outside of home etc ... so really that just puts me at healthy, doesn't rank me as someone going above the minimum daily movement requirement to actually be loosing weight. So yeah, maybe i was lying to myself a bit about how hard I was working!
Anyways, I picked up a cardio workout on Thursday and also added a pump class on Sunday. Giving me 6 days of working out. I also changed things up a bit to make sure I was getting 3 cardio sessions, 3 weights sessions and my yoga class. Which means some days I stay longer to fit weights in as well as cardio.

 Image via here

O.k so what else. I have still continued with eating extra protein.
I'm trying to have protein at every meal.
Nuts, yogurt, eggs, meat, fish, legumes, protein bars or shakes. Sorta dropped off on the shakes and protein bars only because they are a bit expensive but really there are plenty of readily available good sources of protein that I don't need to depend on them.
I have also maintained having breakfast and morning and afternoon snacks. So I'm seemingly getting more food in. Better quality food though, so it seems to be working.

Lastly ...sleep.
I ran out the Valerian tea and was hesitant to get more as it was really hard to have drink such a foul smelling tea every night. So I went 4 nights without and fell back into my restless sleep, tired day mantra aughhh...
I gave up on that pretty quick and decided I need to head back to the health food store. This time I was going to try the Valerian tablets. I saw Blackmores and Natures Own had sleep remedies too so I took them all up to the counter for assistance. The lady recommended the Natures Own saying one of her reps who is also a naturopath swore by them. So who am I to disagree.

 

Image via here

 Supposedly it has something in it to make you not only get to sleep quicker and sleep deeper but also to make you wake feeling refreshed. Imagine that, waking up ready to face the world well rested. That would be awesome.
 I have been taking it for 3 days now and each day I am feeling progressively better. Not waking up with a headache and feeling less like I have a constant cloud hanging over my head.
The girl at the gym desk even said gosh you're perky today... woohoo, must be working.

So yeah, I think they are the few big things of note.
Sleeping better, eating regularly, having protein at every meal and working out 6 days a week.

Oh and ... I totally forgot. Stressing less.
How could I forget that one. Something one of the trainers said during the week was stress less. As it has such a hold on you and really holds you back from accepting your new life and the changes you are making.

 

Image via here

Now as you can imagine telling a stress head to stress less is just dumb.
If I could I would for sure, but it's somewhat inbuilt. A safety mechanism of sorts. I can't say it always serves me well, but it is so ingrained I wouldn't know where to begin.
So... I downloaded a meditation app and have done that twice this week.
I have also changed my inner dialogue from 'why aren't I losing weight faster' to 'I'm doing the best I can for my body and even if I only lose .5 a week that will still add up to a substantial amount in 6 months or a year so its all good' and if I reached for chocolate or cake I did a count of my calories for the day to see if I had room for it then ate it and thought, 'yum just what I was in the mood for' ...instead of my usual immediate guilt and thoughts of 'well you've blown it again'

So they were biggies I think in helping my head stress less so that my body could make some progress. Letting go a little, I guess, of the berating negative comments, cause they sure as hell weren't serving me.

Well considering it has all worked in the last 2 weeks, I shall maintain status quo and keep on keeping on and you never know I might just get to 99.9kg before end of July after all...and if not I WILL get there real soon.

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