Almost there!

Well I've finished the Fat Chic Slim challenge, here is what I posted for the end of the challenge.

I lost momentum at the start of last week. Excuses, excuses. I lost 1.5kgs (down to 101.9). I think I may have been doing better than that, but blew it with some Christmas parties. I think that I would probably have done better with a weekly weigh in (if I had seen it go up I would've worked even harder or really watched my food).
I haven't actually done the fitness test, but today I jogged for twice as far as I normally do. I actually experienced the second wind, that was a good feeling! I'd love to jog 2.5kms. I'm making that a goal for 2011.
I'm pumped for continuing my health and fitness goals for 2011. My resolution is to not eat stuff just cos it's there and not eat stuff (particularly fattening stuff) that I am not really enjoying (like when you really want a potato cake but it's not that nice but you eat it anyway!)
Anyway. I have thoroughly enjoyed this challenge and it has given me loads of great ideas for stuff to do in my own workouts.

I'm pushing out my '10 kgs by Christmas' to '10 kgs by the 31st', I'm not that hopeful that I will get it done, but I am very happy being 8.1kgs lighter! I LOVE getting you've lost weight comments. I know I am getting fitter and that in itself is worth it. I am looking forward to being fit and fabulous in 2011! I hope I encourage you to make your own health and fitness goals.
Catch you next year :)

Ok. It has been a month since I last posted anything on here, I've got some explaining to do!

I have been plodding along for the last month, not really achieving anything worth posting. Well not weight wise anyway. I found that I was .5 up and .5 down all month. I finally had enough when I weighed myself one morning expecting (maybe rather hoping for!) a loss and I was nearly 2kgs heavier. I was furious, so I pulled out all my Slimplicity (Fernwood weight management program) notes and meal plans and started keeping a food diary again. I thought I could do it by myself but I think I have proved to myself that that wasn't working. I'm pleased to say that it has put me back on track and I am down to 103.4kgs. I know I could have already been at my goal, the only person I can blame it me, but I am going to do it hook or by crook. I must do it. I've done it before and there are really no excuses for not looking after myself.

My exercise has been made a little easier with the purchase of a new (brand new, not even form eBay!) pram. It's called a Croozer and I LOVE it!!! My 2 boys can sit side by side. It has a fixed (doesn't swivel) jogger wheel at the front (I use this most often because I use it on a lot of dirt roads and road shoulders) It also has a small stroller wheel and it can go on the back of a bike. I am not brave enough to use that feature yet though I am sure that the boys would love it. Anyway now that I have this fabulous beast, I am taking the long way into town and even running (well jogging) with it. Mr 2.5 loves it when I run with it and when I slow down he yells to me to 'go fast mummy'. I'd love to honey but mummy is so unfit that she thinks her heart might explode if she tries to keep running. Anyway I set little goals for myself. I am able to run from the start of one street to the start of the next. I run between power poles, i run in time with this fast bit of a song and slow down when it slows doan and then fast again, etc. It I feel completely knackered, I make sure I put on a song with a fast beat and power walk as best I can. My heart is racing so I must be doing something right?!

Once again I have joined a Fat Chic Slim challenge. I know I got excited about the challenge they had on a while ago and I didn't really do anything with it. I know it is just another excuse, but I felt bad putting down a walk as exercise. I was walking almost every day, but it was not hardcore, I had a bad pram (only a single and Mr 1 would have to balance on top which didn't really work with running or even brisk walking. I was not able to put in any extra and so I kind of didn't bother. Anyway, I have better tools and a better mindset and I must reach my goal which is rapidly approaching!

On a more positive note I am noticing changes in my body shape. My legs seem more defined and not quite so gross. I don't like my legs at all really, but I have decided to try and love them this year. It's what God has given me so I'll just have to suck it up. Anyway I don't know if it is because of this mindset change or because they actually look better but I think they look better :) I also noticed today that when I went down the slide at the playground, it was not a tight a squeeze as it has been in the past. Yay for a smaller butt!

And then I realised...the year is nearly over :O

What the heck has happened to this year? I know I've had a lot on but seriously, has it gone super fast or is that just me?

I was thinking the other day about how I am going with my goal to be 10kgs down by Christmas or the end of the year. And I suddenly realised...gah!, that is soon...I'd better to get my butt into gear! I'm not actually doing too badly. The last time I weighed in I was 103.9. That is 6.1kgs down and 3.9 to go to my end of year goal. People are actually starting to give me the 'you've lost weight' comments. That feels nice! And makes it easier to make better decisions.

I've been doing a lot more high intensity exercise. I have acquired some of the tracks from some old body combat releases and have been busting out whatever moves I can remember and making up whatever I can't! I love it! The songs rock haha. I've been doing a lot more incidental exercise with digging in the garden and pulling out weeds. I've also been putting the washing away one article at a time: making multiple trips back and forth from the bedroom to the boys room to the kitchen etc! It's inefficient but it all adds up! I have been trying on my old pants and while they are still a way off being done up I can at least get them over my bum now. It is good. I have no doubt that I will make my mini goal. I'm quite looking forward to being under 100kgs again.
But I won't be stopping there, oh my no. My brother is getting married in (I think I worked it out right) 17 and a bit weeks. I am setting another 10kg loss for that time frame. I think that is reasonable/realistic. That is pretty well 14kgs in 17 weeks.That's almost a kg a week. Well I'll see how I go anyway. It would be nice to be closer to 90 than 100! On a slightly odd note I bought a bokashi bin http://www.bokashi.com.au/. Because you can chuck all your food scraps (including meat, citrus, onion and a bit of dairy) in it, I am finding it easier to chuck out the kids leftovers with out picking bits off here and there. I had an 'it's being wasted I'd better eat it' mentality going on but now I don't see it as waste, I see it as 'fuel' to improve my soil! It makes it that much easier for me to 'toss' it!

Other than that we are getting into the swing of living in Euroa. We have joined the playgroup which is slightly more hectic than I am used to but the kids seem to enjoy it. We are settling into a new church and that is nice. I am looking forward to getting to know more people and establishing some new friendships. It all takes time. Like our house and our garden. I have been pulling out cape weed left right and centre and I am getting to the point where I am thinking about how to improve the soil and what kind I of lawn I want to try and grow. I am planning to treat the heavy clay soil with gypsum and then probably plant clover to try and improve the soil. My hubby is half way through putting the deck onto the verandah which I am really looking forward to having finished. I am (fingers crossed) getting a stove and oven this week! I'm so excited. I have only had a camping stove to cook on, which has been ok, but oh the joy to have a 4 burner stove AND an oven again! I'll be in heaven. I'll also have a broader menu range again!..woohoo! It is all very exciting. I love being able to do what I want to my own house. It is so fun! We still have no news on the power. Our neighbours said that they had been told it would probably be January before they were in their house, but I am hoping that it is not that a long a wait! On the bright side of that, I'm not having to pay any electricity bills at the moment and my carbon footprint is very small :) haha.

I'm hoping to be slightly more diligent with posting on here, but I don't have a lot of net time being limited to about an hour of battery time per night. I'll most likely post while I am staying with my parents, where I have access to unlimited electricity and internet! The things we take for granted!

Thanks for reading.

So much going on!

Ok. Since I last posted something on here I have had a lot going on. Our town had flooding the weekend after we moved. Our property was not really affected at all thankfully. It was very wet and muddy though which made for a difficult 2 weeks. Thankfully that has all settled down now, and we are only having one pair of dirty clothes each per day! We now have fences along the side and across the middle of the block to make an enclosed backyard. AND...wait for it...The contractors installing the power lines finished off today! Praise the Lord! That has only been at least 12 months in that making! I'm hoping that that means we will have power on soon, but I'm not holding my breath! Although 3 of the 5 houses being built in our street look as though they are all but finished, so hopefully it won't be too much longer. They have even installed street lights AND there are rumours about that they will be sealing the road and installing gutters! How exciting! This weekend we are hoping to get the holes drilled for the foundations for our verandah. It is all very exciting.
I'm also very excited to be onto our 3rd (or maybe 4th) dummy free night for Mr 2.5. I has happened surprisingly easily. We started off with no dummy during the day. Then he went to sleep without it one night because he was completely exhausted. The next night I lied to him that I would get it after he asked for it and never went back to him! (He happily fell asleep, no tears or anything). Last night and tonight I told him only babies have dummies and he happily accepted it and just drifted off. Too easy! I certainly hope it continues in this fashion!
Weight wise I'm doing the best I can. I'm watching what I eat as best I can when almost every night we are having some kind of pasta and sauce. Not the best option and I am really noticing the lack of vegetables. Hopefully the power will be on soon and we will have a fridge which I can load up with beautiful veggies. Oh yeah!
I have been walking almost every day to the park with the kids and to the shop to grab some bits and pieces for dinner. It's not really enough but it is something. I have found my runners and I'm planning to get running around in the backyard next week. I did a bit this week and had Mr 2.5 telling me to do it again mummy, do it again...haha my own personal trainer!!! I've weighed in at 104.5 for 3 days in a row that's a total of 5.5kgs down and 4.5 to go to my mini goal.
I don't have enough battery power left to add anything else, I need to type faster and with less mistakes!
Thanks for reading :)

Getting There

What an enormous month it has been since I last posted on here!

The most major thing that has happened is a big move. We have moved 2 hrs away to the rural Victorian town of Euroa. Our first proper day there was glorious...well until lunch time when it started pouring! For most of the first week that we have been there it has been raining. That wouldn't be so bad but we don't have any power on so I don't have that luxury of putting the Wiggles on to entertain the kids when I have run out of ideas! That also means that there is no heater to dry the mountains of clothes which are being created in a muddy yard! Then, over this weekend we were warned that it would be flooding. As far as I know our place has not flooded, but I have not been there all day. We had to give the generator that we were borrowing back and I couldn't handle the thought of being stuck inside with 2 feral kids, no way to entertain them and no clean clothes left! So I bailed to mum and dad's to do the laundry and give the kids a fix of the Wiggles and myself a fix of the internet being on a screen bigger than my phone!
I am mostly enjoying our new house. I am looking forward to it not being so wet. The house is much smaller than where we had been living so I am having the fun task of finding a home for everything, and then trying to remember exactly which home I put it in when it comes time to find it again! So it's getting there!

Weight wise, I'm going great guns! When I weighted in this morning I was 104.9. That is a loss of 5.1 kgs since I started. I've also lost 5cm from my waist (well i think I have, I find it difficult to take my own measurements!) Yay. So what have I been doing? Mainly I've been watching what I eat. It is the things which I think are not so bad which are the killers for me. It's that spoonful (or 2) of peanut butter (which to my shock was about 500kjs!!!) It's that 'health food' bar which has the same amount of kjs as a main meal! I've been reading the kjs and being aware of the amount of energy I am putting into my body. I've been keeping an eye on my portions; the carb serve at dinner time can easily be enough for another meal if I am not careful, so I've been using a smaller serving plate. It makes it look like way more than it is and I have been careful to eat slower and enjoy it more. I've also been making sure that I don't eat anything after dinner, I don't really need it anyway!
I've also been inspired by the facebook group Fat Chic Slim and the event that they are running: Around the World in 80 Days. Basically the aim of the event is to get 'around the world' in 80 days. If you do an hour of exercise, you contribute 100kms to the journey. Now while so far I haven't contributed many hrs and thus kms, I have been doing a little bit and am aiming to, in the following weeks, contribute way more. I've also shouted out my goal (to lose 10kg by Christmas) to the folks on the FCS page and now I have that out there I feel like I'm really accountable to someone! I know that you shouldn't be living up to anybody's expectations but your own, but personally it really helps me to know that I have that encouragement there to help keep me on track. I want to be able to post that I am losing weight and have that 'hey good job' response and that is what helps me to make better choices.
At the moment I really feel like I am on track to easily reach my goal and am hopeful that I may be able to add another 5kg to that goal. I don't know when I'll get back on here but I'm sure that when I do it'll be with good news of my shrinking butt :P and hopefully a picture!

Epic Failure, well, not completely!

Well, this has been a successful venture! Oh man...where do I start?!

Well my wonderful declarations however long ago have been majorly derailed by...well just about everything. Well that's what it feels like anyway!

Where to start.

1. It's winter. Enough said! I enjoy winter. I like that I can wear jeans and jumpers and scarves. I like that I can cook soup and bake things. I don't like not being able to hang washing outside and it taking the better part of 2 days for anything to dry. I don't like that it is dark and cold in the morning and in the evening when it is slightly possible to get out of the house and do exercise. I don't like how feral the kids turn when they are inside all day cos it is raining and/or freezing.

2. My back has been sore (like could barely walk sore). This was valid but now it's not. I have been trying to be faithful and do my stretching exercises (Thank you Stu www.clconcepts.com.au). Easier said than done but I'm doing what I can and it is actually feeling really, really good.

3. Food... has been hard. Our fridge broke and so far to replace it we have a camping fridge. Pretty well an esky which plugs in. It is hard to fit anything like vegetables in once there is a 3 litre bottle of milk, some cheese and last nights leftovers in there. The main reason we don't have a proper replacement is we are moving at the end of August (to a place with no power yet connected) and what is the point of getting something for such a short time (cos we won't be able to use it with no power). (That is not my opinion, but rather my amazing and wonderful husband[who sometimes annoys the daylights out of me!]) Anyway, aside from shopping everyday (with 2 kids no thanks) we do not have the capacity for fresh food and therefore haven't really been eating anything fresh.

4. My kids, my husband, myself and my excuses!

However all has not been lost. No! I haven't been sitting around on my ample backside complaining this whole time! Let me tell you about some of the positive things which have been going on in my chaos!

One positive thing is I read a little book called The Clutter Cure by Judi Culbertson. Being about to move into a place that is about a 1/3 the size of the place we are currently in, it was just what I needed. Of course it is loads of common sense, but she talks about getting down to why we keep the stuff we do and our emotional connections to our stuff. I have thrown out or given away loads of stuff that I have been holding onto for many reasons: sentimental reasons, someone gave it to me so I must keep it reasons, I'll get to it on day reasons. You name it I've kept it! Like old school work (particularly art or creative stuff, which I was proud of at the time but really wasn't that good). I have given away things that I was going to turn into a masterpiece for the last 5 years but haven't and most likely won't! Wedding gifts that I have never used because I don't like them or have not use for them. It has been a very cathartic experience. Some things I wanted but had no real place for so I took a photo of those things. I really didn't need to hold on to my first pair of Chuck Taylor All Stars (gosh lame I know!), so I took a picture. What a good feeling to toss all that stuff away. Judi talks a bit about feng shui, suggesting that you need to get rid of the things which are keeping you tied to the past and not allowing you to move into the future. I'm not sure that I believe that completely but I see the idea has merit and I definitely feel lighter and almost relieved to toss away the burden of a lot of my stuff!

Another positive is I have also been doing my dishes 9/10 nights. My kitchen used to always look like some degree of this.

Now it more often than not looks like this!What a difference that makes! Wow! I love having a clean kitchen. It is so much easier to do anything in a clean kitchen. It is never spotless, I have children, what can I expect! But it is nearly always tidy and the dishes are almost all always done (until my hubby brings his coffee cup in and empties his lunch box!...but that is a whole other blog!) I figured out what my problem is with the dishes. I have always said it would make my job easier if you (dear hubby) would clear the drainer for me. That is empty and put away the already clean dishes. While this is a true and perfectly valid statement, it rarely happens. Therefore, I guess in some kind of retarded protest I would NOT wash the dishes cos there was no room for them in that drainer. Well I was struck with an epiphany! While it is lovely and does make my job easier when the dishes are cleared and put away for me, it doesn't happen. So get over it and do it yourself! What a difference that makes. AND I'm not doing it grudgingly, I'm just doing it, cos it needs to be done. It's good for me!

I can probably add more but I think I'll leave it at that for now. I guess I'm feeling a little like my weigh loss journey is at bit of a stand still. I'm finding it very difficult to fit in any exercise which doesn't involve a pram and the shops or the park, and while that is good, it is not enough to see me shifting any kilos. I don't really know what I'm doing. I feel like I'm just floating along with life and I don't have the power to go that extra mile for me. Maybe it is not the right time to be trying to do this. What do you think? I'd love your feedback :) That's for reading. I fear this is very rambling, cos it is late and I have been thinking about this for weeks! Meh :)

Down but NOT out!

This week has been good although challenging. I feel like I have spent the majority of the week being a single parent. I think my hubby was home with us for one or two nights but he has spent 4 days and 4 nights 2hrs away working on the house we are hoping to move into sometime soonish hopefully! It has not been too bad really. The boys have been quite good and it has been nice(ish) to be able to do what I want. Which has mainly been watch telly!

Let me tell you about television in our house. We have never had a telly in our house for the 5 years which we have been married. I have never minded not having one, cos I actually think that most of the content on tv is rubbish. It does make it a little bit difficult to join in some conversations, not having any idea what is going on in....whatever, but really, how much do people talk about telly? Anyway, we have had a projector and a DVD player so we watch movies (we aren't completely sheltered!), but alas! that broke and I was left without a babysitter (read Wiggles or Bob the Builder or Thomas the Tank) to keep the kids entertained while I'm trying to get dinner together. Oh how I missed that! Anyway, youngest brother to the rescue with a free tv for me! Hooray! I am enjoying watching Sesame St and Playschool with the kids and discovering new shows like Chugginton! I've also been watching Masterchef (I like it lol!) and have watched a few movies. What I do like about television is the ads. 'The ads...are you nuts?' you ask. Well no, because during the ads I would get up and do some dishes! Yay for me! Books or the internet don't have ad breaks therefore my dishes don't get done during them! So television = clean dishes and kitchen!

Food has been pretty good this week. Not the best, but trying to keep my portions under control and my self control in check. For example: I wanted Hungry Jacks today. So I had some. Though instead of my usual Large Whopper with cheese meal, I got a Small Whopper Jr with cheese meal. Same taste that I was after, much less calories! A healthy choice you might say! Well let's just settle for a wise compromise! Other things I have eaten this week include a potato, Brussels sprout and sausage soup (sounds gross, looked gross, but tasted delicious! It did not photo well so I won't show you!), tuna and rice casserole and roast veggies with slow cooked lamb...mmm!

Exercise wise: ok, but not brilliant. I have not been out by myself, but I have gone for a few walks with the boys. I was going to the Combat class tonight, but I was 5 minutes late and the lady wouldn't let me in. She kindly informed me that the class started at 5:30... DUH! I know that, but there was rain, and the traffic was bad, and then there wasn't any parking, and then I ran to try and get there quicker...but no! So I cried and went home and chucked on a CD which my youngest brother had compiled for me and did some crazy made up workout. It consisted a lot of me running or jumping on the spot or pretending I was in a dancing movie like Step Up! I was worried that my neighbours would think there was a herd of elephants stampeding in my house, I was also worried that they might see me, so I shut all the doors and pulled blinds! I'm sure I looked quite ridiculous, but I got my heart racing and my legs hurt cos I threw in some squats and lunges. So all was not lost!

But what did the scales say? Drum-roll please.

107kgs

That is 1 kg down on last week and 3kgs down from my start weight. Only 7kgs to go till I reach my mini goal!

Yay!

Thanks for reading, see you next week.

Definitely NOT a supermum!

What a difficult week and a bit I have had!
Food wise it has been a disaster. We had no food. Well that is a lie. There is always some kind of food in our house. We just had no food that made it easy for me to make healthy choices. That is there was no meat of any kind in the freezer (unless you count 5 meals of spag bol, but who wants to eat that every night for a week?!), next to no fresh vegetables in the fridge and no money in the bank to buy any. I was cooking from the pantry and it wasn't pretty! Tasty enough but not healthy. So I failed on that account. BUT I do expect to make better choices this week. I went grocery shopping yesterday (foolishly WITH the children...now I remember why I don't normally do that) and have better grocery options.
Exercise wise. Well it has not really been happening. I have been too cold and too tired to get out of bed in the morning for an extra walk. I think I may have been out once with the boys, but I definitely wasn't much more than that. On a positive note tho, my youngest brother got me a 10 pass to Croydon Leisure Center FOR FREE!!! So I went and did a Body Combat class there on Tuesday night. It was cold and raining but I still went and I loved it! I'm still sore from it but it is such a fun class. The instructor was fantastic and she did lots of the old tracks which I remembered from when I first started doing Combat 4.5 - 5 years ago. So I am really excited to be able to do that for then next 9 weeks! I nearly went for a walk this morning. I was wide awake at 5:50 but my husband had to leave for work a 6:20, so I didn't go. Perhaps I shall take the boys for a walk to the park today.
Weight update as of this morning is 108.0kg. That is a gain of .6kg which I am not surprised at. hopefully I have good news next week.
Thanks for reading.

What is it they say...'It never rains, it pours'!

Well. After my declaration last week I woke up early on Wednesday morning to find Aunt Flo coming for a visit. What a great start! Despite that I went for a walk by myself and threw in some extra cardio things like running up a few hills and some stair runs. What a great feeling and a great way to start the day. I did the same on Thursday, but alas I haven't been out by myself since. Life gets in the way... In the form of a super clingy 9mth old with separation anxiety and a boisterous 2 year old! But that is ok, cos I'm following plan B (the B standing for babies...I guess I could make it plan C for children...or maybe I should make it plan L for life!) But, I have been out every weekday which is great!

Food wise I'm doing well. I am eating way more than I was before cos I am having snacks, but I am making sure I don't go overboard with my mains meals as I have always been inclined to do. I am serving all my main meals with a measuring cup and not going over 1 cup of starchy carbs (pasta, rice, spuds) and keeping lunch to one good sandwich (with a 'meaty' multigrain or soy and linseed bread) with protein(usually tuna or ham) in it. The hardest thing I am finding is that when I sit down to enjoy whatever I have prepared for myself, I have my 2 year old and 9mth old seagulls begging me for some of it! Even when I have just fed them their own food. Such is a mother's lot I suppose.

I am very happy with/proud of the effort I have put in in the last week, and I am feeling quite well in spite of the trying week I have had. It would have been very easy for me to call it quits many times. I think that many of us overweight mums think that I'll do it when such and such calms down or after we move or when the kids go to school cos it will be easier then, but I don't think there is ever a 'good time'. There will always be something going on that is hard to cope with, kids, husbands...life really! So I'm pleased that I didn't get sucked into it this time and hopefully I won't ever again :)

I weighed myself this morning and am happy to report that the scales were kind and read 107.4kg! That is a loss of 2.6kg. I'm happy with that! Though I am not expecting such a dramatic result next week.

I was going through some of my skinny clothes and discovered a pair of jeans which I forgot I had. I found them at the op shop. They are from Colorado and I used to wear them all the time. They are the perfect style for my extremely chunky legs (even when I was slim I still had huge legs). Here I a pic I took to help keep me from blowing it!

And here is a detail of the cute pockets on the back.


Thanks for reading, see you next week :)

Long time reader, first time poster.

Well they say there is a first time for everything, so here is my very first blog. I have been thinking about starting a blog for a while, and I think that now is the time.
This is going to mainly be an avenue for me to feel like I am accountable to something/someone. You see...I am fat. There I said it. Now I can get on with doing something about it. I am hoping that by putting my goals out here in cyberspace, I will be able to stay on track more than if I just tell myself 'I want to lose weight'.

So here is my goal. I am going to lose 10kgs by December 31st. That is 8.5 months. That is give or take 1.1kg a month. That seems reasonable to me. I have more to lose than that, but that is may starting point. Mountains into molehills!

In order to achieve my goal I am going to do these things to start with.

• I am going to eat 5 times a day: 3 well portioned meals and 2 healthy snacks
• I am going to drink 2 litres of water
• I am going to go for a good walk everyday (or at least every second day)

So here is my start picture...
This is not the best picture but it has made me want to shift that weight. I am starting at a weight of 110.0kg

I know I can do this. I have done it in the past and having babies is not an excuse for being fat and not looking after myself. I am ditching my all or nothing mentality. I will do the best I can in my current stage of life which can be very busy caring for my babies.

I will weigh in weekly.

I would love your encouragement :)