Wednesday weigh in

Always nerve wracking, even when you know you've been good. Or as good as you can be.

2.5 kilos gone. Admittedly, I've lost these 2.5 kilos before and they came back, but not this time. I am motivated. I've been sticking to 1200 - 1400 calories and drinking 3 litres of water a day. You spend a lot of time in the bathroom, but eventually hopefully my body will get used to it and I won't be waking up in the night to pee.

I updated my weight loss ticker to really reflect where I want to go and where I want to be. Before my goal used to be under 100 kilos - but that's just a landmark, its not my real goal. I can't lose sight of the BIG (heehe) picture.

Round 2 sign up is still open - in fact I signed up for my very first round right on the last day. And convinced a friend to do the same. It's worth it if you are struggling with eating/exercise. The people on the 12wbt programme are incredibly supportive. And if you're in Christchurch, we have our own fitness and coffee group :)

An idea...

I really struggle sometimes with doing exercise. My excuses revolve around 'I'll do it later' (hardly ever happens), I'll just do this first (and then not do the exercise at all), in fact right now I should be doing something except I'm writing this blog instead. Procrastination is my enemy and my weakness.

Last night I was surfing the web (again avoiding what I should of been doing), and I came across an article on lifehacker - about Seinfelds Productivity Secret. And it's a great idea. Don't break the chain.

So this morning, I googled to see if I could find anyone else talking about it, and came across this awesome calender design - which I've promptly printed out and will start using today.

Don't break the chain. Might need a copy at work and at home so I'm accountable all the time.

Ps, I passed my full driver's licence yesterday. Super exciting - given that I failed first time round. Now I can stay past 9.30 at things, or get up at 3am to go for a drive if I want to.

pps. No weight change this Wednesday.

Yes!

I'm 500 grams (almost 1 pound) under the helicopter weight limit. I will be buying tickets on Friday. And then making sure I get down as much as I can before we go! YAY.

YES!

There is nothing more disheartening then seeing your weight go up then down then up from week to week. But this morning I think I've cracked it. With a 1.6 kilos lost, that puts me under my last weigh in from the end of round three - and tracking at 12.5 kilos all up. YES! Now I feel amped for the rest of the week, as opposed to stabby (like last week). I am going to kick ass.

Wednesday Weigh In

Its going down! The 2 kilos I put on after the challenge finished/xmas/earthquakes is 300 grams away from being GONE FOR EVER. Seriously, losing this weight twice is flippen annoying, and the worse part is that this is probably the third or forth time I've lost that same kilo. But no more.

So technically, my current weight loss is at 11.9 kilos. Pretty happy with that right now.

The 100km challenge has bought out my competitive nature. I've walked just over 10km in the last three days. This morning I got up at 5.45 and did a 4km walk. I am thinking I might do another walk tonight, but I do have to cook mum's birthday cake so I might not have time.

I have so many places I have to be accountable that I shouldn't fail. I log my food and exercise and calorie burns with myfitnesspal (username is melsienz if you want to add me); then I use runkeeper; imapmyfitness (for walking) or Ease into 5K (for helping me to learn to run) to track my km's. I log my km's on the facebook 12wbt NZ group and check out everyone else's numbers; log in to the back end of blogger to update that box over there ------>  and then if I have something to say I type a blog post, and sometimes I tweet it too. Phew.

Now its time for breakfast. I think I deserve a good feed today :)

Cracked it!

Last week I was pretty quiet on the blogging front. Weigh in was not great - it wasn't a gain, but it was the same weight as the week before. I had a bit of a toy throwing moment and decided to eat whatever the hell I wanted on Thursday - but the weirdest thing - I didn't want that much - and I can't eat that much anymore.

My friend and I went for dinner - I ordered a chicken burger - ate the chicken, half of a bun, the salad and half of the chips and I was stuffed full. In the old days I would of eaten all of it and then looked for dessert (and probably had three drinks as well).

I did have a frozen margarita though. And rather than sculling it down and ordering two more, I made it last throughout the meal.

Friday I weighed myself again and I was up 200 grams, Saturday and Sunday I was back to the Wednesday weigh in weight - aka those same damn numbers.

Monday - I'd lost 900 grams. Tuesday and Wednesday that number held fast. PHEW. (Given that I spent yesterday at Addington Cup Day (the one race I bet on with my own money I made a profit of $4.90 - super excited), and there was free drinks and super yum food) I'm pretty happy with that.

900 grams puts me past my 10 kilo reward and on track to have lost 10% of my body weight by the end of the 12 weeks. That is now my revised goal.

Wish me luck!

So close!

This week I lost exactly one kilo, which puts me 300 grams away from 10 kilos. 300 grams. ARGH. However this means that next week I should SMASH IT - and then the next goal is 10% of my old body weight.

I have been a bit lax on the exercise lately - I've not been feeling very well and yesterday came home from work (after going in for about 10 minutes) and fell asleep for six hours. Then I read for a bit, cooked and ate dinner, then went to bed again and woke up with a sore throat. ugh.

The heart rate monitor is really inspiring though - every time I do wear it and work out I find myself going for a bit longer to burn those extra cals. I like to get it up to a round number, so rather than 250 cals burnt, take it to 300 - the other day I hit 450 so I took it to 500 -  its kind of fun in a weird way.

I still haven't figured out a list of 'rewards' yet, but I'm planning on taking some time out to do this tomorrow.

A new toy for weigh in day!

900 gram loss this week. Given that on Saturday Tarn and I had a free for all, although not as free as we would of before starting 12wbt, I'm pretty happy with that. I've now lost 8.7 kilos in 6 weeks. If I average it out by the end of the programme I should of lost around 16 -17 kilos, but the body is a fickle thing, and sometimes so is my mind, so I'll keep my fingers crossed and aim for 20 kilos - but I'd be happy to hit 15.

I got a new toy yesterday. A polar heart rate monitor. The 12wbt has deals on a few things and I wondered about getting one so after asking the members of the round 3 NZ group I thought it would be worth it. Tracking calories burnt and making sure I'm working out in the right zone (ie fat loss) is going to be very beneficial for me - plus I quite like round numbers, so if I was working out and could see that I had burnt 289 calories, its not hard to make that number 300. The best part though was the price - no gst (bought out of Australia) and 20% off + free shipping = score!

1.3 kilos until I hit my first 10kg goal. Hopefully the HRM will help me get there for next week.

7 kilos BYEEEEEEE

Yes, today's weigh in, while being one of my lowest losses so far (600 grams) puts me up to 7 kilos lost, in four weeks. I'm pretty happy with that. I know I can do more, and I know I'm going to have to be a bit more vigilant though - a few red flags (days where you know eating will be tricky due to social functions etc) coming up - I had one last night (posh dinner), one tonight (family dinner), one on Monday (co-workers birthday - we always get cake), a work function with nibbles and drinks on Thursday, next Saturday a baby shower, and the list goes on.

But its how you deal with these things that I think I never used to figure out. I'd just eat and eat and eat.

So tonight, I've checked the menu and will go for a healthy option of veges and chickens in a light sauce (like oyster), next Monday I will have a piece of cake, although only half of the serving and no other snacks and a light dinner. The work function I am organising so I'll be able to have input into the menu, but I will make sure to have a salad before I go and to have a snack free day so I can eat a little.

These are all things I guess normal people do without thinking about it. I guess I never learnt it before, but its better late than never.

It's Wednesday!

And you know what that means.... WEIGH IN.

And I lost another kilo, taking me up down by 6.4.I'm not quite sure how... (well I sort of am, someone on the NZ private message board for 12wbt explained basic metabolic rate and calories in and out and I kind of get it now). It's nice to see those numbers drop.

Next Wednesday its not only weigh in day but also measurement day so that will be interesting (I did sneakily measure one thigh this morning out of interest and 3cm's has vanished from it - so although my results aren't gasp-shockingly obvious, they will be soon!

Last night on the message board I posted this image and the below text to go with it.

I think that I am like hey I've lost five kilos, why hasn't anyone noticed - but if I'm honest with myself, its that five kilos is nothing compared to what I actually need to lose to look like a regular sized person. Of course no one is going to notice. I need to be patient, and that's where in the past I have gotten discouraged and failed.

And its true. I have been doing a bit of soul searching with this. Not only do I want to fit comfortably on a plane when we go honeymooning, but I also want a better quality of life. I want to get up and feel energised, I want to go out and not feel like everyone is staring (and most of the time they probably aren't - but it would be nice to not feel like they are). I want to fit into regular sized clothes. I want to be able to walk into shops and not wonder if they have sizes to fit me. I want to not obsess about food all the time. I want this way of life to be a natural thing, - and with time that will happen.

In response to my rant above, the lovely ladies in the group posted these messages of support.

Mel, keep sharing your losses and progress with us so that we can cheer you on because every little bit you lose should be acknowledged. And the great thing is that if you find that patience and keep at it you will eventually enjoy the feeling when your friends start to notice :-)

Mel - 5 kilos is amazing! Imagine that as a bag of potatoes! That is heaps! :)

A bag of potatoes. That is bloody heaps. In two weeks, thats massive. 

And so, this is not just a 12 week journey for me. I will sign up for the next round of the programme and probably the next and the next. 

I am going to smash my goals.

Failure to blog.

Its true. I've been hiding. I appear to be handle this way of eating at work. 

But alone. 

On a three day weekend. 

Not so much. 

It probably didn't help that a very dear friend dropped off some of her awesome home made russian fudge. And while I didn't scoff the entire lot in one sitting like I would of before starting 12wbt - I did eat. All of it. Over three days. Despite telling Andrew (hubby) and Mum and my friends that I will go and give it to the neighbours.

Fudge fail.

But I did cook every night I was on my own and I kept mostly to my 1200 calorie limit - only going over slightly.

And, today being weigh in day I was not expecting to lose 1.8 kilos. But I did. 

But how much more would it of been if I had behaved - and made the two exercise sessions I missed?

Temptation and Weigh in day!

So this morning it was weigh in day and I'm super stoked to report I dropped my lard by 3.6 kilos or 2.59%. Massive amount for only two real days of careful strict eating and exercise. I was pretty excited given that yesterday was so shit with the news of Dee*'s cancer being more serious then we thought and the probability that she's going to have to have chemo.

Today I also managed to do day 2 of week one of the C25K. And this time I jogged for the full nine minutes (as opposed to Monday's roughly 6 minutes of managing to keep the jogging up). Pretty impressed with myself right now!

We also had one of the media we deal with turn up at work today with a box of donuts. Beautiful donuts. I bunked the meeting and managed to keep away from them. It was really hard - but the amount of work I would have to do to burn that donut off kept me focused. It also helps that three people in my office of nine know what I am trying to achieve and I didn't want to blow it this early! Hopefully this will continue on - but I know there will be times where I do fail and I need to admit it, own it and move on. (and of course factor into my calories for the day).

Given that the environment I work in is very food focused (seriously, media bring us food constantly) - which when you don't give a shit about what you eat, is great - but when you're trying to make a seriously lifestyle change - its bloody hard. I reckon this is going to be one of my biggest challenges. But I'm determined to figure out a way to make it work and to deal with it.

Onwards and downwards! (on the scales)

* Dee is one of my two dogs. She's a brindle boxer we found at the pound that no one claimed. She is very loving, sweet and fun. This blows the big monkey. But we love her and would do anything to help her live a long happy life. She is one of our kids...