Weigh-In Wednesday (Manda)

Last weigh-in (pre-Christmas): 71.6
Today: 72.2
Change: Up .6

Like I said. It could be a lot worse!

This time next week, I'll be on beach mission. The aim is to not pig out on lollies the whole time (as they're likely to be more available than anything else) and to drink lots of water. Won't have much control over the food available, but will be active all day...

Exercise update (Femina)

Since starting my C25K plan I have put on half a kilo. I'm telling myself this is muscle... although in reality it could also be Christmas. There was food. Quite a lot of it. Mmmm.

Yesterday I completed Week 2, Day 2 of C25K.  I'll do Day 3 tomorrow or Thursday, and I haven't yet decided if I'll go straight to Week 3 or do another couple of days of Week 2. I've been able to do the program as written but it was a real struggle so I think another couple of days of it might be good before stepping it up to the next level.

I don't want to run more than three times a week as I have a slightly dodgy knee and I'm scared of injuring it so I've been trying to find something to do on a couple of other days each week. I have ZERO upper body strength and therefore swimming would be perfect... well, except for the fact that I don't know how to swim. Tricky. However, I remembered a dusty set of unused DVDs on my bookshelf, bought during a brief period where I thought about exercising.  The DVDs are Jillian Michaels' Beginner Workouts and (now that I've finally watched them) they're great.  Unlike many other DVDs, they really are designed for beginners so she teaches you how to do the exercises properly, notes things to avoid and gives you alternate exercises if you can't manage some of the cardio stuff. I did the 'Frontside' workout because it's mainly upper body stuff and I can feel it after only one session. Heh... actually not even one session - I could only manage 30 minutes of the 40 minute workout, but that's way better than nothing at all.

Also, Jillian Michaels (trainer from the US Biggest Loser) is awesome. Awesome, I tell you.

So here I am... running (well, jogging) and actively seeking out something to do on non-running days. Yeah... I'm starting to scare myself.
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Changes (Manda)

So... it's been Christmas. The scales might not look great on Wednesday.

However:

I have been exercising in the mornings. It has been great! Doing DVDs with my housemate (Denise Austin, who is American - and everything you imagine when I say the A-word, complete with frequent use of the word "tushie" - but who is encouraging and whose DVDs are a great workout system for us) and even went for two jog-runs.

I'm doing lots of small sessions, rather than gearing up for a big gym trip that doesn't always eventuate. For example, this morning I ran for 10 and did weights for 10. Better than nothing by a long shot.

The results so far: As I said, the scales might not be wonderful when you take into account the other half of the equation (eating): I overate all Christmas (and the two days on either side of it), including half a gingerbread roof for dinner tonight. Pay more attention, Manda!

But on the other hand, I have developed muscles in my shoulders for the first time in my life!

In which Femina discovers muscles she didn't know were there...

Those of you who read my blog know that I recently decided to start C25K, which is a running program designed to get you from being a couch potato to running 5km (or 30 minutes), all in 9 weeks. It's pretty good and I know a number of people who've done it and are now keen runners.

I'm doing it on a treadmill, which is probably a little easier than outside. I've been advised to set the treadmill at the lowest incline to better approximate the outdoors. I'm not sure how to approximate dogs chasing me, cars whizzing by, uneven cement tripping me up and various other outdoor hazards. Maybe I'll leave those for now.

Anyway, so today I have just finished W1D3 (Week 1, Day 3), which means I have completed Week 1! (You're meant to do the C25K sets three times each week.) Only 8 more weeks until I can (hopefully) manage a half hour run. On Week 1 you alternate 60 seconds of jogging with 90 seconds of walking so I can't even imagine jogging or running for a full half hour but I guess I'll get there.

So, no weigh in today, just an exercise update.  I feel GREAT that I'm managing to achieve each day's C25K exercise goal... but boy, I'm feeling it! Apparently there are muscles in my legs. Who knew? It's not like I've ever used them before.

Too Much Daily Bread (Givinya)

Remember my friend whose suggestion got me thinking about doing this walk to and from school?  She's an ideas gal.  She (although I cannot BELIEVE this) struggled with her weight in the 15 years since I saw her last (I've only re-connected with her since moving back to my childhood town this year.)  In a recent magazine article she wrote, she confessed that her doctor looked at her and said "the O word."

At first I thought the doctor was suggesting a more exciting time in bed.  It does, after all, burn calories.

But she was, in fact, referring to the word "obesity."  And I couldn't believe it.  She looked great when I saw her 15 years ago, and looks the same today!  I'm thinking this is a girl with some weight-loss suggestions!

One of the steps in her action plan was to limit herself to 2 slices of bread a day.  Ack!  I knew that people say that overindulging in bread is their main pitfall, but I've always been a bit "pooh-pooh" about that.

Then I started to realise how many slices of bread I was eating each day.  My word.  Two slices a day was worth a try.

I started trying to limit myself to 2 or 3 slices of bread.  And I sometimes did okay with that.

Now that is not my only Bread Problem.  Until I left home to go to Uni at 17, I had hardly ever tasted white bread.  I remember gagging on its soft white slipperiness once when I was about 8, because I'd only ever eaten wholemeal bread.  I was proud of that!  Boo to white bread: sometimes I call it "duck food" and sometimes I call it "colon packing."  Now that I've married a man who responded to a similar not-white-bread-eating upbringing by eating heaps of it to make up for lost time, that's all I eat!  Why?  Gurk!

What if, I thought, what if I bought myself an expensive loaf of something very grainy, very filling and very healthy, stored it in the freezer, and ate 2 slices of it a day?

Now THAT was a great idea.  Frozen bread is great in the toaster, and frozen bread is fantastic for sandwiches.  And look at this!  When my poor family is eating this for lunch:

I am eating THIS!

I truly am the lucky one!!!

I might not die (Givinya)

So in this conversation with this friend who said that anyone can lose weight, she also said something I thought was absurd.

She said that next year when Nat goes to school, I'll be able to walk him there and back. And because I will be pushing a double stroller, it would be excellent exercise up the hills there are in both directions.

I thought she was mad.

But she isn't. She is just a Mum who happens to run half-marathons, and has never experienced grinding sacro-iliac dysfunction pain upon walking down to the corner and back again.  Or occasional blacking out due to blood pressure medication.  Or Lazy Wretch Syndrome, which I seem to suffer from most of the time.

So I told my husband and he thought it was a great idea and went about proving that a man who has never given birth and who gets as much uninterrupted sleep as he pleases every night and who doesn't have to push his body through 12 hours of non-stop servanthood under the rule of some tyrannical dear sweet children can indeed do the walk.

But I started thinking.  He told me about a short-cut that eliminated the long grinding hill I was worried about.  And I did some calculations and worked out it is only about 1.2 km (unfortunately without any 'loading' for the hills) making it sound EASY.

Let me cut and paste from my blog entry today, telling you about my progress on this walk:

First Walk:  Nat was asleep one afternoon and I took Anna-Lucia and Joseph in the double stroller.  I walked down the hill, through the forest, down the next hill and across to the roundabout.  I could see the school from there, and found that immensely encouraging.  But the children were beginning to cry and I was concerned I wouldn't make it home if I bit off more than I could chew, so we turned around and came home.  Uuuuuup the hill!  I lived.  Great work, Me!

Second Walk:  We didn't go further, but it included more challenges.  Nat was with us and didn't want to ride his bike (a) down the hills, in case he went too fast and got out of control, or (b) up the hills because they were too steep.  So it was quite pointless him even having his bike, but he flatly refused to go without it.  Joseph wasn't dressed warmly enough and when the breeze turned into a wind, he got quite cold and grizzled a lot of the way home.  And Anna-Lucia saw Nat on his bike and moaned 75% of the way, "I neeed my biiike!"  Those words must have been said over a hundred times.  When I replied that it was a bad idea because she couldn't even push the pedals, she said, "You can push me with a broom!"

Then she demanded to get out and walk, tripped over the stroller wheels, scraped her knee and OH! the DRAMA!  A bleddercut on the knee!

And although she sat down and would not budge two houses from home and Nat decided he couldn't possibly push his bike up the last little bit, I did make it back, alive, with three children, one bike AND my dignity, which is an important factor in the longevity of this Mad Walking Idea.

Third Walk:  This morning I was awake early and once Joseph and Anna-Lucia were awake too, I decided to try the walk again, this time unencumbered by a 4-year-old and his bike.  I dressed the children warmly and took off.  This time we made it all the way to school and back.  Oh my!  The hills!  But I made it, I made it!  Alive!  It only took me 25 minutes (do remember that this is sans Nat).

I can do this.  We have five more weeks to practice before school starts.  By then, I hope to be pushing the double stroller up those hills a little easier, and I hope to have Nat a little more independent on his bike.

Weigh-In Wednesday (Femina)

Last week: 72.8kg
This week: 74.0kg

Uhh... right. Okay then. I'm a little baffled by this since I have spent the week eating well AND I used my treadmill three times, but there you go. Just one of those things, I guess, and I'm sure it will sort itself out next week (just in time for my Christmas blow-out). My weight tends to go up and down daily so monthly trends are more useful for me anyway... thus, I'm not concerned yet. If this happens every week then that will be a different story! :-)

Weigh-In Wednesday (Femina)

Last week: 72.8kg
This week: 72.8kg

Given the ups and downs of the past month, weight-wise (and emotionally, to be frank) I'm pretty happy with this. I'm also happy to be weighing in BEFORE today's Seniors' Christmas Lunch at work, where I get to be an honorary senior and eat lots of delicious food, and also BEFORE I go to have dinner with friends tonight. Yay, timing! Hehe.

Copy Copy Copy (Givinya)

Okay. Here goes:

Before pregnancy: I can't remember exactly, possibly 68 or 69 kg? I was getting lumpy and dumpy and I was not fitting into my jeans well.

During pregnancy: I did lose some fat from my upper body, and only went up to 74.4 kg.

After Joseph: 64.0 to 65.0 kg. Fitting into jeans better, but eating an enormous amount. Mostly healthy foods, but probably too many choc-chip biscuits.

Goal: 60.0 kg, unless I get there and decide that 58.0 or 59.0 would be healthier. (A BMI of 22 [58kg-60kg] has suited my frame better over the years and made me feel healthier than the current BMI=24. But hey wow - it's currently 24! That's supposed to be good! So why do I feel like a blancmange, and look so appallingly jubbly and rotund over the belly - and I'm not talking just baby stuff - there's too many muffins in my muffin top! I feel I shouldn't be complaining about BMI=24, but it's not suiting me one little bit!)

I was talking to a friend yesterday. The essence of my question for her was: at what point does a girl with a body shape like a barrel (thinnish arms, shoulders, neck, and from the knees down, but with an embarrassingly rotund middle) get some expert weight-loss help, e.g., from a Program?

Her reply contained the idea that anybody can lose weight - they just have to want to. She said she has known people who say they want to lose weight but they never do, and these were the people who never really wanted to.

Excuse me?

I'm sorry, but I just don't buy that.

I have never ever been able to control my weight. When I was having revolting panic attacks and unable to keep food down for weeks on end, there was nothing I could do to increase my weight. And now that I am shaped like a barrel, I have found that despite eating a healthy diet and swimming 0.5 km regularly (back when I was free to do so!) I am completely unable to decrease my weight.

My weight does its own thing. And at the heart of this not-checking-in-with-Skinny-Cow thing is my total lack of belief that trying to lose weight will be worth the time I spend on it.

Hence the choc-chip cookies.

Accountability-copying (Manda)

Good point, Fem.

Last post (months and months ago): 71.8
Last week: 71.6
This week: 71.6.

Is it a plateau...? or am I maintaining well?

Only time can judge...

Weigh-In Wednesday (Femina)

Okay, here's the thing... when I did Weight Watchers I weighed in every week. Some weeks I lost weight, some weeks I gained weight, some weeks I stayed the same. Whatever happened, the accountability of weighing in every week really helped me. I didn't even hang around for the meetings most of the time; I just paid $15 (I think) to weigh in and leave. An expensive way of doing it but it worked for me.

So, I've realised that's what I need to do. Weigh in here every week even if I've eaten nothing but chocolate for the past seven days... and even if I'm the only one doing this and the only one reading it. It's not about public humiliation; it's about being in a routine and being accountable.

Today's weight: 72.8kg
Last time: uhh... no idea. I forgot to check before starting this post.
Goal weight: 64kg

See you again in a week! :-)

wake up!

OK, so since I seem to be taking over this blog (hello, where'd everybody go?) I'd just like to report that according to my doctor, I have lost a whopping 21 cm from around my waist.

21 cm!

Yes, I did celebrate with a milestone purchase. Oh yes indeedy I did.

And, I just snuck under another '0' number.

Sweet.

I am so terribly sorry for going! (Givinya)

I am so sorry I've been MIA. Truth be told, while I am breastfeeding I am trying not to pig out but failing miserably and trying to pretend Skinny Cow doesn't exist. Or at least, trying to pretend I AM one.

About a month ago (like THAT counts) my post-baby weight was 65kg. Proving what I said - pregnancy agrees with me. That would leave only 5kg to my goal weight. Remember I started at 69ish, okay 70ish, okay once I got pregnant I was 71ish and headed on up to the high point which was 74.4.

And I swear I started feeling thinner except for the Growing Joseph Inside - losing fat from my upper body and possibly elsewhere, not that you'd notice with the Growing Joseph Inside.

Then the Growing Joseph Inside became the Growing Joseph Outside and once the metaphorical dust had settled, I found I was in fact 65ish.

Wow.

Now here's my problem. Breastfeeding makes me RAVENOUS and it doesn't take the weight off like they say. They lie.

Watch me head on up, unable to curb my desire to eat a double-sized portion of food each meal of the day.

Depressing. So depressing that I've been avoiding Skinny Cow, and so depressing I will backdate this post an hour so as not to bump Rhubarb's post from the top of the page because let's face it, she's putting in effort and getting huge results, and we all want to be encouraged by that! Go Rhubarb!

the shrinking of rhubarb

Today, I went shopping. Just a quick whip around to generic clothes shops for some T shirts and tops to wear about the place, since I am down to about 6 items of clothing suitable for public viewing.

I picked up everything in a size 'M'. It fits. Something went back for being too big. Even my DD cup bazookas went into an 'M' dress.

I am in awe.

I have a way (weigh?) to go... but it's getting there. Now my skin needs ironing.

Slightly less embarrassing (Femina)

As I think I've mentioned before, I meet with two friends to pray and chat every second Tuesday. This week we made an exercise pact for the next two weeks, each agreeing to what exercise we'd have done by the time we next meet. I agreed to use my treadmill 6 times (3 times each week), plus walk to my counselling session on Tuesday if it's not raining. It occurred to me today that if I don't start soon I'll be forced to have six sessions on the treadmill on the same day. Eeek! Not ideal. Not even possible, at my current level of blobbiness.

So, tonight I put an episode of Stargate SG-1 in the DVD player and hopped on the treadmill, determined to manage MORE than the embarrassing five minutes I managed last time.  Having the treadmill level this time made a difference... I managed 40 minutes, mostly at 5.5km/h. Oh yeah. I have jelly-legs but I'm feeling very smug too.

However... I'm not weighing myself yet. Or at least, not disclosing it yet.

Well, that was embarrassing (Femina)

You may recall that I recently cancelled my gym membership and bought a treadmill. The treadmill arrived a week ago and I've used it every single day... oh, okay then, I've used it once. This evening I came home and immediately changed into comfy gear and running shoes so I could use the treadmill. I popped a Frasier DVD in the player, thinking that one half-hour episode should be plenty.

Three minutes into walking I got off briefly to find my water bottle (yeah, I've sort of forgotten how this exercise thing works) then got back on. Five minutes later my heart rate was up and I was puffing. FIVE MINUTES. Well, I suppose that five minutes of running will do that... oh, but wait, I wasn't running. I was walking... 5.5kmh. That's a brisk walking pace but not extreme.

Five minutes. Huh.

Update:

Okay, to redeem myself slightly, I have just realised that my treadmill was set at the highest incline... so that was five minutes UPHILL.  Yeah, that makes it better...

Moooo-ving on down (rhubarb)

Today, I gave away 2 laundry baskets of jeans and another of t shirts. I threw away 4 bras.

A size down, my next goal is to get into the last of the clothes that are 'snug' that fit me 5 years ago. Almost there.

Motivate me!

So I'm obviously back to eating...

Well, it appears that the weight-loss benefits of having teeth removed are pretty short-lived once the mouth heals up enough to recommence eating.

This week I've put on 0.4 kg. It could be a temporary blip after a packet of Gaiety chocky bickkies over a couple of days and a good serve of corn chips last night. I have also continued the ice-cream because they had to take bone out to get the teeth, and I'm thinking that I need to keep my calcium intake up while it heals itself. We'll see for next week.

So I'm a good little cow-girl reminding all my friends that we all have bad weeks. And that doing some exercise is possibly a good idea.

Weigh-In Wednesday (Femina)

Whoa... last time I weighed in was THREE MONTHS AGO. Bad cowgirl!

Last time: 71.9
Today: 72.6
Difference: 700g gain

Of course that's not an entirely accurate picture since in the last three months my weight has gone up and down a fair bit. I got up to 74kg at one point, which was more than enough to make me take stock and reign in the munching a little bit!

In exercise news, I have cancelled my gym membership because I was hardly using it and I can't really afford it. Plus my reasons for going to the gym have changed - I joined initially when I was at the tail-end of several months of depression and exercise was more of a depression-management tool than anything else. And it was great for that. Now, however, my mental health is loads better and the gym just isn't doing it for me. Instead, I have just bought a treadmill (it's being delivered next Tuesday) and hopefully the fact that I don't have to go out to exercise - in fact can exercise in my PJs if I want - will help me to be more motivated.

The food is another matter. Hmmm...

Wisdom Teeth Weigh HOW MUCH??!!??

Well I didn't weigh-in last week because last week hardly existed in my little world, but I must say the scales this morning were encouraging:

Last time: 74 kg
This time: 72.6 kg
Loss of: 1.6 kg

Total loss: 3.4 kg
Way to go to goal (68kg): 4.6 kg

They must have been some pretty weighty teeth! I've been eating wrong food and not exercising. Maybe I should get another lot out and see if I can duplicate the results (or not).

Sabotage! (Givinya)

I sent Mister de Elba for three grocery items, then immediately smacked my head. He can't say No to his temptations (because he doesn't have to) and his temptations become my temptations because he brings them into my kitchen!

"He's going to come home with two blocks of chocolate," I said out loud. And he didn't. Good man.

"And a packet of corn chips," I continued. And he didn't. Awesome.

"And at least three packets of biscuits." And he brought home four.

My only defense against eating crap is not having it in the house. Then he brings it into the house. Doesn't he love me? Apparently he must love me so much that he wants more of me - much much more.

I got mad, but kept my cool as I said, "Honey, I'm going to need you to take every pack of biscuits to work - I can't have them in the house, I need you to help me not pack on the weight."

"Okay," he said.

So please explain why today there is a pack of Mint Slices in the fridge, a pack of Caramel Tim Tams in the cupboard, and the packs of Monte Carlos and Custard Creams were both emptied out into a giant biscuit tin and placed in our cupboard.

Mr de Elba is not taking my weight loss seriously. Maybe I should show how seriously I am taking it by throwing the whole lot in the bin.

Manda

I am also back. Thanks, girls! Last week, on the morning of the day I came across your recommittments, I stood on the scales and thought, 'I wonder when I'll go back on skinny cow?' A mark of how long I've been MIA is the fact that I loaded the blog page and stared at it, wondering, 'how do I sign in again?'

My plans have changed a little over the last month or so. I continue to aim to lose weight, but I am equally concerned now with developing good eating habits.

(Are you rolling your eyes? Stop that! Let me expand on it a bit first).

My biggest goal remains to break the hold food has in my head. This doesn't simply mean gluttony - it refers to the way I idolise food, waiting for the next morsel, daydreaming about dinner, an so on.

My housemate is obsessed with a book about Intuitive Eating. The thoery is, your body craves things it needs (or at least it will, once you start listening to it). So eating what you crave when you crave it - and not eating more than what will satisfy you - teaches you to eat the way your body needs you to. I'm not 100% sold on the theory, but it's not a bad idea: eating only what you need to eat, knowing that if you're hungry, you can get more later... satisfying cravings by having a little, rather than defying them by eating lots of other foods you don't crave.

So now, I'm eating when I'm hungry, and I'm eating the things I'm hungry for. Sounds simple, right? Well, in all my previous food habits (eat all you can and don't care about the consequences / eat exactly what will fit into the Weight Watchers plan and never anything else / eat mostly what will fit into the plan but be a tiny bit more relaxed) this has never occurred to me!

Weight: 71:8

Goal: 70

Weight to goal: 1.8 kilos

Time to get to goal: as long as I want! As long as I'm eating good food that I want to eat, I'm not too fussed about the timing.

Count me in, too (Femina)

Well, what now? I guess this is the bit where I make excuses about where I've been and what I've been doing, and make sensible food-and-exercise plans. As it happens I have no real plans at the moment but I need to get back on track, wherever that track might be, so publicly declaring my re-allegiance (is that a word?) to Skinny Cow is where I'm starting. Step one - check.

So... I'm back! Yay! I have had some messy things going on over the past three months and chocolate has been my friend. As has bacon. And the occasional hash brown. Mmm, and sausages sometimes too. Ooh, and hot chocolate. Turns out my mother was right... some friends only pretend to be your friend but really they are bad news. Sigh. I now weigh more than at my last OSC weigh-in but still less than when this whole thing started so I suppose that's a good thing.

My goal for this week is to plan meals, shop and cook. I have plenty of junk food in my house but nothing that would make a nutritious meal so that's my first step. I recently bought a meal planner notebook so I'm going to start utilising that. I am generally pretty good at the meal planning thing so that might be a good kick-start for me. (Yeah - here's hoping.)

Exercise goals will come next week. One step at a time for reluctant little cowgirls. :)

I'm back, Cowgirls (Givinya)

Inspired by Hippomanic Jen's recent post, I too am back at Skinny Cow.

Three weeks ago, I lost something huge, like 7kg or maybe more. This is how:

Giving birth to one stinkin' cute baby boy. Joseph Samuel is his name, and he accounted for 3.105 kg of the extra 14kg above my goal weight. See? Not all my fault.

Losing weight while flat on back

And the night after my caesarean as I lay helplessly flat on my back, I lost another 6kg or more. I have never lost so much weight so quickly while doing so little. How? you ask. I peed. And peed. And I peed and I peed and I peed and I peed and I peed and I peed and I peed. Well, I had a catheter in, so I didn't know I was peeing, much less how MUCH I was peeing until a midwife came for a chat and said upon leaving, "I'd better empty your bag - it looks like it's going to burst."

My bag? Oh yes, the catheter thing. Going to burst? Well, I had been very thirsty since the caesar, no - since falling pregnant late last year. And admittedly I'd had a lot to drink that afternoon in between feeding little Joseph. But also, I assume I'd retained fluid I hadn't noticed in my tissues, and it was all a-comin' out.

She emptied the bag into what looked like a two-litre jug, then emptied the jug. She emptied the bag again into the same jug, and emptied the jug again. Then she emptied the bag a third tine into this jug, not quite full this time, but lemme tell you, this wasn't the only bag-emptying-into-jug thing they did for me over that 20 hours.

I think I must have lost at least 6 litres in fluid, hence 6kg. While lying flat on my back.

And I've lost other bits and pieces of weight over the last 3 weeks, then gained it back with the incessant drinking you do when you're breastfeeding. And the breastfeeding itself - let's just say that parts of me are definitely making up some of the extra weight that's still on me.

ANYWAY.

Return to Skinny Cow

Here I am, back at Skinny Cow. And weight-wise, it's an interesting time of life for me - twice before I have seen that I crave the most amazing amounts of food when I am feeding a baby, and the promise that "the weight will fall off you when you're breastfeeding" turns out to be no more than a FABLE for me.

So now, the rubber hits the road.

What will I eat when it's 2pm and I am craving 4 chocolate biscuits, 7 marshmallows, 1 whole chocolate cake and a drink of hot Milo with sugar?

Will a banana and an apple REALLY cut it?

Plan of Attack

Current plan of attack: I don't want to keep any/much bad food in the house. And I want to eat leftovers instead of junk when I'm craving, as they will be filling and healthy.

Good luck, me.

Undutiful Porker returns to Skinny Cow again

So it was a really good idea to get back on the wagon.

It's a pity that I didn't, really.

However, I have been paying a bit more attention to healthy eating and I've rowed a couple of times during the last few weeks. And I thought about going for some walks with the Little Black Dog.

The exercise was mostly spurred on after my pre-admission phone call from a nurse asking questions about my health issues and any medication that I'm on. When asked about my level of fitness I did confess to being at the bottom end of the fitness range. She needed more information:

Her: "Do you walk for half an hour each day?"

Me: "Well, that's my aim, but I haven't been meeting it for the last few weeks."

Her: "If you walk up four flights of stairs would you be breathless?"

Me: "Is there anyone who wouldn't be breathless walking up four flights of stairs?"

Her (somewhat impatiently): "Yes!"

And although I didn't challenge it at the time, I'm certain that even when I was at my fittest (during high school when I rode my bike for 5 km to school and back about 4 times a week) I would have been breathless if I tried to walk up four flights of stairs.

Even when I was at college and walked everywhere and did indeed have four flights of stairs to climb to get to my room I was breathless at the top of them.

However, at least the hospital know how out of condition I am. You would have thought that they could have worked that out when I confessed to my height and weight!

I work best from a position of strength. I'm 1.4 kilos down since my last weigh-in. Or maybe exactly the same weight, but I took best two of three attempts.

So I rowed this morning and feel all good.

I had a balanced breaky that include fruit and milk and toast and I feel all good.

Then I finished off the packet of cheese Twisties that lured me yesterday at the supermarket.

I have to work on my just-say-no control mechanism.

Onwards and downwards.

What part of "Forever" do I not understand?

Well, you remember how this whole Skinny Cow thing started?

I had blogged on my site that I really needed to do something about my weight. I was going to slowly but surely get fitter and start eating less of the right kind of food (and obviously much less - or approximately none - of the wrong kind of food). It struck a chord with a number of people and so the Skinny Cow Co-operative was born.

And I was doing really well until Christmas time, where I started to bounce and bit and then the wheels fell off for me entirely in about March. *sigh*

So here I go again - only 0.6 of a kilo off my original starting weight. I've put myself back into First Grade Weighloss and am trying to summon up the strength to get back on the wagon.

The fact that I'm trying to summon up that strength does not bode well. You see, I will need to be entirely committed if I'm to get back into shape. I'm wondering if the thought of being a model for our Church's Fashion Parade in October is sufficient to get me back to 68kg.

I want to get back to 68kg.

At this point I'm not aiming for much beyond that, because that is the weight the wheels always fall off. Between now and then I need to get my head around it, but it's a good starting aim because it is achievable.

I will have to ignore the winter allure of custard and steamed pudding desserts every night, and the temptation to eat more because it's cold.

I'm guessing that in the week following the 19th August I might manage to lose heaps of weight. That's the date I'm getting all four wisdom teeth out and I'm guessing that eating is not going to be pleasurable for a bit.

So enough of the whinging!

This week I will:
1. Allow myself two desserts and two other naughties.
2. I will row three times
3. I will do a half-hour walk three times.

Weigh-In Wednesday! (Eizelby)

Last time: 70kg
Today: 67.25kg
So: a loss of 2.75kg!

The last time I weighed in was over two months ago, so the amount is not impressive, but my lack of commitment to posting here reflects lack of commitment to weight management.

May and June were tumultuous months. I spent a few days sick in bed eating nothing but ice chips which helped with weight loss in May (I got to a little less than I am now), but once I got back onto food I dropped the ball and didn't care what I ate, walked less due to the cool and rainy weather, and generally wasn't living in a healthy way.

However, inexplicably, in the past few weeks I have been WANTING to eat better. I have been CRAVING vegetables and fruits more than ice cream! That never happens. I think my body has finally gotten fed up with my terrible eating habits and has decided to teach me good eating habits itself! Awesome! Weather has also been better and, due to my healthier diet, I have more energy to walk.

I am also finally getting on top of my low GI eating. I love that I can eat what I want: no cutting out chocolate, I eat it almost every day, just in little doses. That way, I avoid the sugar cravings. Cutting stuff out that I really love and crave always ends up doing more damage later on.

The end is in sight!

A Moment of Weightlessness / Moment of Truth

It must be my turn to hold the fort for a bit, I just hope that someone comes home soon!

My gain since last week equals zero.

Unfortunately my loss since last week also equals zero, and I'm hoping that this is the moment of weightlessness before my weight plummets to the floor.

I was looking at my trendy spreadsheet again. So many goals (good, achievable goals) that I've let slide by pretty much since Christmas. I know that if I go back to my 'normal' eating pattern I will slowly climb back up into the mid 70s. Am I okay with that? Not really.

So:-
1. I will row three times this week. Started off already with 25 minutes this morning.

2. I will walk three times this week. The LBD will be very glad about that, and it does do wonders for my mental health.

3. I will allow myself 2 desserts and 2 other miscellaneous naughties during the week.

4. I will try to eat more good food despite the apparent conflict between the government's 2 & 5 programme and avoiding itchy spots (i.e. fruit apart from pears is pretty much out on a daily basis).

To a certain extent, it is the conflicts between all the different schools of thought that trips me up with respect to good eating. Food apparently needs to be low in sugar, fat, salt, and carbs. It needs to have no artificial flavours, colours or preservatives. Fresh may indeed be best, but it also needs to be low in the naturally occurring food chemicals that cause itchy spots. It needs to be Australian grown/made/owned, but also inexpensive. Also, apparently one serve of meat is plenty, four serves of grains are necessary, and 2 serves of fruit and 5 of vegetables are what we should have each day.

Is it any wonder that I am going through a phase of hating food shopping?

It doesn't help that my herb and shallot garden is struggling through the cold weather. I need these to make food at all interesting without going to the shops every two days. Maybe I need to bring the pots inside?

Off to make chicken soup... and a sponge cake (oops). I'm trying to get my sponge-making ability consistent. It has egg in it, so it must be healthy, yes?

The Good News Is...

... in the last few weeks of no exercise and not the best (a.k.a. spectacularly dreadful) eating pattern I have not put on 7234.8 kilos.

How would I have put on 7234.8 kilos (which, by the way, is actually 7.2 tonnes!)?

Well, I hit the zero instead of the decimal place when I was entering today's data into my trendy spreadsheet.

The resulting answer didn't look quite right to me.

Let's just say that it really puts the 1.5 kilos that I really put on into perspective.

Weigh In Wednesday (Femina)

Last time: 72.3kg
Today: 71.9kg
Difference: 400g

This means that the enormous amount of Maltesers I ate yesterday hasn't hit the system yet. Maybe they won't... they were fundraising Maltesers after all and it seems wrong that my generosity should cause me to put on weight!

That's it from me today. No plans, no goals for the moment. I'm concentrating on other things in my life for a little while so any weight loss or gain will be by accident, not design. I guess it's a good experiment to see what happens when I eat reasonably normally (apart from the Maltesers) and don't exercise. I'll be able to find out if my 'normal' food regime is too much.

Manda is forgetful and sorry

So, given all your activity of late, I doubt you'll remember one of the things I said in my last post: "I'll keep you updated on my progress." I certainly forgot it completely!

I've been chugging along, splurging more than I should but still less than I used to. I've got a nice winter-belly-baby going, but the rest of me is the same. So, let's pretend I haven't neglected my posting promise for the last few months, and start over.

Last time, I weighed: 71.1
Current Weight: 71.6
Weight change since last time: a gain of 500 grams
What I'll do now: Stop being such a food pushover.

You know when you finally learn that
when your housemate/husband/girlfriends offer you that piece of cake/chocolate ice cream/Cadbury creme egg, you are within your legal rights to turn it down
and you feel liberated, like suddenly it's actually your decision?
I learned that two years ago, and instituted a No Sugar in Public Rule (NSPR), which basically meant all my sweet things were sweet things I actually wanted to eat, and fit into my food points. It worked wonders (the decision being already made for me) and I lost more weight than usual. But I seem to have forgotten again.

But now I remember. This week, when my housemates offer me junk, I have often turned it down. Watch this:
Georgeous housemate: I'm going to have a crunchie.
Other georgeous housemate: Oooh, me too! Manda, do you want one?
Me: No thanks.
O.G.Housemate (cheerfully): Yeah, I thought you wouldn't.

WHAT?!
What just happened? Are things turning around? Am I finally getting to a point where I'm actually going to do something about my Winterbaby?

(Note: this is the first step of many that must occur for me to get to my goal. It doesn't matter how much I turn down from others if I pig out alone.)

Oh, and one more thing:
Modified, realistic goal for winter: 68 kilos. That means I have to lose just under three kilos over the next two months.

Whoops, and one more note: I am holding off on the NSPR for the moment - just turning down more of the 10 desserts offered to me in an average week.

I'm baaaaaack

Hello everyone!

So impressed to see so many of you here and powering on!

I, on the other hand, have not been powering on.

But it's time for (another) fresh start, I even bought scales this week!!

I am reasonably pleased with the fact that I weigh about the same as I did when I stopped all this, haven't lost anything but haven't really gained either...that's good.

Let's see where I am at on Wednesday, hey?! Wish me luck :)

I don't want to talk about it!

I did weigh-in this morning. Now at 72.2kg.

I'm claiming that I built muscle mass this week. I rowed 4 times.

I'm claiming that sawdust has a high calorific content, because I've been madly sanding.

However, it is possibly due to a couple of days eating my head off. I need to stop eating (well, okay, slow down with what I'm eating - not stop altogether).

New week, new start. Going to a child's birthday party tomorrow. Chances that any good intentions that are floating around my brain will be transformed into actual self-control at a party?

... Mmmmm?

Weigh In Wednesday (Femina)

Yes, I know, it's not Wednesday but I did weigh myself on Wednesday; I just didn't get around to posting.

Last week: 72.3kg
This week: 72.3kg

Difference.... zero, which means NO GAIN. Nope, it's not weight loss but maintaining my weight for one week is a bit of a win for me right now.  It's all good.

Bustin' Outta the Fat Pants

On Sunday I decided that maybe, with the baby so jolly big now, I might try my old Fat Pants on. Lovely tailored black slacks in a gorgeous fabric: large size. I haven't worn them for ever so long, because they sailed off me and hit the floor about two years ago. And I've believed that my girth hasn't changed all that much since then.

I wasn't prepared for the fact that they would be so tight on me. Okay, so of course I was going to find the zipper a bit tight with Thingamababy sitting large and unmoveable down there, but it was the butt and thighs that shocked me. Squeezy fit, with no chance for the zip to go up at all.

And yet, my overall weight sits around 71kg.

So I guess I'm still losing unwanted pieces of me from my upper arms and around my neck (yay!) while all things baby-related continue to blossom at a frightening rate. I currently look to be about full-term. I am 26 weeks tomorrow.

I'm not dieting at all, and am eating quite well for the baby, trying to stick to healthy foods and limit bad foods. In order to do this I cook up a vegetarian meal for dinner about 4 nights a week, and have lean meats the other 3 nights. This hasn't been working well. Adding a bit of bacon or chicken does not a vegetarian meal make. (But - "Yum!")

I have also had NOTHING sweet in the house except a packet each of Ginger Nuts, Scotch Fingers and Shredded Wheatmeals. You know you're trying to wean yourself off sweet stuff when you leave Shredded Wheatmeals as one of the final biscuits in the house. However this has only driven me to consume much more Milo than reasonable, and we've nearly run out of the Ginger Nuts and Scotch Fingers.

The children have been very challenging so tonight I decided to self-medicate with chocolate. We did a quick trip to Woollies for chocolate and the behaviour there was so appalling that I think I will never go back. Even when they're having a treat bought for them, they carry on like they are King and Queen of the World and they have passed an edict outlawing discipline in all forms. Disgraceful.

But good news here: after not-much sweet stuff for a while, a small chocolate binge was all I needed. It helped.

Weigh-In Woe (Femina)

I was all prepared to avoid the weigh-in indefinitely but decided to put on my Big Girl Pants and be brave. Hmmm... "big girl pants" has a different connotation on a weight loss blog, doesn't it? I meant my "grown up girl pants" but that doesn't have the same ring to it. Anyway, I digress...

Last time: 71.0kg
Today: 72.3kg
Difference: 1.3kg gain

Ouch.  What can I say? I have eaten lavishly of things that should be eaten sparingly and eaten sparingly of things that are good and healthy and should sustain me.  This feels like real weight gain too, not one of those "gosh, I'm heavier this week - I wonder why?" gains.  I haven't exercised - heck, I've barely moved at all unless it's vital. Even when I don't go to the gym I usually walk a fair bit but it's been cold and rainy and I've been lazy... and I'm feeling the difference in my body, which might be an incentive to start moving again.

After today I have 6 days off work. At least one of those days will be spent catching up on sleep but for the others I am planning a couple of day trips here and there and lots of walking.  And maybe I'll cut down on the hot chocolates too.  Maybe....

Weigh-In Wednesday (Eizelby)

Last time: 69.5
Today: 70
So: a gain of .5kg

Blurg.

Okay, this might look bad, as my last two have been gains, but on the bright side I've been eating like a teenage boy and I've only gained half a kilo in three weeks.

Somehow this number gives me hope! I'm not going to list a bunch of promises I probably won't keep, not for now at least, but instead will just say this: last night I had a light dinner after a heavy breakfast and lunch, and went to bed with the strongest desire to eat the bag of cookies stashed in my cupboard. I was awake for two hours thinking about those cookies. At one stage I even had my hands on the bag ... but I woke up this morning having not let even one pass my lips. Hooray for slight progress!

Weigh-In - Why Not? (HJ)

Last week may have been a little bit of a scales blip. Or that I did eat less and certainly less bad stuff (or at least less frequently). Or the fact that I only rowed once lead to atrophy of the huge muscle mass I acquired last week. Take your pick.

Last week: 72.2
This week: 71.0
Loss for the week: 1.2 kg (which is pretty impressive for very little work and a tad of self-control)
Total Loss: 5.0 kg

I must get back into rowing. It makes a difference.

And the LBD would appreciate the odd walk, too.

Interesting phenomenon (Givinya)

So I haven't been posting here at Skinny Cow for a bit because I'm embarrassed that you are all trying so hard and I'm not, because I'm pregnant. I guess though, that I owe the baby not to pig out too much and turn into a blimp.

Anyway, I'm about 23 weeks along now, and my weight is only about 1-2 kilos more than before Thingamababy. See how this works? My tummy is getting bigger and bigger, Thingamababy is growing nicely, I'm putting on all the right baby weight in all the right places, and at the same time I seem to be losing fat from over the tummy, on my arms, and hopefully the more Major Defects below like butt and thighs.

Pregnancy agrees with me.

What happens afterwards? I get hungry and things go wrong.

Please promise me you'll be around for me after Thingamababy makes an appearance, and promise me you won't excuse my indiscretions by saying that I'm breastfeeding. It hasn't cancelled out my pigging-out the last two times!

Love you girls, I live in weekly awe of your hard work and general downwards-moving numbers.

I don't want to play this game anymore...

Okay, so I do want the results of this game, I just don't want to report a week that really wasn't the best.

Last week - 70kg
This week - 72.2kg
Gain of - 2.2 kg

How did I put on more than the weight of the naughty food that I ate?

HOW?

Creeeaaaak, groan... (HJ)

So I'm not a Wednesday weigh-in-er, but I thought I'd share my current state of being with you all.

I rowed yesterday for the first time in... a little while.

I only did 20 minutes because I thought I'd be out of condition.

I was right.

I am creaking and groaning my way through life today. I'd forgotten that rowing uses so many muscles.

I'm sure I once thought it was worth it.

Wednesday again already?? (Eizelby)

Last time: 68.6
Today: 69.5
So: a gain of .9kgs

Okay, so this is not great. BUT it's been two weeks and I thought I would have weighed in at at least a kilogram more than this, given my recent chocolate bonanza - and that was BEFORE Easter.

But no concessions! I'm setting some rules now because I don't seem to respond to my own leniency very well.

So this week I will:
- Go to the pool AT LEAST ONCE!
- Go for half hour walks plus the regular walking I do every day.
- Write down everything I eat, an idea "borrowed" from Femina, which hopefully makes me deal with my horrible eating habits once and for all! No more continuous stream of chocolate while playing computer games for me!

Wussy Wednesday (Femina)

Yeah, not weighing in today. I had a great Easter though... if "great" can be defined as "was largely inert and ate a LOT of chocolate and hot cross buns"!

So... see you in another week... :)

The Lamington and Hot Cross Bun Diet (HJ)

I was a tad fearful about weighing in this morning, but I had promised Femina that I would, and I was hoping that the shame of reporting yet another bad week would help spur me on to greater effort (or indeed any effort whatsoever).

My church should be banned from having Lamington Drives. Particularly in the same week as Easter (can you guess we don't generally give up stuff for lent in my church?). So possibly not the best eating pattern this week.

But it does seemed to have worked...
Last weigh-in (two weeks ago)... 70.6 kg
Today... 70.0 kg
Total Loss... 6 kg
Loss since last time... 0.6 kg in which time I ate my head off and did absolutely no exercise.

Do you think I should continue this novel weight loss plan to see if it has any scientific merit?

Plan for this week-
Row three times
Walk the poor LBD at least three times (hoping that I can hold him because he hasn't had a w.a.l.k. for a few weeks which means that he'll be very... enthusiastic, let's just say)

I really need to start eliminating again to find out for certain what causes itchy-spots (and possibly hay fever type symptoms - I'm noticing some links between bad food and hay fever now that I'm mostly avoiding the worst of the culprits), but maybe after I've conducted a scientific binge (I mean significant dose) of chocolate on Sunday? I will need to set myself a date, because I keep putting it off due to weddings and Easter and other non-elimination diet food times. Can you tell that I'm not yet committed to it?

Thanks, Kevin! (Love from Manda)

I'm starting again. I'm ready to get back on the weightloss plan, and should admit I don't really like being "off" it yet. (I had a little bit of trouble staying at the right amount of food - I either ate a little too much, or just felt like I was... either way, next time I stop losing and start maintaining my weight, I'll change my eating amount g r a d u a l l y ).

But, you ask, why am I so thankful to Kevin?
While I haven't received my stimulus money yet, my housemate has - and she bought a Wii and WiiFit! I can't believe how much fun it is, I'm looking forward to working on the goal it suggested for me: losing 4.2 kilos in 3 months.

I'll keep you updated on my progress.

Meanwhile, let's get the stats going:
Current Weight: 71.1
Weight change since last time: a gain of 600 grams
What I'll do now: Keep excercising and WiiFitting, hold back a little on the Easter Eggs!

Weigh-In Wednesday (Femina)

I seem to be almost the last woman standing (at least who's not pregnant) so I suspect I'm updating this for my own benefit, but never mind... ;)

Last week: 71.7kg
Today: 71.0kg
Difference: 700g loss

And I DID go to the gym! Okay, only once, but at least I got back there.  I remembered the address and everything... I was a bit worried I might have forgotten how to get there! Hehe.

Weigh In Wednesday (Femina)

Last week: 72.1kg
This week: 71.7kg
Difference: 400g loss

I'm starting to think I just weigh lighter on Wednesdays for some obscure reason. I have been consistently 72.1kg every day since last week... until today. Huh.

Anyhoo, my goal this coming week is to get back to the gym. There have been some stresses in my personal life and I know exercise helps me to deal with them a lot better. Yeah, this is my goal every week - but I really mean it this time! Honest! :D

Weigh-In Wednesday and Wii Fit waffle (Eizelby)

Last week: 69.15

Today: 68.6

So: a loss of .5kgs

I must admit I'm more than a little surprised, but I'm not going to question it!  This means that I have now officially reached my second goal point and have a little reward to give myself, as well as a pat on the back because I am now halfway!  Woohooo!

My goal for the next week is to not eat an entire thing of chocolate, which I have shamefully achieved two weeks in a row.  I'm also going to head to the pool again this week.  I have been walking a lot lately but that is all the exercise I have been getting.  I do love swimming, and I'm now a three minute walk from my pool, so I have absolutely no reason to be lazy and skip the swim.

In other news, I have decided to purchase a Wii.  Not simply for all the classic puns it brings with it, but for the Wii Fit part of it.  My brother has a Wii and, while I have on occasion enjoyed partaking in some boxing and baseball practice and whatnot, I didn't think it was for me.  I'm a Playstation girl myself.

However, having now babysat twice at a house where the Wii Fit is the main source of entertainment and exercise, I find myself thoroughly impressed!  You can weigh yourself, log your daily activities (such as cooking, dancing, or walking), and best of all see it all displayed before you in graph form, to monitor your progress.  Genius!  And very helpful for me.  To transform this whole health kick thing into some kind of video game is the perfect tactic for someone like me.

Where has Manda been?

Sorry everyone! Here is a good update for what has been going on in the last few weeks:

1) I have weighed in at weights between 70.1 and 70.6. I'm not really too worried by this, as,

2) I am trying hard to care less about what I weigh! I feel a little too good about myself with my weight, so now I am concentrating on being happy about what has happened, but not prideful.

3) I'm having a lot of fun excercising! I am doing basketball still, but now have started doing Taekwondo as well (which is fun, but also rather intense physically). I love doing things I used to be too weak for.

4) I am running out of clothes that fit. I have three pairs of pants (size 14), a skirt (size 14) and three shirts (size 14) that are too big for me to seriously wear to work. While this is great news, it means I have to do a wash every three days (given that I am washing for one, that's a bad sign). So it's off to the shops for me again.

Will check in again soon,
Manda

Weigh In Wednesday (Femina)

Last week: 71.6kg
Today: 72.1kg
Difference: 500g gain

This isn't really a surprise. Last week was a fluke - it was actually the only day in the last fortnight where I weighed under 72kg and I know it was because I'd lost my appetite slightly with stress. Good news... my appetite is back now! :) And I'm still 400g lighter than I was before the little episode of stress so I'm counting this gain as a loss, which makes it a gain, right?? (If you can follow that logic it means you have a brain like mine. You should be deeply afraid.)

Weigh-In Wednesday (Eizelby)

Last time: 71.2kg
Today: 69.15
So: About 2 kgs lost

But please don't read this incorrectly - last weigh-in was on Feb 4th and I went down to 68 about two weeks ago, but then birthday happened and my sugar intake skyrocketed and I haven't been able to get it back down. For instance: in the last 24 hours I consumed an entire KitKat chocolate bar. Not the regular size. It was a decent chocolate block size. Bad, bad Eizelby. And it was just after I ordered a bowl of vegies when everyone else ordered pizza!

Help, oh help, I am fast losing motivation!

Weigh-In (HJ)

Everything is exactly the same.

Is there anything left to say?.

Weigh In Wednesday (Femina)

Last week: 72.5kg
Today: 71.6kg
Loss: 900g

I'm definitely celebrating this... but with the disclaimer that it's almost certainly because I've been a bit stressed and haven't been eating much. (The disclaimer is to soften the blow for myself when I put this weight back on in a week!) Still, a loss is a loss is a loss...

I still haven't been to the gym. I'm not even sure I remember where it is now... oh dear. I shall make an effort to get there this week. Unfortunately my gym buddies have also been quite stressed and going through some hard times so with all three of us down there's been no one to spur the others on. Maybe we should have had an agreement that only two of us were allowed to be stressed at the one time.

.

So the Buck Stops Here and Now

I've been a very bad little bovine.

I've been eating my head off.

I've been slack about exercising.

I haven't been game to weigh in, and if I did I didn't want to talk/blog about it.

... And it's all been going on for a few weeks now.

It's been busy. Good excuse? The thing is there are very few times that I'm not going to be busy. I'm also moving from a job where things are always urgent (everyone wants their job done yesterday) to one where things will be both urgent and important (in a few weeks I'm being commissioned as a pastor at my church).

So busy simply can't afford to be an excuse any longer.

Good food being easily available can't afford to be an excuse any longer, either. Do you know how well people eat in churches?

So today I draw a line in the sand and say, "No more excuses."

I will update my weightloss ticker on my blog to show the negative.

I rule off my trendy spreadsheet and start my second grade of weightloss over again. And this time I'm mentioning numbers (but just remember that I'm not tall, therefore they are small numbers compared to some)

So here are the numbers:

Weight today - 70.6kg (yes, over the magic round number I'm never going to see again)
Gain since last time I blogged - 1.4kg
Total loss to date - 5.4kg
Loss left to go - 10.6kg

I should easily lose some weight this week because yesterday I did the pointless tomorrow-I'm-going-to-start-being-good-again splurge.

So now I'm going off to row.

Weigh-In Wednesday (Femina)

Last time: 72.6kg
Today: 72.5kg
Loss: 100g

If I were a contestant on The Biggest Loser I'd probably be in floods of tears that I hadn't lost 6kg in a week, but as I'm not a contestant on The Biggest Loser and I'd like to keep the weight off long term so I don't have to go on TV advertising diet 'shakes', I'm actually quite content with 100g. Yeah, it's tiny, but it's tiny in the right direction and that's all that matters to me.

No Weigh! (Donners)

I don't know if I established my goals very clearly but I am not going to weigh-in, because my problem isn't weight, it's greed and that's why I joined OSC - to be accountable for my attitude towards food.

I did okay this week, I am trying to see food as something that is a good gift to enjoy, not as entertainment when I am bored, tired or lacking the motivation to do other things - I think I was better this week.I am trying to see food as something that I need regularly for energy and nourishment - rather than to meet my felt need. I was definately better at that!

My health ( ongoing problems) was bad today which leads to exhaustion, nausea, back and abdominal pain and I had to go home early - which was frustrating. I had missed my medication for the day which gave me an even worse reaction than usual. It was amazing how much I watched myself think "I want chocolate, I want melted cheese - I want" - when I was having cramps and other pain!

Food's not going to cut it darling, just have to ride it out - I still had a bit of chocolate and had melted cheese for dinner.

Where's Weigh-In? (Eizelby)

I've had an update on the cards for awhile, titled 'The Day Eizelby Traveled to Target Three Times in Order to Buy a Set of Scales' but it was such an ordeal that it has been difficult to put fingers to keyboard about it. The only thing you need to know is that I now do, in fact, own scales all to myself! I don't like them as much as I did Manda's, despite the fact they are shiny digital Weight Watchers ones, but I digress.

At the moment I am bouncing around the 69/70kg mark. Mid-week I was down to 69.2 (so close to my next goal of 69!), but after a weekend of indulging it's back to 70.6 today. Sigh! It really feels like it can take one bad day to erase a week of healthy living. It's not quite fair, in my opinion.

One thing I have learned from the weekend is that attending a youth group Iron Chef competition where the object is for every team to bake a delicious, appetising cake is NOT a good idea for someone who is trying to resist temptation.

The first Skinny Cow award

In case you missed it, Manda reached her goal last week!  In honour of the occasion, here's a big Skinny Cow star to say well done - we're proud of you!

.

The New kid (Donners)

Hi all you skinny cows!

I'm the new kid, so I hope I don't end up walking around the playground by myself - probably eating something I shouldn't. For those of you who don't know me I am friends with Manda, Eizelby and know Femina some too...

Manda and I challenged each other ( last year) to not eat (refined) sugar for two weeks and only eat fruit instead, since then I have bounced around being "good" and bad"since then. I am a big fan of food and so is my husband, I tend to exercise very regularly but have a few tiredness issues that sometimes hold me back.

Last night I went to the St Kilda night market and had (extremely delicious Argentinian) barbecued ribs and not only finished mine but started on my husbands leftovers....Sad isn't it! I then moved on to share some churros with him too, which I didn't need.

All in all, I feel good that I tried two types of food I had never had before and I don't need to wonder anymore. I am also being virtuous in buying various nice dried fruit ( cranberries, sultanas, apricots, prunes and dates) instead of lollies, which just get me every time.

I was good with exercise this week, too. But need to exercise more self-control when I'm tired, Wednesday night looked awfully close to a binge...

Thanks for having me!

Weigh-In Wwhat?! (Manda)

Interesting.

Last Weigh-In Wednesday (Feb 11): 70.7
Last Wednesday (Feb 18): 70.6
This Wednesday (Feb 25): 70.7
Change: no change
Total loss so far: 5.3 kilos

It looks remarkably like a plateau to me. But then-

Today (Feb 26): 70.0
Change: a loss of .7
Total loss so far: 6 kilos
Kilos to goal: ZERO!

I'll take it.

The following should be preceded by a word of thanks to God. I have been struggling with gluttony for a while, and while God helped me away from that, I tended to the other side and started making my body an idol for myself. I have to admit this is still a hard thing for me - but I am very thankful that God has been by my side, pointing sinful things out and helping me to break free from them, slowly. I am definitely stronger here than I was before. So, now I can say:

Hooray! I reached my goal! Hooray! I'm at 70 kilos for the first time since I was about 15. Hoooray! I'm eating better and feeling better and still eating orange poppyseed cake (like I did this morning, for example) but not bingeing! I feel so good.

HOORAY!

Sorry, I just felt like I should celebrate for a bit. Thanks for all the support you guys have been over the last few months, and thanks for being so inspirational :) I'm sticking around - in a few days you'll see me post about my plan for maintaining the 70.

Weigh-In Wednesday (Femina)

Yes, I'm really weighing in this week.

Last time: 72.4kg
Today: 72.6kg

Difference: 200g gain

Meh - 200g is fine with me.  It's a small glass of water.  It's two weeks since I last weighed in on here and in that time my weight went up about a kilo (possibly related to pizza and Cadbury Creme Eggs...) and has come back down again.  I didn't do any particular dieting; I just got the emotional eating back under control and my weight came back down to what it is today, so this seems to be my 'true' weight at the moment.

I am still trying to get back to the gym.  I do like it; I'm just way out of the habit now and I'm not sure how to motivate myself.  Chocolate rewards seem counter-productive, somehow.

And in other news... I note that no one else has weighed in recently.  That, of course, is completely fine - this is a no-pressure community - but don't be afraid to drop by and let us all know you're going okay even if you don't feel like weighing in.  I'm a lonely Cowgirl over here... :)

No-Weigh Wednesday (Femina)

What - again? Yes, I'm afraid so. I had a bit of an emotional blip last Friday which led to a little emotional eating blowout over the weekend... and a little beyond the weekend. As a result I don't want to weigh myself for a few days, so I'm taking a pass this week.

The good news is, as far as emotional food blowouts go it was pretty tame - a super-cheesy pizza eaten over two days, some chocolate, hash browns, a piece of cake, sausages... there are times in the past when I would have eaten that in one day, not spread out over four days. I see that as a good thing because it means my instinct to binge is decreasing. Also, I actually recognise emotional eating for what it is now and that tends to make me stop and take stock of why I'm eating.

So it's all good. But I'm still not weighing myself today. :)
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Steady as she goes (HJ)

I have not gained any weight this week.

On the other hand I've not lost any, either.

Now I'd better get my act into gear for the future, I have such a crop of itchy spots at the moment that I'm likely to give up anything to get rid of them - although I bought more anti-histamines this morning, so...

No-Weigh Friday (Eizelby)

Manda moved out!  As a consequence of this, she of course took her scales with her, thus leaving me scale-less.  I'll probably buy a thing to weigh myself on in the next week, and update you next Wednesday.  It's bizarre not having the scales in the bathroom anymore, and therefore not weighing myself anytime I go in there.  I have an irrational fear I've put all of the weight back on, but I doubt it.  I think.

I was babysitting last night and found myself with little to do.  With not much on TV,  and bored with my own book, I turned to the homeowners' bookshelf for something to peruse.  Lo and behold, 'The Low GI Diet' sat blaring its title at me.

I have polycystic ovaries, and some hormonal imbalances that come with this.  It means, among other unpleasant things, I don't get my period very regularly.  It also unfortunately means that I am "insulin resistant".  This basically seems to assert that I have too much sugar in my blood, and by eating a high GI diet I have made my period problems worse and the sugar in my system continually build up.  Basically, the smart thing to do for my general health is to follow a low GI diet, but being a lazy bum I hadn't looked into it much.  But here was my chance!  Hours with nothing to do and a book about how to combat my exact problem!

I already knew some stuff about low GI foods by researching on the internet.  The most surprising find was that raw vegies can be a lot better for your insulin levels than their cooked counterparts.  For example, raw carrots have a very low GI score of 16, while boiled carrots are more than double that, with a score of 41!!  Learning that made me realise that you can't assume you know the basics about food; it's important to look into things.  41 is still a relatively low GI score compared to, say, potatoes, but it's still amazing that such an increase can happen by simply heating up the carrots!

I plan to find and purchase this exceedingly helpful book tomorrow.  It contains a 12-week eating plan (which truthfully I probably won't follow - I'm certainly not a great cook and I'd have to be pretty adventurous to try these foods without step-by-step instructions) and exercise tips, but the main reason it would help me is because it stresses what is important; knowing what foods are good for you in terms of glucose intake, and how to be smart about food.  I'm not a dumb person, but like most people I seem to make some stupid decisions in relation to food.  I have a new-found motivation to be careful with my body, because apparently if I'm not I'm very likely to develop type 2 diabetes, not a very pleasant side effect of indulging oneself!  Until I find the book, this website is really helpful for quickly checking foods for their scores.

What I ultimately have learned for delving into the interesting and sometimes frightening world of GI is that I need to care more about the quality of food that I eat.  $1 wholemeal loaves of bread are great for the wallet (not to mention free the white bread at my family's house!), but I'm going to need to shell out for the pricey Buergen Soylin stuff if I want to be serious about this.  Also, no more buying Homebrand Sour Worms for the sole reason that they are on special!  Writing a list of things I need to buy before I go shopping is my new battle plan.

Manda the Yoyo + Weigh-In Wednesday

Last week: 70.6
This week: 70.7
Change: a gain of 100 grams
Total loss so far: a loss of 5.3

I like to think of it like a yoyo. Yoyo dieting is apparently bad and results in actresses who end up larger than when they started. (I do agree with that - the concept of "being on a diet for a while" followed by a nice long binge is clearly not going to work). However, whoever came up with the term "yoyo" has never seen me play with one.

It starts up high, I drop it and it goes down a lot, then it comes up a little, then it goes down a lot, then it comes up a little, then it ends up on the floor. The you have to tediously roll it all up again, but let's leave that part out.

That seems to accurately describe how I'm going. down 1 kilo, up .3, down .7, up .5, down 1.3, up .1 (or something like that). It comes from being dedicated to my goals but not freakish about it. I still eat cake; I just don't-eat it more than I used to. I'm more-or-less following my Weight Watchers points and have been for two and a half years now - I started at 93.4, by the way.

I feel good about that. And thankful to lovely people who have noticed my skcowness recently. And to you guys, for being the best support I could ask for!

Weigh-In Wednesday (Femina)

Last week: 74kg
This week: 72.4kg

Loss: 1.6kg.... woo hoo!

I started the weight loss ticker on my blog at my heaviest weight (during the ups and downs) of 75.3kg, which means my total weight loss to date is 2.9kg. And THAT means I've reached my first goal and can buy the reward. It was supposed to be flowers but I was out yesterday and knew I'd already reached my goal so I bought the marble rolling pin I've been eyeing off for a while. It was on sale, too, which was gratifying.

I think the weight loss is a combination of Write It Down Month, which is really helping me feel more in control, and the hideously hot weather we've had here. No one wants to eat when it's 43 degrees for most of the week.

Goals for this week:

• Stick to writing down what I eat.
• Plan my week's meals in advance. This helps not only with budgeting but also with avoiding snacks. I don't know why, but knowing what I'll be having for dinner somehow gives me self-control! I can't explain it... :)
• Get back to the gym - I went yesterday for the first time in three weeks and remembered why I liked it, but I noticed a difference in what I was able to do. It was a shorter workout because I was tiring more easily, having not exercised at all for a while. I need to build up again, particularly since I've been having back and neck pain which always gets worse when I haven't been exercising. I need to strengthen those muscles again or I end up being in pain.

I haven't seen my scales say anything under 74kg for quite some time so I'm feeling happy. Chocolate all round to celebrate! Oh... wait a minute...

What's 300 grams? (Givinya)

So I forgot to weigh in on Wednesday, and I forgot again on Thursday. I finally managed it on Friday, but being pregnant, I'm not going to judge my success by the numbers on the scales but rather by seeing a loss of fat on currently-fat places.

But I did notice something interesting when I got on the scales. The number was something like 67.3 kg.

Then I got off and Smoochy Girl got on. The scales said 9.4 kg while she said "Eight," which is The Current Default Number for her 1¾ year old brain.

Me again: 67.7 kg. Hm. Certain I didn't gain 400g in the last 20 seconds.

Smoochy: 9.4 kg, "Eight," she said again.

Me again: 67.4 kg. A loss of 300g. Way to go, me! Hang on, I don't think I can actually believe in this 20-second loss, given that I didn't believe the 20-second gain.

Smoochy: 9.4 kg, "Eight!"

So what have we learned?

(a) Scales suck, and they lie too.

(b) Hippomanic Jen, what's 300g in the grand scheme of things, especially given point (a) above?

(c) Loudly proclaiming a lower number when standing on the scales won't actually make you any lighter.

A Gain Again (HJ)

*Huge Sigh*

300 grams heavier than last week. Great. But then, my self-control wasn't so great, so...

Still 300 grams isn't much. Maybe I just needed to wring out my bladder better beforehand. Or that making caramel fudge yesterday afternoon when I couldn't be bothered working anymore wasn't such a good idea. Then again, the making fudge possibly wasn't the problem. ;)

I think what this proves is that my weight loss before Christmas can be attributed to both exercise and restraint/better food choices. I really need to get back to that. Another contributing factor for me could be prayer/meditation. It often helps my self-control because I feel more balanced on days when I've made time to pray. I really need to get back to that, too.

I've found a new form of exercise, though. We currently have two huge piles of dirt in our yard that needs to be shovelled. And some weeds that need to be dug out before we shovel dirt on top of them. This should do something for me over the coming weeks, surely.

The good thing that I've discovered is that my stamina is improving. I've always said that I can only do about half an hour of heavy work. I was very depressed one afternoon to discover that shovelling still wore me out to the "I. just. can't. move anymore" stage. I've been doing more and more exercise and I'm still not able to keep on working! Then I went inside and realised that I'd been working for over an hour (closer to 1 hour 15 minutes). I am getting stronger, regardless of what the scales are telling me. That's got to be good. Right?

Weigh-In Wednesday (Eizelby)

Last week: 71.9kg

Yesterday: 71.2kg

So: A loss of 0.7kg

I keep repeating "slow and steady wins the race" in my head.  I guess it's my mantra in this.

Something I didn't realise last weigh-in that is worth mentioning: I now have a BMI of 25, which means I'm back in the healthy weight range for my height!  Better still, though I haven't lost so much weight in terms of measurement, I feel lighter.  During the extreme pervasive heat of last week, I was feeling pretty gross and heavy, and not motivated to lose weight at all.  I was not, in fact, exercising, because to even stand was a chore.  But since the weather has cooled somewhat, I'm left feeling more energetic and comfortable in my own skin.

I still haven't set foot in a gym this year.  According to my plan I should have already gone three times, but unfortunately as yet I have not worked up the courage.  This is my challenge for the week: to go to the gym and actually do some kind of workout.

Except for the no-gym thing, I am going fairly well with the plan; I've been walking a lot since the 40+ degree heat ended, I went to the pool this week, I have been trying to eat lower GI foods.  I guess I can take pride in the little number at the top of this post because it is a result of a lifestyle overhaul!  However, I know the hardest thing will be keeping up with it after the kilos have gone.  I'll just wait until it's a reality to think about that issue.

Weigh-In Wednesday (Manda)

Last week: 71.9
This week: 70.6
Change: a loss of 1.3
Total loss so far: a loss of 5.4

(Note: Impending goal! Remember Manda, 600 grams left until you get a facial/pretty dress!)

So, turns out my watery week did me some good (now that I've stopped feeling nauseated all the time). What I'm going to take away from this is:

- Drinking my kilojoules may have helped me lose weight, but I bloated and felt awful - I would never manage do that to myself, save for another once-in-a-century heatwave.
- However, those that want me to drink those "eight glasses per day" might actually be on to something, so let's keep that part up.

Weigh In Wednesday (Femina)

My last official weigh in was two weeks ago and I've already unofficially weighed in this week in my sauna post, but I'll post it officially anyway.

Two weeks ago: 75kg

Today: 74kg

Difference: 1kg loss

I know it was partly the heat which made me eat less and drink loads of water so it will be interesting to see if it stays off now that the weather is much cooler.  I think Write It Down Month will help me to keep it off and to keep losing weight because I'm becoming much more conscious of what's going in, and when and why... although it's now Biggest Loser season and that normally makes me want to eat as I'm watching and mocking.  No, not mocking them for being fat, mocking them for saying things like, "I couldn't believe it when Ajay said we'd have to weigh in" and "I thought the trainers would go easy on us for the first week or so but they made us work really hard."  What - have you NEVER seen the show before???  And of course mocking Shannon the trainer for saying 'pacifically' instead of 'specifically', and using 'literally' in a completely non-literal way ("He literally dropped dead on the spot").  Ah, good times.

What happens when you drink all your kilojoules? (Manda)

Well, I don't actually know yet. 

Unfortunately far from Femina's sauntastic results, I'm not feeling so good. Right about when the mercury hit 43 last week, I lost my appetite for your average food group. Instead, I have been eating the following:

Boost juice, orange juice, ice cream, apple and guava juice, boost juice, banana bread, small amounts of toast, orange juice, strawberries, cordial, coffee, boost juice, cereal, milkshakes, a shot of Baileys with ice, a Nando's wrap or two.

Like I said, I don't feel so good. Will eating solid food again (now that we're down ten degrees to 33) help me on Wednesday? Stay tuned.

Tentative Success (HJ)

I nearly didn't weigh and measure today.

I was fairly certain that the numbers were going to be the reverse of happy, due to the fact that this week my body has been giving me 'stop' signs and so I've not rowed. Which means that I haven't been able to control my food intake as well as I ought (though not as bad as last week), and don't feel like walking (which I should have been doing and have no excuse save "couldn't be bothered"). No exercise means not sleeping well (broken sleep and stupid dreams), which in turn means not feeling very strong and so the downward spiral continues. Girly hormones don't help either.

However, I did weigh in - a last minute, about to put my clothes on after my shower, and changed my mind. And I feel better having done it.

I've lost 600 grams since last week. This is good.
That's a total of 7.1 kg (or 15.6 pounds) since October.
(Or a total total loss of 9.1 kg if you count all the bits I've taken off, put on, and taken off again - but somehow I don't think that counts)

This maybe just enough to get me back in the right headspace to get me to my next goal, which happens to be my stalling weight (you know, the weight you get to, feel good, and lose motivation to continue?).

I also bought stationery. For someone who has a stationery fetish (pretty paper; a good, well balanced pen; new writing pads; index cards of different colours, etc - never go with me to Office Works!) this is a great non-food treat. A beautiful new, fresh exercise book in which to record what I'm eating. Hopefully the thought of writing down everything I eat will make me start thinking about what I'm eating again. Elimination diet died before Christmas and hasn't been resurrected entirely yet. So the main purpose is to record food and medications compared with any allergy reactions. But I'm still hoping that it will make me think about what I'm eating.

"Once more into the breach, my friends..."

The Sauna Effect (Femina)

It's been 42+ degrees here for the last few days and I've been complaining about it constantly - on my blog, on Facebook, on the phone, over email, in real life... I don't want anyone to miss out on the fun!

I have, however, just found one (ONE!) good thing about the heat. I weighed myself this morning and I'm a kilo lighter than the last time I weighed. I'm pretty sure that's a kilo of sweat - and I didn't even have to exercise! Whether it will stay off when things cool down is another matter entirely, of course...

So anyone who wants to lose some weight, head on down to Melbourne! And stay with me in my non-air-conditioned house... weight loss is guaranteed! :D

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Weigh-In Thursday (Givinya)

I didn't dream about weighing in, I just did it in real life! 66.8 kg! This means I'm pretty much holding my weight, despite Thingamababy and all the associated fatnesses in various spots! Yay!

This is usual for me in pregnancy:

Step 1: Gain baby and lose fat.
Step 2: Give birth and look awesome.
Step 3: Eat a whole lot of unwise stuff and start resembling Mrs Flushpool: "a collection of plastic bags half-filled with water."

Please may Operation Skinny Cow still be around for me in the second half of 2009. That's when the rubber will hit the road.

Weigh-In Wednesday (Manda)

Last week: 71.3

This week: 71.9

Change: a gain of .6

Total loss so far: a loss of 4.1

Nnngggg. Gotta bother more! No giving up.

On the upside, I am feeling really good about my weight at the moment. Since that is half the battle for me (or so I have just decided), I'm going to be happy about that. 

1 forty-degree day down

3 to go

If I live, I'll see you next Wednesday.

No-Weigh Wednesday (Givinya)

Last Time: I told you I was pregnant and so the Weighing-In was coming off the rails.
This Time: Swimming shorts much tighter, torso resembles mountain of lard, but legs, neck and face seem leaner. Dysmorphic, but not unexpected.
Last Night's Dream: I dreamed that I weighed in once I woke up (my subconscious knew it was Wednesday) and I was 73 kg. A gain of some horrible number of kilos.
When I actually woke up: I forgot to weigh in.

Weigh-In Wednesday (Eizelby)

Two weeks ago: 73kg

Today: 71.9kg

So: A loss of 1.1kg

I'm pretty happy with this, and quite surprised, since the last time I weighed myself (last Wednesday night, after a week of being extremely naughty at the so-called "large camp" Manda and I were at), I was at 74.3.  I don't quite understand how my weight can fluctuate so much as this, depending on what I eat and how many times I go to the toilet it can be almost a kilo in difference!  So I don't really know what to believe.  But I don't mind the stat above, so who am I to question it?  I'll save that for when it says I've put on two kgs in one day. :)

How am I going with the plan so far?

For the first week I was on here, I immediately set off for a summer camp where I looked after some little kids for a week.  Not the most lazy holiday one can imagine!  However, I was eating a LOT, and not getting my regular walk in, so by the end of the second day I was already feeling very heavy.  Luckily, that was just when the weather got nicer, and we started swimming in the ocean and the pool for the last few days, and I limited myself to only two deserts per day.  I know, I'm wonderful at the whole self-restriction thing ...

I haven't gone to the gym yet.  Saturday morning pump class shall be an eye-opener to say the least.  I plan on going to the pool today or tomorrow (or both), and the weather will certainly be a motivator in that!

Okay, now that I've weighed myself, time for breaky!

Mea Culpa (HJ)

I accuse myself of eating everything that I saw for a few days recently...


As a result my weigh in was not really a supportive, affirming, friendly event that will sustain my good intentions into next week.


A 900g gain.


The only good thing about it is that I didn't bounce back to that large round number that I never, ever want to reach again.


Well, I told myself that I wasn't planning to lose much in January (as a result of the Christmas pig-out) so maybe that was a self-fulfilling prophecy.


Must get back on the band wagon. I think that when I go back on the Elimination Diet next week that I will start losing again just because it cuts out the junk food and bakery options.

Weight that goes on quickly, comes off quickly...

Weight that goes on quickly, comes off quickly...

Weight that goes on quickly, comes off quickly...

Weight that ...

Weigh-In After Camp and the part of my brain sitting in the corner (Manda)

Last week: 72
This week: 71.3
Change: a loss of .7
Total loss so far: a loss of 4.7 kilos

Note: I'm almost at 5 kilos, which is my next reward point.

Did I achieve my goal (eating good portions and lots of vegies, being sensible with my sugar)? Not exactly. My portions were pretty good but I also ate every time we were served dessert (once at dinner, once at supper) and lots of cordial.

About halfway through I realised my subconscious had its own mission all along - to eat as much as everyone else was eating. It was amazing how quickly I gave up on the sugar-limiting, but on the other hand, I wasn't bothered by it as I needed to drink something, and cordial was what we had.

So on one hand, Naughty Subconscious! And Naughty Conscious for not bothering to regulate it! Go and sit in the corner for one minute until you are ready to apologise.

On the other - hooray! I got through camp without superbingeing, and I didn't make my diet an obsession that made me hard to live with for a week.

Now back on the conscious-horse.

Why-Not-Weighing-In Wednesday? (Givinya)

Because I am pregnant of course.

You'll remember when I started saying I was drinking lots and lots and lots of water? That was when I finally worked out that there was a little Thingamababy there who was going to stuff up all my Operation Skinny Cow efforts, one way or the other.

In my last two pregnancies, I have lost fat and gained baby. I have never looked so damn fine as when I was pregnant, but this time, my nausea hasn't made me vomit or stop eating. In fact this time around I have been craving and eating and yeah worrying about everything else that is going on right now.

So I might not end up looking so fine as I did last two times. I don't really care. There was a time when my main goal was to lose weight. Now my aim in life is to get through the next 6 months in one piece.

So here are the vital stats:

Last weigh-in: can't remember
Today's weight: couldn't care less
This week's goal: get my husband to decide on how and when to move, so I know what to actually DO.

I'm not much fun at Skinny Cow am I? I wonder if I can find you a funny picture to make up for that ...

Weigh In Wednesday (Femina)

Last week: 74.5
This week: 75.0

Gain: 500g

Truly, I am at a loss. I'm more than willing to accept the consequences of food blowouts but this is a mystery to me because I've been pretty good this week. I've been to the gym twice - and worked hard while I was there - plus I spent most of Sunday walking. I wasn't power walking but even so I was on my feet and moving for most of the day. And many salads have been consumed.

I can only assume this is a previous bad food/no exercise week coming back to haunt me. Or my body has gone into shock because my holidays are finally over.

I'm baffled, but I'll keep doing what I've been doing and hopefully next week will be better.

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I'm off picking mangoes... (HJ)

... so I can't weigh in.

I'll also miss a couple of rowing sessions and won't be walking much (except around the plantation to pick gorgeous, round, yellow and red, sweet-smelling mangoes). Yep. Sitting in a car all day. Great for Skinny Cow purposes.

Sorry that you got all excited and came over to this blog for no reason. Except to see that I've finally learnt how to schedule posts, which is almost as impressive as losing a couple of kilos, really.

See you same time, same place next week (when I hopefully should have reached my next goal - fingers crossed).

Newcomer alert! (Eizelby)

Hello!  I've been following this blog for some time now and only recently worked up the courage to ask to be involved.  So here I am, my name is Eizelby here because that is what I signed myself up as, and I'm an obsessor.  Obsessive?  I'm obsessed with stuff.  I obsess about the things I love in life, and I also obsess about what I don't like about myself.  I recognise that this is unhealthy, but it's not easy to change the mentality I have had for my entire life.

By way of introduction, I'll conveniently list some things you should know about me before we get started:

 

I am not a gym person.

I don't like to sweat in public.

 

I stress eat.

But don't we all?  Problematically, the thought of not eating makes me stressed, which makes me eat more.  So "diets" never work, as I always end up eating MORE than I would if I were not on a diet.

 

I don't drive.

So the process of getting to the gym is a major factor in my long list of reasons to not go.  But it does mean I have to walk a lot more than I would if I had auto transport, so that's at least a plus.

 

My favourite foods are spaghetti and whipped cream.

Clearly not the easiest tastes to accommodate when trying to live a healthier lifestyle.  And yes, I consider whipped cream a food in its own right.

My family is no help whatsoever.

Except for Manda, a member of this very bovine blog!  We were raised on McDonalds and Coca Cola.  I'm moving back home come the end of January, back into the land of the candy-coated kitchen and food-filled fridge, so I'm going to have to find some inner strength to resist.  I have no doubt weighing myself weekly and publicly will help in this matter!  I'll also be depending on prayer.

I have lost weight before.

My BMI was 25 when the doctor told me to lose weight for medical reasons.  So I was technically in the healthy weight range, but we needed to see if a certain issue I have would change if I lost a few kilos.  I did, it didn't.  The weight came back, and brought some friends along with it.

 

The Stats:

Current measurements: 168cm tall, weigh 73kg and am a size 12 top and 12/14 bottom.

Goal weight: I'm going with 65, because that is the weight I was in March last year and I felt comfortable (and was certainly in the 'healthy range') at that weight.

The Plan:

Gym workout: Once a week, if I can force myself.  I think I'll need to find a gym buddy.

Pool swimout: Also once a week. This will be much easier to convince myself to go, as I love swimming.

Not eat crap all the time: I'll have to reteach myself that sugary snacks before lunch, after lunch, before dinner and after dinner aren't necessary.  My special medical issue means I should be on some kind of low-GI eating thing.  I should look into that.

Go for walks: Last year, I taught myself to love walking.  Let's aim for one half-hour walk a day.

The Rewards:

I was going to reward myself every time I went down a BMI rating, but now that I'm intent on losing an even number of kilos, I might as well just have my rewards as such:

2kg down: I'll go see a movie all by myself ... I've never done that and I kind of really want to!

4kg down: I'm going to get a pedicure.

6kg down: I'll treat myself and a friend to a nice (healthy!) dinner.

8kg down: I'm not sure yet - it seems so far away!