Um. Yeah.

Due to the copious amount of pastry wrapped savouries consumed at the work Christmas party which were then washed down with obscene amounts of beer with chasers of bourbon & cola, there was no weigh in for me this weekend. I didn't need the extra reminder of how far off the wagon I fell.

I'm hoping I can get back to where I was by next weigh in...but don't hold your collective breath.

It's time to step it up a notch people.....I feel like a challenge. Who wants to challenge me to something?

Wondrous Weigh-In Wows!

Clearly I like the alliteration thing!

Just a quick one today because I have a longer, deeper, potentially more thought provoking one coming up in the next day or two. Today I just wanted to check in with you all and see how you were doing and update you on my most recent weigh in.

Some of you, like me, started on the new Weight Watchers Pro Points system this past week. How did you find it? As I mentioned in my last post, I was a bit nervous about it but looking forward to the possible changes in my habits and my eating.

The week was interesting. I found myself eating MORE than I have in ages because all of a sudden fruit is free! Can we say awesome?! Now when I want a snack, I don't have to worry about it using up points when I have a banana...I just have one. It's fantastic!

One thing I did struggle with for the first couple of days is using all my daily points. I have a daily points allowance of 47 (I know!!) and at the beginning of the week I had a hard time getting all those points into me. Now, I just know how to flesh out my meals and my snacks.

Did you use your weekly extras of 49 PP? I used some of mine. I had some chips, I had a few bits of chocolate. It was nice to have the flexibility, and not have to worry so much. I had no intention of eating them all though. I didn't eat any of my Activity Points either.

Speaking of activity, I've been doing a lot more than I was. Walking, swimming, gym...it's all paying off. I'm really enjoying having The Punisher to work with on Mondays and I'm going to get her to put together a program for me for a couple of other days during the week.

If it seems like this new ProPoints system has awakened a new sense of motivation in me, you'd be right. After last week's loss I was already feeling great, but this week I lost again!

This week's loss: 1.7 kg (3.74 lbs)

Grand total so far: 24.4 kg (53.68 lbs)

How are you all doing??

ProPoints, Progress and Punishers

How's that for some titular alliteration, eh?!?

Before I get started on the 3 P's, I just wanted to share a bit of fun news. I got an email today from a guy named Ken. He directed me over to a blog that he runs (helps run? not sure) and an article that had been posted on it, "60 Amazing Blogs for Weight Watchers Support". Turns out, I'm on it! You can find me in the Journals section at #59. I am VERY honored to be listed along with the other people on there. I hope you'll check a bunch of them out!

So. The 3 P's.

ProPoints

We were introduced to the new ProPoints system at our meeting last night. I was a bit worried about the reception that Tex was going to get.....people are sometimes very resistant to change, me included. For the last 12 years, Weight Watchers has been trudging along quite happily with the Points system and people have been losing weight. But they've changed it because, as Tex put it, "science has changed". Instead of being based on Kilojoules and Saturated Fat, it's now based on Protein, Fat, Carbs and Fibre.

From what I can gather, aside from this working better because they've accounted for how our bodies process different nutrients, it also seems to be a good way to encourage people to eat more protein and fibre rich foods instead of the fat heavy and carb laden things.

Today was the first day on the new system for me and I'll admit I struggled. I've gotten very comfortable using the old system, perhaps too comfortable. I actually don't mind telling you that I actually became a bit complacent. Instead of tracking everything I was eating, I was just sort of doing a half assed job of keeping track in my head. I'm sure it didn't help with my months long plateau.

With this new system, I HAVE to track. I have to learn the new value of everything.

I'm looking forward to this. I think it's going to work. I'm actually finding that I'm eating more. I think it's because I can eat fruit for no points now.

If you're just trying this ProPoints system for the first time, I hope you will give it a good chance! And keep updating on how it's going.

Progress

Remember last week I said we weren't going to talk about my weigh in? We're going to talk about it now. I gained. Not just a little bit. Oh no. I gained 3.1 kg (6.82 lbs) over two weeks. So that was a totally unpleasant weigh in for me. It was my own fault really...too much food, not enough exercise.

So I changed that.

For the past week I walked, I swam, I went to the gym. I ate better - smaller portions again, better food choices.

And when I stepped on the scales this week, I was down 2 kg (4.4 lbs). I was so happy! Let's hope I get another good result this week!

Punishers

I have a trainer. A personal trainer. Well, semi personal. She's only half mine. My friend KitKat and I are sharing her. Neither of us could afford to pay the full fee on our own, so we're sharing the Punisher. We had our second session this past Monday and I think it's safe to say that I was hurting. She's concentrating more on the weights and toning side of things, because we can do the cardio things on our own. I've done a lot of swearing in our sessions but I went in today and told her I'd try to hold off on that because clearly something is working. I don't know if she believed me.

So, how's your week going? Who needs encouragement?

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

I seem to be back on track. Sort of. At least today I am.

We're not going to talk about last night's weigh in. Suffice to say, I put on weight. More than I expected, less than I could have. Pizza, mud cake, wine, not enough exercise....it all came back around and bit me in the ass. I was expecting it, and I own the reasons why the weight was there and now I'm working to get rid of it again. I also feel ever so slightly better for the fact that it was a gain over two weeks. Still, it should have been a two week LOSS. And it wasn't.

So what am I going to do about it? Well, for now I'm concentrating on the exercise side of it. I've already got a pretty good handle on my food issues, I just don't always behave that way. The exercise thing though? Meh.

A friend and I are sharing the cost of a personal trainer on Monday evenings. We had our first session this week and it felt good at the time but I'll tell ya...I was cursing the woman's name for the next two days. Every single muscle in my body hurt. But I'm going back for more!

I went swimming today for an hour. I walked there and back.

I'm starting to feel more human again. I've been struggling with some terrible lethargy. I've been absolutely exhausted lately and I just realised (duh!) that it is likely because I haven't been getting enough exercise.

It'll come.

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There are changes coming to Weight Watchers here in NZ and Australia. We just found out last night that they are changing the whole points system. I googled it and apparently they've been using the system in Holland and Germany for a while now and people like it. Now it's going to be called ProPoints.

There are some types of change that I'm oddly resistant to and this is one of them. I hope it works as well as they say it does because at first glance, it looks more complicated than the current system. But, I'm told that it gives better results. So we'll see.

I am a bit peeved that I just got cookbooks, kitchen scales and points calculators that are now all obsolete but I'm hoping they'll find a way to get me over that.

Are you on the ProPoints system? Do you like it? Does it work...better?

Math isn't everyone's strong suit ;)

So I was thinking about yesterday's post where I said I had lost 1.2 kgs and my current weight is 135.2. THAT got me to thinking that I could have SWORN that the lady wrote down a different weight on my card. So I went back and looked.

Sure enough, my actual weight this week was 134.8 kgs (296.56 lbs). I guess all I heard was "well done, you lost 1.2 kgs". Except I actually lost 1.6 kgs (3.52 lbs).

YAY!

That means that my total loss so far is : 23.8 kgs (52.36 lbs)!!

And I was totally kidding in my title.....the poor woman was busy as a bee trying to get all of us processed through the line up, so I won't hold it against her that she got my loss wrong. At least she wrote down the correct weight!

Still trudging along

Things are still just carrying on over here. I missed a couple of weeks at Weight Watchers due to work, broken car and just a lot of stress in a lot of areas of my life. During those couple of weeks, my weight pretty much stayed the same - no more than a couple hundred grams up or down. I'll update about this week's weigh in later in the post.

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I find I still struggle, a lot, with emotional eating and for the last two weeks, I have fought the urge to raid the pantry every time I find myself grappling with my feelings. I don't want to be the girl who chows down on a pint of ice cream when she's sad. I don't want to inhale an entire party size bag of chips when I'm stressed about my work/family life balance. Nor do I want to be the girl who gorges on bunch of junk food to celebrate the successes.

For years, my eating has been very much tied to my emotions. Instead of dealing, appropriately, with my stress/anger/sadness/boredom/happiness/excitement.....I eat. It is something that I will likely always fight. It is something that I will likely never completely overcome and something that I will always need to be aware of. I hope it's something that my own daughter will never have to deal with.

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My October: Going the Distance Challenge has been going ok. This past Thursday, I did a LOT of walking. I walked to the school to get the kids (2 kms) and then walked home, at high speed to keep up with them on their scooters (2 kms). Later on I needed to go to work. Thanks to my car being in the shop and my step father's car being a bit sick as well, I ended up walking there and back (7.2 kms round trip). I was incredibly tired by the time I got home and found myself in bed very early.

I think all the walking helped though, because I did have a loss on the scales this week.

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I'm sure many of you have seen this article, by Marie Claire writer Maura Kelly, this week. It's been linked on Facebook, Twitter, multiple blogs and even in some emails I've received. I'm still actually digesting it and processing my own thoughts on the subject. I will do a post on it, in more detail, next week but for now I'll say that on the whole I think it was a very provocative post (duh!) and that she made one or two points that I agreed with in a SMALL way. But like I said, more on that later.

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Something that I am trying desperately to foster in my daughter is a healthy sense of self esteem. BUT!! I don't want it to stem from her perception of beauty. I want her to believe in herself as a whole. She needs to see herself as attractive inside AND out. I want her to be comfortable in her own skin, and happy with who she is as a person.

So, when our dear friend Medic posted the link to this video on Facebook, I was rapt. It is so fantastic. Please listen to ALL the words as she speaks. It really is amazing.

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So my loss for this week. After such a long, drawn out, plateau over the Winter, I am happy to say that Spring is looking up for me. I lost 1.2 kgs (2.64 lbs). That brings my total loss so far to 23.4 kgs (51.48 lbs).

Starting weight = 158.6 kgs (348.92 lbs)

Current weight = 135.2 kgs (297.44 lbs)

SO HAPPY!

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So what have you all been up to?

Challenging times

I feel like I have slid backwards to about 6 months ago when my motivation was starting to wane. It was about that time that I started cheating a bit. I would eat a biscuit but wouldn't track it. I would have a real Coke instead of diet and not track it. I would eat a bigger portion than I should and only track the points for what the portion should have been. I would not go for a walk but I would give myself 2 activity points under the premise that I had done a fair bit of general walking around for work.

Silly.

And I feel like I've slid back there. I'm not sure why, I'm not entirely sure how to fix it, but I know it needs to stop.

I was over visiting Karen at Muffin Fixation and she was telling us all about this challenge she had signed up for, so I went to check it out at "I go through life in inches and pounds".

I'm now a participant in the October Going The Distance challenge (#OctGTD). I have committed to doing 100 miles (about 166 kms) in the month of October...either walking in my neighbourhood or on the treadmill. I'm doing well so far, and I think that I needed the challenge. It seems to have pushed me in the right direction. I don't think it will show on the scales tonight, but we'll see.

What do YOU do when you're struggling and need to get back on track?

And we have a winner!!

I love giveaways. I feel a little bit like one of Santa's chubby elves.

The awesome CSN Giveaway is over now and my trusty little Random Number Generator has picked a winner.

**DRUM ROLL PLEASE**

The lucky winner of some beautiful Le Creuset bakeware is none other than the awesome MiddleAgedWoman from Unmitigated!



Darlin', please email me and I'll send you the details so you can pick your colour and have them sent to you!

Miscellaneous health related thoughts

** If you haven't entered to win the beautiful Le Creuset, go HERE and leave your comment **

*****

I didn't weigh in this week. Or rather, I didn't weigh in at Weight Watchers. I had taken the kids to Nelson (about an hour and a half away) for the day and by the time we got back, I was just...DONE. So I weighed myself here at home instead. My home scale is 400 grams lighter than the ones at WW and the little, angry lady that lives in my scale said I weighed 136.6. Which means that I would have been 137 kgs on the WW ones, which means I stayed the same. I'll take that.

*****

I was at a client's house the other night and we were talking about weight. I told her that at my heaviest, I had been 168 kgs (370 lbs). The look on her face was priceless. You could tell that she couldn't decide what to say or do. In the end, after she had finished buggin' out, she went with "How could you WALK?!" My simple answer was that I didn't. I waddled. And now I can run, because now I am down 21.6 kgs and I have energy.

I took her copies of my progress pics and got to see the whole buggin' out routine all over again. I love the reactions I get from people when they find out that I used to be MUCH bigger than I am now.

*****

I took these pictures earlier this week. The kids are on school holidays and rather than stay in the house with them, we decided to go exploring. So, we went in search of Monkey Bay. And we found it. All we had to do was walk up these stairs:

And then down this wee track for about 5 minutes:


To get to this beautiful little cove:


The walk was short, but invigorating. The views were amazing:


And of course it provides a perfect backdrop for a self portrait:

What does this have to do with health? Well, I noticed I've lost more fat off my face...and I look happier. Happy = Healthy = Happy.

*****

My whole eating according to my hunger signals is going fairly well. I've done much better with not snacking, I'm drinking more water, and I find I don't go to the pantry as often. I hope it continues to be this good.

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I've noticed a few people around the blogging world struggling lately. Either with exercise, food, portion control or all of the above, it seems to be getting people down. I'm not sure if it's the time of the year or if people really are getting discouraged. I'd like to share this video with you in the hopes that it will inspire you just a little bit:

That's all for today folks! Come back again soon!

Healthy Cooking Giveaway with CSN Stores!

Blenders. Slow cookers. Utensils. Food Processors. Dutch Ovens. Saucepans.

What do all of those things have in common?

1) They're all things that you can use to make delicious, HEALTHY meals to help with your weightloss.

and

2) They're all sold by CSNStores.com

I have run a couple of giveaways over on my other blog, courtesy of CSN, and they were well received. So, when I was approached to do one here, I jumped at it. I would have loved to have done a review of one of their products but, alas, I live in the wrong part of the world. So all of you lovelies out there get to benefit instead!

I know how important healthy eating is as a part of our journeys and to be able to eat the right things, you need to have the right tools. One of MY favourite things to make is casseroles. They're quick, easy, delicious and many of them only require one dish. So when I was looking through the CSN site to see what I could offer up to you, I decided I was going to go with something I've given away before......

Le Creuset Bakeware

These beauties come in Cherry Red, Caribbean Blue and Kiwi Green. There's a 9" baking dish and a 5" one with it. They're beautiful and wonderful and I think everyone should have a set.

So how can you win these?

Just leave a comment on this post. You can comment ONCE a day until the end of the giveaway. At the end, I will draw using the Random Number Generator.

Easy huh?

Competition is open to all US and Canadian residents. Please make sure you have a valid email address. If I can't get hold of you, I'll give it away to someone else. Giveaway closes Friday 1st October, 2010.

Oh...and I fully expect a yummy recipe from whoever wins!

Weigh in Results

Well, I've made a discovery! I mentioned in my last post that I had the stomach flu. As a result of that stomach flu, I didn't eat for a few days...and was losing weight. Then I started to feel better and began to eat a little bit. Turns out that after not eating for a while, when you start again, your body starts holding onto it all. I know that probably doesn't come as a shock to most of you but I was a little more surprised than I perhaps should have been.

Where I had been expecting a loss of more than 1 kilo (2.2 lbs), I actually had a loss of 700 grams (1.54 lbs). Nothing to scoff at, for sure, but certainly less than I was expecting. I'll take it though. I feel like I may have actually broken the plateau that I had for June, July and August.

So. Current weight = 137 kgs (301.4 lbs)

I've really, majorly, kicked my ass into gear. I needed to. I had to break the plateau, I needed to see those numbers going down again and MOST importantly, I have a wedding to go to in April. Not only do I have to be AT the wedding, but I have to be IN it. I'm the Maid of Honour. So we'll see how much I can lose between now and the end of April so I can look half decent in my dress.

I'm trying something new. A friend that I met at WW mentioned it last week and I thought I'd give it a go. It's another one of those things that most of you will probably read and say "well DUH" but for some reason it never really connected in my head til last week.

I'm following my hunger signals instead of the clock. Instead of having breakfast at 8am, a snack at 10am, lunch at noon, a snack at 3pm and dinner at 6pm...followed by boredom eating in the evening.....I am eating when I am actually hungry. Sure, I have my breakfast at 8am like normal but instead of eating because the clock says I should, I wait until I'm actually hungry. Or that's the idea. Today was the first day and it went really well. Tonight I felt hungry but it turned out I was just thirsty. One nice big bottle of water later, and I felt much better.

We'll see how it goes for the next few days.


Make sure you come back on Monday....I'll have a giveaway starting courtesy of CSN Stores!

Wow, I really suck at this

*sigh* Another 3 weeks of nothing from me. I'm really bad at this.

I don't even have a cool excuse!

This month has been interesting. After my last post, I went to my next meeting and managed a loss of 1.1 kgs (2.42 lbs) which was nice, albeit unexpected. Then last week I went and managed a gain of 500 grams (1.1 lbs) which sucked, but was totally expected because I did nothing all week and barely tracked.

What amused me was that the week I had my nice loss, I had spent the weekend in Wellington. I went over to see a roller derby bout. I stayed in a hotel, on my own. I had room service of lasagna, burgers, chips and wedges...on my own. I had a beer at the bout, with my new friend Maz. I thought for sure that I would gain weight. Turns out, that all the walking I did that weekend, did me some good. Wellington is a very hilly city.

The next couple of weeks will be interesting. I've been quite ill for the last few days with the stomach flu so I've not had much of anything to eat and according to my home scales, I'm down a fair amount. Silver lining and all that jazz. The problem is that I know that it could just as easily come back on for next week once I start eating again.

We'll see how it goes.

So how are all of you going?

Absence makes the heart grow something

Hello peoples! I realise that I have been gone for nigh on a month now and I'm sure you've all missed me terribly. The thing is, I hadn't actually intended to disappear. One day turned into two, which turned into a week, which turned into a month. It was like the universe jumped into my life and said "Hey! You need a break from ...well... everything." and then put me on a blog hiatus. My other blog was noticeably vacant as well.

But I'm back. Because I think a month is long enough to disappear for and because, quite frankly, I missed you. I'm just happy that I left you with the fantastical wordage of Christine from Phoenix Revolution. She's a smart lady, that one. I really should take her advice more often.

So what's been happening in my little corner of the world? Not a whole damn lot, I have to say. I'm actually a little ashamed to say it. I spent August adjusting my weight. In the wrong direction. I gained 2.6 kgs (5.72 lbs) over three weeks. I'd love to reel off a whole bunch of excuses for my poor results but the plain and simple truth is that when *I* was sick with the flu, I was eating anything I wanted. Because I was sick. It made sense in my mind. Then, when my daughter was VERY ill with what the doctor said was Swine Flu, I ate anything I wanted. Because I was stressed about her. Totally made sense, again, in my mind. Add to that, that I wasn't exercising and what do you get? Oh yeah...weight gain.

*sigh*

Well. It's September now. And I'm back on track. I weighed in on Wednesday evening which was September 1st and I was down a whole 100 grams (0.22 lbs). Ooooohhh Aaaahhh. I know. Remarkable really. I've been tracking religiously and writing down everything. I had my month of blahs and binging and now it's time to put some serious work into this again.

My current weight? 138.3 kgs (304.26 lbs)

*sob*

It's ok. I'll be considerably lighter by Christmas.

I'm sorry I haven't been around to say hello to any of you. Blame the Universe. It made me. I'll be around to visit soon!

Guest Poster: Dishing the Dirt on Negative Calories

Do “negative calorie” foods actually use more calories than they provide?

If you’ve been around in weight loss circles for long, you’ve probably come across the term. Free food. Negative-calorie food. Zero-calorie food. Fat-burning food.

The claim is not that the foods have zero calories – all foods have calories! The idea behind this is that with these foods, it takes your body more energy to chew and process the food than the item has in calories. In other words, you could eat these all day long and not gain a pound. They in essence become “negative-calorie foods.”

What are these miracle foods, you might ask? Grapefruit and celery usually top the list, along with tangerines, carrots, and lettuce. There’s a lot more on this list here: http://www.fitfaq.com/negative-calorie-fat-burning-foods.html. In fact, any healthy-food can be put on this list! Amazing!

Let’s look at celery first. At 6 calories per 8-inch stalk, it’s a dieter’s staple. It’s loaded with nutrition, vitamins, and goodness. Plus, because of its composition, it takes more energy for our bodies to digest the sucker than it gives us in 6 measly calories. By its composition, I’m referring to the amount of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen in the food, as well as cellulose and the link. (Fun fact: High-calorie, fatty foods typically have large numbers of carbon and hydrogen relative to oxygen atoms. But I digress.)

There’s some logic to this thinking. Some experiments have shown that digesting a salad burns around 50 to 60 calories just in the digestion process alone, which would make that salad “negative calories” if it was only 30 calories worth of lettuce and cucumbers.

Unfortunately, calculating your food in that method really doesn’t work that way. You see, when specialists (nutritionists, dieticians, doctors) estimate how many calories you should eat, they already take into consideration how many calories you burn chewing and digesting your food. That means that you’re subtracting the same calories twice, which will make you bounce your check at the Calorie Bank at the end of the day.

Furthermore, it would take an enormous amount of celery and grapefruit consumed in order to see a drop in the scale. It takes 3,500 calories to work off a single pound of fat, so you’d have to eat a truckload of celery to see a one-pound drop just relying on the negative-calorie theory to work.

On the other hand, opting for healthy, so-called “negative-calorie” foods are usually a healthy choice. They are often are a much healthier choice than chowing down on brownies and candy bars. Replacing your high-calorie foods with low-calorie foods is a great idea for losing weight, but don’t do so at the cost of nutritionally-devoid foods. For instance, rice cakes offer a low calorie value at 35 calories, but they are relatively high in carbs and offer zero vitamins and minerals that will help to make you strong. For the same calorie-price tag, you can choose a whole cucumber and get much more for your buck.

Instead, I prefer a different way of thinking. Some days, especially Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays, none of the calories I consume count. Special occasions, such as birthdays, wedding, christenings, New Years Eve, Christmas, Thanksgiving…they are all contain negative calorie foods. Also, occasions when my mother cooks for me, food that is stolen from the communal food, given away as a sample at the grocery store…those are also occasions when foods turn magically into negative calories.

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Christine writes and maintains her website, Phoenix Revolution. More than just a blog, Phoenix Revolution provides a safe haven for women and men all over the world to come together to discuss real-life weight loss and wellness strategies. Visit her website at: http://www.phoenixrevolution.net and receive updates on Facebook at: http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/phoenix_revolution/.

Reaping the Rewards

Weigh in this week was good! As I stood in line, I muttered something to the lady in front of me about how I'd be happy to lose just the 700 grams (1.54 lbs) I had gained last week. After what seemed like an hour of standing in line to weigh in, I finally got to the front. I paid my money, hopped on the scale and waited. Sure enough, I lost 700 grams. So, I'm back down to 135.8 kg (298.76 lbs) and back to 22.8 kgs (50.16 lbs) lost.

It's a good feeling, to know you have lost that much.

It's a good feeling, to know that you can really do this thing.

It's a good feeling, to feel your clothes getting bigger and bigger.

But. It can be very discouraging to look at the numbers and realise just how far you still have left to go. Very disheartening. It can make you want to give up, when you look at the numbers and do the math and realise how long this road can be.

So what can you do to make that road a little more bearable? What can you do to stop yourself from giving up, throwing in the towel and drowning your misery in fried foods and fat globules? How do pull yourself out of the depths of I-can't-possibly-carry-on-so-I'm-going-to-eat-my-fat-ass-weight-in-cookie-dough-ice-cream ?

Well, you could have someone slap you and demand that you pull yourself together immediately. Or you could blog about it and hope that you get enough encouraging comments to eradicate the ennui (which you totally would, because us bloggers are good like that!).

OR!

You could reward yourself!!

Little rewards along the way can boost you. Your self esteem, your confidence, your happiness levels...all boosted when you have a reward.

In the last while, I have bought myself new pants and a couple new shirts. I suppose you could think of them as rewards but I rather think that I bought them out of necessity. There's just so long I can wear my other pants before I find myself accidentally mooning some poor old gal while I'm at work. I hear they frown on that kind of behaviour in my job!

Clothing aside, as I'd have to buy them anyway, I began to think about how I could reward myself for hitting the 50 lb mark. Ideally, I'd like one of these pretty baubles:

That's a Pandora charm bracelet in case you weren't aware of their existence. The jeweler here in town has them (or ones like them) and you can buy charms for them for reasonable prices. I'd like to get one and buy a new charm for every 5 or 10 kgs. I'll be pricing them out this week.

So then I thought, well, I'll get my nails done.

Yeah right. Get my nails done so that the next time I'm helping some old girl shower, I can slice through her paper thin skin. That'll be fun to explain to the bosses. Plus, long nails interfere with my stellar typing skills.

In the end I decided, on a whim, to get my hair done. Not just cut, as I'd been planning for weeks, but coloured as well. And you know what?

I. Feel. Fantastic.

I do. And now I can look down this long road of mine, just a little bit further, and totally picture my next reward. And the one after that!

Oh you want proof? (Oh, I want to show off?)

Me, before (note, messy mop of naturally blond hair, no shape to it, usually worn in a ponytail):

(This pic was taken about 8 kgs ago)

Me, after (looking incredibly bored in the picture where I pose sans glasses):

I really encourage you all to reward yourself along the way. We're all working towards the same goal - to be fit & healthy. That in itself will eventually be the giant reward, the Oscar to our award winning performances. But it is important along the way to keep ourselves going.

For me, a couple of hours at the hair salon was enough. I came away feeling new, feeling refreshed, feeling....cute! For you, it could be something else. Figure out what it is, and do it!

If you're already doing it....how do YOU reward yourself?

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If you're a "fan" of Looking For My Feet on Facebook, then you may have noticed the challenges I've been posting lately. Rest assured, I am doing them too! Those 100 sit ups just about killed me the other day because I was left with 50 of them to do right before bed. OUCH! So join in!

A couple quick things

Welcome back everyone! I hope you're finding the new design of the blog up to par. I was somewhat dismayed to find my template had disappeared the other day but I think it was a blessing in disguise. After spending hours fiddling with things and playing with settings, I think I have it to where I am happy. I invite you to check out the tabs at the top and the sidebar to your right.

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I'd really like to have guest bloggers featured on a fairly regular basis. If you are interested in writing a post for Looking For My Feet, about your weight loss journey, path to fitness or anything else health/fitness/weight loss related, I'd love to hear from you. And don't be surprised if you get an email from me asking about this!

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I gained 700 grams (1.54 lbs) at last week's weigh in. I knew it was going to happen because I had a bit of a stressful week and spent a few days eating anything that wasn't nailed down. More on THAT in another post! I've been back on track this week, so I'm hoping it will be reflected on the scale at tomorrow's weigh in. Fingers crossed!

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See over there on the sidebar, that lovely Facebook badge? Please come visit there!

I'll be doing a couple of giveaways in the next little while. One will be from the followers here, and one will be for the fans on Facebook. Or "like-rs" I guess.

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Well. That's it folks. I hope you're all having a great week. I'll be back tomorrow after I've weighed in. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Please excuse the ugly

Gah! Came by to read a couple comments left by some of you wonderful folks out there and found my wee blog here lookin' a tad uglified! Seems the place where I got my blog template is having a bit of plastic surgery right now and my template has vanished into the ether along with Michael Jackson's nose. (Too soon?)

I'll hopefully have it lookin' all beautified again soon, so please don't be alarmed. Just cover all the mirrors, don't make direct eye contact, and come back soon ok?

Enjoyment is the key

Hey everyone! Before I get onto the topic at hand, did you notice when you clicked over here that the little icon next to my web address has changed? It is no longer the boring old Blogger icon! Yup...it's cool. I know. I was lucky enough over at my other blog to win a "favicon" from Angela over at Striking Keys. So once I had installed the one over there, I went searching and figured out how to get one over here too! Ain't it cool?

Also...I weighed in this week and was down 1 kgs (2.2 lbs) bringing my total loss to 22.8 kgs (50.16 lbs) and my current weight to 135.8 kgs (298.76 lbs). Thank you, hold your applause!

Anycoolness, I wanted to talk about exercise today. I know, I know...it's the end of the week, you've been working hard since Monday, you just want to relax and have a beer and some chips, blah blah blah. Well, suck it up princess (or prince...I have no idea if any guys are reading, so if you are...say hi!) because we're going to do this!

"Movement is a medicine for creating change in a person's physical, emotional and mental states."
~ Carol Welch

We all know that exercise is good for us. It's common knowledge that the more you move, the healthier you are. And moving from the couch to the kitchen and back again doesn't count! Our doctors, nutritionists, personal trainers, families, friends and opinionated strangers on the street will all tell us that if we just got off our fat asses and DID something, that we might be able to lose some weight.

They're right.

Sorry, but they are. I hate to burst your bubble of ignorance, but they're right. It took me a while to come to terms with that, but I had to. If I hadn't come around, if I hadn't acknowledged that exercising needed to become an essential part of my life, I would very soon not even have the chance to change my mind....because I'd die. Plain and simple.

For some people, fat or thin, exercise sucks. It's just not an enjoyable thing for them.

For a fat person, exercise sucks more than a two dollar whore. (Sorry, was that rude? Get used to it, I'm here to stay. )

It sucks because:

~ you look out of place at a gym and everyone, including you, knows it

~ it puts pressure on all your joints & your back

~ it's hard to breathe and when you do, you often end up wheezing

~ it puts extra stress on your heart & lungs

~ you think you have to be running or doing some sort of heavy cardio

~ you haven't found a workout you enjoy

Well here's the simple answer: You deserve to be in that gym as much as possible, the pressure on your joints will ease as you lose weight and your breathing will improve, your heart will be less stressed as you lose weight, you can do something other than running and there ARE workouts to enjoy.

Ok. Now that we have that out of the way, let's pick just one of those bullet points and run with it, shall we?

Finding a workout you can enjoy!

Exercise = Enjoyment ??
FAIL

For a long, long time that was how I viewed things. I knew I needed to lose weight, I knew how to do it. I just didn't equate the two. And for some things, I still don't. For example, I don't see the fun in sitting on a hard bike seat, in a hot room, with some bitch at the front yelling at me to pedal faster because I'm a lazy, fat cow....yet others think spin class is great!

The key (ahhh...and now the title gets tied in!) is to find something that you can do, do well, and have fun while you're at it. So I thought, for the purposes of this little project, that I would let you in on my feelings about some of the stuff out there. Ready?

Walking - I started this journey by walking. A lot. Everywhere. I still do it. Once I am plugged into my iPod, with the tunes playing in my ears, I get lost in my own little world. This is a great exercise for anyone, whether you're morbidly obese or at your ideal weight. Walk slow, walk fast. Just walk. Enjoyment factor (on a scale of 1 to 10)? = 7

Running - I am only just getting into this and honestly, at 135 kgs, it's still a bit hard on my knees but I am beginning to enjoy it. I can feel myself building a rhythm and with the music in my ears, it's just me. I think to get to the point where you enjoy it, doing a program like the C25K is important. Enjoyment factor = 6 with room for improvement

Swimming/Aqua Aerobics/Water Walking - Being in the water makes me happy. I started off slow, swimming about 10 lengths in the pool and now I can do 80 lengths (2 kms) with and without fins. It's very freeing, floating along, weightless. Enjoyment factor = 7
Aqua Aerobics gets the heart rate up but with no pressure on the knees and back. Enjoyment factor = 6
Water Walking is fantastic. You get the resistance of the water, with no pressure and you can just keep walking til you get tired. Enjoyment factor = 7

Gym Slog - That's about the only good name I can come up with for it. I have a gym membership and I use it...but only because it's a nice alternative to walking in the rain (where I might melt) and it has the weights for toning up a bit. Beyond that, meh. Enjoyment factor = 3

Yoga/Pilates - Never tried them...plan to soon.

Kickboxing - Been a few years but liked it when I did it. Very good for stress relief. Enjoyment Factor = 7

Wii - Meh. Good in a pinch or if it's miserable outside. Too stoppy/starty for me. Enjoyment factor = 4.

Zumba - I've saved the best for last. In my opinion, this is THE best thing to hit the world since the day I was born to make your lives complete. I have never had so much fun at an exercise class. EVER. It's a latin dance based workout and REALLY gets the heart pumping. There are people of all ages, sizes and abilities that attend. No one cares what you look like....mostly because they don't notice, they're too busy keeping track of their own thing. It's fast paced, it's fun, it's ....awesome! Enjoyment factor = 12!

What kind of workout makes YOU feel good? What you truly enjoy doing?

Now, get off your ass and go DO something!!

Weighing the alternatives

In the Middle Ages, they had guillotines, stretch racks, whips and chains. Nowadays, we have a much more effective torture device called the bathroom scale.
~ Stephen Phillips

Ain't that the truth?!

People the world over have a set of scales in their house, usually in the bathroom, and they spend incredible amounts of time hopping on and off them. Digital scales, dial scales, you name it, we've got it. We get up in the morning and step on the scales. We go to the bathroom and we step on the scales again, just to see how much weight we lost by peeing. We have breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks and after every meal we stand on the scale to see the change. It can drive us nuts.

Personally I have an older dial scale in the bathroom but it only goes up to 130 kgs. Only. HA! That's a lot. And yet, I'm still not there.

I have a Wii Fit which will weigh me but I can stand on it 5 times in 5 minutes and it will give me a different weight every time. Plus, it weighs me at 4 kgs LIGHTER than the Weight Watchers scales.

This obsession that we have with scales and constantly weighing ourselves in not healthy! Our weight can easily fluctuate up to 2.2 kgs (5 lbs) a DAY, so why do we put ourselves through it?

Wouldn't it be better to concentrate on:

~ how satisfied we're feeling through the day?
~ our measurements over the course of a month?
~ the way our clothes are fitting?
~ how much exercise we've managed to do that week?

I see the desire to chart our weight, I just don't see the point in doing it daily or multiple times a day. It's great to keep an eye on our weight, but dangerous to become obsessed with it.

I weigh in on Wednesdays. I stand on my bathroom scale and wish that it would magically drop below the 130 kgs mark, but the scale I depend on, the scale I go by, is the one at Weight Watchers.

If you are someone who stands on your scale more than once (or twice) a week, I beg of you to put it in the deep dark recesses of a closet somewhere until you have broken yourself of the desire to jump on it. Start looking at other ways to measure your success, that will support the numbers on the scale. Start believing in those other ways so that if the scale shows a gain, you can look at your measurements or your clothes and say to yourself "my weight may have gone up this week but you know what? I feel great!"

As for me? I'll continue to weigh in at WW, but I'm going to put the bathroom scales away for now. It doesn't matter how much I plead with them, they don't want to drop below 130 just yet anyway. So they can just bugger off until they're willing to cooperate.

So. How is YOUR relationship with the scales going?

10 Things

I forgot to update after my last weigh in. I lost 600 grams...which is half of what I had gained the week before, so that's a plus!

Now.

Often on this adventure we can get so fixated on the things that we don't like about ourselves and the things that we want to change or get rid of, that we can lose sight of the good things. Be honest with yourself for a minute - how often do you stand in front of the mirror and say to yourself "Ugh...I really need to tone up my arms, they look like they're having a disco of their own whenever I wave at someone" or "I wish I had a better body/face/hair style". We're hard on ourselves.

What I would like to challenge all of you to do this week is this. Find at LEAST 10 things that you like about yourself, and write them down. Blog about them. Tell your spouse or your best friends.

I promise you'll feel better afterwards. Don't think about, just do it!

I'll start.

10 Things I Like About Myself

1. I love my hair. I have awesome hair. It's long. It's blonde. It's thick. It's lovely. Plus, it falls out in handfuls. This can be mildly irritating but, for the purposes of this post, I'm going to keep the fact that I lose copious amounts of hair in the "I like this about me" category because I find it funny that The Man has to pull so much of it out of the shower drain on a regular basis.

2. I have pretty eyes. I really do. They're a crystal clear blue and they shine. I have always been complimented on my eyes and I fully plan to keep those compliments coming. I think that they're probably my best feature.

3. I am a good mother. Sure I yell and scream and have my own little temper tantrums occasionally but I am a kick ass mother to my children. They will always know that I am here for them and will love them and make time for them.

4. I work very hard at being a good friend. I try to be there for a laugh or as a shoulder to cry on. I'll help plot revenge and cover up the evidence for you too. I'll be there for you in whatever capacity I can and enjoy doing so.

(this is harder than I thought, ya'll!)

5. I am tall. This means I can reach high shelves, change lightbulbs on my own, and rest my head on my husband's shoulder. I have longer before my children will be taller than me and if I ever get the chance to stand next to Tom Cruise, I can be added to the list of women that tower over him.

6. I have a great sense of humour. Alright, it's sometimes warped and always dirty...but it's fantastic.

7. I have really strong legs. My arms may be pathetically weak much of the time, but my legs are incredibly strong. They carry me through my life and allow me to run after my children. One day, they will take me through a running race. One day.

8. My brain holds onto all sorts of weird facts. I know a lot about movies and random literary references. This means that I often have an advantage in trivia games...but I try not to let that go to my blonde head.

9. I am stubborn. Many would view this as a bad quality but in this case, as it pertains to my weight loss especially, I think it's a great thing. It means that I'm not going to give up this time. I'm determined to succeed and anyone who tries to get in my way had better watch their back.

10. I love. Deeply. If you fall into the group of people who I love, I will go to the ends of the earth for you. Not in a weird, stalker-ish kind of way...but I will do whatever I can for you. I will love you, support you and be there for you.

So that's my 10 things. What are yours?

Flop. Fizz. Fumble. FAIL!

Well. Have any of you seen that website called Fail Blog? If you haven't, you should check it out. It's rather funny, except that there should probably be a section on it for me now, complete with a screen shot of my blog from the beginning on June. Like this...

Because, unfortunately, that's what my June Challenge turned into. A fail. It's funny because Tex even commented on the original post and said to just pick one of my goals and go with that. And yet, I didn't even manage to succeed in ONE of my goals. *sigh*

This whole journey can be rather frustrating at times. Just when I thought I was back on track, I got sick. So those goals I made? Drinking my water, exercising 4 days a week, tracking everything I eat AND losing 4kgs in the month of June? Yeah, I'd say they turned into quite the big fat

FAIL

I drank a fair amount of water, especially when I was sick, but did not exercise anywhere near 4 days a week and my tracking fell by the wayside for awhile there. As for weight loss, thanks my June 30th weigh in showing a one week gain of 1.2 kgs (2.64 lbs) (yes really! I swear the caramel lumps pinned me down and jumped down my throat! They've since been evicted from my house), my grand total for loss in the entire month of June was a wopping 100 grams (0.22 lbs).

AAAAGGGHHHH!!!!

So what do you do when this happens? The instinct, for me at least, seems to be to crawl into a hole and give up. But I'm fighting that urge and I've been tracking diligently this week. I've also been wearing my pedometer and I'll be off to Zumba tonight.

I have not given up on my Virtual Bike Tour of NZ but, needless to say, it too fell off the radar.

Let's set some new goals shall we?

JULY CHALLENGE!

Water: Drink it, drink it, drink it! I have started carrying a water bottle with me in the car so I have water with me most of the time. It makes me feel like I'm floating but I know it's good for me. I'm probably getting at least 6 glasses of water a day, just from the bottle alone.

Food: I really, really need to eat more fruits and veggies. My aim is to try a new fruit or vegetable, in some form, every month. At LEAST one new one.

Tracking: Track. Everything. I. Eat. It really is that simple. You'd think that after 8 months it would have clicked by now eh?

Exercise: At least 3 days a week, for at least 45 minutes. I already have two days a week accounted for because I'm going to Zumba on Monday & Tuesday nights. Soon there will be a class on Fridays as well. They're hour long classes, so that's great! I'm also still attempting to train for the 5K in August, so hey...looks like we're sorted eh?

Weight loss: I think 4 kg was a bit of a reach for last month. So, for July, I am aiming for 2.5 kgs (5.5 lbs). If I manage more than that, cool! If not, oh well. We have 4 weigh ins this month, so I'm hoping that's an achievable goal.

Blogging: More than once a week. It keeps me accountable. Plus...it gives you something to do.

ONWARDS & UPWARDS! .....ERR.....DOWNWARDS!

Try a little yumminess!

Don't forget (if you're in the US or Canada) to hop on over to my other blog and enter my giveaway! You could win a brand new Hamilton Beach Food Processor OR some gorgeous Le Creuset casserole dishes!!

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As I was making dinner last night, I decided to use my fancy schmansy Weight Watchers scales to measure out everything and, in the process, work out how many points it all came to.

I was making one of my most favourite meals and I thought that if it worked out well, I could share it with all of you. Turns out, it came to far less points than I thought it would!

This is my mom's meatloaf recipe. I usually serve it with mashed potatoes and mixed veggies but it's also great with a salad. I hope you'll try it sometime. It's much meatier than the meatloafs I've had before (mostly in the UK and chock full of breadcrumbs. Blech!) and the glaze on top of it is delish! I totally forgot to take a picture. Sorry!

Yummy Scrummy Meatloaf

Ingredients:

500 grams (approx 1.5 lbs) LEAN minced beef/pork/lamb
2/3 cup oats
2/3 cup SKIM milk
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning
2 eggs
1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
1 small onion - finely chopped

Mix together and pat into a loaf pan.

Glaze:

1/4 cup ketchup (tomato sauce)
1 teaspoon mustard
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Mix together and pour over meatloaf, spreading as evenly as possible.

Bake your meatloaf at 350F (175C) for approximately 70 - 75 minutes. Cuts nicely into 5 slices.

For those of you on Weight Watchers, this works out to 4 points per slice. They're good size slices though!

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And now, I'm off to another Zumba class. I'm hoping to not look quite so much like a salad vegetable after this session but I won't be holding my breath. I might even take a picture of myself after, just for your amusement!

GIVEAWAY!

Hey peeps...just a quick one before I run out the door. I have another blog over at Mind of a Mad Woman. I'm running a giveaway there right now which might interest many of you out there in the weight loss world (and otherwise). It's in conjunction with CSN Stores and the prizes are cool.

GO HERE to check it out and enter!!

Did you study up?

POP QUIZ!

Which one of your global blog writers is blonde, has blue eyes, is Canadian and living in New Zealand and has been trying to lose weight?

Right. Me.

Which blogger spent the month of May going up and down on the scale?

Right again. Me. Ugh.

Last question.

Which blogger weighed in tonight and showed a loss of 800 grams (1.74 pounds)??

ME!!

Yes, folks, that brings my total loss (as you'll see in my updated sidebar) to 22.4 kgs (49.28 lbs).

What that ALSO means is that my weight in pounds no longer starts with a 3!!! I am officially UNDER 300 lbs. Woooooooooooo!!!

Current Weight: 136.2 kgs which is 299.64 lbs.

YAY!!!!

It's late so I'm off to bed. I'll have a more fleshed out post up tomorrow afternoon. Ciao, beautiful people.

And we're off!

Well weigh in went pretty much as expected the other night. I gained 100 grams (0.22 lbs) which, in the grand scheme of things, is not too bad considering how sick I'd been and how little exercise I did. I have moved on, and exercise is in full swing now.

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Mission: Cycle the Length of New Zealand is officially underway and I did my first 10 kms on the bike on Thursday. I also did 1 km walking because, well, you need to warm up right?

So we start our bike tour of NZ at Cape Reinga at the northern-most tip of the country. The name comes from the Maori word 'Reinga' for Underworld. The Maori people believe that the cape is the point where the spirits enter the underworld. It also happens to be pretty much where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean. There is a beautiful lighthouse there that was built in 1941 to replace one from a nearby location from 1879. There's been no lighthouse keepers there since 1987. Here's a couple pictures for your perusal. (Images from Google Images)

Next up on our tour will be Te Paki and Waitiki Landing. I hear there's some great sand dunes to surf on before we move on to Karatia (Thoms Landing). So stay tuned!

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I have completed Day 1 - Week 1 of the C25K program. Oh. My. Goodness. I've downloaded some podcasts to help me through and on the one hand I was dreading the guy's voice that was going to tell me to run and on the other hand I was begging him (out loud! You should have seen some of the looks I got) to just tell me to stop. But when I was done, I felt fantastic. I had a lot of exercise on Thursday between my biking and that run followed by a walk. Maybe it'll help me lose weight this week!

I hope everyone is having a great day! I'm heading out for a run soon before I go to work, which I'm looking forward to (I think Hell just froze over with me saying that!).

Leaving the comfort zone behind.

I have weigh in tonight. I'm not anticipating a loss because I seem to have used being sick as an excuse to slack a bit in the eating department. This would have been ok if I'd been getting my normal amount of exercise but that was the last thing on my mind when I was trying to breathe.

However, tomorrow we begin a new week and it's GAME ON!

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I have a couple new ..um.. projects (??) that I'd like to tell you about. I say projects because they really are going to be things that I have to work on regularly.

First up.....

There is a little girl here in town named Honor.

At 2 months old she was diagnosed with Infantile Spasms. The first medication she tried worked well for 3 months, it was thought all was well and Honor would develop and grow like any other child. Little did they know that the medication would stop working very soon and Honor would regress to newborn stage at 5months old.

Many different medications have been tried but nothing seems to work, they would get their hopes up with each new medication thinking maybe this will be the one to work, but each and every time they were let down.

Honor has been to Christchurch hospital and Auckland’s Starship Hospital many times over the last 2 years for different tests and medication changes. Honor has tried 10 different medications in her short life; she has had 2 MRI scans, numerous EEG scans, a lumber puncture & many blood & urine tests.

Honor will be 2 in August.

Honors Infantile spasms have almost depleted but have now changed to generalized/Myclonic a seizure which is what the Doctors always said will be likely to happen.

Honor also has global development delay; she can sit & move around the floor (not crawl) but can’t reach out to a toy which means she cannot feed herself or play. She very seldom smiles and is slowly starting to focus on people and objects.

Neurologists still don’t know what’s causing Honors seizures or how much she will develop in the future, we just take each day as it comes and treasure her good days.

This was brought to my attention on Facebook by my fearless leader, Tex. And so, on August 8th, 2010, a number of us will be taking part in a local race. There is a 21 km half marathon option, a 10 km fun run/walk and a 5 km fun run/walk. Everyone is doing what they feel most comfortable with.

Honestly, I know I can walk 21 kms but decided that this time I would go a bit smaller. Some of the ladies are doing the 10K but I am going to try for my very first 5K. And to achieve this, I will be following the Couch to 5K program.......because I would like to run as much of this as possible.

I am stepping outside of my very cushy comfort zone and doing this. And by doing this, I hope to raise some money for the beautiful little girl that is Honor. If you would like to sponsor me for this run/walk, to help raise money for this girl and her family, you'll find a little DONATE button over on my sidebar.

All funds raised will go to Honor and anything she may need, now or in the future.

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Secondly......

I've thinking recently about getting out and about on my bike. Except I don't have one. I could borrow my husband's but that then requires the effort of dealing with the height of the seat. Then I got to thinking about how cool it would be to see more of New Zealand. Except I don't have the money to do that. So what do you do when you don't have the money to travel or the bike to do it on?

You do it on an exercise bike at the gym! A virtual tour of New Zealand.

Starting tomorrow, every time I am at the gym, I will get on the stationary bike and pedal away. I will log my distance and plot it on a map much like this one:

Eventually, I hope to ride the entire length of the country. It's approximately 2000 kms or 1245 miles. As I make my way down the country, I will share with you the beauty of the country that I live in, through a few pictures. And of course, I hope to lose some more weight with this too.

This will take a while. There was a man who did it for real a couple of years ago. He made the entire distance in 4 days, 17 hours and 40 minutes. WOW!

This is, again, me stepping out of my comfort zone. But I'm looking forward to it.

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What will YOU do this week to step out of your comfort zone?

In Sickness and In Health

I have been sick. I have had a head cold of massive proportions and it managed to suck every ounce of extra energy out of my system for near on 4 whole days. This, of course, put the kybosh on my somewhat ambitious plans to work out this weekend while the sun was shining. I had walks and swimming and gym time planned out in my head but when I woke up Friday morning, I could see it all vanish before my eyes.

As the weekend went on, I felt progressively worse and was worried that it was going to impact my entire week. Some people lose their appetite when they're sick, but this is not the case for me. I may actually have eaten MORE than usual. *sigh*

By last night (Sunday), I was feeling a bit better so I was already making plans to get some exercise. This, of course, brought out the folks who know what they're talking about and each of them told me to take it easy. You'd think I'd listen..but no.

Today I took the kids to school. I parked the car at their school and headed into town on foot. It was bloody cold out there but I had my pedometer, my iPod and my mittens and I was determined to get some exercise. I walked all over the place before heading home. By 11 a.m. I had walked just under 6 kms and I was feeling good. The fresh air really helped to clear out my head.

At school pick up time, I walked back to get the kids and the car before heading to the store. I was a bit slower this time but still feeling good.

**Side note: Remember that fancy new pedometer I got from WW? I still love it but have discovered that I absolutely MUST pause it while I am in the car otherwise it shows me having walked almost twice as far as I actually have. I realised this the other day when I did hardly any walking at all in the morning and yet it showed about 8 kms, so now it goes on PAUSE whenever I'm in the car. Something for y'all to think about when it comes to your pedometers.**

It's now evening and I'm exhausted. It's only 7 pm. I'm glad I got out in the fresh air, but I do wish I'd listened a bit more to the folks who were telling me to take it easy. I think I might have over done it.

I think the key is to listen to your body. It needs to rest to get better.

Now that I'm a bit more healthy, I'm looking forward to getting back on track with working out. I'm not very optimistic about weigh in this week, but we'll see.

How do you know when your body is ready to exercise again? What do you do to make yourself feel better when you're sick?

Her name is Bertha and she's a lying cow

I am officially naming my Wii Fit platform. She will hereby be known as "Bertha". And just so you know, lest you think that she is a loving piece of fitness and gaming equipment, she is a lying cow.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, Bertha tried to squash my confidence when I stood on her yesterday. She lied through her tiny electronic teeth and told me I'd gained. This shook me to the core and I nearly shook her to the core. She's really pushing her luck.

Anyfatcow.....I went to my weigh in last night with a little more trepidation than usual. I was late getting there so I had to stand in line for much longer than usual which just let the butterflies go nuts in my stomach. I need not have worried. That stupid Bertha can shove it where the electrodes don't fire because I lost!!

600 g (1.32 lbs)

Total loss = 21.7 kgs (47.74 lbs)

I'd like to give you a glimpse as to what that kind of weight looks like. Are you ready for this?

This gorgeous boy in the picture to the left is Boy Spawn. My son. He'll be 6 in August.

He weighs 21.5 kgs (47.3 lbs).

I have now rid myself of more than he weighs.

Is that shocking to anyone else but me? It astounds me that I was carrying this around on a daily basis. And I still have more to go. So much more.

I have lost a 6 year old.

I don't want that 6 year old back. If you should happen to find the 21.7 kgs that make up that 6 year old, you are more than welcome to dispose of them as you see fit. I'll be happy if I never see them again.

I'm about 4 kgs shy of having lost what my 8 year old daughter weighs. I'm hoping that when I hit the 25.5 kg mark that I can take her with me to my WW meeting so I can have her stand up and show people.(Hey Tex, would that be ok?) It's a really amazing visual. It messes with your head.

I know there's some of you out there who are struggling lately. Personal issues, food issues, exercise, sleep and motivation issues......they're all getting in the way. PLEASE don't give up! You too can lose a 6 year old. And you'll feel so much better for it. Keep going!!

My Wii Fit platform is out to get me.

I have weigh in tonight.

I was feeling rather confident until about 2pm when I decided to step on the Wii Fit platform and it screamed "OH HOLY MOTHER OF PEARL...GET OFF!" at me.

Ok. Maybe it was more like "Maggie, you seem to have gained 1.5 kgs. Did you remember to exercise this week?"

I just about threw it through the window. We'll see how accurate it is after weigh in tonight but at this point in time it has me weighing (taking into account the 4.2 kgs difference between the Wii Fit and the WW scales) 139 kgs. Considering last week I weighed in at 137.5 kgs, that's a bit of a kick in the enormous gut.

*sigh*

Fingers crossed that my Wii Fit is just being a bitch and I've actually gone down. If that's the case, I'm gonna kick the cow's ass when I get home. If she's right (I've decided it's a woman because I've also decided she's just jealous of my descending poundage and has resorted to underhanded tricks), then I will kiss her and love her and tell her thank you for the reality check.

I'm really hoping it's not the latter.

Thoughts

Did y'all notice that Tex commented on my last post? I hope you'll all welcome my fearless leader and make her feel at home here. Everyone, meet Tex. Tex, meet...um...everyone?

Well folks, we're 4 days into my June Challenge and so far things are going well. Going well so far. Here's some things I've been thinking about this week:

* You know how people tell you that if you deprive yourself of something, you want it even more? It's totally true. Annoyingly so. This time around I decided not to say "No coke". I just said that I must consume the minimum 8 glasses of water a day. And you know what's funny? It's working! Since I lifted the embargo on Coke, I've wanted far less of it. In fact, the other night I poured myself a glass, took a sip and by bedtime I had to put it back in the fridge. It took me until the NEXT night to finish that ONE glass!! I know! I was shocked too. And I've been getting all the water.

* Water is my friend. No, really! Ok, well the fact that I have to go pee a million times a day is getting a little annoying but here's the thing, just in the last four days I've already noticed that my skin is better, I feel better (not so sluggish) and I'm sleeping better. With the exception of the three times I have to get up to pee. *sigh*

* I am becoming reacquainted with soup. I have a whole bunch of delicious soup recipes in my WW cookbooks which I am starting to try out and I'm really enjoying it. I've started having a bowl of soup with a sandwich at lunch time and it really fills me up and keeps me going until dinner time. I never thought I'd see the day when I enjoyed soup!

* It is amazing how much walking around we do in the course of a day. I got the new pedometer from WW and I'm LOVING it.

~ pause for the oohs and ahhs of admiration~

Turns out that just in the course of my day I rack up an average of about 13,500 steps. That's just from doing errands, going to work, dropping and picking up the kids from school....it doesn't even take into account any exercise I do.

Love it!! I think everyone should have a pedometer. They're fantastic!

I still have my old WW pedometer. Maybe I should give it away to one of you??

* I found myself getting upset the other day when I was reading through my new WW magazine. I got to the success stories and as I flicked through I noticed that most of them have lost about 10 to 15 kgs (22 to 33 lbs). The first thought that ran though my head was "Why are THESE people being showcased as a success story? They've ONLY lost......." and I clung to that for a couple days. Then in our meeting, we got to talking about the 2010 Healthy Life Awards that are coming up and how it doesn't matter how much you've lost, if you're at goal then you can enter. Something Tex said really stuck with me (and I'm paraphrasing here) "Sometimes losing a small amount can be just as hard ... OR HARDER ... than losing a large amount". And you know, she's right. It doesn't matter whether you have to lose 10 kgs or 100 kgs, it's a journey either way. So, I won't be thinking that anymore.

* I made this delicious stir fry the other day and I'd like to share the recipe with as many people as I can. It was published on the awesome Lose It Bitches! blog and you can find it by clicking below. If you don't like food with a bit of bite, you might want to halve the amount of ginger used, but other than that it's a recipe you can stick to it.

CLICK HERE FOR DELUMPTIOUS STIR FRY RECIPE

* It's amazing to me what a difference the sun can make to my mood. I've been out walking around, happily running errands, getting laundry done, and all with a bounce in my step and a smile on my face. Unfortunately we're meant to get rain for another few days but I'll live.

* I brought the Nordic Track skier machine over from my mom's house. It's going to take some getting used to but it looks like it'll be good for me. I can be on it while I'm watching tv or reading a book and it means that on those days I don't feel like going to the gym or out in the rain to walk, I have something I can do.