Weight loss update

So, this has been a very hectic period for me, more hectic than ever. I’m hoping I didn’t drop a ball and fail my masters but I’m hopeful that I did enough to complete it. Teaching became very hectic towards the end and I’ll probably blog about it in more detail at some point.

On top of that I had two attempted break ins… not just one (I really want to move), I’m helping my daughter move out to start her new job in a new city and finding her the right place in a safe area with similar house mates has been tough but we think we’ve done it and my son’s transition into his new school year and visitors and all kinds of things that have been going on which I can update on as and when I get my breath back.

So through it all it was tough to keep tabs on a regular routine and there were a few slips and slides and indiscretions BUT I stuck mainly to a tried and tested meal plan and I managed to get a good bit of exercise in and the weight continued to come off. I haven’t weighed myself in ages and the last recorded weight I had on my facts and figures section on my blog was a month ago although I’m sure I updated at least once since then.

So today I decided it was time, a day ahead of my usual weigh day but who cares I wanted some numbers as I know I lost weight, I’ve gone down another dress size (I had to buy something lovely for an awards evening and actually enjoyed shopping for it) and when I saw the photos which I could not avoid having taken I was shocked at the difference from my starting point photos, not just in size but the smile on my face, the confident stance, the glowing skin and shiny hair… oh my gosh, I am so much happier and healthier now it is unreal, I can’t wait to get to my year mark and share photos on my blog.  I am so looking forward to the big reveal… I will get there I really will.

So when I jumped on the scale today I was happy to have that confirmation that my suspicions were right and I’m going down! I didn’t care by how much, anyone who has ever read my weight loss posts knows I just want to see downward movement no matter how small, I’m doing this healthily, I’m not crashing it off and I’m certainly not starving myself or depriving myself nor am I killing myself in a gym.

So guys if you hadn’t already noticed Tracey (my 10 stone person weight shedding goal) has now lost a huge 5 sections of herself. Gone, bye bye, tata, see you around… 5 7lb (half stone) chunks of that lady have vanished into thin air.

My total weight loss to date is… drum roll please, wait for it… 39 pounds… 2 stone 11lbs…17.7kgs in 11 weeks and I have gone down in dress size from a UK 28 top to a 22 and a UK 24 bottom to a UK 18 (snug and stretchy but I’m in them all the same and they look good, they are not heaving and screaming at the seams)

This is kind of averaging out at around 3lbs a week which is awesome and I feel healthy for a huge person like me. I have a LONG way to go but I am.

I am so much more fit and agile, I run up the stairs, I power walk along the beach, I dance for an hour, I run for twenty minutes on the treadmill and it takes longer for me to become breathless but more importantly my heart rate returns to a resting beat in seconds.

I have no heartburn, no digestive issues, no pains, no aches, no muscle atrophy, I can do my own bra up, aftermath of using the toilet is no longer holding fear, I don’t have to squeeze through the shower doors, I can get in and out of the bath easily, my IBS has gone, my nails are long and strong and shiny like they have polish on when they don’t, my skin is glowing, my eyes are sparkling, my vision has improved (I know, I know but it really has!), I don’t sleep so much, I sleep better when I do sleep, I bounce out of bed in the morning instead of flop. I don’t feel l like a woman who is still over 300 pounds I feel like a size 10, 21 year old, truly.

I’m happy, I really am. It’s been so easy and fun. My big tips are water, kefir and love, lots of love for yourself and let your anxieties go, let them float over you, let nothing bother you, forgive your enemies, do charitable deeds, free yourself from fear and worry and bitterness and anger and all of that bad stuff and you will feel your soul begin to float and your body will float along with it. Trust me, it works.

Thank you all for your inspiration and encouragement, I may not have been around but I have thought of you and all of the lessons I’ve learned from you and it’s good to be back so I might help someone else get out of a rut.

 

 

I’m a hoper not a sucker…

I feel compelled to help people, often to my own detriment. I’m not sure if it’s a deep seated effect of being hated as a child and feeling a need to want to make people like me or if I’m just a sharing, caring person. I don’t think I want people to like me, I don’t really care if they don’t so I like to think I just like to give and even though that has been taken advantage of more times than I care to remember I can’t stop doing it. It’s an intrinsic part of who I am for whatever reason.

I did something today which was intended (unconsciously at the time) as a paying it forward act of kindness and charity which impacts on a life positively. Even though it has perhaps impacted on my life negatively on the surface, under the surface (the place I like to dwell) it’s done me some good and made me feel content so all is good.

A friend of mine who inadvertently witnessed the deed said “Don’t you worry that you were taken advantage of there?”.

“Do you think I was?” I asked.

“I don’t know, I hope not” she replied.

“That word… ‘hope’, that’s what makes me not worry about it” I replied.

I didn’t know why I said it, I wasn’t 100% sure what I meant, it just popped out (as we all know I tend to have much more of a problem with what gets popped INTO my mouth than what pops out of it but that’s another story). But it made me think and reflect and I realised something hugely important, one of those light bulb Gestaltist moments when it all suddenly becomes clear..

When we worry about the effects of our heartfelt good intentions they are not heartfelt good intentions, once the deed has been done and our compassion, humanity, charity, kindness, love or whatever it was, has been expressed we should content ourselves with the gift of having given, having done, having shared, having supported, having upheld, having cared, having loved… what the recipient of the gift does with it is not our concern. We have given. It has gone… all we have is hope is that it will do some good. Hope is our reward and hope keeps us giving. We’re not suckers, we’re hopers. Now I get why I can’t fight the compulsion… at last I get it and I feel years of that negative feeling of having been taken for a sucker washing away. How wonderfully liberating!

And Breathe…

I have a life again! I have so much to catch up on and so much to say! Brace yourselves folks.

My over worked induced silence is going to be shattered with the sharing of this little gem.

 

 

Minus 4… heading the right way.

I’m down 4lbs and don’t even have time to properly blog about it or do all my adjustments to my bits and bobs that I use to record progress or lack thereof.

This is teacher and MSc student hell right now… final assignments, heaps of marking, extra tuition given to students to get them through their finals (all out of the goodness of the heart you understand), preparing for September even though I’ll be in a different place it still needs doing.

All kinds of celebrations being organised for end of this and end of that and farewells and gosh it’s all getting on top of me now.

I shall be back reading, commenting and posting prolifically during the summer months you can bet  your bottom dollar on that.

We had a HUGE thunder storm today, cleared the air a bit and made exercise a little less of a grind, it has been very humid and muggy lately so the air wasn’t feeling very fresh and I found it tough going.

I’m happy that I’m shifting weight and happy to be doing it gradually. It went on over years pound by pound and I’m happy for it to come off in the same way. I’m feeling great and even managed to find ten minutes today to make some freshly squeezed orange juice ice lollies before the massive heap of oranges were only fit for the bin. So, so juicy they were, love it when oranges that are past their best yield tons of juice as opposed to getting all sulky and drying up.

Kids are great, they’re both continuing to trim down too and everyone’s feeling healthy and happy if a little stressed with these end of year demands. Heading into the final push now and then the long summer break beckons and don’t I need it!

Convenience

So much of our life is about what is convenient… a long time ago I woke up and realised that life is not about convenience, most of what happens to us is majorly inconvenient. We can turn our backs and hide when shit happens or we can roll up our sleeves and carry on and make the best of a bad job. So many people look for an easy out and in my experience your easy out comes at a great cost to someone else or even yourself down the line. Better to face your inconvenience and deal with it, better still turn that inconvenience into something good, make it count. There is enormous strength in overcoming a problem, surviving a horror, winning over an adversary.

We are in control of our lives. Sweeping issues under the carpet or passing the buck isn’t control it’s denial and it holds back great rewards from us. What are we here for if not to learn?

Swings and roundabouts … one of my favourite sayings, it’s all swings and roundabouts. Life is anything but convenient. Grab its every opportunity even the crappy, sticky, ugly, smelly ones and roll with them… there’s no better feeling than emerging the victor.

Feeling Like I’m on The Biggest Loser

Sunday’s delayed post:

I know it’s weigh day tomorrow and I’m not very hopeful with regard to my success this week in my quest to lose weight.  I decided a couple of hours ago now to take to the treadmill in an attempt to shed some last minute ounces… knowing it doesn’t happen like that. What do they call it on the show? “Last chance work out” or something?

I started off walking and then realised that wasn’t going to do much damage at all so I decided to put on some running shoes (both myself and the kids laugh when I ask where my running shoes are… we can’t deny the irony associated with the word ‘running’ and anything like what I do).

Of course up to this point I had been wearing ‘walking’ shoes and as my hilarious daughter pointed out, at least buying them was a step up from ‘rolling around helpless’ shoes which is the only footwear I was heading towards ever requiring.

So, suitably attired in running shoes and with my son accompanying me on his new guitar with some lively running music I embarked on my slow jog on a slight incline at first.

I had to stop after a couple of strides to go and change into my new ‘running’ bra, I’d forgotten about that hammock like contraption which I’d purchased while we were away. While I was changing I thought I’d give the kids a laugh and cut off some black leggings, making them more like lycra cycling shorts and I swapped my baggy tee shirt for a rather snug vest top and put my toweling hair band (used for when I’m doing my beauty routine), around my head a la John McEnroe.

Needless to say when I descended I was met with raucous laughter and slow clapped back onto the treadmill. My daughter took a photo which she promised was purely for posterity and would never be shown or shared with anyone other than the three of us unless I expressly gave my permission. I hope one day to have the guts (or lack thereof) to be able to share it with you just for the sheer fun of it.

By now over half an hour had passed since I first decided to have my jog. I turned on the machine, I started to jog, five or six paces, slowly at first and then starting to gain some rhythm I notched the machine up, ten or so paces, I was going strong, this was going to burn off a good 10lbs I was certain of it, I was there for the long haul, I would fight through the pain and breathlessness when they both hit and just like they do on the show I would notch up one mile and then another and then another.

Just then the forgotten oven timer sounded and everything stopped for dinner. I apologise for my lack of focus but slow cooked lamb with seasonal vegetables comes first and I was excused my inappropriate dinner dress, just this once.

Sometimes not changing isn’t such a bad thing… is it?

Oh darn! Those daiquiris and being out of routine… oh OK and the smothered bbq chicken and the lemon meringue sundae didn’t do too much to help… all mean that I didn’t lose weight this week.

I like to think (we eternal yo-yoing true weight loss experts are good at liking to think) that it’s all of that walking, especially up hills which has built me some stronger muscles which weigh more than all of the fat I’ve lost but it’s probably not the case at all.

I’m happy to have stayed the same, I’m not going up, that’s the thing and in the whole balance of things I had a blast with my kids and if a little indiscretion or two was had, so what? Normal people have treats when on holidays and so I’m not going to beat myself up for behaving like a normal person. I’m pretty sure the time with my kids and our new experiences, our freshly made memories gave me a week extra of life in terms of stress reduction and happiness and the lightness of heart that helped me achieve.

Better performance next week I think. I’ve got a few posts in the draft stage, I don’t seem to get chance to finish one lately. One of them contains an account of my attempts at last minute workout yesterday… I’ll finish it later and post it so everyone knows this stalemate didn’t come easy.

Tracey got a reprieve again… next week she’s not going to be so smug.