Speedbump

Today i am feeling sorry for myself...

This week has been rough, to put it mildly. We've been exceptionally busy and i've felt out of control most of the week. Being the emotional eater that i am, i turned to food. I convinced myself that a bite here and a bite there of the wrong foods couldn't make such a difference. That was, until i went to see the dietitian this morning. As it turns out, a few days of bad choices can completely bugger up 2 weeks worth of hard work. It made me question whether the 4h30 starts and stiff muscles were worth it.

My dietitian has a very clever scale that not only weighs you but can measure your body fat % as well as your msucle mass. According to her scale my weight has stayed the same over the 3 weeks since i last saw her. The shocking part for me was that my body fat % has increased and my muscle mass decreased - how on earth it that possible when i am more active than i have been in years!?!? My first instinct was to head straight to the shop and inhale a chocolate to make myself feel "better".  Luckily, my little girl fell asleep in that car on the way home from the dietitian, so i couldn't stop at the shop.

Instead of eating, i decided to rather look at why i started this journey in the first place and remind myself that the blood, sweat and tears are worth the end results.

1. I started this journey for my children. 

I want to be a better mom. A mom who can play with them without having to catch her breath every few steps. A mom that takes them to the beach without feeling embarrassed about herself. I want to be the kind of mom that doesn't embarrass them because she's so fat. I want to set a good example for them that a healthy, active lifestyle is far better than watching tv and eating junk food. I want to teach them healthy habits from an early age. I want to be around to see them graduate from school, varsity, get married and i want to meet (and play with) my grandchildren one day.

2. I started this journey for my husband.  

He married a "blom" and now, eight years down the line, he is with a "vetplant". I am a very lucky lady because he assures me that my outward appearance does not bug him and that he loves me all the same, but i want to be desirable to him. I want him to be proud of me and what i have achieved. 

3. I started this journey for myself.

I have always been the fat kid for as long as i can remember. I have never been athletic or skinny. I want to prove to myself that i can complete this journey and that i am so much more than "just a mother" and a wife. I want to prove the nay-sayers wrong! I want to inspire others to follow in my footsteps. One of my passions is fashion and yet i cannot shop for clothes at a normal shop. I want to burn my mom-jeans and buy a pair of Levis when i am done!

4. I started this journey for the health benefits. 

I am grossly overweight. I am uncomfotable in my own skin. My cholesterol is up which increases my risk of heart disease and strokes. My insulin levers are up, which increases my chance of developing diabetes. I dont want to have to take a hand full of pills every day in order to survive. I NEED to change these things with diet and exercise.

So, i will stop feeling sorry for myself! No more excuses. Yes, a few days of bad choices can ruine 2 weeks of hard work. I need to pull myself towards myself. Get up, dust myself off and start again. No one can do the hard work for me....i need to realise that there are no quick fixes. It took me 13 years to gain all this excess weight and it's not going to disappear overnight. It takes hard work and dedication and the results will be totally worth it. So, chin up and soldier on!

Until next time,

XX-L

Weak(end)ness

Confession time! I struggle with weekends....

Traditionally, Friday nights are my "night off" from the kitchen. So we usually get a take away of some sort or a quick Woolies microwave meal. When i started my new lifestyle, i decided to keep this tradition and make Friday nights my cheat night. In hindsight, this was not a good idea at all. Friday became Saturday became Sunday and before i knew it i was having 3 cheat days instead of 1 cheat meal!

So, what are my weekend Sins? Fatty, fried foods....chocolates....fizzy drinks....everything that got me into this state in the first place. On Saturdays we usually go out for breakfast after Parkrun and i really struggle to say no to the bacon and eggs after a week of muesli and yogurt. On Sundays we often go to my in-laws for a delicious family lunch. My mom-in-law Is a super cook - how do i only have a little bit when it tastes so good? Not to mention dessert after Sunday lunch.

After yet another weekend of bad choices, i sat down to analyse why i am sabotaging myself? Why does it go so well during the week but the wheels fall off on the weekend?

For starters, i'm lazy when it comes to cooking. I'm the first to admit that i'm not a very good chef and i run out of ideas of how to make my food interesting. So, i will be looking for recipes that are quick and easy and make my healthy food more exciting.

I don't have a plan for the weekend. During the week we have quite a tight schedule. I can account for almost every minute of each week day...but come the weekend and all routine goes out the window. Sometimes we are home at meal times and other times we are out and about doing things (which are usually spur of the moment activities). To combat this "bad habit" i will try to plan my weekend meals in advance and even try to make my own ready-made freezer meals that are nutritious and delicious so that i am not tempted to go through the drive-thru.

If you have any tips on how to avoid the weekend binge, please share them in the comments below.

My resolution for this week is NOT to have a cheat meal on Friday and to prepare for the weekend during the week. As the old saying goes, "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail". So bring on the new week with all its challenges!

Until next time
XX - L

Twenty-FITteen: don your tights and tekkies!

With a new year comes new resolutions.....however, my resolution started after seeing photos of myself at my daughter's first birthday in November 2014. I was bloated, dark circles under my eyes, generally not looking all that well and I was/am huge! So, there and then I decided to make a change not only for my own sake but also for my family.

With the summer school holidays approaching and Christmas around the corner, my first goal was not to gain any more weight over the festive season. I started drinking lots of water and a good friend of mine and I resolved to walk in the mornings after we had dropped off the kids at school. All went well, until the holidays arrived....

By the time school started again in January I had gained another 2 kilos! 

I have been on every conceivable diet, none of them completed successfully! And that was exactly my problem, it was a diet and not a lifestyle change. I had to change the way i thought about food and exercise and start nourishing my body instead of feeding my emotions.

I decided to start my lifestyle change by seeing a dietitian. She advised that I follow a calorie controlled low fat, moderate low GI carb, moderate protein diet. I had fasting blood tests done to test my glucose, insulin and cholesterol. As i suspected, my cholesterol and insulin levels were up. One of my goals is to keep a food diary to track what i eat......and born was my addiction/obsession with  My Fitness Pal . I continue to see the dietitian once a month to monitor my eating plan and make adjustments. My goal is to lose the weight slowly and to keep it off. In order to lose 500g a week i need to cut 500 calories a day. I also aim to burn 500 calories through exercise a day. I try to drink about 3 liters of water a day and have cut out all sugar, replacing this with xylitol.

Friends invited me to start walking in the early morning with them, but because my husband needs to leave home very early for work, i was a bit reluctant....but these awesome ladies insisted that i join them and even moved their walk to even earlier!!! So now we walk 3 times a week, doing 4 km a day on average AND i have fallen in love with the Root 44 Parkrun on Saturdays. Parkrun is a free, timed 5km run or walk that happens around the world at 8am every Saturday. For every Parkrun completed, you also earn 500 Discovery Vitality points. I use the Runkeeper to keep a record of all my walks. This app is great as it also calculates the number of calories you burn while you are walking as well as your average pace per minute. You can also compare you individual workouts or week by week. My wonderful hubby also gave me a Polar FT4 for Christmas to help me track my heart rate.

My intention is to do weekly (at minimum) posts about my journey and experiences while i shake off the excess kilos.

Here are my stats to date, after 4 weeks on my new lifestyle and exercise program:
Starting weight on 22 January 2015: 135.7kg 😱😱😱
Current weight on 20 February 2015: 131.00kg

Image: Pinterest

Until next time

XX-L