Unexpected Weight Loss

After a terrible week of eating, I actually managed to lose 800g's and that's fantastic and here's why...

I was well aware that my diet was spiralling out of control last week.

I ate 3 bacon and egg wraps AND went out for dinner, cleaning up the entire bolognaise dish which was humungous!! The crazy thing is, if you'd have asked me that about 4 months ago, I probably could've gone another plate of it!

On Wednesday night my appetite went crazy. It was like i had little receptors in my head screaming out, "give me the **** food, NOW!!!!!" Well, blinded as i was by my starvation, they were like my very own children. How could i say no.

So i ate my way through a large bowl of Aldi's choco pillows. At least the milk was skim!

All food aside, i did slam my body with an hour of body pump (weights) and 2.5 hours on the treadmill, plus ten minutes on the bike.

But even so, I felt as if i'd gained 5 kilos!!! So you will understand my surprise when the scales told me i'd LOST 800grams.

Now lately, my heart has been feeling sore, literally and i think i have been pushing myself too hard in the gym. So i eased off that this past week, just slowed my heartrate down. Trouble with that is that my body just wants to race ahead of my heart.

Also, the 800g loss was good as i keep getting warnings from WW to say i am losing weight too fast. I can't begin to tell you how NOT fast enough it actually is!!! lol...

But a lesser loss means that I haven't fallen into the unhealthy weight loss range. Although, my week last week was far from healthy!

Anyway, egg and bacon wraps 3 days a week is not a trap/habit i want to allow myself to get into and as a result, this week i plan only to buy coffee if i must buy anything at all!!! I also don't have the pockets deep enough for that kind of spending, especially in the city!!!

Anyways, i feel a hungrier week coming on - bring it i say!!!

19.6kg's down and still plummeting! WOOO....

DVD/Video Stores

On Sunday the DVD store where i've been hiring DVD's from for the past 6 years, had a closing down sale. It made me really sad because it was a small, privately owned DVD store, where the staff were always friendly and helpful. The prices were cheap and i loved the smell of popcorn/cinema when i was browsing in their store.

When i was a kid, one of my favourite weekend things to do was to go to the video store with my dad and brothers and browse all the videos on the shelves. I loved it. It used to be the best thing ever, the next best thing to Australia's Wonderland. We'd each get to choose 2 or 3 movies that we wanted to hire out, i always chose care bears or shirley temple movies, then we'd stop by the fish and chip shop on the way home and it was our Saturday/Friday night treat of the week. Loved it!

Shoot, even when i was finishing high school, my friends and i would love a good stroll through the DVD store, hiring random movies we'd never even heard of before!

Kids these days are growing up so deprived.

When i was in the DVD store on the weekend, choosing which DVD's i wanted to buy, a family was in there, they had a boy and a girl and it sounded like they were each picking out which movies to indulge in for the weekend.

It made me sad.

a. Because pretty soon, there won't be any movie hire stores left open.
b. That whole family experience and memory, will be restricted to a DVD box.

I guess when it comes down to it, i'm just a sucker for movies in general and the joy and fun it brings to go out and browse.

Lost the Plot

Well, after a great blog about loving being hungry, it seems i jinxed myself and have not enjoyed being hungry at all this week.

This week i have felt more than my share of hungry since starting the program and as a result i have had probably the worst week of eating since i started.

This week i had no will-power to hold back at the slightest craving and I'll be surprised if i manage to maintain last week's weight or indeed, lose weight.

Unfortunately i also got a taste of an egg and bacon wrap breakfast this week which made it's way into a 3 day habit.

My goal next week is to break out of that, or actually just not to make it a weekly habit. Besides, it's an expensive habit to have.

Our fridge hasn't been very well stocked over the last week either, time to go shopping and get back on track with healthy food. I miss my yogurt!!!

Also I have only been on the treadmill once this week. Looking forward to slamming myself in the gym tonight and tomorrow - not.

So we will see what the scales hold for me on Sunday. Keep going everyone, your weigh-in day is closer than you think!

The Hungry Feeling

I have been having a hard time of late being consistent with my weight loss. I'd have one week on and one week off. But for the last 3 weeks i have been losing weight consistently. It's a proud, welcome relief to say the least!

These are my latest observations with weight loss.

I actually strive to for that hungry feeling. I know a lot of dieticians and health professionals say that always feeling satisfied is key to weight loss but i actually lose more weight during the weeks where i have experienced what i call, 'the hungry feeling' than if i haven't experienced it. Now don't get me wrong. I 100% agree that snacking on healthy foods in between meals is the way to go. And if that works for you, then that is awesome! But for me, in my lifestyle, it seems as though snacking is an irregular thing. I can't be or keep consistent with it and routine is a big part of who i am. I don't go out of my way to starve myself as such, but whenever i haven't snacked and feel hungry, i don't feel the need to snack either. And so i quite enjoy 'the hungry feeling' because, to me, it's an indication of my weight loss and that i am doing everything right, it almost feels as though my internal structure is letting me know it's shrinking!

I've decided, that weight loss is not always about feeling satisfied. There ARE times when you will feel hungry but that's ok, because that's what losing weight is all about. It's about not eating as much food as you normally would. I've learnt that through portion control. A great, and somewhat obvious, quote i read this week is this:

"If you always eat what you've always eaten, you'll always be what you've always been"

The second thing i've realised is this:

Losing weight takes a long time. It sounds so simple and straight-forward, but until you actually go on that journey, it's not as basic as it sounds.

I am roughly 18 weeks into my weight-loss journey (I'm losing count!) and it's definitely starting to wear me down. I feel like i've been on this journey forever and countless times i've just wanted to stop and get off the ride.

Losing weight takes a long time. Particularly if you have a lot of weight to lose like me. Before i started, i realised that. But you really won't understand what it actually takes or what it actually means until you're well and truly into it.

The thing is, once you ARE well and truly into it, it's addictive. It's not something you can just abandon.

I've lost 18kg's now and i'll be damned if i don't reach my goal. I've come too far.

So to anyone who's starting out or anyone thinking of doing this, you have to be serious about it because chances are, it's not going to happen in 4 weeks. It will take an awfully long time. You just have to remain committed and focused on what you're doing and if i can do it, anyone can!

Responsibility

It's no big secret that I follow and support the organisation, 'Invisible Children'. I feel it is a compelling movement and here's why.

The victims that are at the centre of all of this are African children. They have families, mothers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and grandparents. They live in fear of their lives. Their government sits by and watches as the harrowing events of death and torture unfold around them.

This is what I believe.

Children are our future. We can teach them about love and kindness and peace. We can give them a childhood that they'll look back on and enjoy. We can educate them so they grow to become successful and prosperous. Or we can teach them about the evils of this world and how to kill, and be treacherous.

It's the old battle between good and evil.

I look back on my childhood and wish i could be young again. I wish i could go back to a time when life wasn't full of cares or worries, just being a kid was bliss. But there are so many people out there who can't look back on those times because they never had a childhood like that. These are not just African children either, these are people who could very well live right next door to us.

A recent article was published about Jason Russell, one of the primary filmmakers of 'Kony 2012', a sub-branch of Invisible Children.

My point is this:

We are all responsible for our actions. Joseph Kony is responsible for his, our world leaders are responsible for theirs, Jason Russell is responsible for his and you and I are responsible for ours.

We live in a social network age where ideas and news stories are published around the world. In some sort of bizarre way, all citizens of the world have been brought together to co-inhabit the earth as a body of people.

In the past, we have been divided and segregated into our very own countries and yes, we still do live in each of our unique countries and cultures but through Social media and social networking, things such as this have been brought to our attention.

In the past, it may have been understandable to be ignorant or unaware of the global issues that go on around us, even more so for the less educated of us because it was simply not possible to communicate easily enough to be concerned with things so far away.

But today, there is no excuse for one single person to be ignorant and turn a blind eye to those that are suffering and hurting, no matter where in the world that might be. No excuse is good enough to sweep something under the carpet.

We each, as individuals, have a part to play in life, no matter how young or how old we are. As the internet becomes more widely spread and information and facts are more accessible now then they ever were, so too are we becoming more and more responsible for the actions that we do or do not take.

Jason Russell's latest story is disappointing at the very least and even though he's sure to have been under enormous pressure physically and emotionally, and may be trying to tackle something larger than life, there are no excuses for what he's done. But i won't condemn the man for his actions. He's responsible for those.

Those families in Africa are still being torn apart. Children are still being used as child soldiers. They're still being taught how to kill their fellow man. They're still being slain.

If people want to try and end this and stand up to these inhumane practices, of course i will support that.

I am responsible for the things of this world that i choose to believe in and support. I am responsible for the people that i choose to give my heart to. I am responsible for the actions that i take to see justice brought to the world.

No matter what we do in life, there is a risk that our leaders in society that we put our faith and trust in will fail us. It's unavoidable. Nothing will ever be achieved if we don't take risks and no organisation or individual for that matter, will ever be able to see change happen in our world if we aren't willing to put our money where our mouth is.