Week 17 – 10% done and dusted….

I have finally made my 10% goal today - I needed to lose a total of 14.2kg to make my goal and last week I was 300g short. This week I was determined to get there and lost 2.4kg - totally smashing my goal bring my total to 16.3kg.

Feeling really great and pretty dam impressed with myself!!

I have been working really hard this week (see my exercise posts) and stayed well clear of the majority of the Christmas treats this year…I have to say there is not a fruit mince pie on this earth that could taste as good as the feeling of losing 2.4kg especially on Christmas week.

I had another small achievement this week – on Christmas day I was able to get on the floor with my baby to open present and then I was able to get back up without needing any assistance or needed to hold onto anything. I have always been able to get on the ground but getting up was quite a mission…so I just stopped doing it. It is still difficult but I now have the confidence to know that I can get myself up!!

Exercise Update 1

We are progressing very nicely with our exercise plan.
For the stretching we are doing the following: 20 ab crunches, 20 oblique crunches, 20 side crunches, 10 bridges, 20 outer thigh lifts, 20 inner thigh lifts (each side) and what ever else we decide as we go along. We will continue this routine until Sunday (Monday I am back at work!) 

I am very pleased to report that through my hard work I have lost 2.4kg this week....well worth the effort!

The diagnoses on my treadmill is not good – basically it is dead – the repair men come out today and it looks like it needs to be replaced – it is only 6months old!! It cost me a bloody fortune – not happy Jan!! Anyway hopefully it will be sorted out soon - in the meantime we will continue to hit the pavement…which is ok at the moment as I am not working but will be a real pain when I am back next week

What we have done so far:

Saturday (26th Dec) –
7:30am: 30mins treadmill & 30min weights;
7:30pm: 15mins rowing, 15mins treadmill & stretching.
Sunday (27th Dec) –
7:45am: 17mins treadmill, 10mins rowing & 30min weights;
7:00pm: 15mins rowing, 30mins walk & stretching.
Monday (28th Dec) –
7:30am: 15mins rowing, 15min weights & 55mins walking;
7:00pm: 30min walk & stretching.
Tuesday (29th Dec) -
7:30am: 15mins rowing, 15min weights & 55mins walking;
7:00pm: 30min walk & stretch.
Wednesday (30th Dec) -
7:30am: 55mins walking;
7:00pm: 30min walk & stretch .

Exercise Exercise Exercise

Whilst I have some time off over Christmas my neighbour and I decided that we would workout together twice a day (all of her programmes have finished for the time being as well). We are getting together at 7:30am and then again at 7:30pm.
The plan: 7:30am – 30mins treadmill & 30min weights; 7:30pm 15mins rowing, 15mins treadmill then stretching focusing on the ads.

We have hit a small problem in that my treadmill is playing up – it has been on a slope and making a lot of loud banging noises for a few weeks now but on Sunday it felt like the matt was slipping – it is being repaired on Wednesday (30th) - so we decided to stop using it and hit the pavement instead.

What we have done so far:
Saturday (26th Dec) -
7:30am: 30mins treadmill & 30min weights;
7:30pm 15mins rowing, 15mins treadmill & stretching
Sunday (27th Dec) -
7:45am: 17mins treadmill, 10mins rowing & 30min weights;
7:00pm 15mins rowing, 30mins walk & stretching
Monday (28th Dec) –
7:30am 15mins rowing, 15min weights & 55mins walking
….day is not over.

Feeling really good but becoming very sore!!!
I will post again later in the week with our progress…..

Christmas Day….fooood

Had a great Christmas with my family, Christmas can be a real disaster food wise – my mum is a really good cook and spends most of December baking Christmas treats ie: fruit mince pies, shortbread, Christmas cake, Christmas pudding, Turkish delight tarts the list goes on…. I tend to be at my mothers a couple of times a week and I end up “sampling” a few treats….This year I decided that there would be NO “sampling” and I would wait for Christmas eve and Christmas day. 

The plan was to have a small piece of Christmas pudding with custard on Christmas Eve, a fruit mince pie and Turkish delight tart on Christmas day.
I am happy to report that I almost stuck to the plan – I have a small piece of pudding with custard (which was just delicious), 1 x Turkish delight tart and 3 x fruit mince pies (mouth watering) – I ate them slowly and enjoyed every mouthful – there was no guilty attached – there was no “well I have blown it now”….crap going on - just savoured the moment and moved on.

The rest of the food we had was all managed as well – Christmas eve dinner was mainly seafood and salad, breakfast was bacon, eggs, sausages & croissants – I stayed clear of the sausages and instead of a croissant had cape seed bread and fresh cherries…then had more prawns and salad for lunch and dinner.

Got up today being Boxing Day and did 30mins treadmill and 30mins weights and then another small session this evening (15mins treadmill, 15mins rowing and 15min stretching) and ate well…unheard of for me on Boxing Day. 

I must say I am very impressed with myself – I maintained total control but did not feel like I was missing out or being ripped off by not being able to have anything nice…It has been a very successful Christmas all round. This year the focus was on my kids and not the food…..my mind set is truly changing for the better at long last.

10kg by Christmas challenge completed

10kg by Christmas



SW - 139.6
CW - 127.9
Goal - 129.6

TOTAL: 11.7

13 weeks = -1.0 (23/09)
12 weeks = -1.4 (30/09)
11 weeks = -0.2 (7/10)
10 weeks = -1.0 (14/10)
09 weeks = -1.3 (21/10)
08 weeks = 0 (27/10)
07 weeks = -0.7 (4/11)
06 weeks = -1.2 (11/11)
05 weeks = -0.4 (16/11)
04 weeks = -2.0 (25/11)
03 weeks = +0.4 (02/12)
02 weeks = -1.6 (09/12)
01 week = -0.4 (16/12)
Final = -0.9 (23/12)

Week 16 WI Christmas Eve

I am very happy to report that I had another very successful week on the weight loss front. I lost a further 900g this week bring my total to 13.8 – feeling really good about my progress. I am now only 300g off my 10% - hopefully next week we can crack this goal. As Christmas is approaching I am feeling very confident about not going overboard on the food front – I definitely plan on having my few treats (my mother is great cook especially at this time of the year) like Christmas pudding, fruit mince pies and Turkish delight tarts……I know they are not point friendly at all so I plan on just having one of each, enjoying every bite and leaving it at that…..I am sure I will feeling very relaxed about the whole food thing.

I had another small achievement this week - physical I have really really struggled over the last 2 years, even to the point that I could not get on a chair to chain a light globe!! My bedroom has been without a main light now for probably 12 months – simply because I just could not reach the roof to take the light fitting off and change the light globes!! Anyway this week the globe went in my daughter’s bathroom – I grad a chair jumped on it (well not literally but you know what I mean) and change the light globe. Then it dawn it on me that though the weight loss and exercise I made another small step in regaining my physical self back – even my daughter said Mum you are getting fitter….

Week 15 WI down we go....

With the end of the year approaching (just in case you had not released that 2009 was almost done!!) we have been really busy at work, hence why I am late posting this week results – I know that you all have been waiting with bated breath so I won’t keep you in suspense any longer…..I lost a further 400g last week bring my total to 13kg…I am etching closer to my 10% with only another 1.2kg to go – will I make it by Christmas…as we only have one week left it is a tall order…see how we go.

My week has progress well, even though I have been busy at work I have still maintain my exercise routine and kept the Christmas food at bay – I have been enjoying the fresh cherries instead…they are goood this year.

 At this time of the year I am generally under quite a bit of stress at work (I work with school so this is the end of the school year and their financial year!!) My way of coping with stress is to eat (no surprises there…) over the last few months I have been learning some new strategies for handling stress like deep breathing, exercise and just expressing how I am feeling. I have to say that I have been doing a combination of these things and it has really really helped me this year. I am not going straight for food…when I do find myself falling back to the old habits I am able to stop myself before any damage is done…feeling very in control of the food situation at the moment….

Week 14 WI – loossser, loossser, loossser…

This week weight in has taught me a lesson about those damm scales!! After last week disastrous weight in with the unexplained gain - this week I fully recovered with a loss of 1.6kg…..very happy with that result – this now bring my total to 12.6kg and takes me out of the 130’s…gotta be happy with that. I am now only 1.6kg away from my 10% and I have now reach the target of 10kg by Christmas challenge (actually exceed it and still have another week to go!!)

Over the past 15 weeks I have had two weeks where the scales have not given me a negative result (one week stayed the same and last week where I gained) and on both occasions there was no explanation for what happened! On both occasions I sulked about it for days, became quite negative and unmotivated, wasted a lot of energy over something that I had no control over (scales I am referring) – it is like the saying I live by at work “control what you can and leave the rest alone”. Somehow I managed to keep myself on track and then on both occasions the next week was followed by a really good loss….

The moral of the strong is trust the process, it does work and it does sort itself out. We will lose the weight it will just time, hard work and patient (something I lack…). At the end of the day we did not gain all the weight overnight so we cannot expect to wake up one day and find that it has all disappeared – just not going to happen!!!

Small achievements….

It is the small things that we do on a day to day basis that will ultimately lead us to successfully complete this journey and maintain for life!

When I re-started this journey I decided that if there was something that I really liked then I would have it in a controlled portion, enjoy it, count it and move on….And today that is exactly what I had – it sat on my desk until around 11am (which in the past would have been unheard of !!) I then slowly ate it – took 4 bits instead of the usual two (or just stuck the whole thing in my mouth before anyone seen….) it was worth every single bite - I thoroughly enjoy it and felt great that I was able to view it as just a really nice bit of food and absolutely nothing else……

Each Christmas one of the girls makes these very delicious chocolate coated plumb puddings – they are quite small probably the size of a 20c piece. When I arrived at work at 8am she had just put them out in the kitchen – I looked at them and decided that I would have ONE later in the morning – I took my little pudding put it onto a plate and sat it on my desk (as 8am was simply too early – and there is no way they would still be there later!).

It’s my birthday….

As you may have figures today is my birthday. This birthday signifies the final stretch of my 30’s…..yes I am officially 39!! I had a good day – started off with a workout and then spent the rest of the day shopping with my kids. My daughter brought me a lovely salad bowl – a nice small one (just what I asked for).

This means that for next 12 months I need to put in 200% in order to be “forty and fabulous” at my own party - no more floundering around…I would really love to be in double digits by this time next year – that means at least 31kg in 12 months being an average of 600g a week - that is certainly achievable!!!

Wish me luck – actually it has nothing to do with luck – it is going to take a lot of bloody hard work!!!. I can do this….onwards and downwards…. here we go…..

Hit a Wall....

Well I have a hit a wall!! I am seriously struggling to get past the gain this week – I am feeling extremely deflated and unmotivated – almost to the point that actually can’t be bothered. It takes such a huge amount of energy to keep up the momentum to keep the focus on the food and the exercise that it really does not take much for me to fall on my ass (lucky it has plenty of padding…as I fall on it so often!). The internal struggle is starting to resurface along with all the negative thoughts that go with it. I though I managed to move past the part of me that has continually sabotaged myself for many years but clearly not…

At this stage I have not been on any great binge – I have probably eaten too much bread in the past two days but I have managed to stay well clear of everything else – today at work we had a secret Santa morning tea with plenty of savoury pastries, cream cakes, biscuits, fruit etc.. – I stuck with the fruit only…(then all the leftovers sat in the kitchen all day!!)

Which now that I am thinking about it, this is not what the old Jody would have done – she would have defiantly had at least one piece of cake and some pastries and probably picked at more all day (eating whilst no one was watching!!) Interesting that I did not do this – I remember looking at the cakes at one stage and thinking about what Rhonda (WW leader) often says “I can have it if I like but I choose not to” (or something like that) mmmm so maybe I have progressed a lot more than I am giving myself credit for.

I think will pick myself up dust myself off and get on with job – I owe it to myself and my kids….Gee I feel so much better already just talking about – thanks for listening.

Week 13 WI – scales not kind this week…

My reign of 12 consecutives weeks without a gain is OVER – as I suspected I gained 400g this week….not happy to say the least. I would like to say that I am not bother but really I am – I put in a lot of work this week, tracked exercise etc… and to gain really pissed me off.. I would much prefer to have small losses each week that a huge loss followed by a gain!

I have taken solace in the fact that I know for sure that I have done nothing to contribute to the gain, the scales are just one of the many ways that we can measure our success – I am feeling happy, healthy and fitter than I have done for a very long time and it is these measure that I will focus – not the damm scales.

I have also decided that this daily weighing thing really does not work for me…so I taking the battery out of scales and putting them back in the cupboard!!

I have now lost a total 11kg – still pretty good in 13 weeks….got to be happy with that.