Updates

1. Summer Slimmin' Challenge
I'm sorry but if this were a challenge where our results were graded for the whole group I would be dragging everyone down with me. It was an extremely difficult week and the weekend was even worse. Since I'm travelling this week it may not be much better but I'll try. I hope everyone's doing MUCH better than I am, I haven't had a chance to go through your blogs yet.

2. Weigh In
I only lost 0.4lbs in the past week. Had to weigh in yesterday since I had to leave home early this morning.

3. This week
I'm on a work trip and will be eating hotel buffet breakfasts and take away lunches and dinners. I will try to keep things as close 'as possible' to my allowances - servings. I also have a horrible cold that started bothering me just this morning, I was perfectly fine when I left home and when I arrived here. My son had signs of a cold yesterday and didn's sleep well, so I guess I got it from him. He apparently got it from my brother who spent the day with them last week.

Anyway, that's that. I may or may not update again this week. If I don't, everyone have a great week. If I can just kick this cold I'll be ok.

Finally...

You'd thinking I'd have jumped onto it the minute I found out that Karen had bestowed upon poor old me this wonderful award; but I have been so busy. But finally I've decided it's time I fulfilled my promise to participate no matter. Thanks again, Karen!

The rules of the award are to tell you 7 things you may not know about myself then pass it on to 7 others.

What you may not know about me

1. I think I'm obssessed with weight loss/fitness blogs; no matter how busy I am, I make time to read the latest posts of my favourite bloggers. Wish I could comment all the time. But you knew that already, didn't you?

2. Right now, at this very moment, if I could have my own way I would be a stay-at-home mom. I love my job, but I'm tired, right now.

3. I'm the first of 4 kids, and was technically an only child for almost 7 years; however, those first 7 years of my life I lived with my grandparents and since my mom had me when she was still young, I grew up more like a sibling to my mom's younger siblings rather than a niece or nephew. So, my cousins refer to me as their aunt and they are my nieces and nephews.

4. I don't work on my birthday. I always make sure to take the day off of work and spend it relaxing. In the past couple of years I've taken my son's birthday off as well to be with him.

5. I love to bake; but I haven't in a while because I tend to end up eating most of what I baked right out of the oven.

6. I don't have a best friend; I have a circle of friends and I don't know who to call my best friend because they seem to alternate for that title. Then I have other really good friends outside of that circle. Then there's my mom, and her youngest sister who's just a year older than me. My best friends. And then there's my son, whose nickname means 'friend'.

7. I'm having killer cravings this week. Last night it was bread with butter, this morning it was something salty of the meat variety. Ugh. But hey, I haven't had, or craved, a Coke in the past 5 weeks!

Bonus - when we go to the grocery store, my little sister and I spend a few minutes (or many seconds rather) gazing through the glass at the goodies at the bakery and salivating. Yeah, I'm silly like that. That's how the chocolate-chip cookies happened on Sat, but usually I'm very strong.

7 others
Can't we say I'll have exactly 7 people read this and each and everyone of you will take part? I think that'll work. So, there you are, go for it!

And since it's Friday, have a great weekend. I intend to, though I think I'll end up being strapped for time. Training a new maid, plus regular weekend stuff, plus getting ready for a work trip on Monday and visiting with my grandmother who came into town last night.

AWOL

I seem to be staying away from the blog a lot lately, busy busy busy. Things are kind of tight here at work and before I know it the day is over and I still haev lots to do. Then I have to rush home because it's late, and sometimes I even forget that I wanted to blog until I'm half-way to the house.

Anyway, still hanging in there. I could say things are better than last week, though I had an episode with chocolate last night. Ugh. I bought a bar of chocolate for my sister and she was going to give me a couple of pieces, but I ended up getting to it before she did and I ate half of it before I 'instructed' her to take the rest before I finish the whole thing. I just couldn't stop myself taking piece after piece. Big reason why I can't have any in the house and why future purchases, if ever, should be strictly snack-size!

I haven't been on the treadmill yet. I know it's getting old, or rather, it's a fossil now, but I'm really stressed right now. Not having a maid is really tough on me, and now my sister has found a job, meaning I now have to ferry my son half-way across town to stay at my aunt's place during the day tomorrow, and then I have to go back and pick him up after work. I do not even know how that will happen because I struggle to get to work on time, and now having to go all the way and back and make it on time... Anyway, such is life and I just have to deal. At least the new maid is starting on Sunday.

I have to run now because I haev my sister and my son waiting in the car. Hope everyone's doing better than I am. How are you doing?

Summer Slimmin' Update and Weigh In

In my last post I said I was doing well, besides exercise. Turns out that was not true at all, I only thought I was doing well.
Obviously exercise is a write-off as I haven't done anything so far; as for food, looking back at my week, every single day there was at least one item with a star besides it. A star means that that something was extra, not in my usual food plan. So, despite tracking everything I eat and making an honest effort to eat food that I have prepared myself, I'm still 'sneaking' in extra stuff and hence am not/did not see the progress that I wanted.

Ok, Summer Slimmin' Update

Goal #1 - Cookin' Meals -  Good, almost every meal came out of my own kitchen, except the pistachio nuts and Tempo bar I sneaked yesterday. And I'm sure that was all out of boredom because I had an hour to kill out at the 'station' and found myself in a Choppies getting some supplies that we still needed only to emerge with those 2 extra items and proceeded to eat them in my car. Not too bad, but shouldn't happen the way it did. Oh, and then there was the 3 tiny chocolate chip cookies I had with a hot chocolate on Satuday evening...now it's bad.

Goal #2 - Eatin' 5+ a day - Almost win - weekends are challenging especially when I spend most of the day outside the house. Yesterday I went under, but every other day I was ok.

Goal #3 - Movin' it - FAIL. I really can't say more.

Goal#4 - Drinkin' Water - Week days - 110%. Weekends, not so much. I have to train myself to keep some water in my car for when I'm stuck outside for a while.

Goal #5 - Writin' it Down - Fairly good. Even when I have to record a 0.1 lb gain overnight or those damned chocolate chip cookies.

All in all it was a weak week for me, I can do better and I HAVE TO do better.

Weigh in
I mostly plateaued all this week, but saw a dip on Friday, only to bounce back over the weekend to record only 0.6 lbs loss. But it's a loss, so I'll take it. Total loss so far is exactly 11 lbs.
I have for the first time ever weighed in for for weeks in a row and the weight at the end of each week is lower than that of the previous week. I want to maintain that streak so I'm going to try to make the best choices at any given time.

Plan
The way forward now is to look back at the records from my 1st week and see what I was doing differently to now and apply that, that 6 pound loss was something! Simple as that. Other than that I'll continue to source all my meals from my house - cooked, except the stuff that you can't cook, track everything, drinking my water, eating my fruits and vegetables, and I will visit and make a standing appointment with my treadmill this week.

Funky 5 Meme

My friend Felipa at I'm Getting Fit tagged me for an exciting meme ala Funky 5! Thanks, Felipa! If you haven't been to visit her blog, you're missing out. She has lost 42 lbs so far and became a Zumba instructor!!! What's not to admire??Lol.

Anyway, now onto that meme:

My Funky 5

Where were you 5 years ago?
Unfortunately down to the date June 18th, 2005 is somewhat a challenge; but generally during that period 2 big things spring to mind quite fast - I was recovering from a car accident (I escaped with a compression fracture on 2 thoracic veterbrae) and I was getting ready to start my master's degree over in the UK that fall.

Where would you like to be 5 years from now?
5 years ago I thought 2 years from now I would be a PhD, happily married with 2 kids, a boy and a girl --- and between then and now I have decided I have no real use for a PhD expect just to say I did it, and that kids don't necessarily come after marriage. So, right now I'd like in 5 years to be happily married with 2 kids, the material stuff doesn't matter much.

5 things on my to-do list today 
At work -
Action list for monitoring visit
Update SOP master and distribution lists
Print and distribute SOP L80
At home -
Watch England and Algeria (world cup)
Do something with those chick peas

5 snacks I enjoy
Ryvita with cottage cheese
Biltong
Air-popped pop corn
Chocolate
Most nuts

5 things you would do if you were a billionaire (overnight)
Set myself up with a few houses in the most prime locations
Adopt my orphaned nieces and nephew
TRAVEL
Pay for my son's education in advance
Drive aroudn in my dream machine

And the 5 I'm tagging (will notify on Monday)
Sally from SlimmerSally.
The Better Idiot at Bottomless
Pam at Uncovering Pamela
Michelle at Working on my fitness
Dawn at Fixing Myself Thinner

Enjoy!

It disappeared!

I just typed a blog and when I went to publish it refused and I couldn't retrieve it! Now I don't have the time to retype everything.

But the gist of the post were this:

• I had a busy day at work and couldn't visit with my blog friends much today.
• Doing well, but not exercising yet - world cup has a big role - so I need to reassess my priorities.
• THANK YOU Felipa for tagging me for the Funky 5 MeMe!
• THANK YOU Karen for awarding me the Beautiful Blogger Award!
• I will formally accept and participate when I have a bit more time, hopefully tomorrow.

And now I've got to dash home, my mom and my brother are coming over.

Summer Slimmin' Update and Weigh in

I should have posted my updates on Monday, but hey, sometimes life and other things overtake you and your best intentions fall by the wayside.
Let's get straight to it then:

Summer Slimmin' update

Goal #1 - Cookin' meals - All except lunch on Saturday which was a sandwich fixed at my mom's house! So good job there!

Goal #2 - Eatin' 5+ a day - Easily about 7+ a day each single day, except Saturday which might have been only about 5!

Goal #3 - Movin' it - FAIL. I have this big excuse that I keep throwing around in my head that I just have to get rid of - I'm tired from straightening out the house. I'm still dealing with the moving mess, making sure everything is where it should be, sorting and refolding clothes, etc. So, sometimes even just thinking about it gets me tired. I need to start on the treadmill, really I do.

Goal #4 - Drinkin' water - 2+ litres every single day!

Goal #5 - Writin' it down - All my food and daily weigh ins have been tracked everyday. Only thing is that sometimes I write everything down at the end of the day. But as long as everything gets in there I think I'm fine.

Weigh in
So, overall I think I'm not doing so horribly with the Summer Slimmin' Challenge. Because my sweet END RESULT - Losin' LBS - 2.6 in the past week (weighed in on Monday).

The weekend was great. Worked on the house some, but mostly it was about the world cup! I'm still deciding who I want to win though.

And, ugh, I currently don't have a maid, so I have to do so much more than I'm used to at home. Sucks all my time, and it's probably one of the reasons I haven't gone to the treadmill as yet.

I'm here and despite the above complaint think I'm doing well. Thanks for checking on me The Better Idiot!

World cup weekend

The beautiful game...soccer/football, is my most favourite of sports, to watch of course. I used to be a more serious fanatic back when I was younger, so much so that I watched EVERY SINGLE GAME of the 1998 world cup in France. And I thoroughly enjoyed it!

But for some reason my interest generally kind of waned over the years, but when it's world cup time I wake up. So this weekend will be spent celebrating 'the beautiful game'. Luckily I've never been a beer person, so that will not feature in my weekend, nor will anything not in my plan, fingers crossed.

So, to everyone who'll be watching, or not, have a great 'moderate' weekend! I intend to thoroughly enjoy myself, I deserve it after the kind of weekend I had last week.

Every little counts...

...either way!

You know how we know that we should make little changes here and there, and those little changes will add up and eventually will lead to weight loss? Cutting back on sugar, leaving the last 2 bites on the plate, choosing something fat-free or low fat over full fat? Also, parking just a bit further away from where you're going, taking a short walk when there's no time for a full work-out, etc. All those little habits add up, and eventually your body will thank you for them. Right?

Now, there's the reverse. On the Weigh-Less plan that I'm following, you have to weigh and measure your food and make sure to eat your whole 'formula' for the day. I weigh my food all the time. But I have realized a couple of 'little' habits that can add up pretty quickly. For example, I'm measuring out 175ml of yorgurt, I put exactly 175ml in the container, then there's that bit left on the spoon, what happens to it? I lick it off - how many mls was that? Or, I have to weigh out 100g of chicken breast, the portion I'm holding is 110g, and I go ...ah, what's an extra 10g? ...and on the plate it goes. Is there a trend there? Yes, a little bit more than I should be eating ends up on my plate or in my mouth one way or another every day! And what does that mean? - That I'm actually eating more than I should be. But then I'm surprised when I don't see significant changes on the scale!!

See, every little counts...excess or shortage. And in the end, the little bits will add up, positively or negatively.

I'm going to start being diligent about my measurements. 100g is 100g, not a gram more. 175ml is 175ml, and the spoon gets washed. No bits of cereal get in my mouth without being on the scale first! From now on as long as the plan dictates that I weigh my food I will weigh the exact measurements. 

Is is just me that has little habits sneaking in to sabotage my efforts? What have you been doing that's detrimetal to your other efforts?

Comments!

I've been receiving a few comments on my posts in the past few days. Hurray! I want to thank everyone who has come by and left some words of encouragement because I really can use a lot of it. It is this kind of support that can help me keep steadfast to my plans and focus on doing well everyday. I wanted to comment on each comment, but haven't figured out how to do that yet, is there some setting I need to adjust? If anyone knows please let me know how in a comment or via email.

On the flip side, I know I should be leaving comments/support/encouragement on all your blogs as well, because we all should support each other. I can't only receive but not give anything back. I know I have been slacking on this, but believe me, I visit and read your blogs - that's to people who have already commented here, those that are on my blog list, and those that I follow. However, I have noticed that there are a few blogs where the comments are either disabled or there's something wrong because when I tried to comment I couldn't. Please check to see if you've enabled comments on your blog.

Other than the giddiness I get when I see '1 comment' or '2 comments', everything's going well. Still settling in at the new place. Loving the drive into work in the morning because it's so much easier, and I don't have to dread the knock off time traffic either!

With less stress, I can focus more on my healthiness journey!

What a weekend!

Weigh in
First things first - today was weigh-in number 2 since I began the Weigh-Less programme. Here are the numbers:
 Start (23 May '10): 255.8 (edited to correct start weight)
Last weigh-in (31 May '10): 249.8
Today's weigh in (7 June '10): 248.2
This week's loss: 1.6lbs
Total lost: 7.6 lbs

I have lost 7.6 lbs in 2 weeks! I'm very happy about my progress so far and know that I just have to keep at this and it will all add up.

This weekend
I took Friday off of work because we were moving. What a weekend that turned into! We packed most of the stuff and had the truck people move it on Friday afternoon (evening actually because they left at 9pm after struggling to get my large couch and treadmill in through the doorway - that will teach me not to buy oversized stuff in the future). We spent the Sat and Sun getting whatever else was left the old house and cleaning and trying to arrange everything properly. But even right now as I type this there's stuff everywhere in the new place and I am tired. I have no idea how long it will take till everything is where it needs to be. Can't wait till I can finally just chill.

Summer Slimmin Challenge
The challenge began yesterday and I'm on track with everything. I didn't do any 'formal' exercise, but I'm logging all the lifting and pushing and shoving as my exercise. I haven't made up my mind about Curves yet, so it's the treadmill or the side or the road till I decide. And oh, I've been thinking about taking pictures and kept forgetting since I started Weigh-Less, but Felipa's Summer Challenge post reminded me, so I'm on it as soon as I get home. Thanks Felipa!

Other than the above updates, we are ok. My son seems to be fine with the new place so far. What I especially love about it is that it's so close to work. BUT, it's put us further away from my mom's than ever before. Which is bad, ut also good because I usually find it hard to restrain myself at my mom's house, so now I know it's even easier to stay on plan!

Another long weekend

My work week this week has only been three days long, which is sweet. I'm taking tomorrow off to deal with moving stuff, or rather, I'm moving house tomorrow, so it won't be that sweet when I'm all tired from the packing. Thankfully there won't be any lifting for me, of heavy stuff anyway. I'm hiring a truck which comes with labourers to do the lifting.

I'm obviously going to be stressed from the mess once everything has been off-loaded at the new place, and I hope I will not 'eat the stress' over the weekend. I'm going to do everything in my power to stay on plan. Already today I have had a slice of pizza at a send-off session for 2 of my colleagues. I did not want to refuse outright, so I limited myself to only one slice and didn't drink any of the soft drinks or eat the marsh mallows that they bought for dessert. Can you say non-scale victory! If I wasn't on this plan I would obviously have rationalized eating at least a couple more slices. Today I made sure to skip my afternoon snacks and I'm definitely logging the pizza.

Anyway, here's to a somewhat liveable weekend. If I survive I'll be back on Monday with my second (or is it third - do you count the start one?) weigh in. 

I hope everyone else has a great weekend!

Summer Slimmin'

Good timing! I've recently relaunched a 'lifestyle change' and am actually still in the process of 'expanding' - I plan to start working out at Curves next week (or the week after depending on how settled we are at the new place). So finding this challenge that starts next week is excellent. I just had to grab this chance.

I've joined the Summer Slimmin' Challenge', go check it out AND JOIN! It starts June 6th and ends on August 6th (only 2 months).

Ok, I know it's not summer here, we're just beginning winter, but tell me this, what is the best time to embark on a slimming mission so that when summer comes you're all ready and feeling great? You got that right, winter. So, yes, summer slimmin' -  in winter - for summer!

Over at the right there's a 'Taking Part in Summer Slimmin' badge. I had to choose this one because it is a summation of all the others. I want to take on all of those goals and rock them!

Goal #1

I intend to stay on my food plan ala Weigh-Less, hence there's no question that all my meals must be prepared by myself at home - ok, that also includes mixing yogurt with cereal.









Goal # 2

My plan consists of a large variety of fruits and vegetables, all in large quantities too, so another one fo my goals is to ensure my 5+ a day is covered.

Goal # 3

I like to move it move it. I do. Or maybe I like how it makes me feel. And of course the benefits. I'm joining Curves and aim to work out at least 3 times there and at least twice on the treadmill at home each week.

Goal #4

I already drink a lot of water, but everyone knows that the colder it gets the less water one's interested in. So, another goal is to drink a minimum of 2 litres a day everyday, through the duration of the challenge.

Goal # 5

I will log each and everything that passes through my lips, on plan or off plan. And I will log all formal exercise, and some informal that I feel counts, e.g. long walks at the mall.

END RESULT!!

I'm not setting a goal for weight loss. It will be the sweet end result of all my effort with the goals above! I'm already excited to see how many lbs/kgs I'll have lost at the end of it all.

Come on and join and reap the benefits!

Target weight

So I decided it's time I stopped trying on my own, because honestly, after so many years of trying and failing, attempting to try again would just have been insane. Because isn't insanity doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?


In terms of eating I chose to go with Weigh-Less. I like the structure and even though I think a 'live' group would have done me so much good, I know with the online group leader and having to check in and submit weigh ins and receiving different meal plans per 'step' I'll stay on plan and reach target weight some time.

Target weight
It's not a secret that I need to lose A LOT of weight. But when the online group leader sent me back the stats, and I saw what my Weigh-Less target weight is, it was almost a shock, and immediately my mind started racing with doubts like I can never weigh that little, how can I lose that much, etc. I basically have to lose almost as much as I weigh; that I already knew, but seeing it written was something else. Here are the stats:


Starting weight: 116kg or 255.8lbs
Goal weight: 60kg or 132lbs
Weight to lose: 56kg or 123lbs


Is that even attainable?? Yes, it is. So many people have lost so much more! So, yes, I can do this. What I want though is continue living a life as normal as possible through out this process. With Weigh-Less so far, I've had to prepare my own meals separate from the rest of my family, and to make extra effort to pack my meals to take to work, and be extra careful when eating out in social situations. The last two are actually how anyone should handle themselves if they are after a healthy life. As far as eating the same meals as the whole family I want to do the first few weeks first and then when my food lists are more liberal and I can make up my own recipes then we can see what to do about that.


I haven't set a time frame in which I plan to lose this weight. I don't want to make a marathon of it, I'll just follow the plan and incorporate work-outs and see how long it takes. As far as work-outs, I've decided to seek help in that department as well. I'm thinking of joining Curves, at least for a start until I feel confident enough to join a co-ed gym.

It was SIX!

I lost SIX pounds last week (not 'only' five as I stated in the weigh in post yesterday). I went from 258.8 down to 249.8! I still find it very surreal that I actually did in a week what before, at my best or so I thought, I did in a whole MONTH!

Woo hoo!