Planning for Easter

Well there is only a couple of weeks till Easter is here.

I looked back over last years easter blogs and saw how stressed I made myself, I remember the struggle I had last year. I had planned to have no chocolate, or to keep it to an absolute minimum .. this resulted in me eating massive amounts of chocolate in a sitting, as well as pigging out on some traditional italian foods that are very high in fat due to being deep fried. I then went in to damage control and exercised like a mad woman.

I remember feeling totally stressed and out of control for that week, I was in a panic over everything I ate and probably didn't even enjoy the 25 points (old points system) of chocolate I ate in the one sitting.

Now I did manage to pull off a loss last year, but the stress that went with it was NOT worth it in heindsight.

I am now starting to think about Easter this year, and have decided I am planning for it. I know that now I have only a little left to lose I won't get away with eating such huge amounts, and I would probably be physically sick if I tried to.

So here is the plan:

• PLAN for some chocolate on Easter Sunday, as well as the monday and tuesday public holiday
• Make sure I do exercise on the Monday and Tuesday as I normally would, don't use the public holiday as an excuse not to
• Do not touch any of my 49 weekly pp until Easter Sunday, so I know I have that safety net and don't panic
• Get my mother in laws sipoli recipe so I can work out how many PP one is, so I don't eat them mindlessley this year (they're a traditional italian food, deep fried bread filled with olives and tomato)
• Plan healthy meals and snacks around the main family get togethers and cover all my food groups, rather than restricting these things for the sake of pigging out 
• Remember this is a LIFESTYLE change, don't panic if I go over my weekly 49PP, that's life, these things happen, ENJOY the holidays and do my best to follow my plan and keep on track without focusing every minute on food.

Have you thought about Easter yet? What are you planning on doing to get through the holiday?

Nasty Little Secrets

I've spent a bit of time on the WW forums this week and stumbled across a post and blog about eating secrets.

This got me thinking, and what I came up with was rather confronting to admit.

Pre WW I would often sneak into the cupboard late at night to find things to eat. I could eat a block of chocolate in a sitting, but then go and buy another one to replace it so Sam wouldn't find out.

There would be take away food while I was out, only to come home and eat again, or snack bars hidden in pockets and eaten in secret, because obviously if no one saw me eat it then it didn't really count!

I could eat another serving of dinner just packing up any leftovers, and a BLT (bite lick and taste) here and there didn't really count,and who could forget pouring cream on to my cereal in the morning before Sam was downstairs so he wouldn't realise it wasn't just milk I was having.

I was a great eater in front of people, I would eat good portion sizes, healthy food (mostly) but then I would continue with this secret eating.

Then the guilt and shame follows, usually followed by an outburst of anger when none of my clothes would fit properly, which was then followed by sitting and crying and feeling sorry for myself.

The confronting thing is that I STILL struggle with this, I can still go rummaging in the pantry at all hours of the evening and stand in the kitchen and eat something while Sam is unaware in the lounge room. It doesn't happen as often, but if i'm having a difficult time emotionally I know I go back to these habits. I do track these little meltodowns and keep accountable for them, but I tell you that does nothing to get rid of the guilt associated with it, regardless of whether I am within my daily/weekly propoints or not.

So, there you have it, some of my nasty little secrets .. what are yours? what have you overcome? what "secrets" do you still struggle with?

So i'm sure you're dying to know!

Well I won't keep you in suspense .. i'm far too excited for that! I broke through the 80kg mark and have lost over 50kgs!!!!

It seems I have finally moved past my plateau with a great loss of 2.3kgs this week, bringing my total to 50.4kgs, current weight 79.5kgs. I don't EVER remember being in the 70s!

It was so fantastic at the meeting, my leader called me up to speak in front of everyone (I nearly died of nerves!). I hate talking in front of people, but something made it all worthwhile .. At the end of the meeting a lady came up to me to say she had tears when I was talking because she related to so much of what I said (having struggled the last few months) She said she was ready to throw it all in, but after hearing me talk decided to persevere like I had .. WOW! It means SO MUCH to me that I can actually inspire someone else to achieve their dreams, what an honor!

I also had a lady at the supermarket today who was serving me say "I'm sorry, I don't want to be rude, but, have you lost a lot of weight?" now I don't know about you but I don't take that as rude at all! She asked me how I had done it, how much i'd lost etc etc. She has done WW in the past, and upon me telling her that there is a new program with the ProPoints she said she wanted to join again.

It just amazes me that I have had an impact on someone else, I remember starting out at WW and being so inspired by other members, yet it seemed a very distant possibility that I would ever be there.

When I joined I set out 10 goals for myself, breaking my weight loss down into achieveable goals for me. For a long while I was ahead of them, and with these last few months i've slipped behind. I initially said 14th of April 2011 I would be at goal weight. At the time that seemed like a lifetime away, 15 months of WW seemed like forever. Now I am about a month behind where I wanted to be, and here we are in April, and honestly, right now those goals I set don't seem to worry me so much. I am SO CLOSE to goal, I am continuing despite the ups and downs, and those 15 months have gone by much quicker than I anticipated. I hope this time next month I'll be here saying I'm at goal and going on to maintenance!

Now, as I promised here is a breakdown of the cms I have lost

                            18/01/2010          20/03/2011             Loss
Neck                   41cm                    33.5cm                   7.5cm
Upper Arm         43cm each             29cm each              14cm each
Chest                  124.5cm                98cm                      26.5cm
Waist                  124cm                   83cm                      41cm
Hips                    136cm                   94cm                      42cm
Upper Leg          81cm each             48cm each              33cm each
Calf                     51cm each             35.5cm each           15.5cm each

TOTAL LOSS: 242cms!!!


I cannot stress how important measurements are, these last few weeks of stuggling, doing my measurements kept me going, knowing that my body was still changing despite the scales. If you haven't done them yet, then it's not too late to start! I didn't want to do them back in January 2010, I was SO ashamed of them, but trust me, now I am so glad I did!

One last thought before I go, I read a great quote in the WeightWatchers magazine that says

"An optimist is someone who figures that taking a step backward after taking a step forward is not a disaster, it's a cha-cha"

Here's to another great week!!

<3 Bridge