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

A quick update

Well I am work so only a quick update today. I plan to get online over the weekend and update my weekly losses as well as my ticker.

I am at 48kgs lost, the last 4-6 weeks have been a major plateau. I have gone up and down and not been able to break the 80kg mark, sitting between 81-83kgs.

This last week I have really gone back to absolute basics (mind you I did that last week too and gained 0.2) I have weighed and measured EVERYTHING, tracked EVERTHING and really really pushed the exercising to the limit.

I go twice a week with a group of ladies at work to an outdoor personal training group. When I started I didn't really enjoy it. It was hard work and not at all like the 40 minute walk I was used to.

I have now been doing that for about a month and have to say this last week something in my mind has just clicked. I am actually enjoying it, and looking to do more activity on the days I don't have personal training. I think noticing the improvements has helped that light bulb come on. I can now run our full 3 lap warm up, where as when I started I struggled to do one. I have progressed from doing push ups standing against a fence to on my knees. I can do 10 easily against the fence, and can still manage 10 on my knees, although it is a little harder. I LOVE the boxing we do, so much fun! I also can see muscles in my arms!

I have also done measurements again and have lost a grand total of 242cms. I'll post the breakdown of that on the weekend. My arms and chest did go up from last month, but I attribute this to the exercise so i'm not too worried about that as everywhere else had a loss.

I am really hoping to see 79.9 tomorrow which would mean a grand total of 50kgs, I am confident that these last weeks of being 100% on program are going to show up soon and give me the loss I am after. To get 79.9 would mean I need to lose 2kgs this week, so if it doesn't happen that's ok, but I'm quietly confident it will.

I've also put up some new photos on the "progress photos" page (link at the top of this page). The current ones are from last weekend, and I threw in another before shot for comparison.

Hope you are all doing well, drop me a comment and let me know how your WL journey is going :)

<3 Bridge

another week done and dusted

Well my saturday weigh in saw me lose another 0.7kg, bringing my total up to 49.2kg

I've been a bit off track the last few days, I think i'm mentally already in holiday mode as we go to the Hunter Valley on Thursday for a week.

Sam has said to me we are going to track while we're away, which is good ... what is not good is that I've already demolished my 49 weekly points and it's only Monday!!!

Anyway, just a quick hello and an update! Post me a comment and let me know how you're doing :)

Well it's been a year!

Today officially marks 12 months at Weight Watchers!!

I have weigh in tomorrow morning and I know it's been another good week on the WW front so I'm hoping for a good loss! Mum had her weigh in yesterday and a loss of 1.6kg brought her 12 month total loss to 47.9kgs.

Measurements were done last weekend and I have lost 230cms from my body.

7.5cms from my neck
29cms from upper arms(total for both)
28.5cms from chest
39cms from waist
37cms from hips
62cms from thighs(total for both)
27cms from calf (total for both)

Tomorrow I also start helping out at both Saturday morning meetings at Harrington Park. I am so excited about this! I have been thinking of wanting to do it for weeks and was too nervous to ask Marie, my leader. Anyway, I bit the bullet last Saturday and the funny thing was that she was planning on asking me anyway!

It's amazing what a change the last 12 months has brought.

When I started it was all about the weight, I wasn't concerned with health goals or anything, I just wanted to be skinny, but that has all changed!

I now feel full of energy
I enjoy going out and socialising
I have much more self confidence
I can buy clothes from 'normal' stores
I don't get out of breath walking up a flight of stairs (I actually walked up the stairs to the 4th floor of my building with no problem!)
I no longer crave junk food and chocolate
My body naturally wants to have healthy filling food
I can control myself when I go out, I don't have to eat everything in sight!
My blood pressure is normal for the first time since I was 15, it used to fluctuate between 140/90 to 180/100
My thighs no longer rub when I walk
I enjoy exercise
I feel in control and happy with myself and my life

Anyone who is reading this that is struggling, just starting out, or thinking about making a change please know you CAN do this. Last January the thought of being almost 80kgs seemed impossible, but a day at a time, a week at a time I kept going and here I am today. Each christmas I used to look at the photos and think "next year will be different" and it never was, I tried the shakes, the diet pills, not eating, but I never looked at changing my lifestyle to be a healthy one, I wanted a quick fix. Now I am educated on living a healthy lifestyle and almost to where I want to be. This Christmas I enjoyed looking at the photos because I finally did something about it and was so proud of how far i've come.

At the end of the day you can feel sad and depressed about your weight and the way you look, and keep on going that way, or you can decide to make a change, and each day take a step to making a better healthier life. Yes it can be hard to make the change, but isn't it just as hard to stay the same and continue feeling miserable? You just have to chose your hard, and let me tell you, doing something about it is far more rewarding in the end, whether it takes 2 months, 12 months or 2 years, in the long run it is all worth it!

 Christmas 2009

 Christmas 2010

 Christmas 2010

NYE 2010

My WW meeting was in the local paper!

During October my WW meeting donated their small change to breast cancer fundraising. Our leaders idea for this was "a little change can make a big difference" in that our small change would help raise funds and make a big difference , and also every little bit of weight we lose also makes a big difference.

Anyway, we raised $300 and lost 100kg between us during that month.

If you'd like to see the article it is **HERE**

and here's our group photo