The last week has been really good. I’ve been eating really well (again, you have to trust me, due to lack of daily stats) and I’ve been exercising too. Still not doing 5 days (let alone 6 days) a week, but I’m getting there. But overall it’s been a really good week.

Last week I happened to wander into town, on a mission to buy myself a new pair of work pants because all of mine are now too big for me (great feeling indeed). I happened to go into a store that sometimes has sales, hoping that I’d find my pants there. Well I didn’t. But I did find a massive everything is $10 sale. Normally I am not a huge fan of shopping because I find it so hard to find clothes to fit me, but I was daring. I grabbed a few pairs of jeans and slacks in size 18 and well, they were too big. So I ended up getting 16s and they FIT!! I grabbed a couple pairs of jeans in 16, a couple really nice cardies, a couple tops and then to top it off even further, I grabbed a couple pair of size 14 jeans (they were only $10 after all) with the intention of fitting them by Xmas. Well one of the pairs actually goes all the way up and are just a smidge off actually doing up. I can’t remember the last time I had size 14 jeans, and it’s such a pleasure having these now, KNOWING that they are going to fit me by Xmas this year.

So then I went to the hairdressers. We have a wedding to go to in a couple of weeks and I desperately needed a haircut. So I got it cut and coloured. Now it looks lovely. And all this I have noticed has brought about a real change in me. I realise now that since I broke my wrist and gained weight that I had really let myself go. I lost my care factor of what I looked like, whether I had makeup on or not. I never used to be like that. I used to always wear makeup whenever I went out. I used to dress up – to care what I looked like even though I was overweight, and I had lost that. But I’m happy to say that the old Tina is now coming back. Maybe not to the obsessed state of wearing makeup everywhere, but I’m certainly getting up a little earlier and doing my hair and putting a bit of makeup on before work in the mornings and also taking a bit more pride in my appearance – it helps that I can now fit smaller clothes and can now fit into some of my older clothes. It’s great. And it’s being noticed at work too. A few people have commented that I look nice, and my boss keeps telling me that she can really notice my weight loss now. It’s really a nice feeling

To that end, I really need to start keeping a track of my daily calories and food plan, which I haven’t really kept up the last couple of weeks. Also have been very disorganised in general, so need to sit down and work up a proper menu plan once again and do a big food shop. That will have to be tonight I think. Though I don’t quite know how I can fit both the gym and food shopping in arghhhhh. Perhaps I might do the food shopping, then come home and do Zumba. Seriously people I need more time in my life.

I shall advise of the outcome tonight…. Till then, happy weigh in everyone, and I hope you all do a hell of a lot better than I did. Silly Tina :/

Then we decided to go camping over the weekend, and can I say BRING ON THE CARBS. I made damper twice and loaded it up with cheese and it was delicious. The lamb stew in the camp oven was divine, and actually very healthy loaded up as it was with vegetables. The bacon and eggs for breakfast the next day was even better

On the exercise front, well it’s been a no show all week. Trying to get the energy just to breathe was hard enough without attempting exercise. But I went back to the gym last night and had a great workout in my BodyCombat class. No gym tonight unfortunately, but back again tomorrow night, skipping Thursday for the hairdressers, then back again on Friday night to get my personal program sorted out by a personal trainer – and I can’t wait for that

On other news, I have been busily working on a quilt for my impending niece or nephew. My little sister only has 6 weeks left before the bundle of joy arrives, so I really need to get a move on with it. I have the top of the quilt all pieced and sewn together, so now I just have to piece the back, baste it, quilt it and then bind it. So a fair bit to do still, while trying to incorporate work and the gym. I need a few extra hours (and the energy to go with them) in every day. Photos of the quilt shall follow.

Good luck with weigh day tomorrow everyone. I’m certainly not looking forward to it I know such a bad stuff up week, but I own it. And it was still worth it for the fantastic weekend away camping.

Today was the Accelerator Day program, so that meant no carbs. I was actually fine, but I’m actually putting that down to the fact that once again I am sick. So so disappointed, because I was all set to go in and do BodyCombat and BodyPump tonight, but instead I went home early from work and moped, I’m guessing that there will probably be no gym for me tomorrow either, and that just disappoints me even more.

Weigh in day tomorrow and I really have no idea what to expect. There has been some good exercise this week (still not as much as I’d like to be doing) and there was the Triathalon on Saturday, but I still just don’t know. Hopefully there will be a loss, but you just never know. Daily stats are going to have to wait, because I have put my food list down somewhere and can’t remember where, and I feel like crap so I’m going to turn the computer off. They will come later.

Good luck on weigh day tomorrow everyone.

But yesterday I was under instruction from Michelle Bridges to do a triathalon. We had choices – we could do a set of a 5km walk/jog, 800m swim and 10km bike ride if we were doing it at home or if we were doing it at a gym we had options of doing 3000m on the rowing machine, 10km on the bike and 5km on the treadmill or if we weren’t inclined to do that (which I wasn’t….) we could do three classes back to back. So here is me looking at this trying to work out what to do and I thought hmmm I’ll take the option of the classes, because classes are only 45mins each, which will get me in and out in just over 2 hours. Did I take into consideration that just because Fernwood classes were only 45mins didn’t necessarily mean that The Lodge would have classes of the same duration? In a word – no. So I got sucked in to doing three one hour classes back to back – BodyPump followed by BodyCombat finishing with Zumba.

And you know what. I DID IT. Oh yeah, I’m shouting it from the rooftops, because it is the first time I have ever done it (and quite possibly the last). I was joined in my endeavor by the wonderful Miss Kathy who kept me bolstered and going (by threatening to hold onto my leg and drag me back into the class if I tried to leave I admit), but who just made the whole thing more bearable and fun. Yes I did say fun. Because it really was. It was mind numbing, and draining and painful, but it was kind of fun. And I have never felt so accomplished in my life. I’m so damn proud of myself for dong it, but I’m also pretty damned proud of myself for not dying afterwards (though today, the pain really has set in and everything just hurts).

The trainers who were teaching the classes were great. The BodyPump class wasn’t my favourite, only because there were parts of it that were very hard for me to do with my wrist, but at those points I modified somehow. The BodyCombat class was a tag-team affair between two of the instructors and it was by far my favourite of the three classes (in fact I will be doing this class at least three times next week), with a lot of boxing moves in it, which I LOVE The Zumba class at the end was my least favourite. I love doing Zumba at home, but in a class situation I just didn’t like it. The instructor really didn’t take time to explain the steps very well, just seeming content with the fact that there were a lot of returnees. However, there were also about 7 of us newbies in the class, so I found for most of the hour I was quite lost and just doing whatever I wanted. All in all though – a great three hours.

So I didn’t blog last night because I was knackered (went shopping with my mum after the gym, and got some great material for my little sisters baby quilt – pictures shall come soon) so tonight, I give you my daily stats for yesterday (day fifty four) followed by daily stats for today.

Daily stats for Sunday:

And when I say life, I mean 12WBT has gotten in the way. I mentioned in an earlier post that I joined the gym, and this time (yes, I’ve gone down the gym route before, as readers of my previous blog on here would know) I am determined to do it right and keep it up. And two weeks into my joining the gym, I’m going quite well. I’d love to say that I’m doing fantastically, but I’m not, but that is more due to the fact that I seem to keep coming down with this dreaded lurgy. But I’m going as often as I can and I’m enjoying it and I’m loving doing the weight training again and more importantly I’m still motivated, normally by now the motivation has worn off.

Amongst other things that have gotten in the way of my blogging, is my quilting, which I have gotten right into. I started a quilt for our bed last year (and this is still a work in progress) and then got sidetracked, because cutting out 300 squares of cord was just killer on my wrist. But earlier this year a friend had a baby boy, and as I was organising her baby shower, I thought of doing her something special to mark the baby’s arrival (her first child). So at the baby shower I had all the guests write on small squares of white material, which I then took home and quilted up with some gorgeous blues and voila – one hand made, unique baby quilt. I have to say I fell in love with this quilt while doing it. I was quite sad to give it to her too, because it’s officially the first quilt I have ever made. But really, what am I going to do with a quilt full of messages from people I don’t know? The bonus is she loved it, and I know that he is going to grow up with a blanket that has a lot of meaning to him. (You can see pictures of the quilt here)

So admittedly I just went on a bit of a ramble, because this post is about the small things I’m noticing that make weight loss such a great thing. I think for me, the smallest, but by far the biggest thing is how easy it is for me to hold my partners hand now. Seems strange doesn’t it? But I’ve lost weight in my fingers, so wrapping my fingers into his is not such a struggle anymore, they just fit together nicely and I love it. I’m not in general a touchy feely sort of person, I like my personal space and can’t really remember the last time I hugged family (except my mum) but I always have to hug and kiss and be near my partner. He’s the only one I can stand being around that much. So to be able to hold his hand with ease is such a great feeling.

Another great feeling? Sleeping at night. The more weight I lose (did I mention, 14.3kg gone now, oh yeah!) the easier it is for me to breathe. I can talk for longer periods at a time (okay, maybe not the greatest thing that) without losing my breath, but more importantly, when I lie down, I don’t have all this weight pressing down on my lungs. I still have a lot of weight there, don’t get me wrong, but god I can’t wait until I’m at my goal weight, because then, breathing will just be a breeze. But I find I am getting such a better sleep at night, because I’m just getting so much more air into my lungs.

Lastly, but by no means least. My clothes are getting too big!!! We’re like everybody else in the world at the moment, money is tight, saving for a house deposit, bills come in etc etc and I can’t really afford to be going out buying new clothes (which I haven’t yet, I’m putting that off for a bit longer), but I’m having to get rid of a whole lot of my clothes because they are just too big for me and some of the pants literally fall off me now and I’m happy about it, happy about having to buy new clothes and spend precious money. It says a lot about my fluctuating weight though, that I have so many different sizes of clothes at home, that it’s not necessary for me to rush out to buy clothes that fit, because I’m starting to recycle back into old clothes that I had worn a few years ago. The thing I’m doing different this time though, is that I’m giving away all the clothes that are now too big for me. Previously I would have kept them for “just in case”, which is probably why I never really noticed my weight piling back on, because I would just move to a different end of the wardrobe to find clothes that fit me, it wasn’t necessary for me to have to face facts that my clothes were shrinking, I was putting on weight, because I could still fit the clothes in my wardrobe. I conveniently ignored the fact that the clothes I was wearing were 2 sizes bigger……. But this time, they’re going. There will be no safety net for me to fall back into. And any of the clothes that I particularly love, I’m going cut up and quilt. It will be my weight loss journey quilt (I did say I was getting onto the quilting thing again right lol).

So there’s my ramble today, about some of the small things that make my weight loss great. There are lots more reasons, but for me, these three things really stand out. What makes your weight loss great for you?

I RAN!!!!! Yes it’s true. I jumped on the treadmill and started doing intervals, and I did 15 mins of running intervals. Big thing for me that was, because the last time I tried to do jogging I ended up having a panic attack because I felt like I couldn’t breathe. But this time I just sucked it up and did it, and what’s even better (for me at least) is: I TOOK MY HANDS OFF THE TREADMILL. Yes I know I’m shouting I’m shouting, but that’s how excited I feel. I had such a big big fear of taking my hands off the treadmill in case I tripped and fell, thereby breaking my wrist again. Silly, irrational fear I know, but it’s a very big fear for me. But tonight, I did it. So I’m pretty chuffed with myself tonight. Not only did I go to the gym after I was so totally not going to, but I ran. Yep I ROCK.

So, daily stats for today:

Speaking of the gym. I went in last night for my official induction and to get my personal weights plan worked out – don’t get me wrong, I love that we get it supplied with the 12WBT program, but I’m looking for something specifically for me. I have my own problem areas that I want to target, so I feel that this is the best way for me to go. I got set up with all the weights I’m going to be doing, we went through them all to work out what each individual machine should be set to, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that I haven’t lost all my strength – lower body strength anyway. My weights were only a little lower than when I was previously going to the gym, so I’m pretty sure that in no time I will be surpassing my old weights. I’m so enthusiastic to get back into it again, I realised last night just how much I missed working out with weights. I was never much into the cardio side of things – always pretty much detested the treadmill, still don’t like it much, but I always loved jumping on and doing some weight work. So I’m pretty enthused about heading back to the gym tonight. I just wish my wrist would allow me to do a bit more of the upper body weights to really target my flabby yucky tuckshop arms. But I’ll work on that, and do the weights that I can for now.

So tonight, I promise I will put up my daily stats. Oh and yesterday was weigh in. I lost 900gm which I’m happy with. It’s not the bigger numbers I was getting when I first started, but I was pretty slack last week and only exercised twice, so I can’t be too surprised at smaller numbers. 900gm is still impressive for me. All up, 13.3kg lost now, so I’m pretty chuffed with myself.