Halfway

So I'm new to this blogging thing, but I have decided I want to document my weight loss journey, and more than anything else, its another tool for me to keep myself accountable, and maybe inspire someone else to take similar steps in life?

My starting weight was 106.4kgs, and I had been hovering in the early 100s for around 5-6 years. All my life I remember being overweight, and as a teenager it got worse and worse and the weight gain never really stopped.

I started on MFP in early May 2013 and my life has completely changed and I feel like a completely different person. I am just about at the halfway point to losing 30kgs - having lost 14.5kgs in 6 months.

Along the way, I have set myself mini goals to keep me going. First milestone being to reach 99kgs (magical 2 digit land), the next one being 90kgs and my first big goal, and what I initially set for myself was to reach 85kgs. My ultimate goal is to get to 75kgs, and any lower I can get will be more of a long term thing.

In the past, even when I wasn't eating a lot or bad food, none of my efforts were working. I've tried many many different weight loss methods from just exercising, low carb diet, low fat diet, no dairy, combination of all, celebrity slim shakes, weight loss supplements and pills. I would sometimes get results, but no more than 5kgs loss generally, and the weight would eventually come back. (This is probably the same as most other people with weight issues!)

Earlier this year, I got fed up. Not only did I weigh a lot, I felt really unhappy about myself, I would look in the mirror and feel disgusted at myself. I also found out that a lot of my health issues including insulin resistance (and diabetes is in my family), was due to me being overweight. I decided I finally had to do something. I didn't want to die in my 50s of a heart attack, and I was so unhappy anyway, so really, what was there to lose! That is the attitude I started with.

At the recommendation of a friend to start calorie counting, I downloaded MFP, and started logging all of my food. Within a week I was hooked. It was really easy to log everything and for some strange reason, I actually felt empowered knowing exactly what was going into my body. I liked the control I felt. And at the end of each day, seeing how much I was still able to eat, or how little I had left, it actually motivated me to go outside and do some exercise. Not sure how this motivation worked for me, I think it was just seeing it in front of my eyes in black and white with actual numbers?

The majority of my exercise for the first 6 weeks was actually just walking 30 minutes every single day at a fairly brisk pace, as well as once a week of aqua jogging and another zumba or cardio type class. Definetley achievable, and not that hard at all. 

I averaged 1kg a week loss in the first 8 weeks.

In terms of food, my calorie intake has been set to 1360 per day (around about a 600-700 deficit of what my body requires from day to day).

It was a lot easier than I expected. I have not deprived myself, I have never been hungry, I still eat proper desserts after dinner. It has literally just been a case of, if I saw that I hardly had any calories left by the time I was going to eat my chocolate, I would go out and exercise, even if it was just to burn that off, or a portion of it. Exercising means I could eat more, regardless of what it was, and that was motivating!

The only things I have really cut out was cheese (although I occasionally will have a tiny bit) and takeaways - which was not hard after realising that some of my favourite takeaways like noodle canteen, pizza, McDs etc, an average meal was around 1000 calories or more...almost my whole days allowance! The shock of seeing these numbers was enough to put me off for life, and I have not craved them since. Other changes have just been as simple as switching to low fat/sugar alternatives of milk, butter, spreads, mayonnaise etc.

At the 8 week mark, I was off to Europe for 6 weeks.. I was terrified I was going to put on weight because I was not going to log my food (really who wants to do that on holiday!). Luckily though, not only did I manage to not put on weight, but actually lost another 3.5kgs! I'm guessing this is because we literally walked everywhere.. either way I was stoked.

Since arriving home in early September, my weight loss has slowed down, and took a while to get started again. I have stepped up my exercise to include longer walks, added in a bit of jogging (although my body still finds this quite difficult), I have recently started a 5 week (10 session) fitness boot camp and the 30 day shred (jillian michaels). I've also invested in a heart rate monitor to really be able to keep track of exactly what I am achieving. I am now averaging a 0.5kg loss per week and only 1.7kgs away from reaching my next big milestone of 90kgs.

I am feeling so good, way healthier and I can actually look in the mirror now and be happier! I actually want to exercise and enjoy it..and can handle longer periods (although boot camp kicks my ass!). This morning I chose to wake up early and at 6.15am...went for a walk before work. That is something that was unheard of for me in the past!

I actually am surprising myself these days at how my focus has shifted and how different my attitude is to everything. I feel like I've completely rewired my brain.

My aim is to write regular weekly blogs to update my progress :) and to keep me accountable!

Now to complete the picture...this is me in December 2012 at around the 106.5kg mark.  

And this is me in September (almost 2 months ago at 94.7kgs...more recent pics to come after I finish bootcamp in a couple of weeks! Fingers crossed for a noticable improvement!)