a shrinking journey... mum-on-a-mission

13 Days Until 12WBT

2012-01-31T13:20:00.001+08:00

12 days until the 12WBT starts officially. I've started to eat a lot cleaner, and make smarter choices. We're also working our way through the pantry to get rid of all the not-so-brilliant stuff!

One of the pre-season tasks is to set your goals. So, I've set mine as follows:

In 1 month: Get under 90kg and back into the 80s
In 3 months (ie 12WBT): Lose 15kg and get to 80kg
In 6 months: Lose 20kg, sign up for Round 2 of the 12WBT for 2012
In 12 months: Be at 65-70kg, and start trying for baby #3!

So there they are, laid out on the table for all to see!

Looking forward to getting this ball rolling :)

Hopefully not just another diet I fail at

2012-01-15T19:32:00.000+08:00

Ok, so now it's 2012. I've got a two year old boy and a 3 month old baby girl, and it's time to get rid of the pregnancy pounds. Kilos. Pounds sounds better, even though I'm not American. Anyway, I digress...

I'm sick of looking in the mirror and hating what I see. I'll be honest, I'm not a big fan of me. Not a fan at all in fact. But it's time for me to start to believe that I am worth it, that I am worth fighting for, if not for my sake but for my kids' and husband's sake.

Tomorrow the pre-season for the Michelle Bridges 12 Week Body Transformation starts. I will wake up and take a horrible 'before' photo in my underwear, and hide it from the world until I've made a significant change.

I am not as crazy over the top motivated as I have been before starting previous 'diets'. But this time shit's got real, and it's time to change. I have to. I'm not healthy. For a ~~nearly 26~~ 25 year old, I sure do a lot of huffing and puffing and experience a lot of aches and pains. My body is older than it's time.

I'm sick of feeling lethargic and heavy. I'm sick of not being able to roll around on the floor with my two year old because it hurts, or I struggle to get back up. I don't want to miss out on my kids' childhoods. I don't want my kids not to have a mum! Even thinking about that, I get teary. I need to do this, and that's my motivation.

I don't even care if no-one reads this. I hope to read back during my journey and see how far I've come.

My body needs transforming... But my mind needs a swift kick up the ass. Daily.

Bring it 12WBT, I ~~think~~ am ready for you.

Finally!

2010-03-19T14:03:00.000+08:00

Well after my annoyance at only losing 2kg in my first week, I kept thinking that it will start to fall off... any time now... any time now... but it wasn't happening.

So I had a think about what I was doing differently this time to the last few times - and it seems I've worked it out. Coffee. Previously on Tony Ferguson you were only allowed decaf, but the rules have now changed and you're allowed 1 cup of normal caffeinated coffee per day. So, that's what I had been having.

On Wednesday, I decided to not have a coffee. On Thursday morning, I was 400g lighter. On Thursday, I decided to also not have a coffee. Again, another 400g lighter.

So I am please to report that I have now so far lost 3.2kg and am hanging on to the 90s by a thread - I was 90.1kg this morning. Hopefully I will meet the 80s this weekend! Never thought I'd be happy to get to the 80s, but there you go, everything is relative.

I have just over 2 weeks to meet my first goal of losing at least 5kg by the wedding in Melbourne, and so far so good.

Weekend = Success!

2010-03-15T13:09:00.001+08:00

I did it. Survived a weekend of killer temptation, and came through relatively unscathed.

First thing's first - today was my first week weigh in - and my total loss was 2kg. Not brilliant for a Tony Ferguson week 1 unfortunately, and I am definitely a bit bummed. But - I have thought back about what I ate and it is possible there was perhaps a little too much salt. So the weekend unfolded like this.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early for Jim DiCarlo's 60th birthday breakfast at Dome. For breakfast I went for the fruit salad, a skinny latte, and just had my shake when I got home. Unfortunately the fruit salad did have quite a number of high GI fruits in it, like watermelon, rockmelon and pineapple, and it also had a big dob of yoghurt with honey on top (which I avoided, and wiped as much as I could off the fruit without looking manic in public!). But I still figure that some fruits that aren't 'allowed' is better than having the big breakfast which is full of fat, and way too much protein for my allowed portion size, not to mention the huge amount of carbs in the big chunk of white toast. So, whilst not perfect, it was the best I could do without offending the group by not ordering anything. So, I see temptation challenge #1 as a fairly good outcome.

Saturday afternoon, we went to Belinda and Paul's engagement party. I made sure to have my shake in the car on the way, so I wasn't feeling hungry at the party. This worked quite well, and I managed to avoid all the deep-fried platter food, and didn't eat anything at all. I had about 1 and a half glasses of white wine, and 2 glasses of water. Temptation challenge #2 - definite success!

Next stop after the party was to head to Kat and Kylie's for a 'Be Brave and Shave' barbecue - Kat shaved her head after raising over $800 for the Leukemia Foundation. All I drank there was water, and when the food came out I had 2 sausages (correct size for my protein serve) as they were the only protein available, some fried onions and some coleslaw which I saw Kat make with whole egg mayonnaise which is allowed on Tony Ferguson. There were also a few sultanas in it, but I wouldn't have had more than 5. So, again, best option I could have gone with out of what was available.

Then, Sunday we went out for lunch to celebrate Evan's 30th birthday. We went to Zanders in Scarborough, and I chose to not have lunch as my protein meal, but instead to have a salad and still have my shake. I didn't want to deviate from 2 shakes a day in the first week. For lunch I ordered a chargrilled pumpkin salad, which had no more than my allowed serve of pumpkin (pumpkin is a restricted vegetable on TF because it has a higher GI than other vegetables), green beans, heaps of baby spinach, cherry tomatoes and feta cheese. The feta cheese got shipped off straight away to Glenn's plate, and so the only feta I ate were the traces that were stuck to other bits of the salad. I think there was a very light dressing on the salad, perhaps just an olive oil and lemon juice or something like that.

Last night Meaghan came over for dinner and I cooked. I did skinless chicken breast stuffed with ricotta and spinach, with steamed vegetables (asparagus, green beans, yellow capsicum, roma tomatoes and broccoli) and made up some Greens gravy (allowed on TF) with some mushrooms in it. So, a TF friendly dinner too.

So after the weekend I had, I am a bit bummed that I didn't lose more weight this week. I was 91.3kg this morning, but did get down to 90.9 on Thursday - so it's a shame I didn't get back there. Have thought about everything I ate though, and thinking the following factors may have affected me:

Yoghurt traces on fruit salad, and too many high GI fruits, or too much fruit in general for 1 serve;
1.5 glasses of sweet white wine, instead of allowed 1 glass of dry white wine (you are allowed a glass of white wine instead of a fruit serve a few times a week, so perhaps I had too much 'fruit' on Saturday with the fruit salad and the wine);
Sausages are high in fat and sodium, and the whole egg mayo may have been a bit too fatty too;
Dressing on the pumpkin salad may have been too oily, and the traces of feta I had were very salty;
Gravy with last night's dinner is full of salt so would help me to retain fluid, and I also couldn't get low-fat ricotta so the 2 tablespoons of ricotta I had were full fat. I also had probably 40-50g too much protein at dinner (but if I hadn't cut my chicken breast back at all it would have been 200g too much!);
Also struggled on both Saturday and Sunday to drink enough water, I don't think I would have gone over 1.5L on Saturday or 2L on Sunday.

So today it's back to basics, just about to have my big bowl of veggie soup for lunch, then head off to personal training, and have some steak and vegetables for dinner. So we'll see how I go on the scales tomorrow morning!

Thank god it's Friday

2010-03-12T21:31:00.000+08:00

Well, not really, because that means it's the weekend, and weekends are inevitably harder because there is more temptation. We have a busy weekend coming up, but I am happy to report we started it on a good note by going back to personal training tonight. All three of us. Well, James came, but to be honest he slacked off. Kids these days, just don't have the same work ethic.

So, it's day 4 - and so far so good! Four perfect Tony Ferguson days, feeling good, getting back into exercising and focusing on staying positive. Day 2 was a bit of a struggle energy-wise, I hit quite a slump around lunch time but went and had a nap to try and combat that. I think that's what is making it a little easier, that if I need to just relax I can.

When I weighed myself Monday morning, I was 93.3kg. This morning, I was 91.2kg. Gotta love week 1! So, I will stay strong over the weekend and look forward to a good weekly loss on Monday morning.

This weekend will be quite a challenge, with 3 meals out for special occasions (breakfast at Dome, a barbecue, and dinner at Zanders). Fortunately I am confident I'm in the right headspace to handle it! The barbecue should be easy enough, and dinner as well - can just stick with mainly salad and perhaps some lean meat. Breakfast should be interesting as I'm not sure how flexible Dome are. Might plan ahead and look at their website now!

Planning ahead = required if I am to succeed.

Well hello there

2010-03-08T18:39:00.008+08:00

Well jeepers, it's 2 years on and yep, back to it. I'm 20kg heavier than where I last left this blog... so clearly that last restart didn't go so well!

A lot has changed in the last 2 years, more than just gaining back all the weight... for memory I got back up to 88kg, then went on a pretty massive health kick, got back into personal training with Daniel (my ORIGINAL personal trainer from New World, I started going to him at his new studio, Pulse), and started eating healthily to prepare my body for hopefully carrying a baby in 2009/2010. The aim was to get to 70kg at least, before conceiving, but the divine powers that be decided that when I hit 80kg, it was time. So, on a stinking hot Thursday, 17th December 2009, my beautiful little boy, James Raymond, was brought into the world by c-section, and my world changed forever :) So, considering I only stopped my last 'diet' because I was pregnant, I consider this me just picking up where I left off.

During my pregnancy I gained 21kg, and was diagnosed with gestational diabetes at 28 weeks. So, got up to over 100kg and man that freaks me out. 152cm and 101kg - no wonder I could hardly walk and my back decided it didn't want to co-operate much past my 8th month. Hence the elective caesarean. James was born at 37 weeks and 4 days, perfectly healthy, with APGAR scores of 9 and 9. Much to my relief, James was not affected at all by my obesity. I don't think I could have lived with myself if my stupidity and weakness had adversely affected my baby. Alas, we now have a healthy, happy and thriving little man - it was obviously meant to be.

So, the reason for my return? I wanna get skinny. However, this time my motivations and goals are different, while still being the same, if that makes any sense what so ever (hmm, perhaps I shouldn't blog whilst watching Neighbours, it makes me sound all baby-brainish). What I was trying to say...

I want to be around to see my son grow up. Not only do I want to be alive, I want to be happy to be alive. I want to be happy when I look in the mirror. Or not even happy to start with, just to feel moderate non-self-hatred when I see myself in a mirror or a photograph. I want to rediscover my passion for taking photos of myself while holding the camera out as far as I can with one arm, without having to tilt my head so far up that you can see clearly the extent of my nose hygiene to hide my double chin, or make sure I don't put my head to far to the side and squish my cheek and overflow-chin fat too much...

I want to get excited about going out somewhere again, and I want to get excited about picking an outfit to wear that doesn't make me look like I am still 6 months pregnant. Coz it's not a good look, when out with my 2 month old son, looking pregnant... "pssstt... she didn't waste any time"

It's the tummy that drives me absolutely nuts, and it was there in the time B.J. (Before James) - so no excuses there. Why my body decides to store everything there, I don't know, but I do know if it wasn't there (and I did get a glimpse of myself sans huge stomach - while leaning into the change table and hiding it - in James' wardrobe mirror the other day, and I didn't half dislike what I saw), I'd be well on my way to being happy.

Plan A: Reduce stomach size to appear only 3 months pregnant with food-baby.

Then there's the pain. Back, knees, ankles, feet... this tiny frame was not built to carry 100kg. Well I'm not 100kg any more, more like 92kg, but still - not built for it. According to BMI a healthy weight for my height would be 48-52kg. Sounds good to me. Sounds far away too.

Fast forward to the present day.

Today I restarted the Tony Ferguson weight loss program. Day 1 is going well, only 'naughty' think I've eaten is a lite plastic cheese single because I'm bloody hungry, and didn't get the lamb roast in the oven early enough. Gotta love the first few weeks of stomach shrinking and feeling stupidly hungry and weird. Feeling nice and positive though, and it's a bit easier being at home and being able to organise food, and be in control.

Initial goals for the mum-on-a-mission challenge are as follows:

1. I WILL lose at least 5kg by the time we fly to Melbourne for Damien's wedding at the beginning of April. I will also buy a new outfit for this wedding and hopefully not feel or look completely horrid in it. To achieve this, I am aiming for a killer first week on TF, hopefully losing 2-3kg. Then, I have nearly 3 weeks to lose the remaining 2-3kg. Definitely doable. Heck, it's smashable! (insert line from old Burgen advertisement here)
2. I will lose all the baby weight, 12kg, by the end of May 2010. This equates to an average of just over a kilo a week. Doable, but it'll take a few big losses to even out the slower weeks.

That's all I want to set at this stage - but the main aim is to be down to at LEAST 70kg before falling pregnant with Spud the Sequel. And I've got ages to do it in... so no pressure. Right?

Right. Insert Burgen ad again. Looking forward to week 1 being over, and getting back into personal training with Daniel on Friday.

Need to change that 'before' picture too. I'd be stoked if I still looked like that now. Funny how everything is relative!

Restart

2008-03-04T10:31:00.003+09:00

Today is the first day of a PROPER RESTART. No more bloody excuses.

It's 10:30am and I'm a bit hungry and looking forward to lunch already.

So far have had:
1x TF Mocha shake with SF
1.5L water

Gonna head down to City Provisions at lunch and get some veggies to munch on for the afternoon.

I want coffeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

8:56pm
For the rest of the day I had healthy stuff, all TF approved until about 15 minutes ago when I cracked and ate fruit cake.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Oh well can't fix it now, but what a loser, can't even make through day 1 >:(

Other than that though, perfect day, came home from work and did a 20 bike ride (12km), then about 10 minutes of punches at the punching bag, then did 2x sets of bicep curls and shoulder presses with 2.5kg dumbells. Not huge but it's all I had at home.

Here's to a PERFECT day tomorrow - nice and busy so no time to sit and eat.

Kicking it

2008-02-07T11:20:00.000+09:00

I swear my willpower has disappeared hey. I'm hell struggling at the moment, but I'm still as determined as ever. Now over the next few days there is no excuse to eat anything crap, so I'm gonna go hard at the gym and eat really well (full on TF) and hopefully get out of the 70s for good! I've been hovering around 71-73kg for the last 2 or 3 months and I'm over it. Gotta get outta there.

Soooo this morning I went to the gym and did bout 40 minutes on the treadmill at 6km/hr, with 4x 2 minute bursts at 8km/hr. I was stuffed after it, even if it doesn't sound like much, but least it's a start. And last night I had an awesome weights session with Reece... who, by the way, is leaving New World... grrrr. He'll be doing Wednesdays but with my new job and volleyball on Wednesday nights it doesn't leave much time... but I worked out I can train with him before/after most games except the 7:30/8:15pm ones. I am not changing trainers again though!

Food Diary for today
1x TF chocolate shake blended with a banana and ice

Weekend... pfft

2008-01-30T16:32:00.000+09:00

Ok so I didn't exactly "do my best" this weekend. And I am now avoiding the scales until at LEAST Friday. So yep, I didn't weigh in this week.

Back on track as of yesterday though. I will do this!

Big weekend coming up

2008-01-24T13:42:00.000+09:00

Didn't get time to write yesterday, so here's the food diary:

1x TF chocolate shake blended with a banana
1x decaf skinny latte
1x salad with cucumber, capsicum, lettuce, grape tomatoes
1x cafe latte shake
Chicken treat small chips and wrap for dinner as we were rushing in between soccer/swimming/volleyball :( Oh well, did lots of exercise so hopefully won't have too much of an impact.

Today's Food Diary:
1x TF banana shake blended with a small mango

This weekend is going to be a challenge (to say the least) as we have lots of social events to go to and I won't always be in control... so I'll try my best and we'll just see what happens.

Week 20 Weigh in

2008-01-22T11:33:00.000+09:00

Today is weigh in day, and this morning I weighed 71.9kg - which means this week I have lost 1.1kg. Very happy with this!! It also takes me to a total of 15.9kg overall, so I'm pretty impressed.

Going to keep up the daily food diary, keeps me on track and helps me see what I have eaten in a week. Also really helps me keep track of the things I can have only a few times a week!

Food Diary

1x espresso shake
Big bowl of notatoes with some Greens gravy on to
1x decaf with a dash of milk and one equal
1x apple
1x strawberries & cream shake blended with a small mango and some ice
Tuna mornay made with tuna, tomato, onion, ricotta and some low carb white sauce (Maggi)
1x diet lemon can (Golden Circle)

Also had a PT session tonight which was good, bloody painful and I don't think I'm going to be able to use my legs tomorrow - BUT - good for the fitness :)

Tomorrow is weigh in day

2008-01-21T17:52:00.000+09:00

I am quite interested to see what kind of loss I record this week... and I will find out tomorrow. I gained 100g overnight, but I guess that's just fluctuation because I've been really good.

Food Diary for today

1x TF french vanilla shake blended with 10ish raspberries
1x decaf skinny latte with an equal
1x salad with capsicum, lettuce, cucumber, grape tomatoes
1x TF cafe latte shake
1x orange
1x diet jelly 250ml

Dinner (after volleyball) is zucchini and ricotta fritata and notatoes. :)

Christmas kilos: Gone!

2008-01-20T10:59:00.000+09:00

I lost 600g overnight!! Yay! So happy, because I am now less than I weighed before Christmas. So I was 72.1kg this morning - which takes me to 15.7kg total over my Tony Ferguson journey :)
Also soooo glad that I am doing this weekend challenge, because when we popped into the shop on the way home from my brother's house last night, I really felt like fish and chips, or chinese, or something... but I didn't and I was rewarded for it!

Food Diary

1x TF chocolate shake blended with a banana
1x diet jelly (250ml)
1x salad with capsicum, cucumber and some LF/LC dressing
1x TF mocha shake
1x chicken caesar salad with lettuce, bacon, chicken and a few croutons with Paul Newman's caesar dressing (low fat, low carb)
1x diet jelly (250ml)

Also, since the 14th of Jan I have been doing a "Birthday Challenge" - which is that I want to weigh 66kg by my birthday on 24th February. Keep an eye on the ticker below to see progress (I update it each morning after I weigh myself)

Day 6 - weekend begins

2008-01-19T14:00:00.000+09:00

Going great guns on the weekend challenge. I got up this morning and I did 20 minutes on my exercise bike... nothing huge though. I rode over 30km/hr the whole time though so it was still a decent workout.

Food Diary

1x TF french vanilla shake blended with half a large mango
1x salad with capsicum, a few olives, grape tomatoes, lettuce
Some celery sticks with about 15g of Philli cheese (smoked salmon flavour)
1x TF pina colada shake
1x protein serve of lamb and honey rissoles with notatoes, steamed green beans and half a carrot with some Greens gravy on top. Yum!

Also drank about 4L of water :)

Weekend challenge begins

2008-01-18T18:10:00.000+09:00

After last night's "indescretion" I am feeling surprisingly ok. I got about late-ish and went to the gym and did half an hour on the treadmill, mostly at 6.5km per hour. Usually I do between 6-6.2km and that's tough, so I was happy with my effort today. I was all hot and sweaty after it and felt good, so it must have worked.

And when I got up this morning I weighed 72.7kg, which was only 200g more than yesterday, and the fat percentage hadn't changed, but the water percentage went up by 2% so I'm assuming it's all fluid. Which is expected.

Food Diary

1x TF strawberries & cream shake blended with half a large mango and ice (after gym)
1x serve of notatoes, steamed green beans and some Greens gravy on top
1x TF espresso shake

1x 100g hake fish fillet with a sauce made from 15g ricotta, a dob of philli cheese, lemon juice and parsley

1x salad

Also, the fabulous ladies on the TF forums have organised a weekend challenge to make sure we're good over the weekend... so I've joined in that and am going to be 100% perfect :)

A photo from today when I was looking after Caleb, we were sitting on my exercise bike, hehe.

Day 4

2008-01-17T15:02:00.000+09:00

It's bloody hot today, so I convinced Glenn to go to the beach this morning, which was lovely. He hates the beach and I absolutely love it... so it sucks :( Although we only went for like 20 minutes it was better than nothing I guess.

I lost 500g overnight, so I'm down to 72.5kg - which is only 200g away from where I was before Christmas. So I'm going well!

Food Diary

1x TF chocolate shake blended with ice and a whole banana (quite small though)
1x TF friendly shepards pie made with 140g five star mince, capsicum, onion, mushrooms, tinned tomatoes, tomato paste, then topped with notatoes (cauliflower, philli cream cheese, salt, pepper, parsley flakes and garlic powder) - This was EXTREMELY filling but nice.

Work was SHIT tonight - I hate it so much and I need to get out of there. So consequently I came home in a foul mood (to say the least) and we ordered a pizza. Awesome. Great way to screw it up....

So I felt so bad and guilty after it that I got on my exercise bike and rode for just over an hour. Which was about 31km. So that made me feel a LITTLE better. Stupid! Oh well it's done now, can't change it, just have to resist temptation next time.

Day 3

2008-01-16T22:39:00.000+09:00

It's all going really well, I have fully got my determination back and it's awesome. Today I worked all day, and then after work Meaghan and I went to the gym for an hour. We just did some cardio and some weights, and it felt like a pretty good workout. Then we had volleyball later tonight, so 2x exercise for today :)

Food Diary
1x TF Chocolate shake with a drop of coconut essence
1x Decaf skinny latte with 1 sweet 'n' low
1x apple
1x salad with cucumber, capsicum and cherry tomatoes
1x diet jelly (250ml)
1x 120g steak with paprika, garlic powder and chives on it
1x salad with lettuce, cherry tomatoes, capsicum, spring onion and 4 olives

I'm currently cooking some eggplant chips so I'll nibble on them before bed :)

The body is an amazing thing

2008-01-15T21:47:00.000+09:00

Overnight I lost 1.4kg, and boy was I shocked. But it makes perfect sense though, as we had pizza for dinner on Sunday night, and yesterday morning I was 74.4kg. So, my body was obviously holding onto a lot of fluid, and a big detox yesterday fixed it. So I'm back down to 73kg, and only 700g away from the lowest I got to before Christmas (72.3kg). So by next week, all signs of the festive season will be gone :)

Today was actually easy, I've just been not making such a massive deal of it, so it's a lot easier. I got up about 10am and had my shake, then went and had an awesome PT session with Reece. We did cardio, and he was really impressed with how much my fitness is improving. I'm pretty happy too - I used to HATE cardio and now I look upon it as a challenge and I enjoy it. Strange but true :)

Food Diary:
1x TF Chocolate shake blended with 7 strawberries
1x salad with lettuce, cucumber, capsicum and cherry tomatoes
1x TF espresso shake
1x mince protein serve with a tomato TF allowed sauce, champignons, capsicum, onion and some other vegies

We also went to the movies tonight, and I wasn't even the slightest bit tempted to have anything from the Candy Bar, or have dinner out... instead I packed a little container with cherry & grape tomatoes, a few slices of TF allowed ham and turkey breast, and some salami and olives for hubby but I didn't have any :) Yay!

Time for some inspiration

2008-01-14T07:56:00.000+09:00

Discipline is remembering what you want.

"You have failed only when you quit trying. Until then, you're still in the act of progression. So, never quit trying and you'll never be a failure.---Tommy Kelle

"If we defend our habits, we have no intentions of quitting them."

So frustrated with myself

2008-01-14T07:35:00.000+09:00

Why can't I seem to stop at the moment?! Yet another weekend is over, and more crap food was consumed. So pissed off with myself. Once I start and have 'just one bad thing' then it seems to spiral and I want more crap foods. Grrrr.

I can't do this see-saw thing anymore - as of today I am 100% TF, no excuses, no ifs, ands or buts. I WILL get to 66kg by my birthday.

Today didn't start well though, the bloody cat decided to wake me up at 6am, when I didn't have to get up until 7:30am (which is NOW) and so I am extremely tired and grumpy and not looking forward to work. And to top it off I once again have an unsettled tummy and feel gross. On the upside of the cat waking me up early thing, I have made a coleslaw type salad for my lunch and already finished nearly 1.5L of water.

I will have my breakfast shake just before I leave.

Food Diary

1x TF Strawberries & Cream shake blended with half a large mango (1 small mango is one fruit serve)
1x coleslaw with cabbage, 1/2 carrot, bean shoots and capsicum and some whole egg mayonaise
1x TF cafe latte shake
1x mediterranean tomato sausage casserole from TF recipe book
1x decaf coffee with 1 sachet of equal

Fallen off... kinda

2008-01-13T11:57:00.000+09:00

Well since I was sick on Thursday and had a roll, I've not really been properly back on the diet. On Friday night Glenn and I went to the markets in Joondalup and had dinner with dad, which was a kebab, followed by icecream... oops. And yesterday wasn't too bad but I did have Doritos. Grrr. Just can't seem to stop myself at the moment.

Today we have Caleb's 2nd birthday party, at 2pm. Guessing there will be all sorts of foods there, so I will have a few bits and pieces if I feel like it, but not go nuts. Then a nice healthy TF dinner when we get home.

The one good thing out of the last couple of days though, I did get up and go to the gym yesterday morning for just under an hour.

Anyway, back to it, I have fairy bread to make!

Bit sick

2008-01-10T20:44:00.001+09:00

I woke up this morning with a funny tummy so I had a few non-TF friendly things today, well just one actually. I had a meat and salad roll for lunch, so although that's not ideal, it's not too bad.

Also tried to get on the bike when I woke up but lasted just over 5 minutes as I was feeling really ill, and starting to feel ill. Grrr. Oh well, tomorrow is a new day :)

Already feeling heaps better

2008-01-09T23:03:00.000+09:00

Well day 3 is more or less over and done with, and it was very successful if I do say so myself.

Worked all day from 9am-5:30pm, then decided at work that I wanted to go to the gym after work so I dragged my friend Meaghan along with me and we went for about an hour. We did 2o minutes on the treadmill (I did 2.1km, walking most of the way a 6.5km/hr), followed by various upper body weights, some ab work, then a 5 minute interval sprint on the bikes, then a cool down. So it was awesome!

Then at 9:45pm we played volleyball, so that's 2 good bits of exercise for the day.

Today's food diary:
1x TF pina colada shake with SF
1x apple
1x garden salad with lettuce, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, capsicum and cucumber and whole egg mayo
1x TF mocha shake
1x 250ml bowl of diet jelly
1x chicken caesar salad with chicken and bacon as protein serve
1x green tea mineral water

And about 4.5L of water during the day plus while exercising.

Here's to another good day tomorrow :)

Day 2

2008-01-08T11:16:00.001+09:00

It's 11:15am and I am just having my breakfast shake. Woke up late and it made sense to eat late, as I am working 1-4:30, so won't have my lunch shake until I get home, and I have a personal training session at 7:30pm so I won't have dinner until after that. Will probably have a salad before I go to work though.

Yesterday went really well - and overnight I seem to have lost 1.2kg... strange but I'll take it. TTOM messes with the scales big time anyway. But, that makes it a 900g loss for the week, so I can't wait to see what next week's will be :D

Today's food diary:
1x TF vanilla shake blended with ice and frozen raspberries (very very yummy!)
4x cherry tomatoes
1x decaf skinny latte with 1 sweet 'n' low
1x cafe latte shake blended with ice
1x 250ml bowl of diet jelly

Water:
4L + 750ml whilst exercising

8:18pm - have just got home from the gym after my PT session, and man it was a huge one. As much as it hurt though, I actually enjoyed it, even at the time. So I'm happy with that. Just waiting for hubby to get home so we can have dinner, which is mince and mixed vegetables in a TF allowed tomato sauce, served on a bed of grated cabbage/carrot (Thanks Aliesha!). Yum!!

Plumetted

2008-01-07T21:08:00.000+09:00

Alright so I plumetted off the wagon AGAIN, after not even making it through day 2. So Friday night and the weekend consisted of takeaways, chips and other crap. And I am paying for it - this morning I weighed 75.0. It is also TTOM so hopefully that is also having an effect, and once that's all over, it'll start to fall off again.

So I guess you can say today was, once again, day 1. Today's food diary:
1x TF chocolate shake, blended with a whole banana - VERY yummy and extremely filling
1x garden salad with approx 2 cups of veggies
1x apple
1x TF vanilla shake (+ fibre)
1x 120g You'll love coles fish fillet in parsley sauce (carbs 4.6/100g)
1x salad with approx 3 cups of veggies
1x green tea mineral water (0.6g carbs/100g)
Plus approximately 4L of water.

I also played volleyball so that's a nice bit of exercise for the day. Although it was rather a bitch playing in 40 degree heat! Oh well.

Glad I'm back on the wagon, I can't wait to start shedding those kilos again :D

Day 1 (again)

2008-01-03T12:47:00.000+09:00

Well I'm right back into it today! Feeling positive and happy :)

Today' food diary:
1x Green Tea
1x TF Cafe Latte Shake
1x protein serve (chicken)
1/2 avocado
3 cups of salad veggies in an awesome chicken and avocado salad!
1x apple
1x Banana shake

Also was a bit peckish when I got home from work and had 4 slices of turkey breast (low fat/low carb deli style).

Drank about 2.5L of water too.

New year, new start

2008-01-02T22:08:00.000+09:00

Such a cliche, I know - but this new year I have to get my ass into gear and lose the rest of this weight. Over Christmas and New Year (about a month of being on and off TF) I have gained a few kilos and as of this morning, was back up to 74.7kg.

Today was meant to be the day, but that didn't work because there was still crap food left in the house. So I ate it. Grrrr I wish I had willpower - where did it all go?! But on the upside, all the crap is gone now so it's full steam ahead tomorrow. No more excuses - I wanna be skinny!

So I've just made a double batch of diet jelly in preparation for tomorrow - Lemon Lime and Cranberry Apple, yum :) Also will need to do a veggie shop tomorrow too, to get back into the swing of things.

I'm in desperate need of inspiration at the moment... and butt kickers - so I'm off to search the realms of the wonderful world that is the internet.

Below is a picture of me at Christmas this year... 15kgs lost and beginning to really see a difference! I don't completely hate photos of myself anymore.

Back on track

2007-12-05T07:44:00.000+09:00

Well yes I know I've been missing in action for a few weeks... I've been struggling!!! I'm fine during the week, but for the last 3-4 weekends we have had some special occasion on which makes life tough. And once you've fallen off the wagon just a little bit, it is sooooo much harder to jump back on.

So after all that being said, I had a gain last week of 500 grams. I was not a happy camper. BUT this weekend just gone I was more on TF than off, and guess what I have to show for it??? An awesome 1.3kg loss this week :)

Had a great PT session last night too... Reece is really pushing me which is paying off - I am starting to see muscles, how interesting.

Working heaps more at the moment too which means I'm surrounded by crap food often, but I am getting good at resisting all urges!!

Still lost weight this week

2007-11-15T15:03:00.000+09:00

Well even after our big weekend, I still lost 700g this week :) Shows that the exercise and water are definitely paying off.

Some more updated photos... since it has now been 10 weeks and 12.9kg since I started TF.

Weekend away in Mandurah

2007-11-11T20:57:00.000+09:00

Glenn and I went away for the weekend to Mandurah to celebrate his birthday. I had decided that I was going to have the weekend off, and so it was a lovely and stress-free holiday!

Some naughty food was consumed, eg. fish & chips (which were so GROSS to the point that I just wanted to throw up afterwards ), icecream, small packet of twisties and a kebab. I also had some garlic bread with dinner (didn't enjoy it that much either) and 2 glasses of wine.

Sounds bad I know... but you know what? I don't care! Coz I jumped straight back into TF mode when we hit home and had a lovely lettuce, tuna and egg salad for dinner. I enjoyed eating whatever I felt like, but I didn't enjoy the feeling of being full and bloated AT ALL! And I just felt so blah and lethargic afterwards.

The good bit was that I didn't feel like anything other than water to drink - other than the wine at dinner last night. So I drank heaps of water because I looooove my water.

So we had a great weekend and I don't feel guilty at all - nor do I feel like I have fallen off the wagon - I'm still in the right frame of mind and I will keep going :)

Going B2B (back to basics, ie minimal sauces etc) for as long as I can handle this week, and going to keep up the daily exercise (doing about 30-90 mins every day now) and keep drinking the water and I'll be fine :)

Oh and I reached my 2nd mini-goal on Saturday morning before we left - I wanted to be 75kg by 10th November for our weekend away and I weighed 74.9kg on Saturday morning, yay!

Having a weekend off(ish)

2007-11-09T21:39:00.000+09:00

Well I am pretty damn happy with my week 9 weigh in results from Wednesday - I lost another 1.6kg this week so that takes it to 12.2kg in total! And I've still been exercising every single day, and it such a part of my routine now that it's easy and I actually really look forward to it and enjoy it.

It's been an up and down week though, but I've stayed on track and am proud of myself for that. I went back to work on Thursday morning, and got lots of lovely positive comments from everyone which totally made my day :) I hadn't worn my white work shirt (size 16) for a few weeks and it felt great! It no longer gapes at the buttons and the arms are nowhere near as tight - ie. it's comfortable now! I remember when I started TF and wore that shirt, it was so tight the buttons were nearly popping off and the sleeves were so tight that they cut into my underarms and hurt - but never again yay!

Had a nice busy day today too, which I finished off with a lovely walk around Lake Monger with Lisa, my good friend who is over from Sydney. Was probably about 3.5km, and we walked quite fast, so it felt good. I'm definitely going to try and do that more often! Now, to find a walking buddy... well Meaghan moves to Greenwood in December so I reckon we'll go walking lots :)

Glenn and I are heading down to Mandurah for the weekend, so I'll be being not-very-strict this weekend. But we plan to do a lot of walking and swimming and stuff so hopefully it won't be too bad. But most important of all we're going to have a great weekend away together and not worry about anything :)

Success!

2007-11-01T21:47:00.000+09:00

Well I am a lot happier tonight than I have been for the last week. I had my first session with the new personal trainer, Rhys today. And yes, it actually was a session, haha, and he apologised for what happened on Tuesday.

Anyway, he seems like a nice guy, and his style was similar enough to Daniel's that I felt comfortable. We did a killer workout too, which was awesome. Lots of arm weights, wall squats, some core work and 2 sets of 2 minutes on the rowing machine, flat out and full resistance. It was bloody tough and I felt like I was gonna die, haha, but I did it and I felt awesome after it - and still do now even though it's nearly 10pm. Gotta love them endorphins :)

And because I was feeling so good, I had a really productive and positive day - got heaps of washing done, did a massive food shop, dishes and cleaned out the fridge. Yay me.

Tomorrow I can't exercise a huge amount which sucks balls, because I have a chiropractor appointment at 9:30am and am not allowed to do much more than just ride the bike after that. And then I have to go to the stupid dentist coz some fillings I got a few weeks ago aren't feeling right. But I shall ride my bike for as long as I can whilst I catch up on some trashy women's magazines :D

Huge week

2007-10-30T18:41:00.000+09:00

Well an awful lot has happened since I last posted. Last Wednesday's weigh in result was a loss of 700g, which took me to 10.3kg in total. But the main thing that happened: my nanna passed away on Wednesday afternoon. I spent the whole day with nanna and the family and we were there when she went. It was really sad, but at least she is at peace now.

So as you can probably imagine, it's been a really hard week. I have still managed to get in at least half an hour of exercise each day though, except for yesterday. Yesterday was a complete blow out. We had Chicken Treat for lunch after the funeral, and Glenn and I had pizza and garlic bread for dinner last night. But you know what? I actually didn't care and it did make life easier coz I didn't have to cook or do anything.

BUT I jumped straight back on the wagon this morning and have been going strong all day. First thing I did when I got up was jump on the exercise bike for half an hour, which I really enjoyed. I've upped the water intake too, trying to flush out all the crap from yesterday. Then I was really excited about going to the gym this afternoon for my session with Rhys - I cancelled my session with Luke and rescheduled with Rhys instead - but that didn't turn out as planned.

As usual, I got to the gym 15 minutes before the session was meant to start (5pm), gave them my card as I walked in and jumped on the treadmill. Anyway, 5pm came, 5pm went. I was just thinking he was running late or something, and didn't stress too much. Then, at 5:15pm, I decided to go to reception and told them I was meant to have a session with Rhys at 5pm. The girl at reception (she's new) and a guy who turned out to be Rhys - turned around and told me that I should have let them know that I was there. Now, I've had over 30 PT sessions at that very gym with different trainers and have always been told to jump on the equipment and they'll come get me. It's called a warm up.

Anyway, they told me that they had been trying to call me on my phone. That's lovely, but why not look at the cards of the members that are actually IN THE GYM at that moment??? And once they work out I'm actually there, perhaps look in the gym for me?!?! So that pissed me off big time, I missed my session and to top it off was told it was my fault. That's a load of shit and I will be speaking to the manager of the tomorrow. Grrrrrrr.

I booked another session with Rhys on Thursday at 1:30 but I seriously don't want to go. Will plead my case to the manager tomorrow and hopefully it will result in a refund for my remaining 10 sessions. Then I will go train with Daniel again.

In other news, not looking forward to tomorrow's weigh in, but not expecting anything this week so I won't be too disappointed.

A change for the worse

2007-10-23T15:47:00.000+08:00

Well my personal trainer Daniel started at his new club yesterday, so I had my last session with him last Friday. As usual it was a great session, and I felt great coming away from it.

Anyway, today I had my first session with the new guy, Luke. It was shit. Now, at first I was very skeptical of starting with Luke, but I decided to have an open mind and I went into today's session feeling optimistic. But it was not to be. He is the total opposite to Daniel. Normally that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, except that I have only ever trained with Daniel and therefore I have formed my opinions based on the experiences I have had with him. Daniel is laid back, and pushes you in a subtle way, whilst having a laugh here and there. Luke is rigidly structured - like 'we will do this for 15 seconds, then you may have a 20 second break'. Even if I don't WANT the break. It's crap. And the major piss-off - he doesn't seem to see males and females as equal. Like I mentioned that I have issues with my back, and so he gave me a stretch that he tells all his female clients. And went on about how all his female clients have problems with their hips. And that most of his female clients have stronger hammys than quads. And I have to lift this weight differently because I'm a female.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

Anyway, I have one more session with him on Friday, then I am seriously going to consider swapping to a different trainer. And if that doesn't solve the problem - I try to get a refund for my remaining sessions and go train with Daniel at his new club. Even though it's more expensive.

I always used to come home feeling happy and energised, but today I'm just plain pissed off.

Oh well, I am going back to the gym tonight for a BodyShape class so hopefully that will cheer me up.

Nearly 10kg gone

2007-10-17T13:11:00.000+08:00

Wow! Well as we know, Wednesdays are official TF weigh in day. So I got up this morning and jumped on the scales and what did they say... 78.2kg! So that's a big 1.8kg this week. Which takes the grand total to 9.6kg in six weeks. I'm so happy, this diet is seriously the best... it works and it's not stupidly hard.

I'm soooo glad I didn't crack on Saturday afternoon with all that naughty food around, it was so worth it :)

Yesterday I had my first session back with Daniel, my personal trainer. It was bloody hard as we're doing weights and toning exercises, but I enjoyed every second of it. Today I'm very sore though... should be interesting to see how I go at volleyball tonight, haha. The sucky thing though, I only just signed up for another 12 sessions with Daniel... then he found out he got a position as head of PT at another club.. so he's leaving as of 22nd Oct. Grrrrrrr. So I've got my last session with him on Friday morning, then I'll have this other guy, Luke, who doesn't seem brilliant. Oh well, time will tell... I am going to suss out whether I can get out of my other 10 sessions and go do them with Daniel at his new club. So fingers crossed.

Anyway my next mini-goal is to get down to 75kg by Glenn's birthday - 13th Nov - so I'm well on target for that!

Another temptation resisted

2007-10-13T18:46:00.000+08:00

This afternoon we had my family over for afternoon tea to celebrate my dad's birthday. And so obviously with that comes naughty non-TF friendly food! There was cake, bikkies, fairy bread (for my little nieces of course), sandwiches, rice crackers and dips and I even bought some Cadbury Lite chocolate, which is allowed occasionally on TF but I didn't even have any of that. So I'm very proud of myself.

Even as I sat feeding my nieces cake and other things, I didn't feel tempted. Definitely a big achievement. It was good though that I didn't really have a chance to eat in between all the playing with the girls :)

This will be the first weekend since I started TF that I haven't deviated from the program at all, so hopefully my weigh in on Wednesday will reflect this. And I haven't been as hungry lately either, and I am assuming that is because my body is now properly in ketosis.

This program is fantastic :)

Oh and yesterday I bought my reward for getting myself out of the 80's - some new yellow shoes! I love them and they're very comfy!

I'm living in the 70's

2007-10-11T10:01:00.000+08:00

Well it's official - albeit not an OFFICIAL weigh in day - but this morning I weighed 79.6kg :)

I'm so happy to be out of the 80's forever! Here's to another great week of weight loss!

So typical!

2007-10-10T22:10:00.000+08:00

Today is officially the start of Week 6 and this past week I have lost another 800g. So that's 7.8kg gone in total, and I'm really happy with the way it's going.

My first mini goal was to say goodbye to the 80's by today, 10th October... but I get on the scales this morning and what do they tell me? 80.0 of course! Haha so there's my giggle for the day, it's so typical! So I've extended the mini goal for another week so that next Wednesday when I weigh in I will be living in the 70's!! *starts singing* This will be damn exciting as I haven't been below 80 for at least a year, probably even closer to a year and a half. So this week I shall kiss the 80's goodbye and good riddance, never to be seen again!

I'm stoked with how this journey is going. The Tony Ferguson program is fantastic, and so flexible... and so HEALTHY. I love that I wake up in the morning feeling healthy and 'thin', instead of the ever familiar feeling of bloatedness, dry mouth and just 'fat'.

Also, the support I am getting from everyone around me is awesome. All the ladies (and the occasional boy) on the TF forums are a pillar of strength and always ready to lend a hand, not to mention I have the best husband in the world, the most awesome work crew - and everyone I know seems genuinely interested and willing me to succeed.

Which I will :D

Anyway I'm stuffed after playing a massive indoor beach volleyball game when we were short 2 players... but we won so I'm chuffed! Will no doubt report back the SECOND I arrive in the 70's, lol.

Another weekend: success

2007-10-07T20:11:00.000+08:00

Another weekend is gone and I've survived without a huge amount of deviation from the TF program.

I'm still trying to get out of the habit of 'yummy' easy Friday night dinners but I'm doing it and we had a nice healthy dinner instead.

Yesterday evening Glenn and I participated in the Purple Twilight Walk for breast cancer with a couple of friends. It was a 4 kilometre walk around King's Park and it was really nice. Then after that we went to dinner at one of our favourite restaurants, Mille Cafe. I had a Chicken Caesar Salad, so the only thing I'm really worried about with that is the dressing and perhaps a bit too much protein. And for entree I had a few pieces of the cacciatorre sausage and a few olives. So hopefully I didn't mess it up too bad, and totally knock myself out of ketosis.

Today I visited my nanna and while she sat there and enjoyed her chips, chocolate, wafers and cheese, I wasn't even tempted. So that's an acheivement for me :) And then I came home and rode my exercise bike for 30 minutes and travelled 16.3km. This 'At home' exercise challenge that the girls have started on the forum has really been good for me! I am now into the habit of exercising every day and enjoying it.

Also, my gym called me yesterday and questioned why I hadn't been for a while. Truthful answer: I've been slack. So I'm getting back into a session with my personal trainer once a fortnight. And since I've pretty much got the cardio covered with my riding and walking, I might get him to let me focus on toning exercises. So that's exciting!

Tonight has been pretty tough, I am still quite hungry after dinner, but I've had some strawberries and a Double D lolly so I'll get there. Might have to chomp on some more veggies before bed.

Looking forward to my Week 5 weigh in on Wednesday :D

Big day

2007-10-03T17:08:00.000+08:00

Today it has officially been 4 weeks since I started TF and I'm still loving it! I weighed in today at 80.8kg - which is 7 less than when I started, so I'm stoked :D

This morning Glenn and I woke up around 9am, despite having a late night and wanting a sleep in. But we got up and about 10:35am set out for a big walk to his parents' house. It took us about 45 minutes to get there so it was a decent walk! We stopped at the in-laws for 15 minutes and then by the time we had walked home it was 12pm. So we were proud of ourselves and we had fun. And tonight I'm playing volleyball so it's a big day exercise wise.

And I'm having a hungry day. I'm guessing that is because of all the exercise coz I would have burned a fair bit of energy. But I'm filling up on water and veggies and so far 1 of my pieces of fruit.

Ooooh and I made chocolate biscuits for lunch out of the choccie shake! They were yummy and they felt so naughty :P

Anyway I made up some 4 week comparison photos to see how far I've come so far... I can definitely see and feel the difference :D

Baby shower

2007-10-01T15:26:00.000+08:00

Well today hubby and I went to a baby shower. Now it started at 11:30am and so I was guessing it would be lunch, so I had my breakfast shake semi-late so I wouldn't get hungry! Anyway it was a full on barbecue, so I happily crunched away at my purple plastic plate full of allowed salad :) Meanwhile hubby enjoyed his sausage in a bun and so did everyone around me and I didn't even feel like it. So that's a big milestone for me!

Then we played Pass the Parcel and the prize inside each layer was a king size chocolate bar, haha, so typical. But my friend who was doing the stopping of the music was great and didn't stop on me! I would have just given it to my hubby anyway!

Then the cake came out. Soooo lucky I'm not a cake person, because I think for anyone who IS a cake person would have been stuffed because it was a sight. But passed on that too.

The only thing I felt slightly tempted to have was some Doritos, and that was only because Glenn breathed on me with Dorito breath haha. But I got home and had a Chromium tablet and filled up my second 1.5L bottle of water and now I'm all good.

So I'm proud :D

And so it has begun...

2007-09-30T22:00:00.000+08:00

Well I am now nearly 4 weeks into my Tony Ferguson journey - and I'm loving it! So far I have lost 6kg, and that was in the first 3 weeks.

Went out for dinner last night though, and had a semi-bad pizza, but I tried to be as good as possible by not eating much of the cheese and avoiding as much of the bread as possible. So I'm pretty happy with that. And because I wasn't alltogether good last night, today I was super good and also drank 4L of water and did some exercise.

I am determined to do this and I will! Just you wait and see.