Its a new day!

Today has been a lot better. I ate a good breakfast, lunch and snacks. Now I can tell you that it could have been more structured, but definitely not bad. And......... I also went into town and bought a work out video! Two actually.  I got Clare Nasir's-Boot Camp and Nadia Sawalha's-Fat to Fab.

I decided to take things easy, so for this week I will focus on Clare Nasirs video. It was tough! really touch, I'm sore all over and I'm sure its gonna be worse tomorrow :/ So first there is a cardio work out and then 4 different workouts (each 20 mins long) they focus on toning, resistance, cardio and abdominal. I did all of them. But towards the end I was getting exhausted so I didn't fully finish each section. I felt amazing and I hope it shows. I'm still trying to figure out exactly how often i should do this work out and when to do it. Any comments on this are welcome.

I really hope my hard work shows tomorrow in the weight in and I hope its not as sore as I am expecting it to be.

Bit of a set back... or is it?

Hi all, so I've been on this ... 'journey' for about 2-3 weeks now and Ive had my first slip up. It's not too bad, but it was avoidable. I just wasn't prepared enough. I was invited to a party on Friday, so I went and bought three drinks, not even thinking about their calorific content. Well I'm sure it was high as they were very sweet. And then there was a lot of party food there. Things like, mini pizzas, sandwiches, chicken nuggets, popcorn and mini sausages. It was OK I didn't go mad :) I also only has 2 and a half of my drinks.

The next day I decided to go to the zoo, that was great. Did about 4 hours of walking. Solid. But i did have a hot dog. So from now on back on track! no more messing up. I have learned by lesson, its my birthday in 2 weeks and I cant mess up then I just need to be more prepared.

Also tomorrows is the day when I'm starting to exercise officially :) So I'm gonna head into town to see what exercise videos are around. I think ill need something like that to motivate me. Ive looked at some online, Ill post them below, if you have tried them please let me know what you think.

Nadia Sawalhas: Fat To Fab Workout

Clare Nasir Fitness

Jillian Michaels: 6 Week Six Pack

30 Day Shred

Carmen electera strip aerobics

Davina: Body Buff: Bonus Digital Copy

Davina Mccall: Super Body Workout 

Any comments are welcome as always :) I need as much support as possible, especially when I slip up.  

Excel :)

So I have made some meal plans :) yay. Its quite repetitive but for now that is what I need.

Breakfast (195 Calories)
Poached Egg
Real Butter (only a scrape)
Whole grain Toast

Lunch (267 Calories)
Salad (tomato, lettuce, carrot, peppers, low cal dressing)
Wrap (lettuce, low mayo, grilled chicken or quorn, tomato)

Snacks (332 Calories)
Kiwi
Pear
Tangerine
Yogurt
Low Cal chocolate

Dinner (340 Calories)
Brown rice
Broccoli
Grilled Salmon
Korma Sauce

Drinks (15 Calories)
Dilute Juice

So altogether this meal plan usually comes in at around 1100 calories which still allows me to add some extras here and there if I'm still feeling hungry. I like this plan, its a nice framework. I even made an excel spreadsheet in which I can tell it the maximum calories I can consume daily and then i add the foods and calories I have eaten in a day and it will keep track of everything for me and tell me how many calories i have left.

I am always really hyper organised and this is perfect. Its fast and easy and takes out the thinking for me.

Tools and such, the grity work

So armed with my research I went to tackle the issue step by step. Starting with the beginning. My plan is to go from 134lb to 100lb. This means losing 34lb in a healthy and sustainable way. So taking a leaf from Debra Moorheads book I decided to go and check how many calories I would require to maintain my goal weight and to just eat that many every day. This would already train me into eating the way I should continue to eat for the future, greatly reducing the risks of gaining back the weight one I go 'off' the diet.

The fist thing was check my BMI, I wanted to know where I stood and what weight I should plan to be at. So I went to lowfatdietplan and looked up the chart. Its easy to read where you are and where you need to be to be in the healthy category.Currently my BMI is around 27 and I need to weight in the neighbourhood of 100lb-125lb to fall into the healthy category.

So I checked what my daily calorific needs were for my target weight of 100lb with two websites, shapefit gave me a recommendation of 1511 calories per day and freedieting gave me a daily amount of 1338 calories. So for the sake of restriction I am going according to what the freedieting website has calculated. It easy, just put in your gender, height, age, weight and activity level.

For activity level I put 'deskjob' because that's why I do, and I do no exercise around that. I think that because I do not want to fail at this I want to succeed I don't want to overload myself with too much too soon. So for now I will tackle food until I am confident I can take on exercise. I am taking baby steps towards a new lifestyle.

Armed with this new information I decided that from now, until I lose all the weight I will write down EVERYTHING. I need to keep track of every biscuit I eat, every drink I take. And I made the decision that I could not cheat until the diet is over. When I cheat I usually relapse into my old habits.Writing everything down will teach me exactly what to eat and what not, what foods I can afford to have more of and where I need to be careful. Also using calories will allow me to eat whatever I want, but if it is a high calorie meal I will go hungry for the rest of the day. In the case that I do slip up and over eat I am not allowed to give up, I must get straight back onto the horse and forget that it happened.

For now, the first few weeks this is the plan, try to get used to the calories, see what works, make meal plans see what doesn't work and tweak it. Eventually I will add in such things as better foods and exercise. This will evolve and come with more research and time. For now I have a big task ahead of me, wish me luck.

Reasons Reasons

Wow! Time really flies :o its Thursday already!

The last time I posted was Monday, and I don't think other than work I have accomplished much at all. I get so tired after work I just wanna sit down, have dinner and watch TV.

But any who here I am ready to tell you how I am getting on. Well I shall start at the very beginning on how I got this little project on its feet. First I scoured the Internet for information (a solid two or so weeks of research). I considered how I was going to tackle this weight loss thing in a way that this time I would not fail. I read about diet pills, researched fasting, Weight Watchers, LipoTrim, gym's, eating disorders, calorie counting, Atkins, the cabbage soup diet, the 'beyone' diet. I looked up EVERYTHING!

Guess what I found out?

None of it matters. None. Not even a little. Sure all the above are helpful tools for weight loss. But the thing I found was that if you are not in the right frame of mind, or are doing it for the wrong reasons all of the before mentioned diets and weigh loss methods mean nothing. Sure you can lose weight, but you will gain it back. So first thing is first. Why am I trying to lose weight?

Well I have been average weight (within my BMI) all my life, until I went to college, in 2006. Over the next four years of college I gained weight, not a huge amount, but enough to bring my BMI to 27 (over weight). To be honest I don't think my weight is an issue at this point (from a physical health point). I am merely just overweight. But emotionally it is effecting me a lot, my self confidence is shattered. I feel that I have no will power, and I feel ugly. Since I am only 4ft 11" tall, those extra pounds really make a difference.

I want to lose weight to get back my confidence, to feel sexy and healthy!

I want to lose weight as it has gone up at a slow but constant pace for the last four and a half years. If I don't do this now. I never will.

I did this very thorough research in a bid to not allow my self to fail again, I have tried many of the above diets and failed everytime. You wanna know why? Because of my mind set, I would say things like 'Sure I'll eat like 500 cals a day until I lose the weight and then Ill go back to normal'. This does not work, first of all, I never got that far to lose all the weight I wanted to, but also I never really wanted to diet. I just wanted to go straight back to fries, pizzas and soda.

This time my research has let me a different direction, I am going to have to make changes that are permanent, that I can sustain. There can be no such thing as 'I'll go back to normal' this 'diet' (for lack of a better word) is the normal! That is why I have made my journey so public. I cant do this alone, I don't want to. I want to have people follow my progress, to encourage me but also to let me know when I'm not doing enough. I need support, encouragement and tough love! So I urge you all who read this, to comment and tell me to do this and to see it through.

Monday!

Ok so here it is, bearing all, the initial number. I have to make this public and have to get support, put some pressure on myself so that I continue losing weight. Im going to weigh in every Monday evening before dinner and post it online. I REALLY hope the number drops! Here it goes...

Well thats it, its out there now! 125.6 lb people. Considering my start weight was 134lb about a week and a half ago its great to know ive lost about 8lb. :)

That number has got to move down to 100lb by the summer though! It has to! Now I know I’m not morbidly obese, Im actually just border line over weight, but I want to nip this upward spiral in the bud before it becomes a realy issue. I want to make a life style change and get my self confidence back. I need to, I hate looking at myself at the moment. So please if your out there reading about this, please comment, please show your support and help me reach my goal.

I’m going to follow Eat.Live.Be a project that exists in facebook. This is a group of bloggers who all participate in a healthy living initiative. Each Monday they blog about how they have reached and maintain their golas and also comment on other topics. I will hopefully be participating in this inittie also. Every Monday I will weigh in and share how I have achived my goals or how I found the last week difficult. (I’ll include pics and measurements and such)

My Goals-The Plan

So my Goal is to lose 34lb, bringing me to 100lb, which is near the bottom end on my BMI.

Goal Weight 100 LB 45.3 7.1 Stone

BMI 20.2

Calorie intake from now on will be between 1000-1200. And my plan is to have the majority of the weight of ASAP, but by June, thats in 4 months :/. But my final final goal is September as Ill be going on holidays and I will have to look fabin a bikini.

So I checked my calorific need for my target weight will be 1500lb, so I decided to go just a little below that to get the calories that I will be eating for my diet. I have already made up a meal plan which will fill me up everyday.

I plan to post freaquently and weigh in once a week.

Wish me luck guys!

My Body My Stats

Below are all my measurement including my weight as of last week, Im a little behind on posting :(. As you can see I am now over weight acording to my BMI. In the next post ill explain my goals but for now this is where the situation is at the moment.

Neck 32cm 12.5 inches

Shoulder 14cm 41 inches

Bicep 31.5 cm 12 inches

Chest 99cm 38.5 inches

Waist 81cm 32 inches

Hips 103cm 40.5 inches

Thigh 59.5 cm 23 inches

Calf 33 cm 13 inches

Belly 90.5 cm 35.5 inches

Hight 150 4’11”

Start weight 134LB 60.7 KG 9.6 Stone

BMI 27.1

And here are some photos of my body at the moment! Be warned its not pretty.

Some Rules

Here are some of the rules I will follow, (some made up and some from the internet):

• Believe that I can do it.
• Never cheat, ever.
• Track everything (even gum).
  
• Don't talk about change, do it!
• Don't loose weight for the numbers on the scale but do it for how you feel about yourself.
• Dont give up.
  
• Sleep enough.
• Focus on one thing and try to create a good habbit.
• Have a goal and change goals as time goes on.
  
• Dont just do it for yourself.
• Dont eat three hours before sleep.
• 20 minute wait time. Wait 20 mins after eating sensible portion, if still hungry have more.

New Plan !

So Ive been thinking, why am I trying to lose weight? And it has been becomeing alot more aparent recently, I feel the weight, I can feel rolls of fat starting to develop, I feel heavier. I need to get this sorted before it becomes a real issue. Not only that but I have zero self-love right now, I dont feel pretty, or sexy at all, and to me thats important. I want to feel great in my skin.

I think the reason the last diets havent worked are a) becasue there was no structure and b) becase they were unrealistic. With the Weight Watchers plan I has 29 poits plus about 5 extra point per day, that was too much give and not enough controll and the Lipotrim was only 400 cals a day! There is no way that is a realistic way for me to lose weight and keep it off.

I was reading about this lady, Debra Moorhead, and found that the way she lost weight was realistic, down to earth and do able. She lost weight by going online and finding out what her calorific intake should be for her target weight and that would be her daily allowance. I think this is a very reasonalbe way to aproach the subject, as I would be eating the food that I should continue to eat even after the diet has finished. So there is no suddent change as there usually is when you finish a diet. This is why it is not a diet, but a lifestyle.

Also she sais that she has not added any extra exercise that she woulndt ususally do, I think ill do the same for now. Idont wanna over complicate things, I want to do this right this time and I want to take it slowly. I can always add exercise later.

So, I'll keep you posted on my nextsteps. Wish me luck.

Im back, my recent ventures failed.

Ok so Lipotrim really did not work for me, it made me very depresses and sick. So I stopped the program and gained some extra weight back...


So what was my next paln? Weight Watchers. This was great, I really liked it the point were great and I didnt mind the plan at all. But I soon found that I was loosing 0 weight. I think its because Im only 4'11" and my calorific intake should be less than they recomend. And also the food they recomend I eat were having the opposite effect. So that went into the bin too.

My weight rose to 134lb to be exact. Right now, as of today I am 127 lb. And I have a new paln of attack. Which I shall inform you on later. :)