Happy New Year

So HAPPY NEW YEAR !!! I hope you all had a fabulous 2011 and I hope everyone has an even more brilliant 2012! :)

I have decided that this is the year to lose the blubber, I will never again be as fat as I was last and that is a very motivating thought. From TODAY on I am on a 'Diet' (I hate that word, it makes it seem to temporary) I want a long lasting, sustainable change so maybe I should call it 'My Little Revolution'.

Since today is the day that I begin I will spend the day getting organised and putting together my game plan. Firstly I am changing the name of the blog to the weight I actually wish to lose. Its my goal to post something on the blog every day to stay motivated, I may post something from today that I found interesting, my measurements, weight, consumed calories, burned calories and steps as well as photos. I probably wont do all these things everyday and I cannot promise that I will post everyday, but I really would like to. I would also like to add up my food in weight watchers points just to see how much I am getting in this way.

Little Goals and tasks I want to keep up and achieve:

- Drink lots and lots of green tea
- Take Cinnamon and Apple Cider Vinegar Supplements
- Drink Slimatea
- Don't go to Sleep too late
- Don't Eat  too late
- Do 20 000 steps a day
- Exercise twice a day
- No added salt
- Take the stairs in my apartment building

My main goal is to lose the weight by the end of August 2012, that roughly averages 1 lbs per week. In August I will be going to NYC for a fun trip with a fried so that is why I chose that date to begin my diet. The full diet will begin tomorrow as I like staring on a Monday, but today is me explaining everything and getting my food and everything planned out and organised.

And so begins My Little Revolution....

The Idiot-Proof Diet - Neris and India

I have just stumbled across this book and bought it. I have been reading it for a bit, I actually kind of like it. Its very though-love though. I'm going to give it a change in the new year and follow the plan for a bit. However I am not too keen on the start of the diet which is very heavily based on the Atkins diet and other similar diets.
Ill read more on the book and see how it goes, I may try it as they say the tough start only last two weeks before adding other foods back into the diet so we'll see...

Update on weight.

So here it is! My start weight is 136.5. :(

That is awful!

I am heavier than the last diet I went on! I cannot ever ever ever be this weight again. I plan to lost this and keep it off, first goal is to reach the 120's. So I have to lost at least 7 lbs. Id like to be at that weight by mid January but I'm not going to push my luck, I'm going to take my time and do this slowly. I'm going to give it as long as it needs.

My weigh-in's will be Tuesdays as Mondays are a little ridiculous in terms of stress. I am hoping to still be 136.5 by then as I will be going to Amsterdam for the weekend with all the girls and even though I will try and be as sensible as possible I am not sure if this will be possible. I don't know how much exercise Ill get and I don't know how many uber healthy options will be available.

I was going to try starting the 'Food Doctor Ultimate Diet' but it requires a strict liquid based diet for one week which I am unable to commit to this close to Christmas. I intend to start this as a new years resolution on the first of January, starting the year on a good footing. In the meantime I am controlling calories and exercising.

So bring on Week 1 weigh in on Tuesday!

It Starts NOW!

It begins to day... Strike that. It starts right now, as I already screwed up the morning with a pain au chocolat and a crossaint. But from NOW. RIGHT NOW I will never ever be heavier than I am right now.

That! Feels! Awesome!

From right now its a slow gradual descent to 100lbs I plan to take 6 months to lost the weight in a consistent way. I plan to use the FItBit, the BodPods results and my Food Doctor Ultimate Diet and my tools and get to my results watch me shrink peoples :)

I have to say it again...

I will never, EVER, be heavier than I am now! :D

The Food Doctor Ultimate Diet- Ian Marber

The Food Doctor Ultimate Diet- Ian Marber

I. Love. This. Book.

I have read loads of diet books, I have a whole shelf dedicated to diet books, but I bought this book a few days ago and I'm loving it. The reason I stands out from all the other diet books I have read is because it is honest and simple.

The book doesn't give lots of testimonials, is not bossy, judgemental or tell you what to do or not to do. The book tells you how weight loss works and how the body reacts to different foods you eat and when you eat them, the same goes for exercise. I love the books because if simple and easy to understand and even though the author. Ian Marber goes into some quite technical and sciencey areas he still manages to explain everything in a way that it easy to understand.

To be honest I am still at the very beginning of the book, but as of now I would highly recommend it to anyone before they start a diet. Just to educate yourself on how the body reacts to food and exercise. Knowlege is a very powerful tool when fighting the fat.

Day 4- Build your Confidence-

To be honest the title shocked me, how am I going to do that in one day? But I'm hoping that this book can give me motivation and confident in myself that I can do this, because honestly I don't think i can right now.

Judith says that you need confidence in your self to lose weight, which I agree with 100%. Knowing you can do it is a huge confidence boost along the way. She tries to instill confidence by giving yourself credit for what your doing. Looking at it at the moment it seems a little silly and not only that it could have the effect of making me complacent.

So here goes:

She wants you to give yourself credit the same way you would a friend. Which is actually a great idea, I don't think I would ever praise myself the way I do other people. It just not my way... especially for little things.

She also says to put on a little bracelet or rubber band and give yourself credit every time you see it.

Everything you do something positive, or don't do something negative, give yourself credit.

Answer back to sabotaging thoughts!

So here it goes:

Well done for not over eating today. Good Job, Anaelle. :)

Ha ha... it still seems a little silly.. but kind of nice too.

I figured something out...

I have just discovered my main problem. I do really well all day and as soon as I get home from work I falter. Every time, without fail. I sometimes go to the gym before work, then I have a healthy breakfast, then I have healthy snacks and a healthy lunch during the day and as soon as I get home I binge and get really lazy. I don't go to the gym, I eat crap, and I sit any watch TV. I was good for a while but have fallen back into the trap.

I know to anyone reading this it must be really obvious I dont know how I havent seen this before. I guess im doing well all day that when eveing time comes it almost seems like it doesnt count. But it does! I have noticed this pattern for a while now and posting it up is part of me finally addressing it.

I don't know why I do that. Even if I ate crap, why am I not going to the gym. I sit there and watch mind numbing TV, not that theres anything interesting on. I have to get this part of the day under control because if I do, then this whole diet weight loss journey, lifestyle change thinggy would be much easier.
Must work on this!

Day 3 – Sit Down to Eat

So this is the goal of day 3 'Sit Down to Eat' this is going to be a problem. I usually don't sit to eat, its just more convenient not too. Life is so busy. Judith ask you to examine why you don't sit down to eat...

- Life is too busy

- Its convenient

- I have to take the food before I serve it

- Its just a little thing and doesn't count as a meal

These are my excuses, so she then makes the point that we need to MAKE time to sit down. It is not only just to sit down and eat, but sitting down to eat makes you more conscious of the amount of times you eat a day. It makes you realize all the times you eat things as a 'Snack' that you never realised before. I noticed that it makes me question if I even want the snack and sit down or if I'm not hungry and just doing it out of habit.

At first I thought is was a silly unnecessary task but now its helping me cut out some unnecessary snacking and making me conscious of when I am eating. She asks that you continue this along with reading your motivation list everyday until the end of the 6 week plan. I will try my best to stick to it.
If I don't have time to sit and eat I must make time or eat later. This is not on optional task, it is mandatory.

The Rules!

Here are the rules I will follow by for this Journey and my life:

- Believe I can do it

- Never Cheat

- Track Everything

- Blog lots

- Don't Give Up/Make it a habit

- Don't just do it for myself

My Thoughts

Believe I cam do it!!! (I'm still working on this one. I think my lack of consistency and regaining has made me lose my motivation, which is terrible. I cannot do this without motivation. I have just ordered a FitBit so this is getting me a little excited and motivated. I think that once I see a loss it will motivate me and keep me going.)

Never Cheat! (If I deviate from the plan I am not allowed to throw in the towel, I am to drop to the back up plan, take it easy and get motivated again to continue on the plan, perhaps it will be time to modify the plan at this stage)

Track everything (Track every calorie that goes in and every calorie that goes out. By this I mean take note of call the calories I eat in a food diary and also keep a note of my calorie expenditure in my exercise diary. I will do this using MyFitnessPall (online calorie/exercise diary) and ALSO using the FitBit and my RMR. Also I will regularly track my weight and measurements on this blog, probably once a week)

Blog Lots (To get motivation, to hold myself accountable. I don't think anyone readers this, which is ok, just the fact that its out there and people can read it make me accountable to all my potential readers. In my dreams I would like to be able to inspire people and myself, that they, and I, can do this. I awe at people who have achieved weight loss goals. But lots of people have loads of weight to lose, I only have 30lbs and am struggling. I need to be able to do this)

Don't Give Up (I have noted, on my journey that one thing I am very good at is giving up. However I am persistent but this time it has to be about consistency. I can say oh this chocolate bar doesn't count . OF COURSE T DOES!! everything counts!! I have to be realistic and consistent these are my friends on this new journey. I have to make it a habit, make exercise and a healthy lifestyle a habit, once it is it'll be easy as pie)

Don't just do it for myself (I have noticed that if I tell myself that I am doing this for someone else I am more likely to not over eat or go to the gym. If I do it for me I can make all sorts of excuses, but if I do it for someone else I cannot make excuses for them. I have asked by BF and my friend if it is ok to make them in charge (a little) of my exercise and food. So every time I don't want to go to the gym or want to over eat
I have to call them and give them my excuses they are then to decide if it is ok for me to do either. I have done this for a while, and maybe its a bad thing but it works for me. And I have noticed slowly that I call them less and less and am able to make the decisions on my own. I'm learning)

My BodPod Experience

So yesterday, I went to UCD- Belfield in Dublin to have a go at the BodPod. This is a machine that you sit into and somehow it measures your body fat percentage and your RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate) along with some other measureemnts.

I still had to work yesterday, which usually statrs at 9am, so I had to get up really early to go see the BodPod, my appointemnet was at 8. So even at that, with all the rush hour traffic I was still an hour late for work.

When I get there the gentleman asks me to change into shorts and a loose tshirt, he takes my hight and weight and then asks me to put on a swimming cap and sit in the BodPod (there is a picutre of a BodPod below) and then we do the test twice to make sure ots right. The test costs about €65 which is quite steep, but I think it was worth it.

I found out that my body fat percentage is 37%. 30%-40% an excess of fat and over 40% things begin to look grim. Goal one is to drop into the 22%-30% mark which is considered generally healthy.

My estiamted RMR was 1070 calories, so this is what I burn for one day if I do nothing but sit and breath. This leaves my usually daily life, without extercise, at 1327 calories and around 1626 calories. I think the plan is from here to eat 1200 cals a day.
 

Day 2 - Commit to a Diet Plan

So this is the fun part where we get to think about in what way we would like to lose weight. Firstly a primary diet is chosen, this is the main diet you will stick to and then a back up diet is chosen in case you falter on the first one and don't go on a binge. This is in case you slip-up on the first one you will not fall off the wagon and binge but instead continue with a different modified diet plan. Its so that if the first plan just isn't working for you can fall back on the backup plan.


Judith (the author) ask you to chose your two diets (I prefer the word 'Plans' more) carefully, so as not to set yourself up for failure before you have even started. She says to plan modifications into the 'Plan' so that when an on the spot decision comes along you do not deviate from the plan.

So here are my choices:

- Calorie counting and Gym

- Weight Watchers and Gym

I chose calorie counting and exercise as my main diet- this is the most merited and advised way to control wight loss and maintain the lost weight. There is a lot of research and information including studies and online tools that can help you to lose weight. There are also lots of books and such that can educate on this subject and one cam make it strict or easy as they like.

Also I will try and investigate this as much as possible to keep my motivation up. I am getting my fitbit soon and have taken a trip to the local bodpod :) I will use regular weigh ins and measurements as motivation also.

I think that weight watchers is a great plan to fall back on as its a little simpler than calories counting and its a good place to fall back on as it can be a bit more easy going. Sometimes the calorie counting gets heavy and meticulous.

I am doing the Beck Diet Solution

So the Beck Diet Solution is a book which uses Cognitive Therapy to teach you to 'think like a thin person'. I have seen it recommended on many forums and boards and seems to get results. I like their approach of setting you one task everyday to complete for 6 weeks to teach you all the skills that you need to 'think like a thin person'.

I have actually started this book a few days ago so I will catch up on these days via this blog and then should post more or less everyday after that to keep me sticking to the plan. So from what I can see the first week doesn't start you on a diet straight away, it looks like it just creates a basic platform and teach you tools for tackling a healthier lifestyle and difficult situations. So I need to get my motivation up!

Wish me luck xx

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.

Week 0

Hi guys, I'm going to begin this blog by tracking my process of weight loss using the Lipotrim total food replacement program which you can get though pharmacies. I started about 5 days ago, so I'm going to back track and start at the beginning. I decided to go for this diet because I have tried to loose weight through healthy eating and exercise before but every time i gave up, since i lose weight very slowly i can become very demotivated, on a positive note, i also gain weight slowly. This diet suits me because instead of being told just to eat certain things i cannot eat anything other than what is given to me. I prefer this because i find it easier to follow, and i can be stricter on myself. In the last week my BMI indicated that i had just crossed the thresh hold into over weight, so now i wish to get back to a healthy weight just on the lower end of my BMI. My weight from before I started college.

here are my measurements:
Age: 23
Weight: 125 lb
Goal Weight: 105 lb
BMI: 25.2
Height: 4ft 11"

Neck: 31.5 cm
Shoulder: 100.5 cm
Bicep: 28 cm
Chest: 92.5 cm
Waist: 75.5 cm
Thigh: 56.5 cm
Calf: 32.5 cm
Hips: 97 cm
Belly: 88 cm

* I will have these measurements at the end of each week to let you know how i am getting on.

So I know this was probably a bad idea, but I went out for a huge last meal the last night before I started my diet. It was amazing we had lots of mexican food and for dessert deep fried ice cream and deep fried pancakes. It may be the last one for a long time :(

Goodbye Blubber!!

My Mission is this: