Day 20

Ok - so this is going to be really tough.

With all the Christmas parties and amount of work I have to get done before the Annual Firm Shutdown (where we are "encouraged" to take Annual Leave) - I am eating pretty crappily and not exercising as much as I was about a few weeks ago.

So yesterday's tally:

1. 1 2-egg omlette with tomato, fetta, chilli and spring onions
2. 1 glass of breakfast juice
3. 1 cup of instant coffee with skim milk, 1 sugar
4. 1st glass of water
5. ~30g Lindt dark chocolate with orange
6. 2nd glass of water
7. 1/2 katoree mattar paneer
8. 3rd glass of water

At the Christmas BBQ at one of the Partner's houses. (this is where it went downhill)

9. Handful of maltesers
10. 4th glass of water
11. 1/2 can coke
12. 1/2 sausage in a white bread roll, buttered and with American mustard
13. 50g Ceasar salad
14. 60g Roast lamb salad (with pumkin, beetroot, baby spinach, walnuts)
15. 1 Heaven ice-cream (Caramel flavoured).
16. 5th glass of water.


Didn't exercise either - got home and was too knackered from getting lost in the suburbs when my GPS decided to fail to find a signal and reulted in me doing circles. But - does playing with the dog for 20 minutes count???

Still - not enough water and too much sugar in my diet. The Ceasar salad while it sounds healthy, wasn't, but I only had a little bit and more of the lamb salad which was much nicer.

I didn't have any alcohol while I was there (because I was driving) and while tempted to have a nice cold glass of white wine, I was pretty happy with the water I was drinking. The Coke was way too sugary - this is after switching to Coke Zero for quite a while now - but had no other choice. Didn't have much lunch as I was going to this BBQ - but I was working from home in the morning and I remembered I had some paneer in the fridge that I had bought in the thought I'd make mattar paneer.

Since, however, I have been out for dinner more often this week than at home, I wasn't sure when I'd get the chance to make it. Plus, after catching the cooking bug before I was itching to try to make this. I had attempted this before while I was living with my in-laws and it didn't turn out so well. So I determined to do better.

And...yes it was great!!

One thing I find though - I have signed up to the this Calorie Counting website that it hand to work out the % of nutrients I am getting from my diet and see exactly how many calories are in the food we eat. However, it's hard to calculate how many calories there would be in an Indian dish like mattar paneer.

The site tells me that I should aim for 1200 calories a day and I often get there or over by a bit and have found my diet is too full of fat and carbs. So - that's some food for thought.

Tonight is the Firmwide Xmas party - a Venetian masked ball theme. No sit-down dinner but finger food and PLENTY of alcohol. So this is going to be an interesting night.

More tomorrow.

The wagon keeps moving

After reading Rad's successful attempts to lose weight by really not doing too much at all - I am inspired to get back on the wagon.

My goal is still the same - actually it's gone up - so let's just say it's 8 kilos. Rads goes about by listing all the food she eats at the end of the day, making sure she has her 8 glasses of water. She does about 30 minutes of exercise a day and in about 2 weeks she has lost 4.1 pounds (1.89 kilos)!!.

That is a fantastic result!!

So my goal time is 31st December - just in time for this year to end. My goal is to lose 2.5 kilos in that time (5.5 pounds). I think it's doable. 3 weeks exactly - an average of 0.83 kilos a week.

This is going to be hard because I have parties and functions throughout this period, and will be eating like shit but a goal is a goal.

Sigh.

So let's do it.

Day 21 - dinner with the Girls tonight

1. 1 medium Granny Smith Apple
2. Large Skinny latte (400mL/skim milk) with no sugar
3. 1st nectarine
4. 1st glass of water
5. ~8 Arnotts Chicken Crimpy biscuits (they were there!!)
6. 1 sachet (40g) of Sunbeam Natural Fruit and Nut mix (sultanas, raw - peanuts, almonds, cashews)
7. 1 cup of daal-chawal (toor daal, no tadka and white rice)
8. 2nd glass of water
9. 2nd nectarine
10. 1 peach
11. 1 cup peppermint tea
12. 1/2 small lemon custard tart (met up with Yogi)
13. 3rd glass of water
14. 4th glass of water
15. Lamb with broad beans and this filo pastry thing
16. 1/2 Honey and date cheesecake (it was tiny - so not worth the price!)
17. 1/4 slice of chocolate cake (that Mike fed me at Yogi's place!!)

Exercise - all up about 45 mins of walking at ~ 4 kmph

So not quite the start I was looking for...but it's there.

Less sugar, less carbs, more exercise.

Guess who's back!

Yeah guess who's back.

Not Slim Shady (which would be ironic both in the nature of the name and the rumours that he has ballooned since his last album) but MOI.

It has been...how long since I last blogged here?? March....to....October. That's like 7 months! Almost to the day as well.

Yeah well. Got busy.

In that time my weight has gone up another 2.5 kilos and I have nobody to blame but...the Melbourne weather. Primarily the onset of Winter and the carb-loaded goodness that one tends to eat while freezing their ass off.

Settling into full-time work has also brought a new set of challenges but am dealing. Not buying lunch every day like many of the people here do - but have the luxury of a husband who can get ready in 20 minutes and thus has the time to create a gourmet sandwich for my eating pleasure.

We bought a new house and moved out of the parental home, also signifying the ends of an eating era. Gone would be the dinners swimming in butter and cream (courtesy of Ev's Dad's chef skills being flourished before us) and we would start to create meals of our own - some reminiscent of the food that Ev's Dad would cook and some that we made ourselves.

My wholesome Indian vegetarian food that my mother made while I was living at home has taken a back burner - I have many of the ingredients to cook it but a laksa always wins. Plus I'm lazy when I have a fully-functional husband to deal with the cooking stuff :P

The biggest thing so far in the midst of all the moving, settling and putting on more weight was that I rejoined the gym. *cue dramatic music*

Yes I did! Currently am on a trial membership that allows me to have a taste of all what the gym has to offer without having to fork out the moolah-lah.

And...I have to say - I love it!!!

It's a great gym - about 10-15 minutes from home and the train station meaning that there is no excuse for me to NOT go past it and then stop by. It is a women's only gym - something that I wasn't actively looking for but appreciate all the same. Because there is nothing to hide there. Women of all ages, all body shapes come there and nobody takes a second look. Well - maybe if there was a Megan Fox lookalike but there isn't. We are all, convincingly normal. (Except for the woman that was there that was literally pounding the machines like they had wronged her not only in THIS life but 3 more before this)

I walked in feeling a bit nervous. As you do when venturing into a place that was once so familiar to you (I sound like I had an intimate relationship with...say...the Stepping machine. Oh I did. I HATED it like nothing before.)

But this time I was determined to get the butt wiggling and thighs jiggling and I was sure that the poundage would just drop off. PLUS - the best thing about this gym is that they had Spinning Classes. If you don't know what that is - let me enlighten you.

Spin classes are the upgraded, turbocharged, Version 5.0 of the exercise bike routine. A semi-circle of these funky bikes are in a room while a peppy, lithe instructor (also known as the Torturer) will be at the front of the class. She will usually speak in bursts of sweetness and military-style yelling to get you all going through flats and hills and won't even break a sweat while you almost drown in the puddle at your feet. It is like torture in a classroom. Why women would voluntarily sign up for this torture is because you see and get results - fast.

And that's what I want.

But this time I was going to take it a little slow so I didn't drop dead soon after running, and just hit the treadmills with enthusiasm. And what treadmills they were! I was swooning when I saw them - high-tech machines that gleamed under the lights just CALLING me to use them. They each had a TV screen IN the machine so I could watch Friends while keeping an eye out on the number of calories I was burning. I walked and even took it up to a steady jog for about 20 minutes before the image of the Pussycat Dolls on MAX started to blur as the sweat dripped into my eyes.

I took one of the complimentary wet towels and wiped myself and the machine off while I caught my breath. As I was heaving and potentially about to heave up a lung, I saw on the timetable board that the next class was Body Balance - a mixture of Tai Chi, Yoga, Pilates and Meditation. Sounded like just what I needed after a long day at work and I slipped into the classroom just as the instructor told us all to go into "Down Dog" position.

A What-Dog position?? I looked around to see whether I was in the right class and not the Fit For The Bedroom session and saw to my relief that it wasn't what I was thinking at all. We stretched and twisted and balanced (By the way - I SUCK at balance. I fell over so many times that the instructor just told me to stand still) and then finished with the Happy-Baby position. By the time the class was over I could do the Down Dog, Up Dog, Happy Baby, Twisted Lotus, Salute the Sun and something that I like to think in most humans would be impossible.

I left the gym feeling refreshed and happy that I had made the effort to come once again.

Now let's just see if I can stick with it.

Ok - so it's been a while since I posted here - my weight loss obsession fluctuated from extreme (crying in my walk-in closet for hours) to nonchalant (Daaaym - I still don't look- half-bad so why obsess?) along with many of my blog readers insisting that I wasn't fat. They are right - I don't LOOK fat - I just FEEL fat. And without the clothes - it's a different story. Cellulite and wobbly bits everywhere.

The only thing I like about my body is my breasts. I used to like my waist but that is slowly disappearing.

Anyways - since starting full-time work my eating habits are slightly better - the only thing is I haven't had the chance to exercise much. And while at training - they provide lunch and it's always these little sandwiches and fruit which are so yummy but thank-god healthy so I've been doing ok.

But I did decide to do something drastic.

The Lemon Detox Diet.

It's the one that Beyonce swears by having lost 10 kg's in 2 weeks for her role in Dreamgirls and it's the one that Tania Zaetta promotes and now it's the one I am going to try.

I have never been on a diet before and this is going to take effort.

You basically make up this drink which is a combination of water, tree syrup, lemons and cayenne pepper and drink that instead of eating. I am aware enough to know that it is a sort of starvation diet but it isn't bothering me much. Every Tuesday last year I used to fast along with my Dad - eating only fruits and nuts and having only dinner. THAT was torture for me when I first started and I used to CRAVE carbs and sometime sneakily eat some bread or something. But other days I did it on eating that or less. So I have some faith in myself for completing this. It is meant to last about 7 days and it is somewhat of a test on myself as well if I can refrain from not only eating but eating crap.

This first day has been ok - I woke up late (about 10am) because I was exhausted from the 5:30am starts all week and got busy in housework until I realised I hadn't eaten yet. So I made up a day's worth of the drink and decided to have some.

And it's not bad. I love lemons so that iss fine, and the syrup sweetens it. The cayenne pepper gives it a extra zing, a bit of spice and it's not too bad. I have had cravings for food but every time I do, I drink water or have another glass of the Lemon drink. Evs and I also went to play tennis, but due to the bloody heat we stayed only for an hour. But that was good - I got some exercise in as well.

They say that it's the first couple of days that are the worst and I'm bracing myself for tomorrow where I might experience headaches and dizziness. But so far I have been doing ok and if I lose the average 4 kilos that they say you can lose within a week - then it'll be so worth it.

I know I am crazy, but I am going to see if this works. If not - then I will bow down to all the 'I told you so's' that I know I will deserve.

Wish me luck :)

Booya!

Woohoo!! I weighed myself this morning and I was 54.5 kg!! I have lost 1.5 kg! Not bad at all....

Well, I DID weigh myself before breakfast, but AFTER my workout and shower and fully clothed, so let's take another 500g off, shall we??


54.0kg!!!


*does the happy dance*

Down in the dumps

It's been a hectic week - I've been keeping count of my calories but failing to lose weight. I'm still the same weight I was a week ago AND I've been exercising at least 2 hours a day. It sucks.

Almost wanting to give up but I'm loving the exhilarating feeling I get after working out. Eating wise - it's been up and down - I'm still eating too much fats and carbs. I've got to cut down on chocolate. That's my weakness.

I've started taking FatBlaster - just to see if it works. It helps you suppress your appetite and increases your metabolism so that you break down food faster. Will see after this week how it goes.

So today's meal plan - I couldn't find homemade chicken curry on the site so I just used the closest one - I think what I ate had less calories in it.

Went for a walk today as well - didn't have time for tennis and so hopefully we will go tomorrow. But I think I did a lot of exercise today anyways. That's more than enough for a lazy person like me. I'm exhausted. AND I deserved that ice-cream :P

Weekend worries

Agh! Fallen off the wagon again but it's a new week and I hopped right back on. Evs came home on Friday and with their literally being nothing in the house to eat - it was Mi Goreng noddles for lunch. They are so yummy but my GOD are they fattening. So noodles have to go. Seriously.

Sunday was a bit of an off day too - Evs made pancakes for breakfast then we had KFC for lunch after doing some long hours shopping. We made up for it with a good 1.5 hour workout....uhh...tennis that is :P I have even got Es into this - he is wanting to lose 5 kilos as well (not that he needs to the lucky bastard)

So today - I've been very good. So good that my daily calorie intake is MINUS. Oh yeah!! I think I can do this - if I keep my exercise up and stick to good, healthy food - I'm on my way to myself again!

Meal plan for today - I just made it under the 1200 calories limit even with doing basically no exercise and eating more than I should have chocolate.

Woohoo!!

Is this how its supposed to work????

Moving along...

Need to keep moving....

My main way to sticking to my 1200 calorie limit is by restricting the food I eat, rather than not worrying so much and combating the extra calories by exercising. Although, I've gone and screwed it up again by devouring 3 fun sized Violet Crumble chocolates - not all at once, mind you, but throughout the day when I have craved something sweet. Plus my water drinking abilities have lessened today. I still have the rest of the day heheh and I'm thirsty now.

I'll be happy when I'm home tomorrow. I've been pretty lazy at my parent's house here and really, pretending to do Tae Bo is not the same as actually doing it.

My exercise routine for the day will include:

Morning -

• 30 min jog around the lake
• 45 minute Tae Bo workout
• 15 minutes vigourous exercise on bike (if I can be bothered by this time)
  

Afternoon/evening -

• 30 minute walk around lake (take dogs for walk)
• 1 hour singles tennis session with Evs (alternate days)

That should be enough to get me moving :P

Ho hum

I've been so busy this morning that really all thoughts of eating have flown right out of my head. I never even realized that it was time for lunch until I heard a rumbling coming from the depths of my stomach. Perhaps this keeping busy thing might stop me from thinking about food so much.

So far:

Breakfast:

1 bowl Sultana Bran with the yummy yoghurt covered currants


mid-morning snack:

1 cup of tea, skim milk, 1 tsp sugar
1 rum ball

Lunch:

1 cup of Golden Pumpkin soup
1 salad sandwich - multi grain bread - lettuce, tomato, cheese, little bit 97% fat free mayo

I'm actually quite full after the soup and I still have my sandwich to go. Still struggling to keep drinking water...oh shit - I forgot to take my pill!!!

Yech.....sticking to calories is harder than I thought, especially when there are delicious little treats that little brothers have made.

But I can see I eat waaaaaaay too much in snacks. I'm a Snacker. And I don't know whether it is because of the extra appetite I am getting because of the pills (dosage down to 1 pill a day now), because I have always been hungry when I have gone to eat. I have even been trying to drink water instead of eating to fill myself up which is how I made the 8 glass target today.

Don't know, don't know.....

I think the only way I can afford to eat like that is if I exercise more and right now I am doing shit all because I am at home and due to the shitty weather. Excuses I know, but there is only so much I can do stuck inside and I left my Tae Bo workout DVD at home.

Tomorrow HAS to be better.

Being doing ok today....I had a bit of a relapse when little bro came home and insisted on making Rum Balls. I promptly ate 3 of them :( Maybe it's my mood - it's a bit off and my eating is reflecting that a bit.

Here is my eating plan for today using the Calorie King tools - I'm loving it and it's easier to put up a pic instead of updating so much.

Drinking lots of water today which is good and I found out that 45 minute workout of Tae Bo burns off 409 calories!! So that coupled with walking the dogs when I gt back home and maybe some time on the exercise bike - I have my exercise quota down pat. This also doesn't include all the walking that you do in the day - that's still counted!! :P

I'm making dinner tonight and so have ~ 370 calories to play with. I'm hoping my meal comes under that - Thai Chicken Noodles is on the menu :) Yummmmm :)

EDIT: I went over.....goddamn those rum balls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Calorie king!

Browsing the net as I do and came across this site which looks to be fantastically helpful. Especially targeted at Australia so I can work out the amount of calories in each thing that I eat, and try and stick to an amount that will help me lose weight.

I've made my own profile and they recommend:

1200 calories a day
30 min exercise

to achieve my target weight of 50kg.

That's doable and you can enter in the foods you eat and they calculate exactly how many calories there are in each serving, and what % comes from carbs etc so you can reduce them as needed.

Although they haven't specified how LONG exactly it will take to achieve this goal, but I'm hoping if I can at least stick to these guidelines, I will see something happening.

New Day

I woke up today feeling ravenous. Also in pain because of this bloody period. But - on the good side my stomach muscles were also a little sore, so not all the pain was bad - I must have worked them a bit if they are smarting today. Weighed in at 55.7 kg. Booya! How I managed to lose 200g is beyond me but not going to get too excited because it's probably just the error margin on the scales. Sigh.

So breakfast:

1 bowl Sultana and Bran with 1/2 cup skim milk

Hunger scale: 8

I will probably have a cup of tea or coffee soon after because I need my caffeine in the morning...

Yesterday I also tried on various items of clothing that I had not touched in about 6 months. You know, just to torture myself to see if I could fit in them again. And surprisingly - I could. It's just that I look like a hot pregnant woman with a protruding stomach and booty than what the effect was after.

Main aims in order -

• lose flab from my thighs - they are huge! And I can never find pants that don't make me look horrible.
• lose 2 inches off my waist - I want my tiny waist again :(
• achieve a flat stomach - I have a major pot belly...ewww.....
• tone up my arms - triceps in particular
  
• reduce the size of my butt

Dinner:

1.5 rotis
1 katoree daal (lol - how much is that?? 250mL I suppose)
pumpkin subzi
I tb light natural yoghurt

After-dinner snack:

4 Apple Sour straps (they are too addictive :P 0.1 g fat yay!)

It's almost dinner time and I've managed to eat since lunch:

Mid-afternoon snack:

1 nectarine
1 97% fat-free mixed berry baked bar
1 cup tea, 1/2 tsp sugar, skim milk

Mid-mid-afternoon snack:

4 glasses water
Handful of nuts
1 banana

My god....I eat a lot.

Exercise:

1/2 hr playing the Wii - I got pissed off when I kept losing in Tennis. Hmph. Broke a sweat though which is why I am adding this under exercising.

I'm feeling rather fullish, which may be bloating and also kinda edgy because it IS that time of the month, but I'm still kinda hungry.

Time for dinner me thinks.

Added:

Mid-morning snack: 1 nectarine

Lunch: 2 x Mi goreng noodles,
glass of Sunkist

Still not the healthiest lunch but it is filling and I won't be likely to be hungry until dinner now. I hope.

Exercise: 1/2 hr crunches

I'm going to see if there is any good weight-loss blogs out there, but common sense seems to say to me more exercise, less crap. Perhaps might look into those pharmaceutical weight-loss stuff too - SlimFast etc. I wonder if they do work and whether it is worth having them as a meal replacement. Also on the plate - looking into Detox.

Time to start

Ok - so I started a new blog.

With all the crazy thoughts that are in my mind, I needed a way to separate some of them. This blog I aim to try and chronicle my never-ending and looking to be hopelessly futile journey into skinnydom (which if I want to be honest with myself is under 50 kgs). At the moment after eating a not-so-healthy breakfast, I'm feeling the pain of the extra kilos I have put on after getting married in November and just want a place to track my progress I guess.

Also to bitch and moan about the lack of progress without making anyone else insane. I wanted something strong and peppy to motivate me, hence the loving message to myself - Work it out, Biyatch!

I am on cortisone pills at the moment for my hair loss which funnily enough was to do with the stress of getting married but has helped to add on an extra 2 kilos since I started them. They finish by the end of Feb, so hopefully I won't gain anymore by then.

So my goals:

• I start my first job in a high-flying firm where looking good is paramount to be successful on 3rd March. Which means I have about a month to lose approximately 5 kilos. Or at least be the weight I was (51kg) when I went for my interviews last year.
  

Start Weight: 55.9 kg (that was really hard to write. I cannot believe I weigh that much)

Breakfast:

1 cup Jasmine Tea
2 Chocolate chip hot cross buns with margarine

Exercise: none yet.

That's it so far. I'm going to go to do some ab work and other small exercises as it its quite gloomy outside and looks like rain. If it doesn't rain within half an hour, I'm going to go take a walk.

This is going to be hard, but I REALLY need to do this.