Plan Of Action

So I have been very quiet the last few weeks, but it doesn't mean that I lost sight of my goal in any way. Have been doing some serious research into weight loss programmes, tips, tricks and myths. Most important of all, I took this month to make a full log of what I eat, when I eat and the how much I eat.

A woman my age and height should try to eat no more than 2000 cal a day.....surprise surprise!!! I was doing DOUBLE that. And it was easy. A choccie here, a slice of bread there and before I knew it I was eating twice as much as I am supposed to. If I calculate correctly, I need to consume about 1400 cal a day to ensure that I lose 1kg a week. So starting on Saturday, I am now finally on track. Also watched an awesome show on BBC last night about dieting, to be discussed below.

I have sat myself down and jotted what I think ym problems are when it comes to food, and this is what I have found.

Problem: Portion size: My eyes are way too big for my stomach. I always make too much food, and I always go back for seconds, and both my first and second helping is humungous. I need to learn to halve my current portions and cook enough for just one helping. Even when you eat really healthy you will not lose weight if you don't control your portion size. I need to teach my brain to teach my stomach that I DON'T need to eat two hamburger when I am already having chips. Solution: From now I will be dishing my food in a side plate. On the BBC show they have scientifically proven thjat eating from a side plate as opposed to a dinenr plate,. could reduce your consumption to up to 20%!!!!! I need to reduce mine by at least 50% so let's see how the side plate dishing works out.

Problem: Eye-Jaw co-ordination: This is a big one and probably the hardest one to fix. I CANNOT watch TV or read without munching on a chocolate or a packet of crisps. My most content moments come from reading late at night and eating Messaris Cheese and chive flavour chips.Solution: I need to replace the chips with something healthier, maybe carrot sticks and cucumber?Pineapple and apple pieces?

There are a couple of more issues, to be discussed later, but these are the main key issues I am struggling with.

The BBC Programme was called "10 Things You Need To Know About losing Weight. I can't remember all the points, but I will be blogging more often from now, and will discuss each point .

CALCIUM: Studies have shown that the calcium in milk and diary "entraps" some of the food in the bowel into molecules, making it impossible to aborb via the small intestine. This excess of fat is then excreted via faeces. They did an experiment where they had a man eat a certain amount of food with calories and calcium one week, and the next week he ate the exact same amount of calories but lessened his calcium. A test was done on his faces and it was found that the fat content excreted was twice that of the week when he didn't ingest as much calcium. It came to the result that in total, if he continued on the high calcium way of eating, he would excrete a total of 2 kg's of fat annually!!!

Went and made a graph of my weight increase for the past decade and was a little bit worried. So what I need to do know is look at where it has increased sharply and rack my brain to see if there is anything that could have triggered the weight loss

POA for this week is weighing at the pharmacy this afternoon. I don't think I have lost any weight as I was only concernced with logging my current eating habits. Back on the healthy eating track since Saturday, but seriously struggling with drinking water at this stage...

Going nuts at this point

I haven't weighed in for about two weeks!!!

The scale is STILL broken, so will weigh tonight at my parents house when I pick up my son. Had a bad week past, 3 slabs (the coconut/cashew flavour is to die for). Didn't drink my water, ate myself silly on noigat yesterday, just bad bad bad.

Back on track today, had a litre of water so far (2l to go) as well as some oats (yuk) a tuna mayo (okay) and a tomato (yuk)

Decided to switch my cooked supper to lunch, this ALWAYS works, and try to eat a handful of nuts every couple of days. I'm a little weary of nuts though, but also crazy over it. Recently read that a handful of nuts will help you feel fuller for longer and this proves to be true BUT I also know that nuts are fattening so will monitor this first and see where it goes.

For now my goal is to wear 38 size pants (i'm currently a 42). I've also noticed if I had a bad sleeping night, I tend to eat fattening foods the next day, as well as over eat. I still need to figure out a way of telling my stomach I have had enough. I've thought about dishing in smaller plates, but I still don't think that will get the message through. Any ideas?

What an interesting week!!! Went to the shopping mall yesterday to weigh, and back down to 101.2kg. I think it helps alot that I have upped my water intake, as well as using fat free milk for coffee and tea instead of full cream.

Sugar is still a huge problem. I was never a sweet tooth until I had my son. I constantly crave sweet things, like chocolates and condensed milk. I've tried using artificial sweetner but it doesn't help. And it doesn't help either that our local shoprite sell fresh baked doughnuts topped with bar one sauce.

The lifestyl change is very slow, but I think more sustainable in the long run. Suddenly going healthy would be a shock to my body and probably hamper my determination to lose the weight, so the first change last week was to up my water intake, and this week I started using fat free milk. Next week it's exercise. So I'm trickinbg my body into a healthy life style.

I've also started taking better care of myself, making sure my make up is applied correctly and that I have a nice perfume or two. I even started a night routine, and bought some relatively expensive Avon creams but wow, the results are amazing.

Does anyone have some suggestions for home exercises that is not too strenuous on the shoulders? I'm having a shoulder op in two months time so don't want to do more damages. Something for the tummy and bum would be welcome.

Weigh Day...EEEEEK!!!!!!

I was supposed to weigh yesterday, but somehow the scale broke since I got onto it last Tuesday (I think my equally overweight boyfriend had something to do with this). I didn't expect to lose much, and when I got the bastard thing working again, I was right...103.6 again!!! So I had to go do some serious backtracking over what I had put in my mouth over the weekend and came to the conclusion that an entire bottle of Amarula and chocolates might be the cause. Just a quick note that said bottle was demolished over about three days and not all at once.

So I have decided that I need to up my water intake and I have to find another reason for wanting to lose weight other than wanting to look thin.

So here is my reason for wanting to lose more weight. His name is Zander and he is 14months old and undisputedly the love of my life and the reason why I even bother to breathe. I have often said that I cannot live without my son, that I would die if anything would happen to him.

But then why am I assuming he can live without me? My son loves me as much as I love him, and even though he has no sense of death just yet, he soon will and he will be terrified at the thought of losing me, just as it terrifies me to think I might lose him. The fact is, if I carry on stuffing my face and picking up weight, I will die and he will be without me. So I'm doing this for my nunubaba as well. I need to live for him, because no one can take care of him the way I can.

I have an interesting salad in for lunch, with mushrooms, tomatoes, pineapple and cucumber. I hate cucumber but ah well.

Goal for this week? Drink at least 4 glasses of water a day and try to drop one kg.

Thinning at a glance

This is not the photo I had in mind, but it seems the one i rally wanted to post has gone AWOL, so this will have to do.

Had a good day yesterday, the only real "naughty" thing was the five chips I had with me (home made) hamburger last night. But then seeing I only ate one hamburger and a few chips instead of the usual two AND chips I am pretty okay with that.

Feeling a little under the weather today, very tired and slightly light headed. I haven't starved myself and keep my bloodsugar levels in mind so I think it may just eb my body going through a sugar/carbs withdrawal. The plan was to have a lie down in our restroom this afternoon, but now I went and forgot my cell phone so I don't have an alarm to wake me.

Ditched the sugar on my cereal this morning, chances are it would just give me a short pickup before I crash completely so now I'm stuck with really yucky tasting cereal. I didn't make lunch so i have no idea whats waiting in the lunchbox, but at least Wouter supports me in this. Although I had to wait for him to go bath so I can chuck the butter toffee drinking yoghurt down the drain he bought me. THAT was hard...I just love those yogi sip drinks.....

Taking The First Step - What This Blog Is About

This is the start of a very exciting and very scary road for me. My inspiration for this blog lies in two things, a very couragous woman named Ruby, and my extreme desire to compete without failure.

Those watching the TSN Channel (183) on DSTV, will know Ruby. She has lost over half her body weight and is down to 350 pounds (about 180kg). Yes, you heard right...HALF HER BODY WEIGHT.

I have struggled with my weight for close to ten years now. I know where it started, and that will be part of this diary and I have an idea what factors are playing a role, but that all to follow in the months to come.

I have always made very half hearted attempts at losing weight, but never taking it really seriously. My biggest problems were 1) Never noticing I was picking up weight and 2) Looking thinner to myself than I really was. I just woke up one day and here I was 40kg lighter than when I went to sleep 10 years ago. Of course I noticed by having to buy bigger sizes, but I still didn't click. I still don't think I'm THAT FAT, but 101.6 is defenitely not small, so I no longer trust my judgement in how I view myself.

Last week I pulled the scale at 103.6, my heaviest ever. I once again made myself a promise to start dieting that very day........of course I didn't. So imagine my surprise yesterday when I got onto the bathroom scale and there it was 101.6kg. I got on twice after for confirmation and it came back affirmative. I had lost two kilo's in a week without trying. I know I drank more water, and unintentionally got a bit more exercise, but that alone won't make you drop 2kg.

I don't care if was water retention that added that extra 2kg, all I know is something in my head clicked. Like Ruby, I am taking this battle public, because it will be very hard on me to fail publicly. By doing this in view of everyone, I cannot fail, even if I wanted to.

The plan is to keep a food diary via this blog, as many weight loss programmes advise you to do. The plan is to start figuring out why I am addicted to food and what makes me behave nutritionally the way I do.

Because at the end of the day nothing tastes as good as thin feels.

Planned for tomorrow: Pics of me weighing 53kg!!!!! Unbelievebale to think I used to wear a size 8!

Here is more about Ruby: http://www.mystyle.com/mystyle/shows/ruby/index.jsp