Weekly Weigh-In: Week 17

Last week I posted my first gain since I started losing weight back at the end of November. I knew gains were inevitable, but it was definitely a chance to reflect. It made me realise how important it was to me that I didn't go backwards. That's why this week it was time to get back to eating right and being good. I wasn't nearly as good as I should have been, but I must have done something right because I lost 2 kilos!

I was pretty amazed when I stepped on the scales this morning. I've done much more and lost less, so I wasn't expecting quite as big a loss. As you can see, I've still got a little chunk of last weeks gain to make back, but I can't believe I've lost nearly all of it in one week.

In terms of my short term goals to get myself back on the right track, I did ok. I recorded my kilojoules all but one day, and stayed under my kilojoule limit every day. I didn't do so well on my goal to eat no takeaway. Actually, I had it two nights in a row. I tried to make the healthiest decision I could, and avoided the types of (naughty) takeaway that are usually my weakness, so this one's a bit of a wash.

This week, I want to keep going with counting my kilojoules, and avoid takeaway all together. I would also like to start drinking at least 2 litres of water a day, and get back to reading my favourite weight loss blogs more consistently. I will report back of my progress next week!

Getting Moving!

This week I'm trying to knuckle down and get serious about exercising. Up until now I've been focusing a lot on food and battling compulsive eating behaviours, so exercise hasn't been a huge priority. Now that healthy eating is becoming easier and more routine, though, it's time to get to my fitness!

I'm not going to lie, I hate exercising. I find it so difficult to just get off of my butt and get moving. In the past, a lot of this has stemmed from worrying about people seeing me and judging. Writing that now doesn't make a whole lot of sense, as I know that almost no one would judge someone for exercising, and anyone who did is just an arsehole. But it really stopped me from even considering doing something as simple as going for a walk. To overcome this I would tell myself that I would do fitness tapes at home where no one would see me, and I would be comfortable. The problem was, I just didn't find them motivating. I've never stuck to them.

This time around, I'm getting over my fear of getting out there because... I just don't care. Something has changed this time and I'm not worried about any of the things that would usually prevent me from going for it. Maybe I'm more motivated or have stopped making excuses for myself, but I'm actually looking forward to exercising and am finding things that I enjoy.

I'm starting out slow by going for a walk on the beach each day. I live in a coastal town and am literally just down the road from one of the most beautiful beaches.

Technically it's two bays joined together and to walk them both and back is around 30 minutes, which is perfect to start me off.

I'm absolutely loving going for these walks. I spent my childhood at the beach with my surfer Dad, so I have a huge love for the beach. The smell of the salt air  the sand, the waves. I adore everything about the beach and hate that I've avoided it for so long because of my weight. Being there also makes me really excited to lose the weight and feel comfortable to go for a swim.

Just for fun, here are a couple of the photos I took of the rock pools.

I'm so glad that I've found something that I'm enjoying. It makes getting started so much easier. I'm looking forward to getting out and doing some more exploring while getting fit as well!

Let me know what you've found, that works to keep you motivated and working out in the comments!

The Master Plan: My Goals

I’m taking a bit of a wholistic approach to goals, by setting more than weight based check-points. Weight loss is my biggest focus, but on its own, it isn’t enough to a) motivate me, and b) help me make the changes I want to make. For this reason, I’ve included my meta-goal of “living a happier life”. After all, it’s the reason I want to lose weight. Acknowledging this goal will help me to stay mindful of why I am doing this. When things get difficult, I’m going to need the bigger picture to keep me ploughing through.

I’ve also included “focus on happiness” to my goals. I know that being happier does not begin and end with losing weight. For this reason, I think it’s important for me to do focus on it as a standalone goal.

Each goal, I’ve broken down into little, tangible steps, to make following them more easily. If each day, I can do all, some or even one of these things, then I’m going in the right direction.  The steps are:

• Count kilojoules – this has been so incredibly helpful with keeping me on track so far. A big part of how I’m fighting this battle in the early stages is by working on reducing my kilojoules. It’s also been helpful in teaching me about foods and portion sizes. Having an inner awareness of kilojoule density and appropriate portion sizes is just not something that I’ve got right now, so count I must!
• Focus on eating for fuel – this one’s a bit multifaceted. For me, it means eating structured healthy meals and snacks, but also stacking my meals with fruit, veg and unprocessed foods. Striving to eat foods that are good for my body will not only help me lose weight, but also give me something else to work towards. In the past, when trying to lose weight, I’d never focused on this, and would continue to eat highly processed foods, like those I ate when I wasn’t trying, only the “healthier” options. Each time, I’d end up sliding back into eating the crap I had before, because it wasn’t a bit leap to make.
• Exercise to increase fitness – I don’t like exercising. Shoot me, I’m human. Right now, I don’t even find potential weight loss is enough to motivate me to workout. But, that’s ok. Food is my major obstacle in losing weight right now, because my relationship with it is so out of whack (I’ll be explaining this in a future post). What I do find motivating enough to get of my generous behind and get moving is the idea of improving my fitness. The idea of finding everyday tasks physically easier because my body is stronger interests me much more at this stage, so this is what I will focus on.
• Learn to say no to food and cravings – this is a big one for me. I crave food like nobody’s business, to the point where it is a compulsion. Just eating better and less doesn’t work for me, for this reason. I need to LEARN how to say no when the needless cravings for food hit. The more I say no, the easier it will get.
• BLOG! – blogging adds an extra level of accountability. Knowing that my achievements and failures will be out there for even a few to read gives me extra motivation, and I need all the motivation I can get.

My general happiness goals are:

• Do something that I enjoy each week – this can be something big or small. It’s selfish, but will help me to stay out of the “woe is me, life is too hard” mindset.
• Say yes to things – I avoid anything I’m not 100% comfortable with. I especially avoid doing a lot of things because of my weight. From now on, I’m going to forget about all of the reasons I want to hide at home, and just do them.
• Take time to be thankful – I have a lot to be thankful for, and I don’t appreciate that enough.

Let me know in the comments if you've set yourself general goals too, or if you have any suggestions for me to add to mine.