Baby Steps

Over the past 18 or so months since I started losing weight and changing my life, I've had a number of people ask me how I did it. It's prompted me to provide my suggestions in a nut shell to sustainable weight loss.

Let's go back to the start.....

It was a cold winters night, my pants were splitting at the seam from the quantity of my sizable arse and the consumption of large portions of chocolate was visible from the wrappers lazily strewn around the couch. The couch where I had decided to beach myself.............OK, this isn't quite true but had I not taken stock of the situation then, it could very well be where I am today!
Truthfully, it was very shortly after the dress fitting incident for younger sisters wedding. Younger sister shall from now be known as "Angel" in my blogs.

Angel's wedding had sparked a fire in me that I hadn't felt since Kinglsey's chicken and chips opened up down the road from my house. I was currently faced with this feeling I had only ever felt fleetingly - motivation. So, armed with said motivation I decided to embark on my first weight loss journey that would WORK (as opposed to the hundreds that had previously failed).

Nardi and I had discussed the idea of joining Lite N Easy for a period of time as a means to easily keep a record of our food intake. We signed up for an indefinite period of time and spurred by each other, began keeping food and exercise diaries. We had vowed to have weekly weigh in's, daily emails/phone calls and keep each other accountable throughout the process.

In addition to Lite N Easy I also decided to invest in a treadmill. Muscle Man graciously gave me a large portion of a bonus he had received at work and gave me the supportive, adoring husband pep talk. You know the "I believe in you, you are destined for happiness, I think I'm Tony Robinson" spiel. (Really he was envisioning me in sexy lingerie and hoping my relentless "I'm fat" whinging would cease). Once a suitable treadmill had been purchased operation get foxy began.

Initially I began simply trying to get through each day staying focused on my LNE food. I was still feeding Jim at this stage so my caloric intake was approx 1500 per day. Ordinarily for weight loss I would consume roughly 1200 per day.

The LNE food consisted of smaller main meals and snacks in between. It contained real foods which were quite bearable and could easily be binged upon, and it also contained horrible, plastic frozen food similar to what I would feed my cat, Sheeba. I must admit that there were many, many days where I would stray from the daily foods and consume what I wanted, when I wanted. There were also days where I easily identified I was simply not eating enough. For the most part though it was a vast improvement from the choices I previously made without direction.

Once I felt that I had some control over my eating habits (or felt confident someone was choosing for me) I began walking on my treadmill. I started needing an oxygen tank beside the treadmill and Muscle Man holding up my own personal "You can do it" sign. I was only able to walk for 20 minutes at time at a speed of 6K's per hour. Despite the fact I was never classed as obese, my energy and fitness levels were atrocious. The only exercise I had consistently engaged in previously were turning the pages in my trashy gossipy magazines, and the occasional vacuuming.

Within a few short weeks of walking minimum 4 times a week my fitness had already begun to increase. I was now able to walk for 45 minutes without needing an emergency call to 000 and I had increased the speed by .5 km/pr hr. YAY ME!

I ended up using LNE for 6 weeks. before I decided I had the self belief and skills to manage on my own (oh and I was sick of paying for plastic cheese). During, and after this time, I also continued to aim for better fitness each week. I would increase the speed or duration weekly and aim to incorporate additional exercises, such as sit-ups (groan), leg raises and the occasional load of washing to hang on the line (hey weight watchers reckon that's one bonus point!).

Over time both food intake and exercise became second nature. I didn't want to waste precious calories on the foods I had previously binged on, and I decided there was no point blowing, or wasting a date with my treadmill for a piece of caramel mudcake. One would make me feel better short term (before the guilt set in) and the other was a consistent source of satisfaction and pleasure (endorphins......). Exercise became addictive and as the weight came off I knew there was just no turning back.

I assure you along the way there were plenty of tears, tantrums, secret binges, attempts to sabotage my treadmill and loads of threats to quit buy a moomoo and become a fat recluse. I have to be honest and say that the biggest factor in my success was learning to believe in my self. It's very easy to criticise and berate ones self. It's much harder to stand up and say "Yes, I can". I made a point each morning of saying "I can" before I would allow myself to say I can't.

If I were to provide any tips for weight loss they would be as follows:

* Choose one thing to focus on at a time. Be it your food, your self-talk, or your exercise. Start with just one thing and as you see results in that area gradually add an extra step to focus on.

* Start with achievable goals. There is NO point starting by aiming for something which will take time to achieve. If your goal is to run 10Ks in the future and like me you needed reviving after a 20 minute walk - start by aiming to increase the speed and distance of your walk. Rome wasn't built in a day!

* See each meal as separate to the last. This way, rather then having bacon, eggs, hash browns, mushrooms, toast (droooool) for breakfast and then deciding you've blown the entire day and you'll have mudcake for lunch and dinner, you are making choices for each meal based on it's own merits.

* Every day tell yourself minimum one thing that YOU can do. If you are great at your job, affirm yourself. If you are a great friend, affirm yourself. If you have children who adore you, affirm yourself as their parent. Affirmation is essential in believing you are not only capable, but that you are WORTHY of change.

I actually have many more tips but I am conscious of my blog entry not getting too boring (wow, that's assuming it isn't already) and I am also conscious of not thinking I am Tony Robinson. I'll leave that to Muscle Man :)