I've found my mojo again!

Yes, its been a while since I blogged, mainly because I was totally in a funk and could not fight my way out of it.  I weighed in a week ago and I had put on weight. First I was so totally impressed at my 6 month weigh in because I was 71.5kg and then I decided to go sabotage myself and eat crap food, and put on over 2kg in about 9 days.

So after talking to a wonderful, inspirational friend, we got chatting about how I can't seem to get my mindset back to what it was when I first started losing weight, and she agreed that I'm not going to find it again, because I'm not the same person.  WELL!  That totally made sense to me, and explains why I kept going around in circles and changing up my diet plan, and then changing it again and again, and I couldn't stick to anything - I felt like I was drowning and I couldn't save myself.

So now, in the last few days, I'm getting it back again - the mindset to get FIT (and not just to lose weight).  When I started losing weight it was all about the weight loss, everything I did was dictated by how much weight I had lost, and how much I wanted to lose, and how much I had left to lose.  I always said that I didn't want to look like this:




I wanted to look like this:



I want to be buff, and have people comment "wow, she looks fit" instead of those negative people that say "oh wow, she's sooo skinny" - you know the ones?  People are always going to talk about people, and make comments, and I know I can't control that, but I would like them to be saying the "Fit" comments most of all.

SO!  I've gained a few kilos, but gained some perspective and some mojo, which was so worth it.  I wrote up another plan the other day, and I'm going to revise it tonight and take out the chocolate and treats and stuff I had in there. I don't need them, I've proven to myself that I don't need chocolate to live a good healthy life.  So I'm dissing that and maybe adding some more berries or something haha.

Thats my plan.  Plus I'm starting swimming as from tomorrow.  Someone told me today that I should do triathlons with them, and I was like - wtf?!  No way man, I CANNOT do that - my hip, my knee - argh, its just not doable.

Then I was like, dude, hang on.  I've gotta stop making excuses and start doing shit. I want an athletes body, and I've trimmed a lot of fat off already, so maybe I should just give myself some bloody credit and TRY some of this stuff.  So I'm not going to do it immediately of course (I don't want to give myself a heart attack) but I am going to start swimming first, and also try and get my back issues worked out (back will fix hip, and will fix knee) and then I'm going to start making myself into the person that I see myself wanting to be.

I will do this.  Slowly but surely I will get there.

But of course I had to get maccas out of the way for dinner tonight and finish the chocolate in the fridge.  Priorities right?

A few updates!

So I have a few things to get out of my head today!

First up - we weighed ourselves yesterday.  Unbeknownst to us, our scales had stopped working properly around 6ish weeks ago.  When I plateaued at 78kg for 3 weigh ins - although I was discouraged at the time and could never see myself getting below that weight - and now we know it was the bloody scales not working properly cos a leg fell off and they were wobbly!

So my weight is now 73.1kg (going by the wii fit).  Its funny, when I was 103kg I thought that anyone who was 75ish didn't really need to lose weight, they were so lucky to not be as heavy as me - but now that I'm here, I realise that I have a LOT of weight left to lose.  (See picture for evidence!)

 

I still have a LOT of weight around my belly and on my thighs, realistically I could probably get down to 55kg (both my mum and sister are usually this weight) and not look too skinny.  I'd build muscle of course, so I would be an athletic type of body - I can't wait till I get to that point!

So my weight is 73.1kg, I've gone down to 29.87% body fat and I lost 10cm in the last month.  So according to BMI calculators my BMI is 26.9 which means I'm still classed as overweight.  Definitely have to keep going!

Now the next thing - I'm so over my bloating issue.  When I went paleo that took that issue away, but it gave me the runs all the time.  So what was causing the runs? I thought it was the lack of fibre (as compared to a diet containing grains) but maybe it was from a excessive amount of fat OR protein (excessive in comparison to what I had normally been having).  Google tells me it could be either.  So, do I go paleo again, but not have as much fat?  We weren't eating THAT much fat, only with our bacon, I never added extra fat to things, but we did have some homemade lara bars made with coconut oil, and they were quite slimy with oil.

So I thought that since my nose is also blocked again - I'll go off dairy for a month and see if that helps.  So thats my newest plan - go off dairy for the month.

And yet another thing - I've started a "No Junk Food Challenge" - so its this:

So I had day 1 today, pretty easy considering we never ate those things in the first place.  Although we have no ice cream for after dinner and thats something I normally have, as well as biscuits with my evening cuppa so that should be interesting tonight after dinner!

Current weight:  73.1 kg
Total weight loss to date:  29.9kg (sooo close to 30kg)

Choc orange balls

Well since I'm too scared to eat chocolate now (not that we ate a lot of it anyway obviously since starting the Melcra lifestyle), I have to look at other ways to get that chocolate in my diet (because, you know, its obviously needed as part of a well balanced diet!)

So I was thinking about the lemon balls I usually make, based on this recipe (I roll into balls instead of cutting into bars on my friend Sammie's suggestion).  Then I started thinking.. hmm.. what if I used orange instead of lemon.  Both citrus so should work right?

So then I started thinking... well shit, if I had orange, what goes well with orange - CHOCOLATE!!!!

So then I looked at this other recipe that I normally make for little chocolate type balls, and thought, well hell, I'll create my own!

So this is what I did -

1 cup of almonds
1.5 cups of dates
30g cacao
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
zest of an orange (I used a new one I got the other day, washed it, dried it, then cut off with a peeler)
2.5 tablespoons of orange juice
1 cup of shredded coconut

So I let the thermomix do its job - and this is the end result!!

Some I rolled plain, some I rolled in coconut - obviously!  I'm definitely no cook, or make my own inventions kinda gal, hell I had to google how to pan fry our fish tonight!  But these are pretty damn good!  I think the best thing is - there is no sweeteners or anything added to it, so totally paleo if we ever want to return to that kind of eating style (which we sort of follow anyway except for the odd sandwich here and there!)

The plain ones are a bit sticky, but I think I can live with that.........

Goodbye old Mel

Ok so we had a pretty full on day today, and I was sooo not looking forward to the fish we were supposed to have for dinner.  So I was like, god I feel like Maccas!

Elf Man said no, but agreed he didn't feel like fish either for dinner.  Plus, it was sorta still frozen so that backed up our excuse for not wanting it...

So I said something about toasted cheese sangas for dinner.  Then in my mind I was like - yeahhhh lots of dripping cheese, and I'll have TWO sangas, since its like dinner and everything, has to be full meal.

But then I stopped myself.  FFS Mel, have you learnt nothing!?  You work hard to get that weight off, and then as easy as it is to put a pair of old shoes on - back you flop into your old habits.

So I told myself no.  I'm not doing that to myself, I'm a different person now and I'm NOT going back there.

So I got my arse into the kitchen and whipped up some fried rice.  Of course since we avoid rice, I made it with cauliflower instead of rice.  So there was onion, carrots, sweet potato, pumpkin, red and green capsicum, some sauces, celery, some eggs, chinese cabbage, chinese 5 spice and a whole cauliflower (cut up, steamed and processed like rice).

So that was dinner.  Not maccas, not toasted cheese - but something very healthy, and quite yummy!

And also - my mum gave me a big container of custard (from the shops) for the kids.  So I gave the kids some of that after their dinner, with the intention of having the rest with Elf Man tonight for our dessert.

But I'm not going to.  I'll have our low calorie ice cream for dessert like normal (or homemade sorbet, whatever!) instead of the vanilla custard over a banana that was originally planned.

I'm not going back to Old Mel - she's gone forever.

Bye bye 103kg Mel, bye bye.

Brace yourself!

Ok, so I've had knee issues that has stopped me getting on the treadmill for a little bit - I've been resorting to the cross trainer more because of it.

So yesterday, I found Elf Man's knee brace and I put it on.  I could never get it on my knee before because I was too fat, so it fits now that I've lost some weight.  Still tight, but I still have feeling in my toes so I don't think its cutting off any crucial circulation.

We tried out a new workout yesterday, one that took us each an hour to complete.  Three sets of exercises, and each set was:

*  Run for 3 minutes on the treadmill at 8km
*  Jump on the cross trainer for 3 minutes at 10 degree incline and 10 resistance     (keeping rpm above 63)
*  Jump on rower for 3 minutes on resistance 4
*  Box for 3 minutes
*  30 jumping jacks
*  10 squats
*  10 pushups
*  10 crunches
*  10 trunk extensions

Each set took 20 minutes, so one hour all up.  Elf Man burnt over 1300 calories with his (which was pretty similar to my workout) but since the heart rate monitor doesn't like me, I have no idea what I burnt.  I was pretty happy with the effort though.

So earlier today I braced my knee again to go on the treadmill.  Previously I had been running at 10km for my intervals, but I didn't want to push it, so I ran at 9km.  I usually do half an hour of my intervals (running, then walking for a minute), but I got to 23 minutes and I wasn't out of breath like I normally am, and I wasn't counting down the seconds on each run, so I thought I would push myself a little bit more.

So I kept going, still doing minute intervals, until I reached 42 minutes, then I ran until I hit 44 minutes, then walked the last minute.  I was pretty stoked with that effort, usually its really hard for me to complete 1 minute, let alone 2 minutes - at the end of the workout!!!!

I felt strong, and my knee was being awesome for me - thanks knee brace!

I've also been pleased with my nutrition efforts, I am really trying to get those 2 fruit serves and 5 vegies serves per day - and I've discovered that Elf Man has a really awesome breakfast so I've been making him make it for me too.  Its pretty high in calories, but its so filling that I really don't need to eat until lunch.  I have a cup of coffee at morning tea, but don't actually feel hungry.  It contains:  half a cup of oats, some linseeds, pepitas, sunflower seeds, dried cranberries, shredded coconut, cut up fresh fruit (today was blueberries, strawberry and banana), splash of low fat yoghurt, splash of low fat milk, drizzle of honey - and zapped in the microwave for a little bit.  It is SO nice, think I'll get him to make it for me every day.

On another note, it was weigh in day today, and I lost a bit too - what a freakin' awesome day.

Current weight:  75.5kg
Total weight loss (so far!):  27.5kg

Back on the horse I tells ya

Ok, so 10 years ago I was married to my first husband (yes, even fat girls can have a few men interested in them in their life time!) and I was going to Vic Uni and studying legal studies.  I used to ride my husband's bike to uni, because we lived about 5 blocks away.  One day I was riding and I swerved to miss a little kid who jumped out in front of me, and my handle bar got stuck in a fence and the bike flipped.  As did I.  And then the bike landed on me and ran over my face.  I was traumatised by the experience!  I limped all the way to uni (crying of course like the big sook I am) and had a hug from one of my friends (I think he was a bit weirded out cos I was normally pretty tough!).

So then I got cleaned up, went to classes as usual, took the bike home (walked - I wasn't getting on that again!).  So when my husband got home, I told him about the accident and expected a bit of love and affection because I was still hurting from it, and all I got was...

"IS THE BIKE OK?!"

Fuck the bike buddy - how about your wife!!

Anyhooooo....... that was the last time I went on a bike.  Until today.  I felt like going for a walk (6 months ago I never had those feelings) and so we put the kids in various prams, Sparrow rode his bike, and Elf Man and I headed out for a small 3.2km walk.

Then after we got back - I took one of our bikes out for a ride.  Just up and down the street, and it felt so free!  To have the ground so close to me whilst moving quickly was a bit scary for me, and the friggin' magpie that was attacking me was a complete pain in the arse, but it felt good to be back on there.

I'm realising that this IS a lifestyle now, and calorie counting is great and it does get you where you need to be - however its not a lifestyle you can do forever, and I wouldn't want to.  So I'm going to eat good food, move my arse at least 6 times a week in various exercises, and my new goal isn't to be 65kg - its to have my legs not wobble when I walk.  Too much fat on my legs and arse and I wobble - so thats my goal!  To have that stop wobbling.

Forget about the scale, forget about BMI, forget about body fat percentage - my goal is to not have wobbly legs when I walk.

Good wholesome food + exercise = my wobbly jelly legs gone forever!

Well, thats the plan anyway........

5 month weigh in

Ok so I've been on the "Melcra" lifestyle for 5 months now - and this is the results from good diet and exercise.

On April 23rd I looked like this:

And this:

Now I look like this:

Yes I still have lots of flabby bits (arms, tummy and thighs I'm looking at you!) but I am proud of what I have achieved in 5 months.

And even though today I ate bread that I wouldn't normally eat, and I had soft drink and I had an iced bun - I am not going back to those first pictures.

Current weight:  76.6kg.