My weight loss this week

It was just what I expected, a gain of .8, oh well I know why, you can't cheat yourself on this journey, it always shows on the scales.
So I am back on track, making sure I track and trying to get back to the gym, boy its hard to make that first step, once I get back into a routine of going to the gym I find it easy.
So I thought I would post my daily tracker on here, have to figure out how lol

Just do it! "Believe"

"Your life is a sacred journey. And it is about change, growth, discovery, movement, transformation, continuously expanding your vision of what is possible, stretching your soul, learning to see clearly and deeply, listening to your intuition, taking courageous challenges at every step along the way. You are on the path... exactly where you are meant to be right now... And from here, you can only go forward, shaping your life story into a magnificent tale of triumph, of healing of courage, of beauty, of wisdom, of power, of dignity, and of love."
Caroline Adams

I was lucky enough to be shown how to use a Labyrinth, it was amazing the effect it had on me, walking round and round the maze, step by step, feeling the power of letting go of worries and anxieties and to finally end up in a place of inner strength.
I have taken some information from

http://www.lessons4living.com/labyrinth.htm to help explain the experience.

A labyrinth has only one path. The way in is the way out. There are no blind alleys. The path leads you on a path to the center and out again. A labyrinth is a right brain task. It involves intuition, creativity, and imagery. At its most basic level the labyrinth is a metaphor for the journey to the center of your deepest self and back out into the world with a broadened understanding of who you are.

My Labyrinth walk gave me motivation, strength and hope that I can achieve whatever I want to achieve.
One quote from the weekend which has been one that I had already adopted at the beginning of the year was "just do it" no excuses to not exercise or not to eat healthy, but just do it.

Spiritual retreat

I have been very lucky to attend a spiritual retreat which was held at Bowral. It is nice to stop and smell the roses and take time to look inwards. The experience has given me a boost of motivation and encouragement to keep me going. I have a renewed strength and feel very positive about my journey to a healthy me.
As for my diet this week, well lets just say I am expecting a gain on the scales. Its hard to stay on track when you are away and don't have control over the meals. It is also very hard when every meal and snack is cooked by fantastic old fashioned cooks lol Yeah I know, I should of had some will power, but its no use looking back and crying over spilt milk.
So from now on I am back on track, just had a little detour for a few days but that is not going to stop me.
I feel empowered from my weekend and I will go into that when I can later.

My week

I had a funny week, with being back at work and going to the gym, then on Wednesday (the really hot day) I went on an excursion with 60 year 2 kids to Mount Annan Gardens, we had a lovely day and walked for a good 2 to 3 hours, which is great for me. Unfortunately I came home with a whopping migraine and went straight to bed. It hung around for days and leaves my head and neck sore.

I have just returned from a family weekend away with Robs brothers and sisters and their families. We had a lovely time and went on a bush walk yesterday and played with the kids. Spent some quality time with my grandson and yes I did indulge a little and boy had a few too many drinks last night.
Sometimes its really hard to stick to my plan, but you have to say, its over now, I can't take it back and just move on.
To make it even harder I am going on a spiritual retreat with work this afternoon until Tuesday afternoon, with all meals provided, so all I can do to try and stay on track is to choose the healthy choices that I have available and go for walks if I can. Sometimes the weight loss journey needs to be on the back burner for a few days so the mind and soul can be nourished. But I will be back refreshed and in full swing to buckle down for the onslaught on the silly season fast approaching. I suppose weight loss must fit in with our life and learning to pick yourself up and keep on going is a lesson in itself.

Back to the gym

Today I went back to work and back into a routine that I found necessary to keep me on track. I find it so easy when I have to pack my lunch and morning tea, I just eat what I have in my lunch box and when work has morning teas (and they have them all the time) I just stick to what I have packed. Being back at work also means back to the gym, you would think being on holidays and having the time would make it easier to go, but I really needed time to relax and sleep in and just chill. Today meant I had to bite the bullet and get back to exercise and the gym wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I did 20 minutes walking, only managed 3.5 minutes on the cross trainer (oh dear I have gone from 13 to 15 minutes to 3.5 in 3 weeks, and 20 minutes on the bike, then 15 minutes of stretches.
I feel fantastic after exercising, my muscles are sore but a good kind of sore and I feel very proud of myself.
Tonight were having spag bol, basically I cook up the mince, drain the fat, add 2 tins of tomatoes, stock, garlic, italian herbs, touch of sugar and let it simmer, then add 2 large tablespoons of tomato paste. yummm

15 kilos & charm bracelet

Spring arrived and so did another loss and I was now up to 15 kilos.
I was able to buy a new charm for my bracelet, oh I dont think I have mentioned my weight loss bracelet.
A friend, Michelle, at WW mentioned she has a motivation bracelet and when she loses weight she buys a charm for her bracelet, its a constant reminder on my wrist of sticking to the diet and the little charms are all picked specifically with weightloss and health in mind. e.g. scales, fruit, joggers etc
So for Mothers day my family brought me a pandora bracelet, well an imitation one lol and so far I have 15 charms on it and love wearing my bracelet.

Birthday surprise

My birthday was in Aug and the kids took me shopping for some new clothes. 3 of my 4 kids took me into Target and had 10 dresses for me to try on, it became a little fashion parade with my Grandson screaming with delight when he saw his Nanna step out behind the curtain lol
To my surprise I fitted into a size 16 wooohooo I did a little dance in the change room and that lifted my motivation big time to keep going and see the results of exercise and healthy eating.

10% and 10 kilos

I was so proud to get to 10% and 10 kilos, wow I feel incredible and so proud of myself.

I have dropped to a size 18 in trousers and my blood pressure has come down since christmas and so far is staying down.
Its unbelievable the difference I feel even the small things have become easier e.g putting my shoes on, getting up off the floor at work when I have been working with the kids.
Motivation issant always at its best and sometimes it feels like one step forward and two back, but I am going to stick with it and if nothing else determination will get me there.

New Years resolution

My New Years resolution was to go to a WW meeting every week and stay for the meeting, also to do some kind of exercise as often as I can and to ignore that little voice in my head giving every excuse under the sun to not go to they gym... this year my New Years resolution is "just do it"

12 months on ww

12 months ago I was feeling unwell, tired and very unmotivated. I had just had a hysterectomy and with very high blood pressure, I felt I had to take some serious steps to losing some weight otherwise the Dr will put me on medication to get the blood pressure down.

I have done the weight watchers program before and lost 20 kilos then became a life time member, but for the last 10 years I have done everything in my powers to stay away from WW and when I have gone to a meeting I didnt last very many weeks. This made me think that If I am going to get really serious, I need to make a big commitment to losing weight. It meant I had to get my whole family involved in the journey. The family were right behind me and my younger daughter even came to meetings with me and would study the program so that she could help me and encourage me.
I weighed in the heaviest ever!!! 103.6 kilo, boy I am not proud of that but hey its out there now.
So with the program in hand and a new commitment I went home to read through all the information that I received from WW. My younger daughter wanted me to make a small goal of 5 kilo and think of a non food reward.
She also convinced me to go back to the gym and to commit to going at least 3 times a week. (I must add now that this daughter is studying to be a fitness trainer)

I must say the program was fairly simple to follow and with my renewed enthusiasm and encouragement from my family the weight started to fall off me. By christmas I had lost 5 kilo and I was so proud of myself.

I will continue this in the next post... so much to say