Decided!

Ok so on Monday 21st March I'm going to start a 10 day cleanse. Kind of like preparation for the new season I guess. Ten days of fruit, vegetables, nuts, water and (maybe) some fish. So the aim from now until then is to prep my body as best I can to take this on. Obviously no smoking and no drinking (apart from 2 nights that I have already planned), lowering my red meat consumption (which I haven't actually eaten all week! No wait I had a 1cm cube of stras. yesterday, damn!), finding a suitable probiotic and also vegetable based sources of iron so I don't collapse mid way through and getting hold of as many awesome recipes to keep me interested.
The main reason I'm doing this cleanse at this time is in prep for the winter months. I don't want to head into winter already feeling slugish! So far my body has been reacting well to the changes I've made in my diet, but I really need to take control of my over eating of carbs. I still have a pantry full of pasta (of the not so healthy kind)and I really need to look at ways to incorporate more 'whole' foods into my diet. But netherless I am making positive changes and my body hadn't really craved any of the crap I used to fill it with before!
I really wish it wasn't raining today though as I have energy to burn. Maybe some vigorous house cleaning will hit the spot!

To cleanse or not to cleanse...

I've been going over the pro's and con's of doing a full body cleanse. I'm not talking about one of those crazy (usually harmful) over the counter ones. I'm more thinking of 10 days without wheat, meat, dairy, egg and all processed foods and stimulants. I'm also thinking about going through all the products that come in regular contact with my skin. If I'm going to get healthy I have to look at this as a whole rather than just one aspect. So I'm currently reading up on different methods and products that can assist with this process and if I decided to go ahead (which I am leaning more to a yes) then I will write about it. Anyway back to more reading...

Weigh In

This morning, prior to heading to the gym I weighed myself and with a loss of 2kgs I'm pretty happy. Only 28 more to go haha! Gym went well this morning. I'm seeing some noticable changes in the shape of my arms which makes me feel good. I'm still struggling with my rotating lunges, I feel very unco-ordinated and often wobble around while trying to do them. However I pushed through and finished 2 sets, so that was good.
Tonight was a bit of a mistake though as we got take-away for dinner after going grocery shopping and now my body isn't very happy with me. I feel a bit silly because I wasn't giving in to a craving or eating it as a treat, I was just being lazy, so now I have a small case of the guilts but that's ok, I'll work through it!
My next big challenge will be next week, 2 nights out and 1 full day at a music festival. Here's hoping I have enough strength to control my food and cigarette cravings, I am however making allowances for some alcohol. I'm over the hangover stage!
Here's to a healthy weekend for me!

Up the motivation

I went through my closet and found a top and pair of pants that I've been holding onto for the last 4 years in the hopes to fit into again 'one day'. I've decided to put them on display in my bedroom so that I can see them and remind myself of what I'm trying to achieve. Yes I want to lose weight for the health benefits, thus no smoking and limited alcohol (both of which I'm still completely free from at the moment), but damn it I want to look sexy too! I use to be a slim 55kg, but didn't appreciate the body I had I had at the time. Oversized portions, too many nights out drinking and next to no excerise has lead to a pretty depressing self image. Hindsight can be a wonderful thing provided the lesson is learnt and not repeated

Weekend wrap up and a fresh week

Not much exercise done over the weekend, however no alcohol was consumed and no cigrettes either, so this is a good start. A full week with clean lungs and liver is a good thing! My partner brought home Mexican food on Sunday but I was very sensible (in comparison to my normal), lots of capsicum and only a little cheese. I was very proud of my self restraint!

This mornings gym session went well, my balance is getting better finally! It's amazing that last week I was in so much agony after my workout but today I feel great, still a bit tired from being sick and having the child wake up repeatedly in the night, but over all I'm starting to feel a positive change.

It's still quite hard thinking of suitable tasty snacks during the day. Thankfully most of the 'bad' food is all gone from the fridge and pantry so there's not much to tempt me. I still haven't weighed myself, I'm holding off for a little while in the hopes that the first weigh in will show a reasonable drop so as to keep me from crying haha!

I need this like I need a pain in the shin

I woke up this morning with shocking pain, damn shin splints strike again!
An hour and a half walk yesterday and I'm paying for it today. My flat feet obviously don't get enough support with my current runners, so an upgrade will be in the near future it seems. Also for future note, ice on the shins can help reduce the pain, as can ibuprofen.
Even with the pain I got to the gym this morning and got started on my new program. And now my entire body is exhusted! At least I can actually feel the muscles being used, the recovery is a lot more noticable now. I have a couple of recipes to share which I will post once I figure out how to load the pictures too!

The topic of hunger

I read something that I thought was really great today- when you're hungry ask yourself if you are hungry enough to eat a carrot or an apple, if not then it's probably not hunger.
I was thinking yesterday while driving about the anorexia mantra that 'nothing tastes as good as skinny feels' and it got me thinking that although it's not the best way to think if you are already wafer thin if changed a little it could work for us that are over-weight, "does that taste as good as healthy will feel?". So this is my little mantra for now, before I put anything in my mouth I'll ask myself if it's going to do any good to my health. And if it's not, is it worth it. If I'm going to go off track a little it has to be worthwhile, better quality istead of quantity.

Welcome

This is the start of my weightloss journey, although I really don't like the word journey, but it's the only word I can think of at this point in time so it will have to do.
I guess first of all I will go through my stats- female, 25, 160cm, 87kgs, technically classified as obese if going by the bmi height to weight ratio, a mum, a housewife and a bit of a gym junkie now days!
The reason I'm starting a blog about my weightloss is to make me more accountable with how I look after my body. For the last few years I've had a lot of fun getting fat, but BEING fat isn't fun! So at least if I think someone is reading this then maybe it might help push me through those days that are a bit harder.
So this is the start and I will update as I move along at the gym, at home and in the kitchen. Anyone reading I would love support from people on the same path and any low fat or meat free recipes would be great!