Mobility Scooter to walk the dog

Yesterday I was walking along the beach where I live and I noticed a dog trotting along. Then I saw it's owner on a mobility scooter and it gave me a reality check.

• One day I'm going to be old. 
• One day my body won't move very well and I may have to use a scooter. 
• One day I'm going to look back at this time of my life and regret not using my body to the best of its ability. 

Only I can control what goes into my mouth. Only I can move my body and look after it. Only I can reshape it to the best that it can be. It's my responsibility. I can't blame Mcdonalds, I can't blame someone else. I'm in charge. The buck stops with me.

Therefore I propose that we all stop making excuses and take responsibility. When we pick up food we know we shouldn't eat... it's our choice. It doesn't matter than someone else may have brought tempting food to our house or convinced us to eat it. We decide what goes into our mouth.

So let's make the choice to be happy with our bodies or make the right choices for us, until we have the body we are happy with. I'm beginning to think that 'diet' is a very dangerous word. I've dieted for years, got to a good weight then gone back to eating normal and gained weight again. I have to find a eating lifestyle that allows me to stay at my acceptable weight. Something that isn't too hard that I can't keep it up. I also have to find a fitness routine I can keep up long term.

So far the way of eating that has worked best for me is a form of Dukan/Atkins/Low carb. I find avoiding wheat and sugar in 90% of my diet does the trick. This way I can occasionally have something wheaty or sugary which solves my craving problems and I don't tend to fall off the wagon and binge so much.

My weight has stalled this month. I can't seem to get any lower. I'm not far from my goal so I'm not too stressed. This month I'm going to concentrate on building up a bit of muscle as I notice I'm still quite flabby (skinny fat) and I'd like to be more toned.

Who do you blame for your weight gains? 

Bounce bounce bounce

I'm bouncing along... not really losing or gaining. Which in the bigger picture is pretty good. I'm not really gaining :-) Some days I slip up so I just eat better the next day. I feel like I'm on a learning curve to eat normally without gaining for the rest of my life.

Not much else to report ;-)
ZG

Five

My son turned five in the weekend and yes I did eat some cake :-) it was good! Although I must say I really notice how food with flour and sugar doesn't sit very well in my stomach anymore. Back to bacon and eggs the next day and it feels much better :-)

Speaking of eggs. We are baby sitting four chickens. FRESH EGGS. They are quite needy little madams and eat soooo much, but it's fantastic having the eggs. As you can imagine, egg is a major part of my diet.

The photo above is the sunrise last week from our deck.
Daylight savings has ended so it gets dark early in the evening again and the mornings are semi light again. So I'm back to hitting the pavement in the mornings, although I am incredibly unfit so it's slow going.

My weight is still plateauing although I feel like my clothes are a little looser. I'm not giving up this time. This time I'm in this for life. If I have a few days of slipping up, I just pick myself up and get on with it again. So far it's working for me :-)

Let me know how you guys are going!!

No April Fools here

It's April. Where oh where has the year gone?
I've been up and down a bit since my last post, but still working hard towards my goal. My clothes feel looser even if the scales aren't always my friend. 3kg left to go.... well, I HAD 3kg left to go before easter.... enter a few sneaky easter eggs.... oops. Eggs are protein aren't they ;-)

On a side note, I'm baby sitting some chickens for my inlaw's for two weeks. Hopefully it will be fresh eggs on the menu daily :-)

Exercise = zilch, but I'd like to change that once day-light savings ends and the mornings are semi light again.

Have a great week
ZG

Photo is my baby boy, turning 5 in five days....

Plateau City

It's been weeks since I've lost anything. I keep bouncing back to the same weight :-( It's extremely frustrating and effects my mental state.

Yesterday was the first time I've lost it in 5 weeks. I forgot to take lunch to an event and when I got home in the middle of the afternoon I was ready to eat ANYTHING, and I did... Cupcakes, shortbread, Mcdonalds.... I woke up in the middle of the night with the worst stomach ache... all that gluten did not agree with me.

Anyway lesson learned, but I still need to break through this plateau... ideas?
ZG

S-L-O-W

Ahhhhhh weight loss has been VERY slow this week. I'm probably eating too much cheese. BUT at least the number are going down, even if it's slower than I'd like. I've been looking up homemade protein bars again as I consider them my treat of the day. If I can't have cakes and lollies and carbs, then I need something to look forward to.

Do you have any good recipes?

Losing weight - muscle or fat

After my 'you don't have to exercise to lose weight' post I did some more thinking. While I still agree with the post, there is an important fact you need to consider. When you lose weight, you not only lose fat, but also muscle and because I am not doing ANYTHING to keep my muscles (unless you call lifting my toddler exercise) that means the weight I'm dropping is also precious muscle.

Muscle is so important, even though it weights more than fat, the more muscle you have the more energy you burn, which is from the food you eat. Therefore, I think I need to add in a little muscle burning to my week. I plan to do this through a bit of weight training. Now anyone who hasn't done any weight training before may think I'll turn into a incredible hulk, but that couldn't be further from the truth. In fact women have a particularly hard time putting on solid muscle and have to work really hard to do it. I've weight trained before, really seriously weight trained and while my muscles got tighter, they didn't grow very much.

The fact it, you need to feed your muscles good protein on top of what you need daily for energy and I'm just not prepared to do that right now. I just don't have the time to think about anything else, so I just want to add a bit of muscle maintaining workouts into my day. A few squats/lunges here and there and a few press ups and maybe something for my shoulders and back. If you concentrate on the big muscles, the little ones will come along for the ride :-)

I lost another kg (2 pounds) this week which is pleasing. I expect the losing will slow down now my body is onto what I'm up to ;-) but I'm still feeling really determined.

So my goals for March are:
1. Drink more water
2. Add a few muscle maintaining routines into my day

What are your goals for March?
ZG