On my way up

This is just a little jot to catch up. I bought a purple stethoscope the other day. It's really very pretty :) Anyway, it's the morning, I'm about to leave for tec and I've started caring about what I eat and how I exercise again. YAY! I'm not too sure where that low came from. Perhaps it was a little self-sabotage maybe. But yeah so I'm writing down what I'm eating again, something I'm actually not ashamed to do. I added up the chips, pies, chocolate bars, and burger king that I ate last week and I was not impressed. Well perhaps I was, it could have bulked up even a sumo wrestler! :) I laugh about it but I am somewhat annoyed with myself for letting it get that far. But its done. Over. It's a new day and I'm about to begin it. Hope everyone has as great a day as I'm going to have hehe

I am still in here, somewhere...

Havn't been updating I know, been super busy and I know I keep saying that but I do mean it. Hehe. I'm doing okayish, I've been overeating a bit. The thing I'm struggling with at the moment is when I become stressed with my workload everything else tends to go out the door. Including me watching what I'm eaten and how much I'm exercising. That in itself seems to take more energy than I have to spare currently. It's almost the holidays though so refocusing my efforts then will be a bit easier and I might see if I can set up some safety nets for the next time the workload gets heavy, so that my eating and exercising aren't the first thing to go out the door.
Got a maths test result back today. Discovered I didn't even see the last page during the test :( But every other question that I did see I got right, if thats any consolation. And its better that it happened this year for me to learn my lesson. Besides, it ended up that I got 90% anyway, so it wasn't too serious.
I'll try to keep posting in here but it feels like I'm being slapped in the face each time I do. (not by the readers of course) Just that this is a weight loss journal and the weight loss isn't going very well at the moment :( It is supposed to be a journey though, and journeys have highs and lows. Often more lows than highs...

Running around like a headless chook

Last couple days have been a bit hectic. Had a few essays, and assignments that needed to be handed in for tec, so havn't really had time to update this. I have been doing good though :) I've been exercising on the appropriate days, but I still havn't got back into the writing in the food notebook yet. Too damn busy to realise what I'm eat let a lone write it down. (theres the trap right there i guess :) hehe) I was on an absolute high yesterday! Endorphin high that is...I scored 100% in my exam for science. It was the first one of the class, BUT only one other person in the class besides myself scored that! Out of a 35 person class. I was extremely proud of myself, and I havn't scored under 80% in anything else in the course yet. So yeah, yesterday was a big buzz day for me. So I went to the gym and burnt it off there. I was almost going double the resistance I normally go on all the cardios and all the weights seemed like nothing. Endorphins are such a great thing :) I've got my training for my new job today, from 9am-5pm. Its been a while since I've worked a full day heh. But I'm looking forward to it. Todays one of my run days but I'll have to see how I'm feeling after work as to whether I'll go or not. I hope I feel like going. Anywwway, gotta jet, have shower, do my hair nice, all that jazz.

wonderba!

Yay! Well today went 15 times better than I have been going for the last couple days. I ate a lot better today than what I have been (there were still a couple slip ups, but an improvement none the less). I went to the gym to despite having felt absolutely exhausted all day long. I did good at the gym too. The weights all seem to be getting easier so I think I'll need to up them at the beginning of next week. I'm feeling a hell of a lot more positive now than what I have been. I've got a running date with my boyfriends little sister, for 7.30 tomorrow so that will be good motivation. I'm climbing back up the hill...finally :)

Pretty!

flower2
Originally uploaded by spiruleena.

Heres the prettiest photo that I took at the rose gardens on saturday, and yes I realise they're not roses :P Aren't they pretty though?

Weekend a write off :(

Okay so I know its monday but I'm writing off the last two days. I didn't eat really bad, but I didn't eat good and I didn't record what I ate so :( But anywho new week, new chances. I normally go into the gym to do my cleaning for my membership today but I completely forgot about it. Which meant I completely missed out on my weigh in too. But I'm doing it tomorrow so I'll weigh then, but I'm definitly not confident that I've lost any weight. Which is okay, I havn't worked for it. Went for 2 short walks today and shifted around the bedroom furniture so I think I've burnt up a few calories :)
Been quite a crazy weekend. Boyfriend's little sister is having fights with their dad so shes staying in our computer room (while our computers are now in the lounge) for about 2 weeks. She's such a lovely girl, really friendly but the youngest of the family so been babied a bit.
Went to the rose gardens on saturday, theres some really pretty flowers in bloom at the moment. I'll post some pictures once flickr.com stops having a massage (don't know what thats about).
Got Tec tomorrow so it might pick my mood up a bit, and I'm planning on checking on my fav blogs see if I can't draw some inspiration from you guys :) Will start writing down my food again tomorrow. And will be going to the gym.

Just a quickie :)

Didn't manage my run today but it has to be done tomorrow, do or die! Because then I will have completed my 3 cardio, 3 resistance workouts for this week. YAY! It was the mans turn to cook tonight so we ended up having fish and chips (big no no). But I'm not going to kick myself about it. Back on the wagon again tomorrow (because I never really got back on it from yesterday hehe) and people have been commenting that I look as though I'm losing weight already. Great sign :) I know its a bit of a scruffy update but I've been pushed for time today. Guess thats why I chose to restart the watching what I eat for tomorrow. I did eat lots of fruit today, which can't be that bad of a thing :D

Please ignore the self-pitying ramblings of a girl upset over falling off the wagon

I didn't really want to acknowledge this but I thought it best not to just ignore it....
Okay so this may not come as any great surprise to those who have already been through the eating & exercising thing before but I fell off the wagon. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying its not okay to fall off but after only a week and a half? I'm rather gutted with myself. I wonder how long does it take other people to fall off for the first time when starting a new routine? I wonder if I'm normal or just have a huge lack of willpower.
It's just that, well, the golden arches were calling my name, "sam you know you want a cheeeeeseburger....you know you dooo." Okay now the issue wasn't that I gave into this very enticing call but that I ordered the large cheeseburger meal, which consists of Large fries, Large drink and a cheeseburger. I did tell myself I wasn't going to deny myself any foods but I'm also trying to curb my overeating ways. I was full by the time I finished the fries, and I recognised this fact. But I continued on eating. The cheeseburger didn't even taste that great once I was full. I was just going through the motions. The plus side of all this? I recognise that my iceberg sized weight issues are a daily struggle. Now that I'm aware of this, it may make it a bit easier.

What I am proud to say (in a way) is that I didn't just throw the towel in after that. I let go of the fact that I overate and just went on with the day like I hadn't just been run over by the wheel of the waggon. I continued writing down what I ate (including the McDs) and internally mend my bruised ego. I thought I was going to be the first person to never fall off, because I actually do LOVE this program. (pretty silly thought, huh?)
Sadly I didn't go to the gym either. But thats luckily not such a big deal I just move my gym to today and my normal friday run to tomorrow.
Well that was yesterday and this is a new day. And as the chinese proverb goes "fall down 7 times, and get up 8". I live in hope that I'll never have to confront the day that I fall off 7 times though. But if that day does come it'll be okay. I'll find my way of getting up again :)

The Great Shift

Hi I'm Sam :) I live in New Zealand and have done all my life. Great country to live in!
I made a decision not so long ago to concentrate on my health and fitness as opposed to concentrating on my weight. (This isn't to say I don't want to lose weight)

I was considered 'obese' at the age of 12. I don't have anyone to blame for this except myself. At 13 I weighed 98kg. For a few years my weight went up and down. I didn't take too much notice during this time. I only remember hating the people that called me fat (and every other name under the sun). At 17, over the christmas holidays I lost 15 kg after I made friends with a really lovely girl who I started getting out and walking with. At 18 I joined the gym and dropped down to 74 kg, and then stopped because I couldn't afford it anymore. My weight crept back up to 78 and thats when I came to the 'health and fitness more important than weight' realisation. As I said I've never really been pre-occupied with the number on the scales, only the way I felt. So I made the decision to make how I felt better.

How I felt about exercise? I'd stopped doing it altogether, so that was obviously the first thing to change. I'm one of those people that loves the feeling they get from exercising so I love doing it. I've started a 9 week program "couch potato to 5km runner". And I went back to the gym (that I still can't afford to pay for) where I asked if I could clean there for an hour or two a week for a free membership and they said yes (pretty sweet, huh?). And I do two resistance weight trainings there a week, an hour each time. This was a good starting program for me.

How I felt about food? Well that turned out to be a little bit of an iceberg of an issue. I started examining and analysing my eating habits and realised several things about myself.

• I'm an emotional eater. I not only eat when I'm sad, I eat when I'm angry, happy, excited or stressed.
• I binge eat. In other words I eat more than I need to fuel my body.
• And I eat when I'm not hungry (aka bored).

I decided that to begin changing my eating habits I'd have to start writing down everything that I eat. So I've been doing that. I've also been checking myself physically when I reach for food if I'm hungry or actually bored, stressed, tired, angry, happy, sad (or any combination of these). If its any of the later I stop myself and find something else to do. If I'm seriously needing a pick me up I drink a cup of tea with sugar alternative and low fat milk (it's enough to get me past the 'gotta have it' phase of things).

So that's all the catch up info. I thought I did a pretty good job of summing that up :)

Status Report

Where I'm at now? Well I'm in my second week. I've had my first weigh in (weigh in days are mondays) And I've lost half a kg so far. I didn't expect to lose anything as I usually gain muscle mass faster than I lose fat. But yay to the half a kg! My running is going great. I'm only in the first week of this but I have seen huge improvements already! Same with my food eating. I don't mindlessly shovel food into my mouth anymore. I'm far more aware of it now :)
So many good things are going on at the moment I just had to start sharing so here I am. I'll hopefully be updating daily, on my victories and defeats for the day. So please come back soon!