Today is THE day. The day I start looking after myself again, eating healthier and getting exercise. I figure if I say it out loud, and put it out there in the blogosphere, it will make me more determined to stick to my new regime.
I’m not overweight, not by any means. I was always the girl everyone hated, the girl who couldn’t gain weight if she tried. But that changed a few years ago, it must be part of the aging process… POOH! About 4 years ago I put on weight for the first time in my life, and it freaked me out, so I stopped having KFC for lunch everyday, joined the gym and became a lot more concerned with what I put into my body. I lost the few kilos I’d gained and kept it off for about 2 years. I even dropped a couple more kilos to become the thinnest I’d ever been. I wasn’t unhealthily skinny, I was just enjoying working out so much that I spent an hour and a half in the gym five days a week. Being pear-shaped I was pretty damn happy to fit into size 9 jeans (I wouldn’t even dream of fitting into size 8!).
At the beginning of last year, I was in a new full time job, recently diagnosed with depression & anxiety and had just commenced part time study for the first time. Needless to say, the exercise regime went out the window. I just couldn’t keep it up. It’s now been 18 months since I went to the gym regularly. I weigh more than I ever have in my life. I’m not unhappy with my weight, I’d just love to be able to fit back into some of my favourite clothes again! Trust me, losing weight is a lesser challenge than having to re-fit my whole wardrbobe!!
So what’s the plan now? I’m giving myself a slow start so that I don’t demotivate myself. This week I start eating healthy. Ham & low-fat cheese or turkey & avocado toasties for lunch, fruit for snacks, stir fries and healthy pasta for dinner. I’m not a breakfast person, but trying to have a protein shake of a morning to get the metabolism going. For dessert its fruit with vanilla yoghurt or Kellogs Complete Muesli with low fat greek yoghurt (sometimes that can be breakfast too, I could live on yoghurt & muesli… NOM NOM NOM!) None of that is hard to eat, its all food I really enjoy. Coming into summer there’s going to be a lot more yummy fruit too, nectarines are my favourite!
I’ll be starting slowly on the exercise too, I really enjoy exercising at home on fit balls, with hand weights and exercise DVDs. I tried pumping up my fit balls yesterday, but couldn’t find the plugs… DOH! I went online and ordered some plugs as well as a mini trampoline. The hope is that I’ll be able to spend about an hour 6 days a week doing something active, and mostly it can be in front of the TV. I’d also like to re-learn how to swim, its great exercise and I enjoy it. It’s easy to get discouraged though because it works out every muscle in your body, so it really hurts, and its so hard to swim 50 metres when you’re first getting into it. I’ll also be doing a pilates DVD twice a week, I love pilates, it makes me feel so good and it hurts in all the right places – butt, things & tummy.
Wish me luck, and watch this space for updates!
Stumble It!
Go Jules!!…laughs I do that too, best machine to use is the leg magic, wow!! and slowly Jules, one step at a time…hey maybe we should do team work at each end of the down under world…!!!
Great job on the eating plan; every part makes sense! Good luck with swimming, I miss it myself! Also, good luck getting fit again!