I'm so tired of hearing excuses, you either want it or you don't!

I've written about this before but today I'm kind of pissed and so here goes...

This morning I decided that I felt well enough to go for a 5km walk because having lost almost three weeks of exercise due to bronchitis, I was really going nuts! I threw on a heavy jacket, a scarf, my sunnies and set out for a chilly frosty walk in the wind,  it was nice and sunny too so it wasn't all bad.

I made my way to town feeling good about myself and happy that I went but once I got in I was dying of thirst and needed something to drink so I opted for, yes you guessed it, a coffee! Not exactly the best thing I admit it but it was warm and toasty just what I needed, drinking anything cold at this stage in my recovery is a no go and I wasn't feeling like downing boiled water.

Where am I going with this.... oh yeah...while I was waiting for my coffee at a cafe, a couple came in and went to the counter to order. She was a rather large woman and he was average sized and quite a good looking guy. Anyway, they were asked what they'd like to order and he said he'd like a coffee and scone and she said a chocolate brownie with cream and a mocha. Her partner looked at her and instantly she got angry and said "today is my cheat day!" and he said "but you said your cheat day is in the weekend", then she said "I need this I'm not having a good day" and he said "you told me to tell you NO when it's not your cheat day, and to not accept any excuses", and she said "what excuse? why do you do this to me, I'm sick of you judging me and telling me what I can and cannot have, you're an ass!" I was so embarrassed that I had to look away and was making eyes at the barista to hurry up, stop milking the cow and give me my drink! Then I heard the poor man say to his partner in an barely audible whisper "I'm only doing this because you said for me to and because I love you and I want you to be happy", and she just stood there with the most vicious look on her face, I wanted to go and give the man a cuddle and smash the brownie in her face.

So this brings me to my BIGGEST most annoying frustrating peeve EVER! Excuses, I loathe excuses with a passion in regards to weight loss and I used to be the biggest excuse creator on the planet. Every single time I would reach for some nasty crappy food, I always had an excuse which I felt was valid but now looking back, I was just pathetic and stupid! Excuses for not exercising or eating well, drinking enough water, you name it, I had an excuse for it.... "oh my back hurts, I cannot concentrate without chocolate, I get highly agitated when I sweat" ugh! so pathetic! So now whenever I hear a large person make up some bullshit bogus excuse as to why they cannot lose weight and get healthy, it makes my blood boil when they complain about it.

Do I ever make excuses for things? sure I do, I make excuses for why I cannot go to bed early, when the real reason is simply that I don't want to go to bed early, I love my quiet "me time" when the kids are asleep, so I stay up late because I want to. I know I need to get to bed, but I don't WANT to.

Which brings me to the difference between want and need in weight loss.

Here's the thing.....YOU CAN ONLY LOSE WEIGHT IF YOU WANT TO!!! that's right you have to WANT it, not need it, not wish it, you have to WANT it, because when you finally make up your damn mind that there is no food or excuse that matters more than your want to lose weight, then you will lose weight. It's so damn simple, it's painful!

August 5th 2012, was the day I finally decided I WANT THIS!

So come on, really think about this, do you want to lose weight or not? seriously really, really think about it, how bad do you want it? are you prepared to give up the necessary things you need to in order to lose the weight? ARE YOU? because if you are not, then you are not ready, it's as simple as that. You hear everyday of people who lose loads of weight, then they lose momentum and fall right off the wagon and put it all back on and more and why? I think it's because they were truly not ready. How do I know? because I have been there countless times!

Most people want the magic pill, the super weight loss powder, the wake up and you're skinny system and there simply is no such thing. Corporations are making mega bucks out of all of us with these "magic potions of bullshit" when the only true way to shift the weight is through the basic formula, eat less, move more, acceptance of what needs to be done and the time it will take and bags and bags of positive thinking. It's taken me decades to accept this and now that I have, it's come so easily, yes it's hard work, but once you accept those facts it becomes routine and you don't think twice about it.

Another popular excuse that pisses me the hell off is "I haven't got the money" BULLSHIT! Let me tell you something, I live on the most meagre budget on the planet, I raise two kids on that meagre budget and yet I have lost 30kg in 8mths with no gym membership, no personal trainer, no car, no fancy schmancy foods or tablets, only 1 bag of protein powder that I haven't finished, and I eat mostly raw fruit and veges and a little meat for protein and iron. So please, the I haven't got the money for healthy food and exercise excuse is 100% BULL CRAP! Fitness doesn't have to cost a cent, I walk my ass off 7 days a week and then do exercises I found for FREE off youtube!

So, here's Barb's magic formula:

1. WANT IT BAD! and accept that it will take time and patience. Also accept that you will stuff it up, shit happens!

2. Clear your mind of the fact that you can dump loads of weight quickly, you can, but watch it all come back on. Weight loss is for LIFE it is a lifestyle change not a quick fix.

3. Throw excuses in the trash with all the shitty food in your pantry

4. Train your brain! Find some mental tactics to help you keep a positive attitude and don't let anyone derail your progress with their negative crap.

5. If you need extra support, find a support network that is NOT going to put up with your excuses!

Well that's my rant for today, be happy, decide what you WANT and go for it and remember ..... work hard because the day will come when you don't have to suck it in! - I read that on a post this morning in Facebook!

Ciao,
Barbs xx

Sometimes you've just got to get a pair of balls!

I wasn't sure about what to write about today until I had to do my assignment this week for my photography diploma. This week I had to emulate Cindy Sherman, a famous photographer who took self portraits which look like scenes from movies, she didn't copy actual movies she just took shots to look as if they'd leapt out of the silver screen.

Which brings me to my photograph for this week.

I decided that I was going to not just take a boring "selfie" where I hide every single flaw I can think of and then manipulate the photograph to the max, no! I decided I would step right out of my comfort zone and boost my self confidence at the same time, do I care if anyone thinks I look like a buffalo in my photograph? no, I don't give a crap because I look at the photo and I see someone who is healthier, fitter, beautiful and is about to become the person she always wanted to be, a slim confident woman with bags of energy and a high self esteem! So anyone who wants to say anything nasty, do your worst, I don't care!

So here it is, my assignment for the week, a shot of myself in my bed, half dressed and looking fab! So why not do something similar or do something that you've always been afraid to do before. Empower yourself and set yourself free, honestly it's seriously liberating!

Be Mindful of your Weight Loss Spend

So today I mentioned on my Facebook Page  that weight loss this time around hasn't cost me more than a few items of clothing, two pairs of New Balance shoes, and around $50 groceries per week in the last 10mths.

Four years of weight loss spend from 2007- 2011 cost me $21,643!!!! that's enough for a very nice car! Shocker! What freaks me out even more is that the first two years which include VERY expensive gym memberships barely got used, what an idiot!

Well it just goes to show, you don't need to spend big bucks to lose weight because I have only spent around $2500 over the last 10 months and that includes groceries, shoes and workout gear!

I am not only losing weight but gaining one heck of an education in the do's and don'ts of weight loss. DO work your ass off and DON'T waste your cash!

What a Week! Time for a New Plan of Attack!

Hello lovely people, first I want to apologise for being M.I.A for the past week. Friday last week I was hit with a terrible cold, then a few days later I thought I was okay and decided to go and do a 5km walk then ended up with a mild dose of bronchitis! So it's been a week of achy body, stuffed up nose and no taste sensation what so ever! Today is the first time I have tasted food in a week and wow! food is fabulous once again!

Even though I hate being sick, I managed to handle it meds free, just a few panadols and a little cough syrup AND I got to finally understand why it is VITAL to get healthy, here is what I wrote on a facebook post this week:


Why it pays to eat clean, lose weight, get fit and get healthy!
My Facebook Page: click here 

I have found out that I have bronchitis not a cold. I spent last night finding it hard to sleep because all I could hear was the rattling in my lungs from all the mucous build up, funny thing is, even though I have this I don't feel really ill, just a bit achy, snotty and pissed off. My former sumo self never handled sickness very well at all, I would spend almost two weeks in bed and at least three of those days I would be feverish (this time around I was feverish overnight) and almost unresponsive which was pretty scary, AND I would be jacked up to the eyeballs on antibiotics, ibuprofen, you name it I had it. 

This time around 30kg lighter and a million times fitter, I have been drinking loads of soup, green smoothies, ginger, lemon and honey tea and eating really well even though I cannot taste anything. If by Friday I still have the rattles going on in my lungs (it's only a little at the moment, but still annoying), I will go and get checked up just in case.

So there you go, if you are contemplating getting healthy DO IT, DO IT NOW! It really does pay off in more ways than one!


So there you go, a huge lesson learned I just wish I had've done this so many years ago!

Okay enough of that, there's no point dwelling on the woulda, shoulda, coulda right? Let's just get stuck into the here and now and speaking of which I have a new master plan of attack for my next round of weight loss!

BARB'S NEW MASTER PLAN TO SHRINK MY GUT & REDUCE MY BUTT (hehe)

Okay, here goes:

FOOD

Breakfast: 1 of the following
- green smoothie + 8 raw almonds + 2 kiwifruit
- soaked oats with Greek yoghurt + nuts & seeds

Snack: 1 of the following
- Peanut Butter Protein Bar (that I make myself)
- Fruit
- Greek yoghurt with nuts if I haven't had it in my breakfast
- Nuts
- Trail mix
- Air popped popcorn
- Rice crackers

Lunch: 1 of the following
- Spinach & feta wrap packed with veges and 20g edam cheese
- Giant salad, no dressing with half cup of cooked brown rice + 100g baked or grilled chicken
- Spinach and cheese egg white omelette with a huge salad, no dressing

 Snack: same as the snacks above

Dinner: 1 of the following
- Omelette with huge salad, no dressing
- Baked potato with a tiny blob of garlic butter, shredded carrot & cabbage + dollop sour cream
- Fish fillet  or baked spicy chicken with huge salad
- Bolognaise sauce on brown rice + huge salad no dressing
- Spicy Soup with beans and stacks of veges

Snack: same as the snacks above

So that's basically the food part of it, as you can see it's mostly clean and mostly non-processed foods!

EXERCISE

I will be moving my butt 7 days a week

Monday/Wed/Fri/Sat - 8km walk + 30mins calisthenics
Tues/Thurs/Sun - Interval training + weight training (90mins total)

If I am knackered or have DOMS really bad then I will have a day off, it's no big deal

.... and that's my master plan put into action as of tomorrow 18 May 2013!

So what about cravings and the odd special occasion I hear you say. My take on this is this, if I have a craving I will wait two days and if I still want it bad, I will have it. Usually by the second day I am over it and then don't need to eat the offender, but sometimes I do and it's not the end of the world!

As for celebrations, going out etc, I just make mindful food choices or if I really want to taste everything, then I just try a little bit, there really is no need to gorge yourself on a special occasion or miss out, just have a bit of control otherwise you have to work twice as hard to correct your mistake!

The trick I have learned throughout the last months of my weight loss journey is to relax my mind and not get so worked up about numbers, sure I still want to see the number on the scale jump down to double digits asap (NZ), but it's much better to think of the tremendous health benefits you are receiving from your efforts. How you look and weigh should be secondary to this and a happy bonus rather than the be all and end all!

- Barbs xx

Another Milestone Completed!! 30kg gone bye bye!

I was cleaning my lounge this morning and happened to find the batteries to the scale. Now I know I am meant to be weighing only once a month but today I felt lighter and a bit more pulled in so I decided to chance it and step onto the scale. Even though I had made my way through half a box of grissini last night and a shortbread cookie (I'm not perfect), I have lost weight and reached my first big target of 30kg lost!!! That's 66 pounds or 66 blocks of butter which is huge!!!!

Words cannot explain my excitement but I hope the neighbours didn't think someone was being murdered in my house as I screamed when I saw the number! I got on and off the scale to be sure and yes, yes, yes, 30kg gone!

Now the old me would've celebrated by having a feast of some sort but today I'm going to treat myself to a nice walk along the waterfront at a much slower pace, breathe in the fresh air and listen to music that doesn't make me pound the pavement at an athletic pace :)

Celebrate your victories, no matter how big or small they are you should always acknowledge your hard work, you deserve it!

Barbs xx

The Beats I Pound the Pavement To

So the other day I was asked what I listen to when I go for my walks which is a very hard question because it changes frequently. One day it could be my Aussie Rock playlist where I get to relive in my imagination my teen days of liquoring up at Boardriders listening to Hunters and Collectors, Hoodoo Gurus and the like, or other days it's house music such as Alice Deejay, Sash, David Guetta, Calvin Harris or depending on my mood it can even be the Bee Gees, yes I said it, and it's the truth! The important thing about music selection for me is that it needs to have a regular beat or melody that helps me to walk in time with the music, pretty simple really. As for today's playlist it was a bit of a mixed bag so I made this little graphic which is one of the playlists I listened to today :)

It's the Little Things that Count

Sometimes while travelling on this weight loss journey I forget about the little things, the little victories that put a huge smile on my face because it's something I've achieved through hard work and determination. For the past couple of weeks I have been thinking about this on and off, all the things I am now able to do, the changes in my body that I can see, the difference in how I feel not only physically but also emotionally.

So what are my little victories so far?

• I can stand and bend down to touch my toes without wanting to pass out
• I can sit on a chair and lower my chest to my knees, a while back my stomachs would have gotten in the way
• I can do seated Russian twists with a medicine ball! My stomachs (yes two of them)  used to get in the way.
• I can fit on the swings at the park without my ass overlapping the seat and without pain. No more deep marks left on my legs from the chains that attach to the seat!
• I love myself more
• I've gained confidence in myself 
• I believe in myself
• The radical mood swings have gone
• I can feel my ribs and hip bones!
• My anxiety level has lowered, I can talk to people in the eye, that is a huge achievement for me!
• I can say no to tempting foods without feeling left out
• I can run around with my daughter and not want to either pass out or vomit after five minutes
• I can easily walk 15km with speed and not stop!
• I sleep better and leap out of bed in the morning excited about going for a workout!
• and much, much more!

It's important to take note of the little things because it helps to keep on track. We all get so caught up in the number on the scale that we don't appreciate these non-scale victories which are just as important.

So take the time to discover and realise your little victories and embrace them!

Barbs xx

It's been a glorious day!

So today, I made a boo boo, I promised left right and centre that I would NOT touch the scale and well, I failed. There is however a gigantic plus side to this tale and that is that when I arrived home from my 8km this morning I felt lighter, so I put the batteries back into my scale, hopped on them and WOW! Since Monday, I have lost 1.2kg (2.7lb)!!! I am stunned! On Tuesday I was 108kg, then yesterday I decided to weigh myself for my 1st of May weigh in and I was 107kg, then today goodbye another 200g! Holy crap, it's flying off me again yay!

So what am I doing to facilitate this latest push in weight loss? Well, no longer am I just eating a garden of food, I have embraced meat again, but only three days a week and I have welcomed egg whites big time! I am the omelette making queen, and I love them. They're so filling, packed with protein and so low in fat, brilliant! Teamed with a giant no dressing green salad, I am fuller for longer and don't seem to want to snack anywhere near as much!

Today I was feeling so fighting fit that I whipped myself out of bed, accomplished my 8km then at around 5pm this evening, I went into my garage, blasted the stereo and worked my butt off with weights, resistance bands, kettlebell and calisthenics exercises for an hour. When I came out I had serious quivering muscles and litres of sweat pouring out of my pores. I felt so alive, I love exercising!!

So that's pretty much how my day in weight loss land stacked up. I am finally back in the same head space that I was when I started this back in August 2012, I feel fighting fit and fabulous!

Barbs xx