The bad and good habits I learnt dieting away my metabolism

August 2010 compared to April 2012- The Viking and I

**I try to blog responsibly. I understand that my experience with weight loss, gain and some of my habits reflect minor ED type behaviour. If you feel that reading about someone’s excesses, success and failure in regards to dieting and weight-loss will upset you or set of your own ED type behaviour, please look after yourself by not reading this post, or any blogs that discuss weight-loss.**

 

I have been really thinking for a while about where I want to go with my weight loss and health goals. In August 2010 I started a big journey when I quit dieting, slowly lost 15kgs the ‘right way’, and got down to my ‘comfy’ weight zone. I have been maintaining that weight for a year now (which when you have PCOS seems to be just how my weight works… a few kgs to me is a few 100gs to others- aka I still fit my clothes within this fluctuation, look the same and feel the same).

This is the longest I have ever been in this zone (the low 70s if you are desperate to know and that is 155-160lbs according to Google my imperial peeps). So it is official… I am maintaining! Which is a massive achievement for me. After a lot of thought of how this has been possible I realised that it is my daily habits. Because I am by no means being good all the time!

Over many years of dieting (5 to be exact) and since making the commitment to learn and apply myself when it comes to goal setting and weight-loss I have learnt a lot of good habits that are paying off dividends in helping me maintain my weight now that I have almost eliminated all the nasty habits I made dieting.

Change your habits- change your life?

Examples of some nasty bad habits include:

• Believing that I could lose weight quickly and therefore when I wasn’t on a diet I could eat like a pig! (Aka that it is all or nothing)
• Not eating enough (1200 calories a day is no good…. 500 calories a day is just one meal! And I have done both much to my regret).
• Not eating well and rewarding myself with food (“Hmm I want to eat junk food and I have 200 calories left over from my target…oh great I can eat X. Yah!”).
• Going on a diet every three months and off for three months for years.
• Not exercising for years.
• Exercising for the wrong reasons such as believing that exercise would control my weight (sorry friends do the math…exercise is ineffective for weigh-loss!).

And all the other typical one-step-forwards-two-steps-back mistakes people make when they can’t be bothered fixing their head before trying to fix their butt! I honesty now believe that diets (fad diets) are for people who can’t be bothered losing weight!

Good Habits  that I have slowly cultivated include:

• I learnt not to be scared of what my body can or cannot do and that most of my limits are mental not physical.
• I learnt that dieting makes absolute no sense and that for me:
  Eating more protein, keeping an eye on the amount of carbs I eat ( aka not really eating shitty simple/white carbs and not eating too many wholegrain ones and not at every meal), and eating low GI’ish works for me and my PCOS/ insulin resistance.
• I learnt to exercise regularly for the love of it and not to burn calories.
• I learnt that I can run.
• That if I want to lose weight I need to eat very well 90% of the time but that 10% of the time living a little helps me stick to my guns while also keeping my metabolism working. If I want to maintain 80/20, and if I am holiday or relaxing I shouldn’t go lower than 70/30 or my weight just goes to hell!
• I learnt that by trying your best you can’t fail at anything.
• That you should make excuse to move not to be still.
• That it is 80% nutrition, 10% exercise and 10% genes!
• I learn that eating good fats keep me full and happy.
• That eating a dinner type meal at lunch is more satisfying than a sandwich for lunch (thanks Sweden for that habit!).
• That making my lunch, cooking my own dinners, and choosing homemade delights over commercial junk means I have better nutrition and maintain weight easier.
• At least half my plate should be covered in vegetables and that my plate should be smaller than standard.
• That I should eat 40% of what my 6ft3 Viking eats… not 50/50 (typical trap women fall into…while you grew up going 50/50 with your brother he was onlya boy then, you don’t keep up with how much men eat!).
• That 3-4 litres of water a day keeps me hydrated… and that I can easily drink that much or more.
• I learnt not to drink milk, soft drinks, or much alcohol.
• You do not need to eat bread, pasta, or rice with every meal (who knew).
• And that two pieces of bread a day is a maximum or before you know it you have had a whole loaf! (Perhaps that is just me but that stuff is just addictive!)

Over time I have become an adult when it comes to my food and exercise routines. While sometimes I still revert to being  kid (licking the plate and eating till I am sick) most of the time I am in my kitchen making my little lunch boxes or choosing not to finish eat the rice in my bento box. I am more aware that the more I slip over to the reverse of the above habits…the thinker I become and as soon s I start applying the above again the weight goes away. It is a balancing game. Because after all if you can lose 1kg a week on a diet… you can also put it on!

August 2010 and April 2012- The Viking and I

The time is now…

What are your good and bad habits? Are the any habits you are working on getting rid off?

Paralysis by Analysis: Why I need to just start blogging

I would like to update you on my recent entry back into the blog world and then my relative silence. While most bloggers start all such posts with a big apology I would like to say sorry…I am not sorry ala Rachel Wilkerson. As my new header on PLD’s facebook page suggests… I have been reading, researching, and thinking. Thinking really hard about what I want. I put my fingers to the keyboard too early and then I realised I had not reached my conclusion before declaring to the world that I had a plan.

In short I have big plans: for myself, for my health, for my life and for this blog. I am still nutting out the details but instead of doing it in my head I should share it. Because the support, accountability, and clarity that blogging gives me is something I need back in my life.

I kept thinking I needed to make everything perfect before writing this post. That I should have a big stack of blog posts pre written, have my blog banner pimped, and so forth. But being perfect is not a pursuit I like to promote so why not start typing and getting my thoughts out there in the blogosphere. By waiting for everything to be ready I am in a state of paralysis by analysis (ah I love you Michelle Bridges!).

This year I have tried Bikram Yoga, Pilates, CrossFit, boot camp, heavy weights, light weights, kayaking, home workouts, park workouts, bike rides, two new gyms, and registered for my first running race. I have also added a horde of new foods to my diet that I have never eaten…in my life!

Join me here and on Facebook as I share my  journeys in pursuing (a better) life daily.

Back on the so called wagon: 2012 weight-loss goal

So I am already into week 2 of my new health kick. As my old readers will remember I do not diet and in fact I pretty much think all diets are a ridiculous waste of time and are for people who are not yet ready to lose weight! I am still getting into the swing of blogging again so here is my current goal albeit one week in.

Goal:To weigh 62 kilos by July the 9th.

Breaks down to:Losing 11 kgs in 12 weeks which is 910g a week which is achievable but will be hard work towards the end.

Process:

• 1350 calorie target a day.
• Weigh ins every Saturday morning and take measurements.
• Following Crunch Time by Michelle Bridges as a nutrition guide and workout guide.
• Workout six days a week again.
• More intense workouts for a higher calorie burn

Progress:

• Week 1: 1.5kgs down

I concentrated this week on having great nutrition (wholesome, low GI, whole foods, unprocessed), but didn’t exercise as much as I had planned and did not get in any intense exercise unfortunately. But as I slept for two days due to a throat infection the odds were against me.  I was not at all derailed by getting ill and just rolled my eyes and focused on my diet. I know that I can lose all the weight I want to lose without lifting even a finger to exercise. It just wouldn’t be as fun or as healthy and it would be slower! After all I lost 23kgs once without even going for a walk but in the end it just ultimately led me to wishing I had taken those walks.

I will leave you with some images captured during the week and I will depart for bed. Already ready for breakfast!

    

Back to Australia and Beyond…

It has been six months and in that time a lot has happened. So much so that it would be silly to try cover it. But it can be boiled down to four important notes:

• I repatriated to Australia alone and I am still waiting for my Viking’s visa to go through. The process has been complicated and quite secretive and that led me to stop blogging. I am very happy to back in my country with my family close by but I miss my Viking every second and was very lucky to recently be able to have a reunion with him in Sweden.
• I started my career in the public service and I am really enjoying working. However, I will not be able to share much more detail than that. I am finally an adult and making money and it is great!
• My weight has maintained within a few kilos of my mid-term goal of 70 kilos (154lbs) and I have maintained an active and healthy lifestyle with minor readjustment hiccups along the way. But being a working woman and the temptation of all the amazing Aussie food and international choices is a battle.
• I am ready to start the next stage of my journey and get down into a healthy BMI range and see what lies beneath the last layers of flub. I want to lose 11 kilos over the next few months.

I have spent the weekend really trying to figure out my course of action and I have settled on a 12 week plan. that I will share over the next few posts. Over the next week I will also update my blog and reclassify the boundaries and direction I want to go in.. But to kick off I would like to offer the following photo recap to try give you an illustration of what has happened and I’ll move on to the future next post.

      

Goodbye for awhile…taking a blogging-break

Sometimes, having a blog sucks. With social media slowly taking away the privacy in our lives having a blog is often an unneeded extra element of exposure. It can even cause its author great stress as there are a lot of politics involved with writing about your own life. Who will read this? Do I want this on the Internet? Could this get my fired in the future? Is this how my Aunt should hear about this news? Etc!

When the Viking and I got engaged earlier this month, I experienced this for the umpteenth time in the last few months and I really wondered if it is time to end my blog and even turn off my facebook. While I would never be able to turn of my facebook because as I like to joke I am facebook. My blog however is another story. It has been a love hate affair since the very first post (here if you would like to read it!). Sometimes blogging is a great outlet for me, other times it stresses me the fuck out!

My close friends who read my blog, know that there has been a lot going on in my life lately. And as many of you now know I am moving home to Australia for awhile. In fact I leave tomorrow morning! This is super exciting and super sad at the same time. There is going to be some long distance love. But I don’t really want to talk about it here yet.

But not talking about it is stressing me out!

There is a reason that I was sick most of August; I am bloody stressed. My life is changing quickly and there is a lot to plan and a lot to take in. Unfortunately, I have also had to keep a lot of secrets recently and my honest personality combined with my very open use of social media has left me in grey area where I feel like I am lying even when I am not. I do not need that stress anymore, and after even getting shingles it is clear that my mind and body need a rest from my life right now.

Blogging should be my downtime. A time to reflect and get feedback on certain areas in my life. But because there are things happening in my life that are undecided, personal, not mine to share and so forth blogging is just becoming impossible.

And so I am going to take some time off. I will keep my facebook page open and keep sharing tips, articles, and snippets on my life. That will also be a good place for you to contact me if you need to. So if you haven’t already join me at http://www.facebook.com/pursuinglifedaily.

Be well and thank you for all the support and love!

the rings…

After I wrote the proposal post last week, I was really sad that I didn’t have any pictures of where it all went down. So on my run last week I took my camera phone in my sorts bra . This is the esplanade we were on…and the corner spot he took me to. The sun actually came out from behind the clouds when I took the picture and then when back behind them…was totally freaky!

  

Here is the tea light…that promptly blew out and I promised him it wasn’t a sign . I re-lit it and made it a little barrier. I am happy to report that as you can see it must have stayed a light because it was burnt to the bottom

 

As promised, here is a little photo shoot of our engagement bands’ that arrived yesterday. I explained here why we have bands and not an engagement ring. There are a lot of different traditions and the Swedish way is common in other countries as well.

They rings are beautiful. They are engraved and both are a perfect fit. I feel so grown up when I am wearing mine because it of course looks like a wedding band to me .

 

I am looking forward to having a shiny one on my finger as well one day but until then seeing the Viking wearing a ring makes me teary. In fact since we got engaged I have become a big romantic wimp! Sue me

 

I’m off to weep some more .

Project 65: Success and Failure

Last Wednesday, I was supposed to weigh 65kgs.

A little over a month and a half before, I had set myself a very steep goal of getting to my goal weight. While I made good progress, the chances of me losing 5kgs/11lbs when I am getting so close to a healthy BMI, in such a short amount of time was a little ambitious. My weight-loss is slowing down because there is not as much to lose and that should be celebrated not cried about! Then I got sick and I stopped caring about my weight and focused on not being consumed by shingles!

Last week, I was too busy mooning over the Viking and being excited about our engagement that I didn’t mind not reaching my target. (Or being even close ) So here is the break down of the lessons learnt in what will now be known as Phase I of Project 65.

Project 65

Success

• I have lost weight without counting a single calorie or going on a diet ( I just made my own food plan that made sense to me and followed it).
• My idea of carb cycling speed up my weight loss and made me realise what an impact starchy carbs have on my diet.
• I am looking great!

Failures

• I am not at my goal weight.
• I did not give myself the required and sensible amount of time to even reach my goal. (That is a rookie mistake I should’nt be making after a year of not dieting anymore. )

Overall, I need to remember to consider where I am at now in my weight-loss progress and remember that losing weight gets harder and harder even when you are a seasoned pro at it like me   I know I am going to get to my goal but I need to think realistically.

So what now?

Actually, I feel great and I feel like I am in a new adjustment period with my body. I keep catching looks of myself in the mirror and I feel so tiny! Is that my leg? This happens to me now and then when I have lost a lot of weight and it comes and goes. I am starting to believe it means it is time for me to maintain for a while and get used to my body. So since there is a lot going on for me personally right now, I am going to take a little break before jumping back into a renewed effort with Project 65. This does not mean you will be finding me under a bag of potato chips (unless I specifically choose to be there ofc ). But it does mean that I am not actively going back on my program just yet. I may lose more weight but it is ok if I just maintain for a while.

Here is a new comparison shot that I made last week. In September last year I went to a 25th birthday party. I got all dressed up and was feeling quit nice, after I had lost about 4kgs/8.8lbs since starting to get healthy in August 2010. In the original pictures I am wearing a corset which is actually making me seem a lot slimmer then I was! According to my records I am about 81kgs/178.2lbs. For fun I put on the dress this September over my bra to see to see if there was a noticeable difference. What a big difference even without a corset on!

I was pretty shocked when I lined the photos up in paint. I have really changed and for the better! I am also more tan even after a dismal summer in Norway. Because last year I was just getting into fitness and now I run every time the sun comes out! How things can change in just a year!

I also remembered to get the Viking to take some shots of me when I went out on Friday, since it has been awhile! Here are some new full length shots of me on my way out for drinks with the Viking.

 

For the record, I am feeling very comfortable at this weight and really just want to lose a bit off my tummy and work on my body fat percentage so I can have some nice definition in my arms and so forth.

I know I will get what I want in the end. Because I trust that I know how to get what I want now!