New Year, this year I will reach my goal!

Well, it's the start of a brand new year (well, 18 days ago ahem) and this year I am determined to reach my goal of 10 stone. I gained a good few pounds over Christmas, and just after the new year, weighed in at 11 stone 3lb. In the first week of the "healthy eating" I managed to gain 1.5lb, which brought me to 11 stone 4.5lb, or 158.5lb. But 8 days later (I missed the Monday weigh in), I weighed 11 stone 2 lbs, having lost 2.5lb. I do hope to continue the weight loss from now on, and for now, I am concentrating *just* on drinking more water (well, squash, I don't like plain water much), and drinking less caffeine. I am hoping that by drinking lots of water, I am a) filling myself up on liquid more so I snack less, b) improving my milk supply for my little ones, and c) generally being a bit healthier than using 4 or 5 cups of tea a day to replenish my water levels.

Simple changes will hopefully make proper lifestyle changes easier!

First goal right now is to reach 150lbs, and I'd like to do that by the beginning of March. Which is 6lbs away, and leaves me with 10lbs to lose.

Hmmm... well...

They say the last few pounds come off really slow. And well, I'm about the same weight as I was in AUGUST. Ahem! I told myself I would be at my target weight by Christmas, but again my motivation has got up and gone. I yo-yo between having great days, and having bad days, so I just seem to maintain.

Anyway, hopefully something to give me a bit of motivation is this photo...



which I look at and think WOW, I look so slim, even with a tiny toddler on my front, my face seems so much slimmer, and I do NOT want to put it all back on!! I would really ideally lose a little bit more, to be bang middle of the healthy weight range, and lose some of the chub from my more wobbly bits. But yes I think I need to print this out, and put it in the kitchen to serve as a reminder, perhaps along side this photo...

1 week down...

and I'm 2.5lb down! I weigh 152.5lb now and this is just 3.5lb higher than my lowest weight. I hope to be below my lowest weight of 149lb a fortnight from now! Considering I had a pretty bad weekend food wise, as it was Jonathan's birthday, much cake, sweets, and meals out, meant I was not anticipating a loss really... much less a good one like that! I would have been pleased for a maintain!

I am hoping that my weigh in next Tuesday is even better news, and I will be doing my best to focus on eating habits again!

Dinner tonight was pumpkin soup! Very nice actually, I was pleasantly surprised! I do like home-made soup, and I was also pleased that Robert ate it, as he tends to refuse soup! I think he liked the idea that the pumpkin we carved made the soup he was eating :)

Yo-yo

Well my bra arrived, I started the Couch to 5k, but I've got bored/fed up of it. :( Finding time to go out running is hard with 2 little ones, and the mental barriers of it all is too much! I would LIKE to get fit though, but I think a home based exercise programme is in order - probably a Wii Fit one would serve me better!

Also, my eating habits have slipped, we have had too many meals out or takeaways in recent weeks, plus my baking for birthdays and so on... I have decided to really see what I am eating... so am going to record my food intake on My Fitness Pal, and I am aiming to see 1 stone off by Christmas.

First weigh in: 11 stone 1 lb (or 155lb) which is up 6lb from my lowest weight. Will weigh in next Tuesday and hopefully I will have got off to a good start!

couch to 5k

I have ordered a sports bra, and as soon as it arrives, I plan to start the couch to 5k running plan. I would love to get fit, increase my stamina and tone up. Basically it is a gradual process to get you from no running experience to being able to run 3 miles over the course of 9 weeks, interspersing running with walking and over time upping the running and cutting down on the walking. I can see it as good alone time and I am quite looking forward to it. Each running session lasts for 30 minutes roughly, and you do it 3 times a week. I was thinking about doing it in the evenings after the kids had gone to bed, but Jonathan said it's getting dark by that time, and suggested I do it in the afternoons on Friday, Sunday and Tuesday. Tuesday is when the in-laws come over to help me with the shopping, I'd feel a bit guilty spending some of that time running (then showering) but I guess we could wait and see. Maybe do an early morning run, but then I really am not a morning person!

Anyway, I am looking forward to it. :)

Lowest weight, yet...

I am the lowest weight I remember being, the same as I was when I was 18, which is 153lb (roughly). I am not quite the size I was last time, I am probably less fit, higher fat ratio, and am still mainly in size 14s with some size 12s. I've dreamed of being a size 12 for years, yet now I am here (more or less), it doesn't feel good enough. I still have just under a stone to take me to my goal weight, and it's coming off soooo slowly now, but part of me is ok with that. Like I know that if I keep going the way I'm going, I'll lose the weight eventually, and it's helping set me up with a new way of eating for the rest of my life. One thing I really need to focus on, is that food isn't a filler in my life, it's not going to make me happy, or give me company, food is purely a fuel, and something I have learned is that my body needs surprisingly little fuel to run efficiently.

I am going to keep the weight off, that's one thing I swear, I want these habits to last me a lifetime, and now I am lighter, I find myself really almost ITCHING to start exercising with a gusto. I find myself wanting to go out running, I need some sports bras before I do that, and some exercise clothes. And some time!! When do people find the time to run when they have two preschoolers?!! Just some more things for me to be thinking about.

Sorting through clothes again!

I have got a huge amount of clothes that fit me, or have done recently, and I am having to sort through them again. A whole load of vest tops I have in size 16 are way too baggy for me now, and a size 16 skirt I wore to my brother's wedding in August 2005 hang around my hips, and I'm pretty sure that if I tried hard enough I could get them off without unbuttoning it. A pair of 3/4 length black trousers I found in my wardrobe, size 14, are loose on me, but they are slightly stretchy ones. Still, it's all good for the confidence boost!

I'm weighing in tomorrow, and hoping that I will be 156lb or lower, I was 156 on Sunday so lost 3lb since 15th June. I am feeling so good about myself, less so when in just underwear, but clothed, I am most certainly feeling comfortable, and I think the more weight I lose, the more likely I am to pay more attention to wearing properly fitting clothes, which highlight my weight loss, which gets me more compliments, which spurs on my weight loss! When I reach 151 lb, I will have lost 4 stone. And that is only about 5lb away! Maybe I should aim to get to that weight by my birthday, the 10 stone isn't going to happen as I had a verrrry slow couple of months, but seeing as I had originally hoped to reach 12 stone by Christopher's first birthday, and I am now very almost 11 stone, with him only 9 months old, I can't help but think I have made a huge amount of progress already, that even though I had hoped for more weight loss by now, I shouldn't be so hard on myself. Some people don't lose 4 stone in 2 years let alone what will be around 10 months.

I am really hoping that when I have my repeat glucose tolerance test this year (which might not be until December, as that's when I took my *ahem* 6 week PP one to check it was gestational only), it will show no glucose intolerance at all, and completely normal levels. And that when/if I get pregnant again, the gestational diabetes does not return.