Feeling Empowered

I am feeling so great about myself lately! I am finally starting to feel a bit more in control and a lot happier with choices I have been making. While my eating hasn't really improved, my mindset has definitely taken a turn for the awesome!

I have found it so hard to look at my eating habits in a healthy way, and while I had been feeling pretty good about it all since my last post, it wasn't until a late night call to my bestie last night that I was finally able to verbalise it all and really get it right in my own mind.

So many of my old sayings were coming out of my mouth last night and they really pumped me up and filled me with a sense of purpose that I haven't felt in such a long time... the kind of feelings that sent me on my journey to become a dietician.

I thought that I would share some of these with you, these are some of my "pearls of wisdom" that I have gathered along my journey and passed on to a lot of my friends who asked me for help:

1. Forget the fad diets - you hear so many people saying this, but really.... are you listening?? Don't do the shakes, don't do meal replacements and forget about the diet pills... those are obvious... but what about the all-or-nothing diets?  The ones where you are restricted to eating exactly what they say and exercising as much as they say? And how long do they go for?? 1 week, 2 weeks, 10 weeks, 6 months?! More? Less? Are you feeling trapped by what they are telling you to do?  Do you feel even more stressed?  Do you feel less than perfect for not doing it exactly?!
2. Live within your lifestyle - Do you just love coffee?? (I sure do!!  Have u seen my coffee machine?!) Can u not say no to chocolate?! Then don't cut it out... use it as a reward or just cut it down... The problem I have found over the years is that if I completely cut something out, the minute I have a stressful period in my life or would usually comfort eat, I tend to go ballistic with what I have cut out of my diet and I binge... and it's not pretty!
3. There is no such thing as a perfect diet - while there are ideal ways of eating, and scientists are telling you what you should eat and what you shouldn't, don't forget that it's not really possible to eat every kind of veggie you need to in a day, or that some days you will go over the reccommended protein intake... you can only do the best you can do!
4. You need to live - got a birthday coming up? Want cake? Or a glass of wine? Then have it... don't forget to live!  Enjoy life! Celebrate it!!  Just don't do it all the time... it comes back to moderation... work it in!
5. Most meals can be made healthier - One of my favourite dishes is out of the Symply Too Good To Be True cookbooks... its a Meat Pie that once you taste the gravy you will never want a shop bought pie ever again!!  Look at how you can cut down sugar, fat or the calorie content of your favourite dish!
6. Your body is not a computer - while weightloss is definitely a "calories in, calories out" process, your body doesn't always work logically.  You might be retaining water, you might have a medical condition that slows your weightloss efforts or ur body may just be stubborn that week and won't reflect your weightloss on the scales... bascially, do what you can, and let your body sort itself out... it will balance it all out in the end, and if you put in the work, you will get the rewards!
7. Is it the number or the loss that you want? This probably seems a little strange, but there is a difference... I have had so many friends tell me "I just want to get to xx kilos"... and I usually ask them this question... the thing is, do you want the number on the scales or to be a certain size... because these do not always equal the same thing.  For example, I am currently at my heaviest weight, but I am not the biggest size I have ever been.  Exercise, diet and previous weightloss has changed my body shape and I have more muscle than I have before.  So while the number on the scales say I am bigger, my clothing says something else.  Use a tape measure for an accurate measure of results.
8. Do what you can - there is no point in pushing yourself to breaking point... Exercise is important for your health and for weightloss, but if you can only exercise for 20 minutes a day, or only a few times a week, then it's far more than you would be doing if you just sat on the couch. If you have a particularly hard time coming up, then work around it, don't forget to exercise or eat properly, just be sensible about what you can do.
9. Appreciate how far YOU have come - I am the worst at comparing myself to others, but every now and then I will actually take a look at what I have achieved, and it's something that no one can take away from me.  Have you changed your approach to food and exercise? Have you lost weight? Have you run for a whole fun run? Celebrate!  Look at what you have achieved! 
10. This is life - my first point was to avoid fad diets... this is kind of related to that.  Most fad diets are short lived (and often ridiculous!), make small changes and build on from those to make these healthy changes for life.  This is your lifestyle and only you can change it. Look at the smaller things to change as sometimes looking at the whole picture can be daunting and seem unobtainable... start small and remember, it all begins with one step.

All of these are things that I have learned for myself... and I have a story for each of them (won't bore you with that though!).  I have more tips, but I think 10 is enough for now! lol

I am feeling so empowered... this is the feeling I have been missing in regards to my weightloss journey for over a year now... I am so happy that I have found it again.  I am really looking forward to getting back into it all and the thought that the weightloss will be slow is fine... it's the steady that I am looking for!

Snacks

As promised, here is my list of snacks... please feel free to add more by commenting below! I have been trying to think of what I used to snack on.

• Piece of fruit (eg mandarin, peach, orange, nectarine, kiwi fruit, etc)
• Fruit smoothie (tub of yoghurt, frozen berries, skim milk - blended)
• Cruskits with honey, vegemite or cheese
• Tub of yoghurt
• A box of sultanas
• 2 slices of cheese
• A cup of Jarrah Hot Chocolate
• A packet of popcorn

I think that's all I got so far...

How to Start A Blog

I don't pretend to be a master at blogging, nor a technological mastermind, however I can find my way around most programs.

Since announcing my plans to do the Blogger Challenge, I have had a few people asking me about how to start a blog.

Clearly, I am a fan of Blogger.com but I know a few people also really like wordpress (personally, I find their templates boring, but I am much more of a visual person).  There are many other blogging platforms out there, but I have found these to be the most common one.

As I am currently using Blogger, this post will be mainly focussed on this platform.

So, in a nutshell, these are my steps :)

1. Go to www.blogger.com to sign up for a new account, click on "Get Started"

 

2. In the next screen, fill in the form to create your account.

3. The following screen is where you will type in the title of your blog as well as the address which will appear in the address bar (what people will type in to get to your blog). Try to come up with a name that is relevant to what you are doing. The more unique the name, the more likely the name will be available.

4. Now comes the fun part (at least for me it is!) - the template!! here is where you will choose what your blog looks like. For the time being, unless you are feeling more confident, just pick one of the templates they have on offer by clicking one of the pictures as shown below (I have customised my template on this blog in another part of the website).

5. TA-DA!! You blog has now been created!! This next screen gives you the option of creating a blog post right away or customising the way your blog looks. If you are totally new to all of this, I would recommend just going onto writing your first blog post - worry about the look of your blog once you are feeling more comfortable, you can find how here (for Blogger)
 

By clicking on this link, you will have one of the two following screens - I am going to give you a basic run down of both:

Old Interface

New Interface 

With both of these interfaces, there are common buttons, however they are in slightly different places.  This is what they all mean:

• Red Arrow - this is where you type in the title of your blog post (for instance, the title of this blog post is "How to Start A Blog")
• Large White Rectangle - this is where you type your actual blog post - what you want to tell people.
• Blue Arrow - this is where you can add a label to the post so that it is easy to find/search for later on (eg 12WBT, exercise, goal, pre-season, etc)
• Purple Arrow - this will save your post but it will not make it appear to the public. Blogger also automatically save your posts as you type, however it doesn't hurt to save as you go
• Orange Arrow - this is your "Publish" button.  This is what will make your post appear on your blog to the public.
• Pink Arrow - This is how you can preview your post - so you can see what it would look like to the public before you hit the Publish button
• Black Arrow - this is how you go the the actual blog ie what the public sees.  Try not to hit this button while you are typing your posts, as it will take you out of that screen and to the public site.

How to create a new post
Ok, so your blog is now all set up and you have probably written your first introductory post!! WOOT!  Now, you probably want to know how you can write another one when you need to.
Well, these next points are based from the Dashboard (aka, main screen just after you log in)

Old Interface

New Interface

With both of these pictures, I have used a Black Arrow to highlight the button that you need to press to create another blog post - that's all you need to do to get back to the above "New Post Screens".


I really hope that this has helped you!!  Blogger has a great help site located here.  There are also a few specific pages that you might want to look into once you are feeling up for it:
How to customise the look of your blogs
How to add the little gadgets to your blog

Another Week - Another Weigh In

It's Wednesday again already - which means that it's weigh in day!!

Sadly, I gained 300g this week.  I am trying not to be too disappointed with it. In fact, I'm not disappointed in the program, only in myself.  I know that I managed to sneak in a few 'snacks' that if Michelle seen me eat, she would demand that I instantly drop and do push ups as well as get running on that treadmill!  However, that said, I take full responsibility for my actions (hence the disappointment in myself). I will tell u now, what I have eaten that was off plan:

• Carrot cake at the premium cinemas
• Caramel Sundae from McDonald's
• Family Dinner - as I said before, I didn't eat too much really

Now that those indiscretions are off my chest, time to move on.  Next weigh in will be all that I can make it.  Yes, we still don't have a proper fridge, but it just means I need to plan better! I also need to remember that exercising does not mean that I can eat more!!

So, what I forgot to mention yesterday (in that blog post that i meant to write!! lol) was that I didn't get my exercise session in on Monday as I needed to get home.  So, I told my gym buddy that I would do my work out at home.  I had the best intentions of doing it.  In fact, I wanted to do it, but then I started cooking, and cleaning and by the time dinner came around and we put Nessa to bed, I was done!  I couldn't be bothered doing it.  I even tried to tell myself to find something fun to do, which I found, but then I couldn't find my belly dancing workout - I know, I know, excuses, excuses, excuses!!!!  Anyway, that afternoon/evening, I couldn't help wishing that I had a treadmill at home, so I could just do it there and then.  That night I was on Facebook, and a friend of mine had her status that she was selling her treadmill!  So, I bought it!!! I am getting it tonight!! It's great to know that I will be able to have that there!! We're gonna put it in the bedroom, which works out really well as I will be able to watch dvds while running.

Speaking of running... I still can't believe I am going to say this, but I am going to do a fun run!!!  At first I was thinking that it would be a great sense of accomplishment to just finish a fun run, so I could just walk it and not put too much pressure on myself.  However, now that I have been 'following' (and I use that term loosely - will explain in a sec) Michelle's learn to run program, I am thinking that maybe I could run (probably jog! lol) the whole 4km course I am planning to do.  A friend of mine asked me if myself and Carrie (gym buddy) would be interested in doing it... my first thought was "I can't do that!!" my next thought was "Seriously?! Why not?!" So, here I am, planning on doing the Brooks Spring Into Shape on  Sunday 30th October!!  I still can't believe I am going to sign up to do this.  I think overall, I want to see if I can do it.  Will be registering in a couple of weeks.

Now, onto Michelle's learn to run program and why I have been following it loosely.  It's not so much the learn to run program, but more the cardio sessions at the gym.  Don't get me wrong, I feel like I am flogging myself, but as I mentioned on Monday, I couldn't keep up with Michelle's cardio gym program.  I only managed 3 mins on the cross trainer on the manual program, and I did do the 10 mins on the bike, but also on the manual program.  Well, yesterday I decided to once again do the Week 1, Day 1 Intermediate program, with a small change, I did rowing, running, bike and then cross trainer, to help with my legs/running.  Yesterday I decided to aim for 4 minute on the cross trainer, but I smashed that goal and did 8 minutes!!!!!!! *cheering with pom poms*  To be perfectly honest, I think I probably could have pushed myself to do 10 minutes, so that will be my next goal, actually, I might aim for 12 minutes lol!  The biggest reason I think that I was able to last so much longer, was because of a TIP I was given by a friend and fellow 12WBTer (and knitter lol) to run with my heels not with my toes.  I wanted to post this up here as it may seem like common knowledge to some, but to any beginners out there, I hope this helps you as much as it helped me.