Hopefully my thought for today isn't too controversial

Over the past few years I've been doing a good amount of reading and one of my favourite authors is Gary Taubes.

He put out Good Calories Bad Calories (GCBC) some years ago (2006??) which I bought - I got about 1/3 of the way through it though. I still intend to finish it...

More recently he put out Why We Get Fat which conveniently comes in audio format. I bought this and have listened to the whole thing. (Most likely there will never be an audio book of GCBC because it's such a thick book, but I would honestly pay a bom to get this book in audio)

One of the things I didn't think Taubes went into enough is the issue of why low fat diets work. I was on WW for 3 years and maintained a weight that's around 30kg less than I am now, with no problems whatsoever.

Obviously I wasn't the only person that thought this because I Googled his blog and found an article he wrote as a reply to all the questions on this very topic. It's a fantastic read and I seriously recommend everyone read the article in full. The part I took away from his blog post is that because low fat diets reduce overall grams of each type of nutrient, by definition they must also be low carb diets.

If a low fat dieter lowers their fat grams and raises their carb grams (because they are counting calories instead) then weight loss will be slower, but they will still lose weight because their carbs still wont reach the dizzy heights of their original high-everything diets.

I've been processing this way of looking at diets for some weeks now.

Today I saw a post on Twitter by someone I am pretty sure is Anorexic. It got me to thinking...

Do you think that the reason there are more anorexics today isn't so much about peer pressure, as it is because weight is so hard to manage with a 'low fat mentality' that people resort to extremes in greater numbers?? So that means on the other hand, if maintaining a low weight were easy for people, they wouldn't be trying harder and harder to keep their weight down (which eventually leads to a disorder)??

Obviously this thought doesn't cover everyone - there are people that will go to extremes in all sorts of things - but do you think it could explain the increase?

Today I ate:
Protein drink
The whole container (two serves) of beef satay with rice ... I think I was so hungry because I didn't have dinner last night and a light breakfast this morning...
1/2 block mint chocolate
1/3 bag of Doritos

Changing the start date

OK so everything has collapsed around me and tomorrow I'm doing a double shift and tonight I had to do public speak until 10.30pm and my original start date of tomorrow has got off to a seriously bad start.

So, the start date is now 1st September. Which is a nice round number anyway.

Ohhhh did I mention that yesterday I bent over and tore MY FAVOURITE jeans?!! I'm completely devo. I wonder if they can be sewn....

My bf has put on the tiniest bit of weight since we got together all those years ago, and it doesn't bother me at all but it seems his friends and family pick on him about it. I'm sure they think it's just a joke and he's fine with it (he's quite blokey) but it seems to really get to him. Today he sent me a message while I was at work about being fat and therefore a waste of space. What do I do with something like that?

Anyway, today I ate:
Protein drink
Two rows of mint chocolate
Chicken wrap and some hot chips

I think I may be inadvertently losing weight recently - my meals (although still terrible) seem to resemble more whole foods with some chocolate, rather than more chocolate with only a small amount of proper foods. Good thing!

Boy what a day!

Wow today was absolutely flat out! So many sickies across the board at work so I was run off my feet, then straight after work I had tons of errands. It's 8.30pm and I still have someone to pick up at the airport tonight so it's going to be a late one!

And to top it all off, I had to cancel the gym tonight - which was sort of a blessing in disguise because of all the things I needed to do - because my knees are really hurting. I know I went out dancing for hours on Saturday night but I must have worn my knees out. I've never done that before. I can only think that it's because my weight is wearing on my joints.

I did think it was inevitable.

Today I ate:
Protein drink for breakfast
Ravioli bolognese with cheese
1/2 block of mint chocolate
8 pieces of cadbury mousse chocolate

Sunday

What a lovely Sunday I had today. Well, it wasn't perfect, but it was pretty good.

The only blip in an otherwise fabulous day was my trip to Officeworks - I called them on Tuesday to askt ehm about printing and I told them what I planned. They said to bring it on a usb in excel format. Done. Except that I get there today, following their intructions and apparently excel is wrong, it needs to be in pdf format and sent me away. So another wasted day - I couldn't get home and back before they closed, I live too far - so home I go to edit it again. Though I get home and my computer wont save a pdf in A1 format. So, I'm going to go back there AGAIN tomorrow, WITH my laptop in case they say I have to edit something again.

I finished today off with a few movies with friends. :)

Today I ate:
Two pieces of toast with vegemite
Ravioli with bolognese sauce and cheese

Out with friends

Had a great night out tonight with friends tonight :)

One of the things that I find very difficult to juggle when trying to lose weight is going out with friends. And not just going to restaurants, because you can always find something, even if you need to order things on the side... although last night the options were pastry dumplings of different types or rice. But I'm also talking about 'out'. Out drinking and dancing.

It can be really hard to juggle and at the moment I know I can just say 'yes' at the drop of a hat and have no problems. I guess I will keep having to say 'yes' (to keep my happiness in check lol) but accept that weight loss will be taking a backseat for that time.

What do I definitely look forward to? - looking forward to not being the largest in my group of friends when we are out, and not having sore knees the day after because I've got so much weight on them all night.

Today I ate:
Hungry jacks burger and diet drink (only because they forgot the chips even though I ordered them)
Small handful of Jelly Bellies
A selection of mixed Vietnamese foods - rice with egg, prawn and spinach dumplings, vegetable buns, friend pork dumplings, some steamed greens
Quite a few glasses of alcohol

Should I be focusing on Tues or Wed?

I will be starting the first day of my new eating habits this Wednesday 31/8. So, this raises the question, should I be focusing on Tuesday, which is the last day of my current habits, or Wednesday?


Thank goodness it's Friday, that's all I can say. What a huge week it has been! Full of yoga, seminars, meditation, blogging, working, chickens, cats, gym visits and late parcels from my online shopping. Phew! No wonder I'm tired!

Today I ate:
Lindt chocolate balls
Chicken and salad wrap
More Lindt chocolate balls
Chicken and pesto parcel with veggies

Looking forward tomorrow, I have a quick trip to drop someone off at the airport then coffee with awesome friends and then a birthday party in the evening. :)

Need a substitute for comfort

It's now on only 6 days until I start making some changes to my eating habits.

I'm happy and sad at the same time - while I'm happy that I know I will be feeling so much better, I'm sad because I get comfort out of these crap foods and I don't know how I will substitute that. Any ideas?

Of course the obvious thing to do would be to get rid of all of the things that are stressful that cause me to seek comfort, but of course that is impossible. So I need to find myself a substitute. One that doesn't cost any money. I used to really enjoy taken a scented bath with oils and candles but the new house I moved into doesn't have a bath... and using someone else's just doesn't work.

Today has been just as busy as yesterday, this has been the busiest week I can remember in a long time! The good thing about being busy is that I am concentrating on so many other things that I don't really get time to graze.

I ate today:

5 x Lindt balls

Db whopper w cheese meal, SF coke

Some chips and snacks at a colleague's leaving dinner - handful at most in total

2 x Tim Tams

6 Black Forest squares of chocolate

Baby Steps

I will probably sound like a broken record with my use of the phrase "baby steps" but you'll have to get used to it. It's one of the hardest parts of this for me and I need to constantly remind myself of it.

I struggle against an innate desire to either be perfect or not try at all (I'm sure I'm not the only one!). And that isn't sustainable. I'll also set myself up for failure if I change 100% of things at the start.

So... these are a few of the ways I plan to address this (beware: work in progress!)
* I'm not going to monitor my coffee or tea consumption, not even the milk I put in them. That is something I see as a 'tweak' that I can work on after all of the big things are in swing :)
* I'm not going to set a time deadline for any kind of weight loss goal.
* I'm going to have a mixture of home-cooked meals and packaged foods ...because for some absurd reason I enjoy eating things out of packets hahaha

I did Yoga today - sadly it was the last class with my fav yoga instructor. He will be in the US from this weekend for three weeks and then embarks on a dancing production that is touring all over Australia. Sad day.

I haven't gained anything by staying fat today, except the knowledge that when it is really busy, I have only slight cravings for crap foods. This really is a mental thing for me.

I ate today:
1/2 protein drink
Beef satay with fried rice (half of the serving)
Slice of caramel cheesecake
Chicken rogan josh slice w salad

Should I buy smaller clothes or not?

Sally the Psychic bought a dress that was 5 sizes too small for her, with the plan that she would be wearing it in three months time. She underwent bariatric surgery.

I don't plan to undergo any type of surgery, and I don't have five clothing sizes to lose, but it poses the question... do I buy 'dream clothes' for the future, or not?

Will it just be wasted money because by the time I can wear it, it will be out of fashion? Or does it actually help solidify the goal? After all, the goal really is more about being a smaller size than being a smaller number on scales.

This is the unanswerable question....

Exercise today - nil.
Today was a good day, just ridiculously busy. I felt rushed pretty much the whole way through, only home now at 10.30pm. Nothing went quite right today. I mean it wasn't a terrible day, but nothing went smoothly, everything had some problem I had to fix attached to it. I guess we all get days like those!

One of the girls at work is sadly leaving this Thursday so I started a collection for her. I have NO IDEA what to get her as a departing gift, and I'm the shopper for it. Fingers crossed !! :) Thanks

The only time today that I was reminded about my size is that my ankle is still sore - I hurt it 2 weeks ago and that was after it was already hurt. I think it would heal a lot quicker if I were lighter.... the poor thing.

I ate today:
Protein drink for breakfast*
1/2 pack of jaffas
2x tuna and crackers packs
small handful of Pringles chips
Medium db whopper with cheese meal with SF Coke
1/2 a Protein drink*

*the protein drinks I have are Labrada RTD in various flavours. Deeeelicious!! 40g protein!

Getting in the right head space

The more I think about losing weight the more I feel hungry and think about eating. All I want to do is have that lovely full and satisfied feeling and I think part of me wants to stay fat.

I know I can have that full and satisfied feeling from eating 'good' foods as well, so that's why I suspect maybe I want to keep my weight on for other reasons.

Hmmm maybe I need an incentive?

Another reason I need to JUST DO IT!!

Exercise today - Bootcamp class at the gym

One of the other girls in the class called me a 'machine' today when I was doing tricep exercises with a bar. I think I can lift heavier with the tricep bar because I actually enjoy it... am I a weirdo?? ;)

I feel pretty good today :) I found that I feel so much better when I have a decent protein-based breakfast.

Today I ate:
5 slices of supreme pizza (most for
breakfast and the rest for after work.
5 x mini twix bars
1/2 block of
Black Forest chocolate
1/2 bag Jaffas
1/4 bag of Doritos
About six
cups of coffee with milk and stevia

I'm going to be completely honest about what I eat over the next 9 days. I know that it's pretty bad, it's full of comfort. Anyway, you can't get to where you want to be unless you know where you have come from.

Hello Everyone

Hello everyone and welcome to my new blog.

This blog is hopefully about my journey towards Mission 63 - my target weight 63kgs.

I hope it's a place where I can just brain-dump because I can't really do that with anyone face to face. Which I quite like. How can I look perfect to everyone if I let them know about all of my lows as well as my highs?? hehehe

Motivation for today, Sally the Psychic's journey:
To eventually get to where "weight loss becomes the side effect" of all of the other issues I'm addressing.

I don't want to cut out all 'bad foods' because I might feel like a bit of a social leper... but as close to that as possible.

A few years ago I did reach 63kgs but my social life took a back seat for a full year and really I don't think it's worth it. I'd rather be fat and social than thin and lonesome.

So, here we are, preparing to start in 10 days time. I am 40kgs away from my goal. I am one of those rare people that regularly goes to the gym (at least three times per week) so increasing my exercise isn't an aim, I'll just make sure I keep it up.

Here we go!!