At war with the scale

Hello my fellow health journey friends,

Wow what a week and month it has been. I cannot believe it is March already.

Today I want to share with you my entire journey through February 2016.

I started off with a bang, logging my weight one day in the first week of February and I have this screen popping up saying “Congratulations 10KG lost so far”. Wow did I feel amazing, and then it went all downhill from there for the month.

Now it is a known fact that you will have your good days and you will have your bad days on this journey of health, only thing for me was I had more bad days in Feb than good ones. In saying that the good days were really good and the bad days was just plain bad. Why? Purely for that fact that I have lost my mojo and this is only my own fault. It did not matter what I did I struggled to get back on track. My biggest issue was when it was weigh-in time the scale slowly crept up then I get depressed about my progress and before I knew it I fell back into my old habits of eating out of boredom and emotional eating.

The last straw was on Sunday when I weighed myself yet again with the slight hope that I have lost at least a 100g and it was with pure shock that I realised I picked up almost 4kg during February. I felt myself crumble inside second guessing why I am putting myself through all this hard work to get to the end of the month and it was in vein. It was then that I realised it is also monthly pic time, and I thought to myself I will see what the pic say and decide from there how I will feel. So I geared up in my workout tights and sports bra what I normally wear for my pics, called hubby to come take the pics and felt the fear rising in me and with that rising I started to doubt everything.

Hubby took the pics and I finished getting dressed and off we went to go do what we set out to do Sunday morning. While we on our way with hubby driving I decide I will do my month on month collage and also my 1^st pic, 2^nd pic and the most recent one. Lining them up at first on the month to month I did not see a change, and then my eye caught that one thing showing a certain difference, my fat roll is not going over as far as it did compared to the previous month – hope is slowly being restored. So I collated all the pics, my front view, side view and back view. And on the month to month I notice another small change my chicken wings flab was also a tad smaller, more faith is being restored. But I did not expect the next emotion when I looked at my very first pic when I started the journey at the beginning of the year and compared it to the other 2. O MY WORD emotional overloads much, and the sheer proudness in me when I saw what I did look like compared what I look like now. There was a significant difference and I was so chuffed with myself and so happy I forgot what the scale said.

Looking at this I realised (even though I read this so many times from one of my biggest motivators Serah from Fat 2 Fit NZ) we are more than just a number.

With this I would really like to share again what is working for me to overcome those emotional barriers when seeing a scale.

1.       Pictures – I swear by pictures as this gives you a time lapse visual of the difference in your body that you don’t notice from day to day. I do mine monthly but do what works for you, I would just not recommend weekly as you see bigger changes over a longer period.

2.       Clothes – How is your clothes fitting on you. There is small victories in your wardrobe, may it be that you had to go a hole up on your belt or that you fitting into a piece of clothes you did not manage to fit in a month ago.

3.       Overall health – Not just in how you feeling compared to a month or whatever ago, but actually your mental health. How are you feeling towards the foods you are eating and how is your relationship with your meals. Are you eating just because you have to eat or are you actually enjoying it?

Remember these small things that the scale doesn’t show.

We are on a life journey; enjoy it and NEVER NEVER give up.

You got this.

Please comment and tell me if you have any non-scale victories you use, or even how you deal with the harder days. I would love to hear from you. And if you would like me to write about anything specific please feel free to let me know.

Xx

Just another resolution or is this it???

Good Afternoon readers,

So I have been contemplating for a while now if I should do a blog or not, and with the support of a few friends on the same road as I am I have decided to take the jump. So here I am writing my first blog....eek excited and nervous at the same time.

I have decided to do these blog posts to help encourage others in the same boat as I. This boat has its smooth sailing days where eating healthy and working out comes easy, but o those days when you hit storm after storm and don't seem to get anywhere are the hard ones. 

What I am sharing with you is just things that works for me, and if you have been like me where you have tried diet after diet and pill after pill and yet the weight still seems to stay on or the few pounds you did loose comes back on with a vengeance when you stop the diet. I want to make it clear, I am no specialist or anything and my views on these posts are purely based on my experience and what has worked for me. You are welcome to try this or if you find something that works for you please feel free to share that on the posts.

I know allot of you have been there, come 1 January you sit down and say to yourself this is my year of losing the weight. 31 Days later and you back where you were on 30 December. I have done this for I don't know how many years and I never seem to get anywhere. 

My biggest reason for failing year after year is simple.... all I could think was I want to look like that model in the magazine, skinny sexy and looking good in any outfit. Well, well did I get a surprise year after year. So for my first blog I want to address the issue of why this time is different for me.

These are things I sat down and thought about how I feel and why I need to change the way I think about it for me to be successful this time.

1. My body

I was one of those people that would look at myself in the mirror and started listing the things I hate about my body, my fat rolls around my tummy with all the stretch marks, my flat long hanging backside, my saggy boobs and o how I hated that double chin and comparing my body to the swim model in the NZ Weekly.

If you think this way about your body, I am asking you to stop now and start thinking positively about it.

My feelings on my body completely changed once I started to give myself positive feedback's. 

Looking at my tummy I reminded myself that I have had the privilege of bearing a child. 

We need to start complementing our self. 

So my challenge for you this week is: Looking in the mirror next time I want you to think of something you love about yourself. It might be something as small as your eyes. Instead on focusing on the negative I want you to focus on the positive. 

LEARN TO LOVE YOURSELF SO MUCH THAT YOU WANT A HEALTHIER BODY.

2. Realising that this needs to be a lifestyle change and not a quick diet

My big break through this time came from realising that there is no diet that I will ever be able to maintain except if I make a lifestyle change. So my first thing was to start to make small changes. It can be from cutting down on the sugar in your coffee or instead of deep frying your potato to baking it in the oven. Slowly making small changes will stick with you and will slowly make a difference.

This is a journey it didn't take you 2 months to get overweight, so don't expect it to take a couple of months to get where you want to be. 

3. Where do I get my inspiration and motivation from

I used to look at pictures in the magazines and think this is what I want to look like and then I get upset if I don't get there. Your inspiration shouldn't be a doctored picture in a magazine. Get your inspiration from like minded people.

One of my biggest inspirations is a lady called Sarah Lilly and she has the FB page call Fat 2 Fit and is also on snapchat. I absolutely love this woman, she keeps it honest with her struggles and once you get someone you can relate to it makes a huge difference. I don't think she even realize half the time the amount of support she is to other women. Her brutal honesty with and about herself goes to show that I am not alone and there are gonna be easy days and hard days. I have many a times find myself in a rut then I stalk her Fat 2 Fit page to get motivation. 

4. Support

I can't express how important the right support group is. Get people that would motivate you on those days when you feel like giving up (trust me you get them I do). People that can hold you accountable. 

I am also loving my fitness pal app. The friends I have made on here from all around the world is such a great support team. They encourage and lift you up when you need it. I let them see my food diary and am always honest with them when it comes to how I am going.

If you get this app, please let me know I am more than happy to add you as a friend.

My other support team is a private watsapp chat group with my mother in law and sister in law. We just share good news with each other and any milestones with each other and encourage each other on here. If one of us don't feel like working out we are honest and the other two will kick you under your bud to get it moving. 

And I also have a dear friend miles away that has been an amazing support even through her own struggles. These are the best of friends you can get.

And last but not least my hubby and daughter. They always encourage me and comment on how proud they are.

I absolutely love my support people and that makes the journey easier.

5. Calories in calories out - easier said than done

I log all my food on MFP so I can keep rack of what I eat. And yes I don't restrict myself to anything, if I am at a birthday party and want to have cake I have it.

I just log it and make sure I stay under my calorie goal or I have to put in a bigger workout.

I wish each of you the best, please feel free to comment, or share any of your stories. If there is anything specific you would like me to bring to the table please let me know and I am happy to share my story.

Be happy and healthy

Till next time

Elizna