http://www.positivehealthsteps.com/weight-battle/ en Copyright 2008 Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:14:30 +1000 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Everyone asks what's my secret to weight loss? Since starting this journey to a healthier me I've gone from 117 kilo's (257.40 pounds) to this weeks weigh in of 89 kilo's (195.80 pounds). Friends I havn't seen for a while are asking, "What's the secret to your weight loss?" The truth be known, there is no special secret to weight loss. All I've done is started exercising at least an hour each day, cut out all the take out food like Macdonalds, Red Rooster and pizza, purchased a calorie book and ensure I stick to around 1200 calories per day, and educated myself on what a normal serving size is. That's it! I'm also starting to wonder why I ever called this blog 'Weight Battle' because to be honest, I don't consider it a battle at all. It's just a matter of caring for yourself enough to add an hour exercise each day and being aware of the daily calorie's you eat. Twice in my life I've lost over 30 kilo's before and regained it. The reason I regained the weight, is because I didn't take the time to weight in each week and care about maintaining the fitter healthier me. It's like if you stopped having your car serviced every 6 months. By the end of 5 years you'd have nothing more than a lemon that is breaking down one piece at a time. The same goes, with keeping a healthy body. Only this time around, I am now aware of the pitfalls and what's required to maintain a healthier me. I'm not on a diet as such, I'm on a long term healthier lifestyle that I know I can live with. ]]> http://www.positivehealthsteps.com/weight-battle/2008/04/secret_to_weight_loss.html http://www.positivehealthsteps.com/weight-battle/2008/04/secret_to_weight_loss.html diet Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:14:30 +1000 A new short term weight loss goal It's time to set a new short term weight loss goal to help me get under the 90 kilo barrier. My current weight is 91.9 kilo's, so things are starting to slow down, which I've found frustrating the last couple of months. Although as frustrating as it is that I've not yet got under the 90 kilo mark, I still kept up with my healthier lifestyle. My thinking has been that even at 91.9 I feel a lot healthier and stronger than I did at 117 kilo's, so why go back to bad habits now. What I'm changing to reach under that 90 kilo mark 1. I'm now walking twice a day, morning and night (2 hours total) 2. Eating breakfast is more important than I realised. I'm going to ensure I eat breakfast every day so my body doesn't go into starvation mode. I recently read that it helps get the metabolism going if you eat within an hour after exercise. 3. I'm also going to stop putting extra salt on my meals. Watching the Australian biggest loser, this is one area the trainers talk about often. Hope fully with these small changes I'll see myself on the right track again towards a healthier and stronger person. ]]> http://www.positivehealthsteps.com/weight-battle/2008/03/new-short-term-goal.html http://www.positivehealthsteps.com/weight-battle/2008/03/new-short-term-goal.html Mon, 10 Mar 2008 10:25:17 +1000 From a size 22 clothing to 16, and 3 1/2 kilo's closer to my next weight loss goal Today I weighed myself and found I'd lost 3 and a half kilo's this month. I'm now down to 95.5 kilos / 210.10 pounds. The best thing so far about loosing weight, is that I've gone from size 22 clothing size (18 USA), down to a size 16 (12 USA). I can now go into any clothing store and find something that fits. When I was larger, the most frustrating thing for me personally was being limited in clothing choices. Now I'm looking forward to visiting Sydney in the new year and coming back with a whole new wardrobe. My aim for the next month is to up the anti as far as exercise goes. Now it's getting a little warmer here in Australia, I'm not playing golf 3 times per week like we used to. Instead, I'm planning on walking every morning or evening for an hour, when the weather is slightly cooler. This was a goal when I first started on my healthy lifestyle change. However, it wasn't something I've stuck to consistantly. Apart from walking, I'm also going to set myself a routine on the exercise equipment we have in our home gym. Now I've lost weight, it's not quite as painful to exercise these days. It's actually quite enjoying :) ]]> http://www.positivehealthsteps.com/weight-battle/2007/12/weight-loss-clothing-sizes.html http://www.positivehealthsteps.com/weight-battle/2007/12/weight-loss-clothing-sizes.html goals Mon, 10 Dec 2007 13:56:04 +1000 Today is a good day. I jumped on the scales and found I'd reached my first goal of being under 100kg or in other words 220 pounds. I am now 99kg / 217.80 and it's time to reset my goals. My goal is now to get under the 90kg mark. I'm finding the more weight I lose, the easier it is to stick to a healthy eating plan. When I first started, I said that I'd buy a custard tart to award myself for reaching the 100kg goal. Now I'm there, I find I dont' feel like that tart after all. Instead, I now naturally like eating healthy, well proportioned meals and I'm determined never to go into the 3 figure weight ever again. http://www.positivehealthsteps.com/weight-battle/2007/11/under-100kg-220pounds.html http://www.positivehealthsteps.com/weight-battle/2007/11/under-100kg-220pounds.html goals Fri, 09 Nov 2007 11:06:34 +1000 http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/obesity If that isn't a good enough reason to get your weight under control, then I'm not sure what is? It certainly is enough to keep me on my healthy eating plan. Talking about my healthy eating plan, I've lost 2 kilo's the last couple of weeks, bringing me down to 100 kilo's. One more kilo to go until I reach my first major milestone of weighing under 100 kilo's. Then it's time to reset goals again. ]]> http://www.positivehealthsteps.com/weight-battle/2007/11/obesity-cancer-link.html http://www.positivehealthsteps.com/weight-battle/2007/11/obesity-cancer-link.html Fri, 02 Nov 2007 10:03:00 +1000 Much to my delight, I jumped on the scales yesterday and found I'd lost another kilo without the usual 2 week plateau. I havn't upped the exercise at all. I still play golf a couple of times per week and walk every other morning for an hour at a time. However, I did start eating a small single serving of yoghurt with some bran thrown in, for breakfast each morning. I've never been a breakfast eater, instead having my first meal of the day at lunch time. Last week I read an article that said eating breakfast will kick start your metabolism for the day. Otherwise, your body will go into starvation mode and you'll find it harder to burn off calories you've eaten for the day. So far, this seems to be true. I'm now down to 102 kilograms or 224.40 pounds. One step closer to my overall weight loss goal. http://www.positivehealthsteps.com/weight-battle/2007/10/eat_breakfast_lose_weight.html http://www.positivehealthsteps.com/weight-battle/2007/10/eat_breakfast_lose_weight.html goals Mon, 15 Oct 2007 11:38:06 +1000 Nearly time to buy new clothes and refresh my wardrobe When I first purchased the pants shown in the photographs below, I was 117 kilo's (257.40 pounds). Since then I've lost 14 kilo's or 30.80 pounds. I'm now starting to notice the weight loss in a lot of different ways. For example, my clothes are now a lot bigger. I find when playing golf (a favorite personal sport), I can now pick the ball up out of the hole a lot easier. I also don't tend to be physically tired by the 12th these days. When I go for a daily walk out at the local marina, I can now easily do the full hour and not cough from asthma afterwards. I enjoy photography as a hobby and can now take some fantastic close up shots of flowers, bugs and mushrooms by easily getting on ground level or laying on my stomach. 6 months ago at 117 kilo's, this would have been hard work and most of my images were taken from a standing view point. Yes, life seems a whole lot easier without the extra 14 kilo's to lugg around. Anyway, I must go and buy some new pants :) ]]> http://www.positivehealthsteps.com/weight-battle/2007/10/loosing-kilos-pounds.html http://www.positivehealthsteps.com/weight-battle/2007/10/loosing-kilos-pounds.html goals Wed, 10 Oct 2007 11:09:39 +1000 Weight loss update In the last 4 weeks I've went from weighing 105.3 kilo's to 103 kilo's. That's a loss of 2.3 kilo's which is roughly half a kilo per week. I'm finding even though it may seem like a slow way to loose weight, it is a realistic pace for me personally and one I know I can stick to for life. For instance, I still enjoy one night out per week to my favorite local harbour side restaurant here in Mackay, Australia. Plus, one Sunday lazy lunch per week of fish and chips at the Marina in Mackay. The point being, the other 95% of the time I eat healthily and to controlled calorie servings. Weight loss plateau Similar to many women, I find I have a weight loss plateau 2 weeks leading up to menstruation. This is something I've simply gotten used to and I dont' let it effect my overall eating plan. I always find at the other end of the scale, I tend to loose 2-3 kilo's the first couple of weeks afterwards. Therefore, it does balance out for the month as a whole. The main thing, is to know your own body and not to give up when you're on a plateau. ]]> http://www.positivehealthsteps.com/weight-battle/2007/10/weight_loss_plateau.html http://www.positivehealthsteps.com/weight-battle/2007/10/weight_loss_plateau.html Sat, 06 Oct 2007 11:51:16 +1000 A few kilos closer towards my weight loss goal Over the last 2-3 weeks I've lost a total of 3.7 kilo's, making my current weight 105.3 kilo's. Positive changes I've made include the following tips for loosing kilo's: 1. I purchased a food steamer and now steam family roasts such as the sunday chicken, instead of baking it. The steamer catches the fat in a tray underneath and I was amazed by the amount that is caught. And to think I used to bake chicken in all that unwanted fat. The family doesn't seem to mind the taste of a steamed meal either which is a big plus. 2. I don't have coffee throughout the day anymore. I've replaced coffee with diet softdrink, purely for calorie reasons. A can of diet softdrink is usually only one calorie. Drinking vanilla diet coke also has the added advantage of making me feel as though I've had something sweet, which of course isn't the case at all. 3. I went out for fish and chips at the Mackay Marina during the week. Sounds strange doesn't it. But remember, this isn't a diet as such, it's a life style change. And part of my life style change is to reward myself every now and then for eating well throughout the week. The fish and chips I had was also dished up in a box made for one. This was a much better serving than purchasing them from a fish and chip store from around the corner. With my old life style we'd get them served wrapped in the good old fish and chip paper, where everyone digs in. The problem with this is you normally end up eating more than you should. Leaving the table totally bloated. As you can see, so far these simple 3 tips for loosing kilos are working like a gem. ]]> http://www.positivehealthsteps.com/weight-battle/2007/09/tips_for_loosing_kilos.html http://www.positivehealthsteps.com/weight-battle/2007/09/tips_for_loosing_kilos.html goals Mon, 03 Sep 2007 17:23:42 +1000 Changing the size of food servings you dish up One of the main changes I've made this week is to take more notice of serving sizes. The easiest way to do this is to look on the side of the packet to see how many servings is recommended per meal. For example normally I'd cook a whole packet of pasta and we'd share it between three people. After looking at the correct portions I now realise a packet is meant for four servings. Therefore I don't now cook the whole packet and everyone doesn't leave the table feeling like they are about to burst. This last week I also had one splurge (if you can call it that) on a Red Rooster chicken wrap. Normally I'd have had a wrap, large chips and coke. This time sticking to my healthy eating plan I opted only for the wrap. This way I didn't feel like I was missing out while at the same time I stuck to my overall healthy eating plan. When loosing weight I've found it's also important not to feel like I'm depriving myself of what I enjoy. In this case, I do enjoy eating out on the odd occasion. Otherwise I know I won't be able to stick to it for long. I'm hoping small changes here and there will add up to a healthier slimmer me :) ]]> http://www.positivehealthsteps.com/weight-battle/2007/08/food_serving_portion.html http://www.positivehealthsteps.com/weight-battle/2007/08/food_serving_portion.html diet Sun, 19 Aug 2007 15:03:33 +1000 Weight loss goal and life style changes Todays the day I've decided to make a life style change. Notice I didn't say diet? I can't say I believe in diets as such. To me a diet means a drastic eating pattern that changes once you've reached your weight loss goal. Alternatively, I'm setting myself an assignment to find a healthy eating and exercise balance that will allow me to reach and stay at my weight loss goal of 75 kilo's for the duration of my life. Even though my current weight is 109 kilo's, I know this is achievable as I've done it once before. The difference being, this time I'll make it a lasting life style change. Listed below is my first checklist of changes I need to make to ensure I reach my weight loss goal. I say 'first' because this will most likely change over time the more I learn about healthy lifestyle changes. 1. Eat more vegetables, salad, fruit, yogurt, fish, chicken. 2. Eat less takeaway such as fried chips or Red Rooster. Not being much of a cook, I do eat takeaway often. 3. Exercise more. At least 40 minutes per day. Although I do play golf, it's not nearly as often as I should. I also have the advantage of owning exercise equipment which at the moment is collecting dust. However, this is about to change. 4. For encouragement, read stories from other women who have also battled a weight problem. I particularly find the television show Biggest Looser great inspiration and the next Australian series isn't too far away from starting. 5. Keeping a blog of how I'm going will help me to keep focus and reset my goals when required. ]]> http://www.positivehealthsteps.com/weight-battle/2007/08/weight_loss_goal.html http://www.positivehealthsteps.com/weight-battle/2007/08/weight_loss_goal.html goals Sat, 11 Aug 2007 22:20:09 +1000