Friday, June 11, 2010
A bit about me..
Hi :)
Well first I want to say thank you for visiting my blog. I am a first timer so please bare with me as I learn a few things along the way. I hope that those of you reading this first post will continue to follow my journey with me and allow me to hear about yours at the same time.
I am 25, heavily obese, an unemployed part-time Uni student, and a young woman that had no direction. Until now! I am working out everyday for up to 2.5 hours and eating really delicious healthy foods. My starting weight on Monday 31st May 2010 was 171.1kg, it is now at 166kg (in less than 2 weeks). My weight loss journey is called Project WL, and through trial and error I am finding what best suits my lifestyle, body and mind to lose weight consistently. My goal is to lose 50kg by 31st December 2010, and yes I have had many people tell me it's 'impossible' or 'too hard', my response is nothing is impossible and if something wasn't hard you are not pushing yourself enough to achieve higher. As they say "if you continue to do what you do now, expect nothing to change". Already in less than 2 weeks, I have worked harder than I ever have, but I can show you that the results are there :) As Shannon from Biggest Loser always says "for amazing results you need to do something amazing".
So I guess the question is why am I so overweight and yet at only 25? I have been overweight since I was about 2 years old. I was a reasonably active child and ate just as my brother and sister did (they were a normal weight) but I was so much chubbier. Doctors would tell my mum she was just feeding me too much, yet at times I would eat less than my brother. Go figure... Doctors back then and still some these days like to blame someone. As I got older the teasing at school got so much worse, I grew in size to the point that I was 112kg at the age of 11. I was starting to eat a lot of junk food now because I thought this was what I was meant to be. I was, without understanding it, suffering from depression. When I was 12 (now a high school student) I went to the local doctors about a cold; there was a surgeon there filling in for the day as they were short in staff. This surgeon saved my life literally! Before I was able to say "I have a cold" he was doing blood tests and diabetes tests because he knew my weight was not normal. Long story short turned out I had a really slow metabolism rate compared to most people and a specialist told me that I would be dead by 25 (the age I am now) if I didn't do something about it. Scary stuff for a 12 year old to hear.
With help of a dietician I was cutting out all the bad foods and eating healthier foods. As a family we changed our entire eating habits and we would exercise as a family. Soon my siblings and dad lost focus, and fair enough this wasn't for them it was for me. My mum and I however, stuck to it and became even more focused the further along we got. We were going to exercise classes 5 times a week and going walking, even participating in group runs. I went from playing netball to a sport with more required fitness levels - hockey. I loved it and within 12 months I was playing for under 16's and under 18's rep teams. Instead of going for walks, I was jogging the whole way! I was 15 and feeling and looking fantastic. I had got down to a size 16/14 women's. I was able to maintain it for about 12 months, but I was still depressed, and I was still being teased at school about being fat. To be honest, I don't remember how much I even weighed back then.
April 2001, I was 16 and my best friend (my grandfather) passed away. This was something I had never had to deal with before and it broke me. I felt so vulnerable and the weight started to come back on. I was 17 and had already put back on 20 - 30kg, I had even stopped playing hockey and exercising. I then found myself losing any self confidence and exposing myself to a world of continuous, guaranteed pain. I was self-harming in the form of eating! I have been doing it now for the last 8 years, I have been on a roller-coaster that never stops, it just goes round and round... I would attract scum of the earth men, work in dead-end jobs, get myself into debt, put weight on, associate with negative people, push my family away (I was surrounding myself in sorrow and pain).
During this time I tried fad diets, but nothing ever worked. I even tried the healthy eating habits like I had done in the past, but I just put it all back on anyway. Nothing was working, 25th birthday was getting closer than I realised and I was unemployed, living back with my parents and unhappy. 2010 began and I told myself this was my year, no more excuses, no more feeling sorry for myself. I decided to go see a psychologist for my depression; Roger has been the best thing for me. I found myself telling him everything in the first session, cried my eyes out, but god did I feel so much better for it. I continued to see Roger for a few months, started out weekly to fortnightly to monthly and now I am seeing him every 2 months; I think the next 2 sessions will be my last. My mind was starting to feel clearer and I was coping with the everyday things much easier and was able to start letting go of the worst 8 years of my life. Turned out it went back to all that school yard bullying.
About 2 months ago, someone I call my 'Angel on Earth', Akshay came into my life. He hates when I think of him as such an important person, but he was the kick in the butt I needed to get my life rolling in the direction I wanted it. He was the first person since my Grandfather that could look at me and see the person inside the sack of emotions I was. For the first time in 8 years, I was starting to feel like me again. We sat down together and planned Project WL; we wanted it to be as fail proof as we could make it before I started. Little did I realise, this week we spent planning, I had actually stopped eating crap. I had worksheets to fill out on exercise, menu plans, calories intake - burnt - lost, even made some rules like not watching TV before 6pm. Monday 31st May, I woke up and got straight into it; there was no looking back now or living with hesitation. I weigh in every week at Akshay's and the first week I had lost 3.2kg (mind you that was on Wednesday, I had only been doing it for 3 days). The second week was only 24 hours ago and I have now lost in total 5.1kg (that's in less than 2 weeks).
I am not taking medication (prescribed or not), I am not taking shakes nor have I had weight loss surgery; I am just eating healthy and moving my body. I contemplated taking something like Fat Blaster tablets or Biggest Loser shakes in the mornings, but decided against it because I want a lifestyle change and wanted to show other people that all you need is the right mind frame, good support networks, and the motivation within yourself... results will follow.
I will be updating this blog as often as I can, sharing everything so that you can see I am just a normal person and I will have up's and down's throughout the entire journey and that it's not just about weight loss, it is about becoming the woman I know I can be and driving my life in the direction I want it to go.
There is also a video blog on youtube where you can see the physical change and where I will be showing you things such as progress photos, weigh-ins, physical activities like bush walking, etc. To find this you can either search for nevergonnagiveupnow on youtube or click on the video link in my blog.
Thank you for reading my first post and I look forward to sharing my journey with you. It's time I go do my morning work out :)
Well first I want to say thank you for visiting my blog. I am a first timer so please bare with me as I learn a few things along the way. I hope that those of you reading this first post will continue to follow my journey with me and allow me to hear about yours at the same time.
I am 25, heavily obese, an unemployed part-time Uni student, and a young woman that had no direction. Until now! I am working out everyday for up to 2.5 hours and eating really delicious healthy foods. My starting weight on Monday 31st May 2010 was 171.1kg, it is now at 166kg (in less than 2 weeks). My weight loss journey is called Project WL, and through trial and error I am finding what best suits my lifestyle, body and mind to lose weight consistently. My goal is to lose 50kg by 31st December 2010, and yes I have had many people tell me it's 'impossible' or 'too hard', my response is nothing is impossible and if something wasn't hard you are not pushing yourself enough to achieve higher. As they say "if you continue to do what you do now, expect nothing to change". Already in less than 2 weeks, I have worked harder than I ever have, but I can show you that the results are there :) As Shannon from Biggest Loser always says "for amazing results you need to do something amazing".
So I guess the question is why am I so overweight and yet at only 25? I have been overweight since I was about 2 years old. I was a reasonably active child and ate just as my brother and sister did (they were a normal weight) but I was so much chubbier. Doctors would tell my mum she was just feeding me too much, yet at times I would eat less than my brother. Go figure... Doctors back then and still some these days like to blame someone. As I got older the teasing at school got so much worse, I grew in size to the point that I was 112kg at the age of 11. I was starting to eat a lot of junk food now because I thought this was what I was meant to be. I was, without understanding it, suffering from depression. When I was 12 (now a high school student) I went to the local doctors about a cold; there was a surgeon there filling in for the day as they were short in staff. This surgeon saved my life literally! Before I was able to say "I have a cold" he was doing blood tests and diabetes tests because he knew my weight was not normal. Long story short turned out I had a really slow metabolism rate compared to most people and a specialist told me that I would be dead by 25 (the age I am now) if I didn't do something about it. Scary stuff for a 12 year old to hear.
With help of a dietician I was cutting out all the bad foods and eating healthier foods. As a family we changed our entire eating habits and we would exercise as a family. Soon my siblings and dad lost focus, and fair enough this wasn't for them it was for me. My mum and I however, stuck to it and became even more focused the further along we got. We were going to exercise classes 5 times a week and going walking, even participating in group runs. I went from playing netball to a sport with more required fitness levels - hockey. I loved it and within 12 months I was playing for under 16's and under 18's rep teams. Instead of going for walks, I was jogging the whole way! I was 15 and feeling and looking fantastic. I had got down to a size 16/14 women's. I was able to maintain it for about 12 months, but I was still depressed, and I was still being teased at school about being fat. To be honest, I don't remember how much I even weighed back then.
April 2001, I was 16 and my best friend (my grandfather) passed away. This was something I had never had to deal with before and it broke me. I felt so vulnerable and the weight started to come back on. I was 17 and had already put back on 20 - 30kg, I had even stopped playing hockey and exercising. I then found myself losing any self confidence and exposing myself to a world of continuous, guaranteed pain. I was self-harming in the form of eating! I have been doing it now for the last 8 years, I have been on a roller-coaster that never stops, it just goes round and round... I would attract scum of the earth men, work in dead-end jobs, get myself into debt, put weight on, associate with negative people, push my family away (I was surrounding myself in sorrow and pain).
During this time I tried fad diets, but nothing ever worked. I even tried the healthy eating habits like I had done in the past, but I just put it all back on anyway. Nothing was working, 25th birthday was getting closer than I realised and I was unemployed, living back with my parents and unhappy. 2010 began and I told myself this was my year, no more excuses, no more feeling sorry for myself. I decided to go see a psychologist for my depression; Roger has been the best thing for me. I found myself telling him everything in the first session, cried my eyes out, but god did I feel so much better for it. I continued to see Roger for a few months, started out weekly to fortnightly to monthly and now I am seeing him every 2 months; I think the next 2 sessions will be my last. My mind was starting to feel clearer and I was coping with the everyday things much easier and was able to start letting go of the worst 8 years of my life. Turned out it went back to all that school yard bullying.
About 2 months ago, someone I call my 'Angel on Earth', Akshay came into my life. He hates when I think of him as such an important person, but he was the kick in the butt I needed to get my life rolling in the direction I wanted it. He was the first person since my Grandfather that could look at me and see the person inside the sack of emotions I was. For the first time in 8 years, I was starting to feel like me again. We sat down together and planned Project WL; we wanted it to be as fail proof as we could make it before I started. Little did I realise, this week we spent planning, I had actually stopped eating crap. I had worksheets to fill out on exercise, menu plans, calories intake - burnt - lost, even made some rules like not watching TV before 6pm. Monday 31st May, I woke up and got straight into it; there was no looking back now or living with hesitation. I weigh in every week at Akshay's and the first week I had lost 3.2kg (mind you that was on Wednesday, I had only been doing it for 3 days). The second week was only 24 hours ago and I have now lost in total 5.1kg (that's in less than 2 weeks).
I am not taking medication (prescribed or not), I am not taking shakes nor have I had weight loss surgery; I am just eating healthy and moving my body. I contemplated taking something like Fat Blaster tablets or Biggest Loser shakes in the mornings, but decided against it because I want a lifestyle change and wanted to show other people that all you need is the right mind frame, good support networks, and the motivation within yourself... results will follow.
I will be updating this blog as often as I can, sharing everything so that you can see I am just a normal person and I will have up's and down's throughout the entire journey and that it's not just about weight loss, it is about becoming the woman I know I can be and driving my life in the direction I want it to go.
There is also a video blog on youtube where you can see the physical change and where I will be showing you things such as progress photos, weigh-ins, physical activities like bush walking, etc. To find this you can either search for nevergonnagiveupnow on youtube or click on the video link in my blog.
Thank you for reading my first post and I look forward to sharing my journey with you. It's time I go do my morning work out :)
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