Weight Loss Challenge - Day Six

Ok, so I gave in, I actually did get on the scales. On the bright side, I have lost 2lbs since last week, on the down side it isn't nearly enough as I wanted!!

So what went wrong this week? frankly most things. To be perfectly blunt, the only think I did differently this week was getting up early and exercising. Now don't get me wrong, that is a fantastic start. BUT I still drank alcohol, still ate bread & cheese & all those other things I knew would do me no good.

The thing I am most disappointed in myself about though is that I do actually my own seven day plan - I just didn't follow it this week, and the whole point really was to follow it to the letter, and see what results I got.

In the front of my mind, I know that the cruise is not very far away, so I really do need rapid results if I am going to have any hope in hell's chance of spending my holiday of a lifetime in a body that I have worked hard to get!

Oi vey! Right, that's it. Today I will be printing off this plan and keeping it with me at all times as a constant reminder to follow it!!

Seriously, there is no reason why I couldn't be losing 7lbs this week.

I will continue to write blog daily, and now next Saturday I will weight myself again and hopefully report that all important first 7lb loss.

Weight Loss Challenge - Day Five

I realised yesterday that in my blogs I have been saying weigh in for Saturday, when in fact, that wont give me the full seven days! What a doughnut. So, official weigh in and subsequent YouTube upload will be Sunday morning, not Saturday morning.

Emotions today are generally quite sleepy. I shouldn't be as I went to bed early and woke up at 6:30am this morning. I'm wondering if this is part tiredness, and partly because I am getting quite cross with myself.

I didn't do the treadmill yesterday morning as I told myself I'd do it in the evening. I didn't. Ok, so I didn't sit in front of the TV all evening, but let's just say my calorie in take was higher than calories burned off yesterday.

Also, and this may sound silly, but for the fist time in ages I had a can of Sprite with almost the consequence of Monday night - a massive headache. Thankfully I managed to avoid it (only suffering with a minor one this morning) as I drank plenty of water to try and flush the sugar out.

It's a really weird thing, but it appears my body is seriously rejecting the sugar / additives in Lemonade these days.

Another reason why I am quite disappointed in myself is that I haven't yet stopped eating bread & dairy products. I need to because these also cause my body to become slow, sluggish, bloated, and generally quite yukky. So why do I keep eating & drinking them then? Honestly I have no idea!! When I don't consume bread & dairy my body feels fabulous. I need to hold onto that thought!

Ok, so I have to start coming up with a 'restricted' list for myself and perhaps post it up in the kitchen as a constant reminder. Oh, I don't know, frustration is a good word for how I am feeling I think!

At this point I would be saying, well half an hour on the treadmill would cure that surely, however, as I got up late, I now wont have time to as I now need to get ready for work! Arrrrggggghhhhhhhhhh

My last hope of emotional lifting is now the singing I'll be doing on my journey to work - I have every faith that this will lighten the mood - it usually always does!

Weight Loss Challenge - Day Four

Yesterday I really amazed myself.

It started off with 32 minutes on the treadmill. Then I spend an hour in the front garden shovelling and sweeping shingle (which isn't easy as we have quite a bit I want moving!). Then the other half tells me we'll be having visitors in a couple of hours, so then next two hours were spent tidying, cleaning, and generally carrying all the bits and pieces that were being 'stored' in the living room, upstairs to their rightful places. After the guests had gone, I had tuna on toast for dinner, followed by a little sit down in front of the TV.

After the dog was taken for his evening constitution, I couldn't really settle. Tried to watch TV, but frankly there was nothing on worth watching so turned the box off and sat outside in the garden watching the chickens.

They weren't doing much, so then decided it'd be a good idea to have another go on the treadmill, for which I completed yet another 30 minutes!

After all that activity yesterday, I thought I would be quite achey this morning, but I'm not. Yes, I can feel my limbs quite lethargic, but I don't know if that is due to the time of the morning it is, or because of yesterday's exercises.

One saving grace is that at least I am not sore, or experienced and cramping yet!!

As for this mornings workout, I have completed my toning routine and without thinking did twice as many ab crunches than normal. My brain was off on other thoughts whilst doing the crunches and I forgot to stop!

No Cardio this morning, trying to give body at least a little bit of a chance to catch up. However I may do some tonight - see how it goes.

Food wise, lost slight control last night so now worried this is will affect my 7lbs weight loss goal for Saturday. Only time will tell on that one. I'll be a little disappointed if I do a video, and not record my weight as 7lbs lighter.

For the next 2 days, it's heads down and eye on the prize time.

Weight Loss Challenge - Day Three

Well, we'll start with a brief review on yesterday's progress.

Food wise, I kept telling myself that I had done terribly! But in fact, when I sat and thought about what I had actually eaten, it really wasn't that bad at all.
Poached egg on toast for breakfast (yes with butter), tuna on an oatmeal roll (no butter, but salad cream on the tuna), and a jacket potato with cheese & ham for dinner (this was the most calorific meal of the day). The problem is that I am simply not used to eating breakfast, and doing so completely threw me off balance!

I made a real effort to drink more water yesterday with great success. By the end of the day, I was headache free!

As it is my day off today, last night I decided to have a little bit of a lay in as a treat. Instead of setting the alarm at 6am, I set it a 7am! Hey, I have to start thinking 7am as a lay in now! Upon rising this morning, I automatically had the attitude that todays exercise session was going to be a bit of a flop / just going through the motions. I was extremely tired and not really in the mood for it - it is these times when you really do need to go on automatic pilot.

First off, I had my tablet, then sat down for a few minutes whilst mind & body came to life a little more. I then got up, and began my exercise routine. I started with a little warm up, then went straight onto toning exercises as I 'couldn't be bothered' jumping around to do the cardio stuff.

Whilst doing the toning stuff, I did notice that not only was I automatically increasing the number of reps per exercise, but I was starting to feel a little tighter, leaner and my flexibility was coming back! I've always been quite a flexible person, but since gaining so much weight again, that flexibility had gone out the window!

After I had finished toning my arms, legs & abs, I then decided to have a bash at walking on the treadmill again, so at least I could say that I had done some Cardio this morning! Grabbing my headphones & mp3 player, I put on my 'motivational talk', and as I know this lasts 22 minutes, I told myself I wouldn't get off until the track had finished.

As it turns out, I actually did 32 minutes of walking in the end because when the talk had finished, I thought, ah go on, I'll stay on for a couple of songs and then get off. The first song played was Perfect Day from the Legally Blonde soundtrack (by Hoku I think), which spurred me on so much I upped the speed a bit!

When I eventually got off the machine, me and my legs felt as light as a feather! Honestly, I came off, and after a second or two of adjusting to solid ground, I felt quite light and bouncy. I've not felt like this since the last time I started to exercise regularly!

So really, three days in, and I really do think I can feel improvements already. It isn't physically visable results yet (I'm not that nieve to think it would be!), but psychologically / emotionally I really am feeling the benefits.

Weight Loss Challenge - Day Two

Yesterday went relatively well I think. I behaved myself food wise, didn't have any alcohol at all despite going down the pub with the other half (I stayed on orange juice & lemonade), and completed almost all the exercises I had planned to do for the day. I say almost, because I was supposed to do a second lot of biggest loser workout, this time for the Wii, but we went to the pub instead.

On our walk home, I came over with the most awful headache (which is still lingering now), so when we got home, all I could do was go to bed with some nurofen. I believe the headache is due to dehydration. My thoughts are that yesterday my physical activity was increase much more than my body is generally used to, however I didn't drink nearly enough water as I should have done to compensate for the extra activity, hence why I think I developed the headache last night.

Am pleased to report though I have beside me a glass of water which I am sipping regularly so fingers are crossed this will sort this blasted head out!

This morning I managed to get up at 6am again. Tablet has been taken, but I will admit to not entirely being 'with it' this morning (as you may see on my Youtube post on Saturday when I upload the week review!). I exercised, but did more toning stuff rather than the cardio stuff as I really wasn't in the mood, and didn't have the energy!

Still, about 30 minutes later, I had completed a good workout so despite not following on from the exercises I did yesterday, I think I can still pat myself on the back because at the end of the day, I got up and exercised, which is a darn sight better than just staying in bed!

The Biggest Loser USA - Nintendo DS Game Review Part One

I've completed my first circuit using the DS, so I thought naturally I'd do a review on my first impressions of the game so far.

Please bare in mind that this is the first time I have used this game, and so haven't explored all the different features just yet - this is just my thoughts on the initial start up, and overall first impressions!!

Ok, starting from the top, annoyance number one, too many adverts before you get to the main menu! I know I know, I am impatient. But personally, when I turn on a game like this, I want to get straight down to it, and not see adverts for NBC (which I don't get anyway!)

So finally we get to the title screen where we are greeted with both Bob & Jillian. First job is to start a new profile.

On the next screen we are greeted by Alison Sweeny (presenter of the USA show), introducing you to the game. The next two screens are Bob & Jillian doing their 'motivational' bits.

We then get down to the nitty gritty, entering your name. First gripe is that it's all in capitals. Minor issue I know, but I like to enter my name like Hells, not HELLS. Ah well, as I said minor issue.

The next two screens are your standard male or female questions, and date of birth. The we get onto the next little gripe - height. Now, for the time being, it will only allow me to work in meters & cm, which isn't a problem if you do, but unfortunately I still work in feet and inches so I have had to google the conversion! I will point out that you can actually change this to 'English' (i.e feet and inches), but only after you have completed your profile. It would save a lot of time if a) I could personally change to metric measurements, or b) they allowed the option which unit of measurement you work in from the start (as they do on the Wii version, which again I'll probably do a review on at some point).

After getting over the height issue, we then come to entering your current and goal weights. This is my next problem, as at the moment, it will only allow me to work in Kilograms. Again, when you change the unit of measurements to 'English' later on, this will change to pounds, but until then, it's google time!

You then get to choose your lifestyle, Sedentary / Light Activity / Medium Activity / Heavy Activity, each option has a different calorie intake count next to it.

We then get to review the profile created, play about with the look of your Avatar, brief background on BMI, BMR & suggested calorie intake before finally getting to the main menu and the fun can begin!

But first, if like me you want to work in feet, inches and pounds, on this screen, click the options button at the bottom and change unit to 'English'. You may need to then edit your profile to ensure you have entered the correct information.

After all this is done, we still can't quite get down a jiggy with the exercises yet (which for me, is the whole point of the game). We are then greeted by Alison Sweeny again, with her second introduction. You then tell Bob what level exerciser you are (beginner!) and Jillian how long a programme you will be doing (12 weeks for me).

Next, we have our first official weigh in. Um, hang on, isn't that the same as our starting weight? Bit frustrating personally, not only have I had to enter my weight in twice already (first in Kgs, then in Lbs), but now I have to do it a third time! I know patience is a virtue, but really people, all I want to do is start the game, not enter in information I have already entered. Ok, with this done, Alison pops her head up for one last time, and now finally we can get onto the actual game!!

As you can tell, I am a little frustrated at this point, but only because for me, the log in is a little long winded. I understand and applaud the thoroughness of it, I really do, but I do object having to repeat myself when actually, I shouldn't have to.

Onto the main screen, you get a choice of going into 'calendar', 'exercise', healthy eating handbook' and 'progress'. I haven't explored all these yet, as I only started the game this morning, so all I will comment on for now is the exercise routine I did, which was Circuit One.

As exercising using a DS is not something I had ever done, I did find it rather odd to begin with. You get taken through the usual warm up, and then crack on with the routine which includes cardio and toning exercises.

At first, I will admit, I was sceptical. The first few exercises I did, but wasn't really that convinced. Here is how it works. You get your first exercise. when this is done, you have to stop to take a break which you can skip if you like and onto the next one. This repeats throughout the whole routine. Lots of stopping to click / move forward and the restarting, so you don't really getting into the swing of things. Also, you can skip exercises you don't want to do very easily during the workout, which can be a good or bad thing depending on your point of view. The other thing was before each exercise I was suppose to have read the instructions. But these were all moves I had done a million times before, so didn't actually bother reading as this would have taken up more of my valuable time! Um, bit of a mistake that because of some of the stretching exercises, and I didn't find this out until the end of the routine, you have to split the time yourself for each side. As is usually the case you get told 'hold for 30 seconds', then you are told to change to the other side. Not here you don't. Bit of a cheeky short cut from the games point of view. maybe the instructor did say 'now change to the other side' during the allocated time, if he did, I didn't hear him! I'll have to make a point of listening a little more carefully next time!

All in all, not really a raving review is it? Well actually here is the interesting thing. Whilst doing these exercises, I started to think about how you would use this game in real life. The best thing about using the DS to exercise with is that it's portable! Think about it. If like me, you have workouts on both DVD or Wii format, you are limited as to when and where you can workout. Not a problem if you establish a set routine for yourself, but what about when you are away from home and still want to work out? We all know that once we stop exercises for a short period of time, it can be difficult to get back into the swing of things again.

This is where I think the DS will come into it's own. You can essentially go anywhere, and still have access to the same exercises. For me, it means I could stay over night at the inlaws, and not miss a single mornings workout! What you have to remember is that it isn't like a normal DVD or Wii workout, as you have to be more interactive with it, as opposed to standing there and doing what you are told.

Once you can get over that obstacle, I think, this could potentially be quite a good platform to exercise with.

Weight Loss Challenge - Day 1

As with most things, it starts with 'I have a dream', and that dream always has been weight related. Sometimes this 'dream' was forgotten, and life, complete with unhealthy eating, drinking, and little or no exercise continued.

As summer got into full swing, suddenly things started to become more 'uncomfortable'. Clothes, the heat, the sheer act of moving, all became hard work. So what do you do? sit there and take your beatings? Tell yourself that this is how it is, this is how it always has, and will always be?

Really?

For those who believe this is my chosen fate, well, then I am afraid you don't know me at all. But you will, I promise you that.

When life gets so psychologically painful, and you are about as low as you have ever been, remember; this is your brain telling you that something is seriously wrong, and it is already looking for answers as to how to rectify the problem! It really is! All you have to do is give your brilliant mind a helping hand and start taking positive actions, no matter how small!

So the dream transforms itself into 'the plan' - and this now becomes the start of my own story.

I am forever 'starting' weight loss regimes, maybe go about a week, see fantastic results, and then celebrate my success by undoing all my previous hardwork. Bit silly really.

So what makes this time around so different? For well over a year, I have had this plan about publically recording my weight loss progress via diaries on youtube, so not only can everyone see the results I am achieving, but also makes me publically acountable. Now, there is one thing saying this, it is totally different doing it! After all this time just 'talking' about it, and recording the odd diary but not actually uploding it, yesterday I finally followed through, and have my first diary uploaded in the public domain (scary stuff!).

That's number one. Secondly, yesterday I dug out my old routine schedule, made a couple of tweaks so that it was relevant for what I enjoy doing right now in my life and have vowed to follow it to the letter. It will be interesting to see what results I do get from it as I have never actually followed through with the whole seven days.

As for exercise (which is also including in the overall routine I will be following), I will be doing both Rosemary conellys 28 day inch loss plan - following the exercises for each day only, not the the diet, doing the exercise routines as set out on the biggest loser for both the Nintendo Wii & Ds, and if that wasn't enough, I will also be recording my progress vie My Health Coach, also on the Ds. The latter focuses more on encouraging you to walk more as a safe and easy way to exercise, and to be perfectly honest it adds a little more variety (which I love!).

This morning, the routine appears to be going rather well. I woke up at 6am (with the alarm), have taken my tablet, recorded my starting weight and have done both RC's and Ds exercise routines.

The overall plan is to not only blog on here every day recording my progress, but to also record a little snippet each evening as to how each day has gone on the web cam, then combine the weeks recordings together, adding in the starting weight clip (recorded this morning) and offical weigh in clip (to be recorded Saturday) to make the final video which will be uploaded onto Youtube Saturday afternoon.

Right, that's more or less it from me until this evening! xx

When the going gets tough - the tough gets coaching

This morning I woke up with brimming over with enthusiasm. This was the start of a new week, and a golden opportunity to resume my weight loss success.

I have put on a couple of lbs since last I blogged, but really, I'm ok with that. I had the courage to face up and take responsibilty for my actions over the last week or so. The damage is easily rectified, so no real tragedy, but I feel slightly different approach is needed.

Enter Helen Barber - Weight Management Coach (gosh that feels so good to think, even better when it's said out loud!). This is my dream, this is the 'pigeon hole' I would most willing and whole heartidily put myself in. So now I think it's time for this persona to really take hold and grab much of the lime light.

This may sound really bizarre, but losing weight, and also seeing others doing so, is a real passion of mine. The high you get off your own, and other peoples successes, well there really isn't anything like it!

Putting my 'coaching head' back on I approached the one closest person in my life who would we both knew would benefit from a little 'helping hand' in the weight loss department. Thankfully, ma has agreed that 'it's time we both did something'. I didn't do a 'first session' with her, as she doesn't need it, she just needs someone in the background watching her back so to speak, and given her a boost when needed.

We both weighed ourselves, and recorded our starting weights. I promptly drew up a thermometer to track our progress, and both confirmed our ultimate weight loss goals, and this weeks weight loss goals, which every day we will work towards.

Ma has already taken her first steps towards that goal by deciding to follow a diet we have both previously tried and succeded in. As for myself, I've decided to cut out bread & dairy, as these seem to cause the most disruption to my insides, and follow a more 'natural' eating plan, which I'll go through in more detail in another post.

Other actions I'll be taking - again, i'll go through the reasons in another post are:

Blogging, facebook & twitter updates every day including any relevant words of wisdom
You tube video diary once per week, also you tube information topics every so often
Once a month progress photo's to visually see progress
Oh yes, and let's not forget eating a healthy diet & exercising on a regular basis!

General Review

I promised myself that I would (or rather should) be waiting until Monday before getting onto the scales to view my progress. However, after waking up from a dream last night where I was actually weighing myself, I am afraid to say I went into automatic pilot and hopped onto the scales.

The results were, in all honesty, a little bit of a shock. Long story short, I have lost 8lbs, and I still have 4 days to go before 'official' weigh in. Jeepers Creepers!

It's funny because if truth be told, I wouldn't say that I was 'on a diet'. What I would say is that I am fully embracing changing my old eating habits, and learning new healthier ones. I am psychologically conditioning myself to listen to my body, to know when it's full, to not be afraid to leave things on my plate!

I've been telling myself since Day One that I am getting slimmer and leaner, and yesterday, looking in the mirror, I actually started to believe it. Not drastically, but enough to confirm to me that what I am doing is absolutely right for me.

Believe me, when you are at a size I am, looking in the mirror at an 'all of a sudden' slightly lighter you, boy there isn't a feeling on this plant that could match it! there really isn't! I do chuckle at myself, if I am like this now, imagine what I am going to be like when I have lost ALL my excess weight!!

I remember last year when I was on Slimming World, and was having similar success. I remember that things were starting to become 'bigger' as I was getting smaller. The bathtub, sofas, car seats, my knickers! Although I never did come close to my goal weight, I did however feel leaner, more like a stick insect, less like a weeble (is the only way I can think of to describe it!)

I've longed for months to get 'that feeling' back, and not feel so bloated and rotund. The great thing is at the moment I can actually feel each pound as it drops, and even though I am not there yet, I am already looking into the future. I'm looking forward to getting back into my cute colourful knickers, as opposed to the monstrosities that I 'have' to wear at the moment (which this morning seem to be coming more and more up my waist! hurrah!!). I'm looking forward to getting back into more summary clothes, and being able to actually wear my entire wardrobe, not just the 'fat' parts of it!

I'm starting to really look forward to the cruise again. Yesterday I went online and went window shopping for evening gowns and cocktail dresses, because yes, suddenly the possibilities of me actually wearing garments so stunning has suddenly increased ten fold! Amazing!

If you are sitting there saying to yourself, hang on a minute steady on there girl you've only lost 8lbs, I think you are getting carried away with yourself! My response would be stop being so British! When you get success, no matter how big or small, you enjoy it for all it's worth! Why can't you enjoy it? For me, I am enjoying 'the process. By actually seeing the results I am wanting, it's making me not only jump up and down at my success, but also it's increasing my enjoyment of the whole process!

Because my enjoyment of the process is getting stronger, and I am certain that by continuing along this path I will see the results I am looking for, I KNOW that in four months time there will be no other outcome than that of me being my goal weight, and wearing those evening gowns, cocktail dresses and bikinis.

Now that really is something worth smiling about :D

Always read the label!

So it's lunchtime, and I had the usual pondering of 'what shall I have for lunch'. In the cupboard I spied a can of soup - yes that will do! That should be healthy enough. I thought I was having tomato soup, but it turned out to be mulligatawny when I actually opened the can - my fault entirely, should have read the label first.

As I was washing the can out to put into recycling, I noticed on the front it said 'low fat 105 calories per serving'. Well that can't be bad can it! For a very slight moment I began to feel quite proud of my lunch time choice. But then again, we are of course assuming that one can = one serving. Knowing that we all can be easily fooled if we are not careful with these things, I looked at the nutritional information on the back.

As it turns out, a 400g can of soup is not classed as 'one serving', in fact in the small print, it stated 100g = 57 calories. That's 228 calories per can. Still, as lunch goes, 228 is not a bad number at all, you would get about that in a slim fast shake or bar. So really, despite my 'misjudgement' I think I got away with it - just.

But think about it. How many times have you just 'grabbed' something on the run. I did this exercise with my mother a few months ago. We were in Basingstoke in between jobs when both were hungry, and decided to grab something at the local garage.

Now, we are both aware that we both need to lose weight (I more than she it must be pointed out), so we both think we have a pretty good handle on what goes into our mouths. I can't remember now exactly what we had, but it went along the lines of pre packed sandwich, crisps and a drink each. I had water, mother had a banana milkshake.

We started talking about diets, and she couldn't understand why she wasn't losing weight. On her part she 'only had' xyz and from her talking, I couldn't understand either.

Getting down to the nitty gritty, I asked her to see how many calories were in her crisps. I then got her to do the same with her sandwich and then her milkshake. Upon adding it all together her total lunchtime calorie consumption came to over 900 calories (I think mine came to about 700). To say she was shocked was an understatement. I then suggested to she thought about what she had for breakfast, what snacks she had really had through out the day so far, and what she was planning on having for dinner, and it was very obvious that her overall calorie in take for that day would be more than the 'recommended'.

She was, and still is I am afraid in what I refer to as 'Calorie Denial'. Even today when we embarked upon the same conversation, she maintains she is 'doing her best', but admitted to buying a Marks & Spencers cheesecake, to which she had two slices. What wasn't said, and I got from my sister later was that this 'pudding' buying was a habit, not a one off occurrence, and she had been buying similar things over the past couple of weeks.

So if you are trying to lose weight yourself, I cannot stress enough how important it is to be so aware of what, and how much, is going into your mouth. There is a real need to be honest with yourself as it's always the 'little' things that you have forgotten you have eaten that will add up to one big fat you. Once you start reading labels, and actually appreciating how much fat / sugar etc you are putting into your body, I am willing to bet, if you are serious about losing weight, you will automatically start to change your eating habits for the better.

You Can Be Thin!

Yesterday I discovered a book on my bookshelf that I had purchased from Amazon many many months ago, although had never gotten around to reading it. As I was feeling in a 'let's give it a try' mood, I took the book outside, and read the entire thing cover to cover - whilst getting sun burnt in the process!

The book was called 'You Can Be Thin' by Marisa Peer. As far as NLP / Hypnosis weight loss books go, I have to say, it was a really good read, well it must of been for me to actually refuse to put it down until it was finished! Not something I would tend to do with any book.

As with most things, there were some ideas I took on board, and some I did not. Hey, coaching is all about personal choice. The main thing is to make those choices right for you, in order for you to move forward towards your goal(s).

As I got towards the back, I discovered (to my utter surprise) that included was a Hypnosis CD which amused me as I hadn't actually realise it came with one when I purchased the book, nor did it occur to me whilst I was reading it!

As it was inappropriate to listen to the CD that evening, I made the decision to give it it's first airing in the car the following morning on the way to work, which is of course what I did.

The content of the CD, i.e. the actual 'script' she used was something I could work with. I have another hypnosis mp3 track which I totally love (75p from Amazon download, Donna Harvey, very highly recommend!) so I have had previous experience on what I personally look out for with these things.

Despite the content being great, I have to say her voice actually didn't sit too well with me. Personally I wasn't convinced that her style of hypnosis (i.e. what tone of voice to use and which words to emphasise) was going to work for me. I listened to the CD a couple of times, but my gut was telling me that the words were fine, I just needed someone else speaking them.

Enter Helen B and her wonderful 8 Track! I'll talk more about the 8 track in another post, but suffice to say, when you want something doing, do it yourself! I initially sat on the sofa this evening, listening to the CD whilst typing out her script. I also added a few things of my own, and made the 'imagine you're at your ideal weight' bit much more personal and relative to me.

In my mind, I had come to the conclusion that I wanted to use this more as a Tony Robbins pep talk, not a lay on your back in a darkened room whilst I 'go under' (I have one of those already, which works, so I didn't need another one). So taking out the beginning and end hypnosis bit, I added my own introduction and ending.

After 'my' script had been worked out, I went upstairs and pressed record.

The whole track is about 22 minutes long, and I am really quite impressed by it. The proof of course will be in the pudding when I put it on in the car in the morning on my way to work (I have approx 30 minute journey so listening to the whole thing start to finish wont be a problem). It will be a bit weird listening to myself just talking (I'm used to hearing me singing, not talking!), but what I am trying to do is give myself a motivational pep talk to keep me focused on my goal of losing weight.

As I have said the content itself is great. Lots of visualisations and positive suggestions, so as long as I can stand listening to my own voice (may be tricky, I'm not usually that way inclined!), then I should be setting myself up for success city!

As far as today goes, I feel much better for eating less than I usually do, and I can really feel the difference in having water and not alcohol this evening!

Today has been a really good positive day. It should be easy and straight forward to keep up with this momentum now, and with my own pep talk CD (in addition to the hypnosis MP3 track I'll listen to before bed) I should be losing weight in no time at all :D

4 months and counting

The first post is always the hardest! there is so much to tell, where do i begin?

A good place to start would be why I am here, and why I've chosen to blog.

It all started in December 2009 for me, where upon I embarked on 'one of those' conversations with the other half. The up shot was, neither of us were particularly happy about what we had (or rather hadn't) achieved over the past year, and both agreed that 2010 should be one of those 'mile stone' years.

Coming away from that conversation, I swore to myself that when we next have this conversation (in 12 months time), at least for my part 2010 was going to be one of those years where 'things' finally happened for me. What things? well, sitting down, I thought long and hard about what I wanted to achieve over the coming year, what would make me on top of the world achieving / having by the years end. Amazingly I came up with 6 goals for this year, one of which was inevitable, the rest I knew I had to work hard for.

Weigh 9 Stone
Turn 30
Go on a Mediterranean Cruise
Become an earning / successful weight management coach
Buy our first home together
Get Engaged

So where are we, July 4th now, and how am I doing with regards to my goals?

Weigh 9 Stone - I am so off this target it is untrue! However all it not lost, provided I get my behind seriously in gear like it has never gotten into gear before, I should have no problems reaching this goal by the end of the year.

Turning 30 - all I have to do is live for another 4 months, and this one is in the bag!

Mediterranean Cruise - ditto to the above! In fact this was booked over a year ago for my 30th. However, we still need to pay for it and I still need to lose weight for it so technically this one is still on going

Become an earning / successful weight management coach - see goal 1! I cannot become a coach if I am not walking the walk myself. So this one is still a pipe dream for the time being

Buy first home together - kaching! 2 weeks ago we officially moved into a lovely house in Brimpton. Without a shadow of a doubt this is my best move in my whole entire life, I totally love it here! Hey, I could talk about my new home for hours, so for sanity's sake, let's chalk this one up to a resounding success :)

get Engaged - about three months ago, I had the discussion with my other half regarding this subject, and although it hasn't happened yet, we have both agreed the 'deed' should take place on my birthday whilst on the cruise, so provided I live to see 30, we can afford to go on the cruise and I've lost the weight (not much then!) this one should also be in the bag :)

So what then really am I using this blog for? Well mainly to record my progress with regards to losing weight, to nurture my new found zest for my chosen career choice, to provide a forum / outlet for my random thoughts, ideas and opinions and essentially provide me with much the needed focus so that I CAN achieve ALL my goals over the next five months.

For the past couple of months I have become seriously complacent with what I would consider to be my two most important goals for the year. Complacent because deep down I didn't (note past tense) believe that I could really achieve them, an opinion actually voiced by a member of my inner circle (charming I know). This negative thought pattern of mine was being reinforced, whether intentionally or otherwise, and I just allowed myself to except that for now for, this was all life had to offer.

Thankfully the rebel in me piped up and gave me a bit of an ear bashing! Why can't I reach my goal weight and have a career as a weight management coach? the answer is of course there is no reason why I couldn't, I just have to have enough belief and proactive drive to make it happen! (despite what those 'other' voices are saying).

I have four months now until my birthday and subsequent cruise. I have always maintained that in order for me to actually go on the cruise I would need to be my target weight. Even now, I truly believe that this is possible, but I need to really keep focus, drive and motivation.

As for the coaching - I am determined now more than ever to have my own coaching business by the end of the year. Even if I don't have any clients, by the time of the cruise my intention is to have all the elements in place, admin, website, marketing / advertising plan and more importantly the psychological belief systems well and firmly in place to be the success I know I deserve to be!

So what now? well now I need to make 'a plan', targets, deadlines, mile stones etc. What I need now is a good coach - hey, I think that's my cue!