The Game is Afoot!

Hello, my name is Helen (hello Helen). It has been four weeks since my last confession, on my honour! Or may I be chopped up and made into soup.

In the words of Sam Beckett oh BOY!!! Yes my friends, these are indeed exciting time!

First a re cap since the last posts. Tomorrow marks my next blood test encounter , interested to find out the numbers as frankly I feel no different, but hey, let's see what the numbers say.

Slimming World is going ok - I would say great, but frankly I would have liked to have seen bigger numbers by now. I know what I am capable of, and I know where my weaknesses have come from on several occasions. That aside though, I am pleased to announce that in just four weeks I have lost a whopping 13lbs!! (whoop whoop!!). Very pleased as this means I am well on target.

On target for what? Um, well ok confession number two, other half and I have actually booked a holiday for the end of the year! If that wasn't enough, I have also brought myself a size 12 (yes, that is a 12) Bikini (yes I said the word Bikini!!). Am aiming to be able to slim down and wear said Bikini on said holiday! Have worked out if I can lose on average 3lbs per week, I will be well and truly at target by the time said holiday comes - which will be nice!

On a semi related topic (I'm saving the absolute zinger until last ya know), aforementioned fella and I have also been discussing potential dates for up and coming tied knot! I've said we will start looking seriously at venues around May / June time, gives me a chance to shift another couple of stone before a date is actually cast in one! Very excited, have already got shortlist of first dance songs, disco songs, pre ceremony classical tunes, style of dress, overall colour scheme, nominated maid of honour (ta Jen!) & bridesmaids, the beginnings of a guest list, various dance routines to attempt at aforementioned disco and roughly what we'll be doing day before, on the day, and where we'll be going on honeymoon! (Not that I've been thinking about this or anything!) Really excited, but again, it is all weight dependent, as I refuse to walk down the isle looking like a beached whale - pre wedding beauty health & fitness regime officially starts here guys & gals! I think that calls for another whoop whoop!

Aaaaaaaaaaand finally!! NLP course & Life Skills course remains ongoing, HOWEVER! have discovered that I have enough qualifications to apply for SHTC membership, which is like a governing body type thing for coaches, so today I have applied, and initial feedback looks good! Waiting for payment to clear naturally, but barring that, I could be a fully fledged (associate) member!

Once membership is approved, there is literally nothing (I don't think) stopping me from turning around and screaming to the world "Hello, my name is Helen, and I am a certified coach!!!!!!!!!"
 omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg and breeeeeeeeeeath!!

If I could do back flips then seriously right now I would be! Four years it has taken me to get to this point, and finally a dream today has begun to be realised, I am so so happy! Of course now the hard work (and the fun) really begins! Whilst I am polishing off my remaining courses, I can legitimately market myself and try and get some clients in!

I'm off now to run around the garden screaming yipppiiiiiiiieeeeeeee!!

Slimming World Day Two

Currently only on day two of the Slimming World regime, and have to say, it's very tough going. So far over the past two days I have eaten so much fruit and veg I swear to goodness the stuff is about to start oozing out of my ears! Yes, in fact, I can feel it all now, in my ears, ready for the final push before it dribbles down my neck and makes a neat little pile on the floor.

Asides the fruit and veg, I've been enjoying pasta, steamed fish & potatoes, and naturally a few more cups of peppermint tea - yes it's true, I do know how to live!

Despite actually really (I do mean really) enjoying what I'm eating, I think I've got to the stage where I'm wishing I would eat a little less of it. In fact call me crazy, at this precise moment in time, I really could live off apples, carrots, and soy sauced pasta (with maybe 30g of cheddar thrown in to spice things up a bit).

The only thing now is to get consistent with the Wii fit, I only need to do 3 lots of 15 minute sessions for four weeks in order to claim my first body magic bronze award! 15 minutes is piddly, it is just making it the priority so that I actually do it.

Should I be able to maintain my zest for all things fruit and veg like, (& Wii fit like too), I shall be very interested to see what (if any) weight I do lose come Wednesday's weight in. I think I mentioned this in my last post, but the 'ideal' figure I'm looking to lose is 7lbs, although now I have been weighed, 8lbs would see me nicely in the next stone bracket, but let's not be greedy, I'll aim for that for next week!

With the thyroid thing playing up as it is at the moment, I'm not sure if those sort of figures are even possible, but hey, I'll give it a jolly good go!!

Still here then!

Oh lordy lordy, it's been just about 4 weeks since my last 'confession'. Well, what can I tell you, still under the eyes of LCD (Life Coach Dawn), and things are progressing quite nicely!

First off, had blood test to check Thyroid levels, T4 is 10 (which is very low) and TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) is 36 (verrrrrrrrrrrry high! it should be around the 0 mark apparently!). In a nutshell TSH is working serious overtime, thyroxine has been upped so now on 125mgs (still no where near enough but hey, these things take time). This is an ongoing thing, and when all levels are where they should be, energy levels should be soaring whilst weight should be plummeting! Going back to quacks for another blood test beginning of February so no doubt I will be on 150mgs in about 5 weeks time.

The Christmas and New Year season passed me by with relative ease, with food and alcohol consumption being at an all time low for no other reason than I just didn't fancy drinking too much, and I felt like snacking even less. I gained about 2-3lbs over the festive period, which according to the Wii fit this morning, I have already lost!! So wondering if I am technically now the only person in the country who isn't stressing because they have eaten too much, drank too much and put on soooooo much weight that immediate detoxing is required!

Speaking of weight, I do have yet another confession to tell - I have decided to rejoin Slimming World, my first session is tonight........gosh that really felt like I was telling a dirty secret then! Seriously though I know that this has worked for me in the past, and with LCD by my side, really this year there is no reason why I shouldn't see massive weight loss success. I believe the group tonight is a brand new group, so at least we will all be starting off on the same foot together. First night SW nerves have well and truly kicked in for me, I don't know why, all I have to do is pay, get weighed and get started - it's nothing I haven't done numerous times before. Really,  it's this time next week when I'll really be wetting myself and wondering 'how much weight have I lost this week!'. I can tell you right from the start if I can lose between 5-7lbs in the first week I'll consider that a good week! If however I lose 2-3lbs, then ok I wont be 'as' happy, but I'll still be thrilled because at least things will have started to go in the right direction!

Eyes on the prize helly, eyes on the prize!!!! (by prize naturally I'm talking about slimmer of the week, slimmer of the month, club 10 target, 1/2 stone interval stickers and body magic awards!!!......oh, and yes of course, there's the losing over 8 stone in weight and becoming a slimmer happier more energetic me, darn it! I always forget that bit! Now, was that a flash of a glittery sticker I see over there.........)

In other news, Life Coach Helly is almost in full swing. Have consulted with LCD who confirms that I am doing everything I need to do in order to start coaching for myself, so wind being in the right direction, I am looking at early March / April as to when I will officially be calling myself LCH!!! Can't wait!!

Coaching Week 2

Well good morning peeps! Yes I have been up for 2 hours already, had thyroid tablet, sorted chooks, had breakfast (!!!!!!!!) and even managed to catch up on a bit of reading (double !!!!!!!!!) too!!!!

Over use of the exclamation mark? nah!!!!!!!!!

Ok, down to business. Last week was obviously first fledgling week as a coachee (not sure if that's a technical term but hey, that'll do). Interesting first week I must say. Monday was exciting as was first session and all forms / logs were set up in preparation for a productive / proactive week. Tuesday began with great enthusiasm too.

Tuesday evening however had a slightly minor incident involving a rather excitable waggy tail, half a pint of water, and a laptop containing what can only be described as my life. It didn't end well for the laptop I'm sorry to say, it was sent to the electronics department in the sky. The dog fared quite well though under the circumstances, usually I'd probably have yelled at him, but was too numb to do so (you know when things are really bad when I don't actually say anything at all).

Blip asides, I now had to find another method of logging my activities, thank goodness for i-phones! Already had a 'habit maker' app installed so used that to keep track until Laptop finally up and running on Friday.

Despite this little incident, week wasn't spoiled too much, I did almost all of what I was 'suppose' to do, and 'life coach Dawn' (I've already told her that's her name now) was very pleased at my successful week.

Challenges this week involve keeping up the successes of last week, i.e. keep getting up at stupid o clock, take tablet, walk dogs twice a day, drink water etc.

When I contacted 'life coach Dawn' initially I had in mind that we'd only really be focusing on the weight loss. The problem is the thyroid needs sorting out first, and 'lcd' reckons that when these levels are normal, it will be so much easier for the weight to come off. So because I am taking the tablet every day consistently, and I am consistently walking for the dogs for over an hour every day, the 'weight thing' is kind of a done deal at the moment, just have to keep up these positive actions and eventually I'll see good results.

So whilst this has more or less been sorted (for now), 'lcd' has decided that it would be good to tackle something else (referring the the life wheel I filled out prior to the first session where I listed 8 areas that are important in my life, what satisfaction level I was currently on, what 'ultimate satisfaction' would look like and would would be a step I could take to get me towards that end goal).

We decided to leave the fiances bits alone for the time being as I explained that once I get the career off the ground, the finances will sort themselves out. Equally under personal development, she was quite amused to read that I wanted to read Shakespeare. Told her that this was already being taken care of, as currently pouring my way through 'all's well that ends well' which am thoroughly enjoying! (so na na na na na)

Long story short, my new assignment this week is to complete and submit the first module of a certain NLP course I'd been putting off since ooooooo about the beginning of the year! Me and my big mouth! I'm going along with this because I know I need a kick up the bum to get going - once I've started I'll get more into the swing of it and wont take me long to finish the thing, it's just getting started!

Feeling very positive and as motivated as I can be considering 'still' feeling eternally tired (many thanks hypothyroidism). Never mind, onwards and upwards as they say. Now looking at the long term game plan (for once), and oh yes, the future is looking very shiny indeedily doodily!!

Coaching - part 2

oh my goodness!!!!

Life has certainly got a little more interesting to say the least! Following on from the last post, I eventually did manage to get hold the the coach, she actually emailed me back from Kathmandu (of course! where else!) and said she wouldn't be in the country until after the 20th Nov. Not as bad as you first may think because in the mean time I was given my first 'task', which was to listen to Paul McKennas hypnosis CD consistently every day and keep a log of the date / time CD was listened to - which I did!!

With me it's all about consistency - in that I never used to be, so making a point to listen to some hypnosis every night for the past three weeks (I'm still going ya know!) is quite an achievement for me!!

So that was then, let's skip forward three weeks to now.

Yesterday I had my first one to one with Life Coach Dawn - let me just repeat my sentiments at the start of the post - oh.......my.......goodness!!!!!!

I was more nervous about finding the place then I was about the actual coaching itself, but thankfully the journey turned out to be a very straight forward.

Have to say, it wasn't too long into the session before I 'knew' that 'this' was 'right' - I wont go too much into detail regarding what we discussed etc, but needless to say after just over an hour of info dumping from both sides, I have come away with my plan of action for this week, as well as a log sheet to tick off when said tasks have been done! At one point I had to look her right in the eye to convince her I was going to follow through with a couple of the items on the list - scarily hilarious experience I can tell you, but at least she could see at least in that moment I was certain of success!!

The key for me really is consistency in following through with basic actions. This week, some of the items on my focus list is: getting up at 6am, taking tablet, having breakfast, walking dogs twice a day, listening to hypnosis track. AS you can see it's not difficult stuff, the point is more about taking consistent positive action so that you carve out good solid habits.

Last night, I did take the dogs on their first evening walk - I don't know who exactly was more shocked, me or them! But at least that was another tick in the box.

This morning I awoke at 5:50am, so that's one more tick, and any second now I shall embark upon breakfast so that'll be the 3rd tick for the day!!

Coaching

It's only been half an hour or so since I last blogged, but already I have taken some positive action (and am starting to feel a little more motivated / happier with myself!).

Went onto the Life Coach Directory again - after all where else would you go to find a coach!? Anyway, after trolling down the list I have selected one coach who looks like they fit the bill nicely. I know, before you start jumping up and down on me about looking around some more, but I got one of those 'feelings' about this one.

I have emailed her to ask for some more info and am anxiously awaiting response. This is either a lesson in responding to emails as soon as you receive them, or a lesson for me to practice patience! most likely it is the latter, I'm just keen!

Am expecting a telephone consultation, possible 'hard sell', and then for me to sign up to a million weeks worth of sessions! (I jest about the latter of course, really it'll be half a million!!).

Seriously though, it would be really good to have some one to one personal motivation / solver of internal turmoils etc.

After looking at fb page & website I see photo's and links to good ole Paul McKenna - another reason why I'm already 3/4's sold on this particular coach. Maybe she'll motivate me to follow through with his stuff! Oh who knows, brain has gone into over drive, as has internal aches & pains, time for some peppermint tea and some meditation (or something) as I'm internally as wound up as something that is wound up very tightly (even metaphors are escaping me this morning! arrrggggghhhhhhhhhhh!!).

And breathe...........

Weigbht Loss Count Down - Day Two

Well, here we are, I have made it to day two! Yesterday was a bit crappy if I am totally honesty, although I think you could see that from yesterdays blog.

It didn't start well, and for various reasons didn't end well either. Bad mood for most of the day, managed to let off steam slightly at a practically all day marketing meeting, and then singing practice in the evening helped to ease things slightly too.

Food wise, haven't been too impressed with myself, I could have done better for a first day at least, however, I have logged all my food and drink intake on the video blog so at least I am actually be honest with myself (for once).

No change in weight this morning, although after yesterday I am not surprised, but at least it didn't go up. Again, I will weigh myself everyday and log the weight. If it goes up or down, I'll log it so I can get more aware of the consequences of my actions.

Woke up this morning with what only can be described as excruciating heartburn (at least that's what I think it was, I've never had it before, either that or it was the on comings of gallstones again, but I'm going to think of it as the former). Consequently this morning I am having some Andrews (an anti acid) to try and calm my insides down, and may have a few green alkalising drinks just to neutralise my body a bit.

Still on the look out for a coach, am starting to think that my heart really isn't in it, or maybe I am just being too picky. Am worried about the cost naturally, as this is an expensive time of year, need to at least email to make first contact with a few, check out prices at least.

Would be good to get a personal trainer again, but again alas, money will have to dictate otherwise. Until I can get my weight sorted and the coaching business off the ground riches are on hold, whilst rags seem to be the current trend in fashion.

Sorry, still not feeling 100% bright and bubbly this morning, but at least I'm not as doom and gloom as I was yesterday - which is what they call progress! So I'll just hang onto that thought :)