Thursday, January 3, 2013

I'm Back

Well, firstly I'm guessing you have fallen off your chair with shock that there is a new post in this blog that has been laying dormant since October, and if you have, I don't blame you.

I'll be honest, I haven't blogged because I fell off the wagon, and now that it is the New Year, and one year since this journey began, I thought I had better get back on the horse!

My reasons (excuses) for falling off the wagon? - Really only one. I started a New Job in April, and the weight loss successes slowly came to a halt. I hated the job, it was stressful, and I regretted taking it, and I ate my way through the emotions of self pity. I was always tried and grumpy when I got home (so could not / did not exercise) and was too tired to get up early... Blah Blah Blah, all EXCUSES I know, but they did feel like valid reasons at the time. I really lost myself, that woman I had fought so hard to bring to life was disappearing, and the old one was returning.
2 weeks before the Christmas break I started a new job, which I LOVE and I am starting to find myself again.

The Bad News is that I have put some weight back on, the Good News is its only a third of what I lost.

So here we go again... starting over,new year, new focus, new goals, and the return if the new me.
The facts... I started at 99.9kg this time last year, and got down to 79.2kg. A total loss of 20.7kg.  Weigh in on Wednesday had me at 86.9 a re-gain of 7.7kg.  It could have been a whole lot worse, and it would be if didn't pull myself into line now.

My plan this year is to get back to basics. I'm trying to eat 'Paleo' (aka Caveman Diet, Stone Age Diet, Hunter Gatherer Diet) In essence I am trying to eat like a caveman would have; Fruit, Vegetables, Nuts, Seeds, Meat, Fish, Poultry, eggs, -  trying to steer clear of anything processed.
 I do, however,  live in the real world, and although I will try to go organic where I can, or try to not eat anything that comes in a can, or from a factory,  I am  realistic and know that personally I would not be able to sustain this type of diet when I consider that I have a family to feed, and budgets to stick to.  
So in conjunction with this I will be following the advice of Jon Gabriel www.thegabrielmethod.com, who similarly believes we need to eat like our ancestors, with natural unprocessed foods, but also believes that as long as you are fuelling your body with all the nutrients it needs, it will be 'satisfied' and not have the need to store fat.  Basically when we are missing anything essential from our diets, the body 'thinks' its starving, and stores fat.
I will also be taking the advice of Phil Clayton, former Iron Man Champion and current coach and mentor, who came to speak to us at work as part of our 'Be Well' program. He recommends cutting out as many chemicals as we can in our lives, and choosing organic options and using natural ingredients. The modern diet consists of foods made in labs rather than grown in gardens, and the human race is the unhealthiest it has ever been.  He believes in the 'Phil'osophy, (excuse the pun) of 'Swap it, don't Stop it' like the Australian Govt Campaign, meaning to make small changes in your lifestyle so that you can maintain them long term. Drastic huge life changes will make you feel deprived and be harder to stick to.

 One small change I intend to make is tied into when I am unable to sustain Paleo eating. I am going to eliminate WHITE. If its not naturally white, and it is white, then it has been bleached.  Bleach = Chemical.
So IF...When I do eat Bread, Rice or Pasta, I will be choosing Wholegrain, or Brown.
I will be trying to cut out sugar, but I do expect the odd slip up here and there on this one, and if I do need a sweet fix, I will try to opt for something naturally sweetened.  I have read that artificial sweeteners, although containing no calories, actually make your body crave fatty foods, and besides artificial sweeteners are chemicals.

I am not going to spend any money 'signing up' to healthy eating programs, or pay for diet advice. There is plenty of this available on the web for free.
I personally love the new Special K campaign.  I won't be eating Special K often (as its processed) but the new campaign focuses on what you have to GAIN by eating healthy, rather than what weight you want to LOSE. I love this! In all other aspects of the word Gaining in preferable to Losing, except weightloss. In weightloss, a GAIN is terrible thing. For someone like me who believes in trying to focus on positive, I don't like to be verbalising loss all the time, so to switch it up and focus on what you gain from a healthy diet is so refreshing.

I want to gain Health, Strength, Confidence, Fitness, Pride, and a lot of Participation medals from Fun Runs, Obstacle Courses and Half Marathons. 

So there it is folks, my intentions, my New Year Resolutions.... I also resolve to blog regularly to keep myself accountable.



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