Me, my life and where I want to be..

This is not a weight loss post. This is a more general where I am at, where I want to be and how I am going to get there post. You know.. one of those.

Where I am at..

So right now I am 23 years old, I live at home, I am overweight, I work full time for a not-for-profit that helps children with a disability by providing therapy services.

I am single. I have great friends. I am going to Sweden at the end of the year for 3 weeks. My parents are divorcing, we are moving house. My younger sister has moved out with her boyfriend, has a house, dog, birds and I swear all the latest gadgets.

My brother is working and generally enjoying being 18 (legal age to drink in Australia) and his gap year while trying to figure out what he wants to do at Uni.

Oh, I only finished uni last year in July.I have a degree in Mass Communications; Public Relations and Film and TV.  I only started working Full time at the beginning of the year.

Where I want to be..

In 3 years time.. I want to be a healthy size. I want to have a boyfriend. I want my own home. I want a new car. I want to have/will be travelling again. I want to have paid off my HECS fees ( uni fees) .

In truth, I want a lot of things.
But then I have never been daunted by the impossible. It's all about setting goals, planning, breaking things down into bite size pieces that actually look achievable. THINKING POSITIVE.

It's part of the reason Mum loves me. Especially with what she is going through right now (divorce) simply because rather than letting her be overwhelmed with everything, I make her break things down and face what she can do right this instant. Everything else has to be put off until she can do something about it.

No point worrying about what you can't change. No point in making yourself stress and be sick and depressed over the things in life you can't do anything about. You'll never get past things by making them bigger than what they are.

How I am going to do it..

Well I have been looking into buying a house a lot lately. How to do it, what I need to do etc and I have decided me and Mum are going to buy an investment property together and rent it out.

I've already saved $10k this year and plan on doing the same next year. If mum puts in the same we'll get a pretty good house and land package. In 3 years if we sell it, we should have something like 3 times what we initially invested. If all goes well of course.

3x$20k .. I could buy a car. I can pay off my HECS fees and I would be able to put a down payment on a house, just for me.

Hows that for a plan?

I'm already working on the losing weight, great figure, boyfriend part. (To be honest though the great figure +house+ car +no debt is more important than the boyfriend part)

Lucky for me I'm a good saver. After all only last year I earned under $20k and now I'm earning twice that. Rather than go woohoo! look at all the things I can buy - well I did, a little. But I already own a car and I like living at home (Mum likes it too so it's ok people with disapproving glances!!) so instead I started thinking about where I wanted to be in life and how I wanted to get there.

Because you see, I don't want to end up fat with loads of health problems. I don't want to rely on my partner or family to help me own my own home. I want to travel and go on holidays. I want to be set up for retirement and not worry about going on the pension or going into an old person's home.

I want to be a great example for my kids. I want to give them great experiences and education in life.

And all that takes money. And money takes planning and saving and working hard.

And if I start now, then maybe, just maybe I might actually make it happen. Even with detours and mistakes on the way.

Heavy I know for a 23 year old. But I've always been told that I am an old soul.

My size

Part of a huge goal for me is to remove all my plus sized clothing and fit into the "normal" section of the clothing stores.

That means anything above a 16 needs to go.

The other day I managed to fit into a size 16 pair of jeans. And not a very stretchy pair of jeans I might add.

Now that I can fit into those pair of jeans I only own two pairs of pants that are size 18. That's it. Done. My wardrobe now consists of size 16's and size 14's.

I would also like to point out that I am from Australia hence the chart below.

The average size of a woman in Oz is a size 14. So basically I am one size away from being "normal".

How weird does that sound????

The difference is I want to be on the small size of a 14. So basically I want to be closer to a 12 than a 16. More hard work but better for me I think!

I have upped my training, so I am doing 3 sessions a week. One of which is GX boxing, or high energy boxing. It's supposed to help work the arms and legs in a fun way and great for losing weight apparently.

I've already tried it a couple of times to see if I like it and it's intense! But it is good fun, and I did better in it than I thought I would ( always a bonus!)

I am hoping to be down to a healthy size 14 by April next year as that's when my cousin is getting married and when I next see all my family. That and it will be the next time I have to be all dolled up and get some professional photos taken.

I want them to look good. I want to be able to poster them all over my Facebook page and not have to worry about the rolls or the double chins etc.

Wish me luck!

Australia	UK	US
6	6	0-2
8	8	2-4
10	10	4-6
12	12	6-8
14	14	8-10
16	16	10-12

It's the simple things in life.

Why do I want to lose weight?

To be healthier
To be smaller
To live longer
To enjoy life more
To be fitter
To be a good role model to friends and family
To be able to run around and play with (future) children
To be able to go running without being out of breathe
To be able to go to the beach without feeling out of place
To wear a pair of bathers and not be self conscious
To not have rolls
To be able to wear a singlet and jeans without feeling like covering up
To be able to go out to dinner and eat dessert  and feel judged
To wear smaller clothes
To wear more fashionable clothes
To go shopping with my friends in the same store
To be able to borrow clothes of my friends
To not have to try on 10 pairs of jeans and walk out because none of them fit
To feel beautiful
To feel happy
To be comfortable in my own skin
To be comfortable with the other sex
To be a better me

The "Cure".

Diet pills, drugs, hormones .. We all hear about these being developed every single day. That scientists are that bit closer to discovering why people are obese and how to cure it. I come across these articles (like the one below) almost every day as I scan the news.

http://www.health.ninemsn.com.au/healthnews/8548709/obesity-could-be-in-the-head

I understand that to many obesity is a disease, and as such it has a cure.

However I am of the mindset that no amount of drugs can "cure" obesity. That is up to the individual.

I also believe that if all the people who are obese sat around waiting for this cure, then nothing is every going to change. Lets face it, if a cure is to be found, it is going to take years of research and testing before being able to used safely by humans.

So why am I talking about this? Because people need to realise that while there is support and options out there for people wanting to lose weight, it is not going to happen by itself. You need to get up and moving NOW not tomorrow, or next week, on Monday, on your birthday, in the new year.. those are just excuses to prolong the inevitable.

AND it is going to be hard, long and painful. Emotional, scary and absolutely 120% worth it. There is no quick fix, no short term cure, no drug that will make it all go away. As the old saying goes, No Pain No Gain.

What is also scary, is that if you do not actually try to understand the reason why you are obese and make changes behaviourally and psychologically not just physically, then you are more than likely to gain the weight back on.

"There is data to suggest that up to 90 percent of people will go on a diet and do exercise and within a year, they have relapsed to their old weight –– our bodies are designed to defend a set weight,"

(that was from the article above)

The reason behind this is because while you have stuck to the equation of a diet (exercise more than what goes in your body) eventually you will stop, you will go back to old habits, old behaviours and the things that made you gain weight initially. Maybe you don't put on as much weight, or maybe you do change your behaviours after you have lost the weight through a diet. But essentially you have to CHANGE for it to become permanent.

As I said, there is no quick fix or easy solution. Each person is different, and every person has different reasons, and once we source those reasons THEN we can begin to the journey to start out all again, and do it RIGHT.

For ourselves, for our friends, for our family, for our future, we need to make a start NOW.

Ball Photos

Myself, My sisters friends, and finally my sisters partner and my sister. You can see I have a lot of catching up to do!

I reached a GOAL!

On the weekend I had the sudden urge to try on a pair of jeans.

To say the least, this is not an urge that comes to me naturally as I dislike the fact that I have to wear size 18 jeans.

So I had the urge and I decided that I should try on some of the jeans. Size 16 only. If they fit, they fit. If they didn't then more motivation to me.

I tried on a few different pairs at a few places. Not all of them fit-but by god they were close!!!!

A few pairs did though. Let me just repeat that.. A FEW pairs of JEANS in size 16 fitted ME!!

As part of my motivation and goals for weight loss I had promised myself no more jeans until I could get into a size 16. AND I have just done that!!

You have no idea how excited I was. I have not been able to fit into size 16 jeans for like 5 years. And now I can.

I am on the bigger side of size 16 but from trying on so many different pairs of jeans I know now that I am not that far away! I mean I could get them pretty much all the way up but couldn't do up the buttons.

That's a far cry from barely being able to get them over my thighs!!

So right now I am doing a little dance, a little jig to celebrate and then I have to start thinking about my next set of goals.

Wednesday Training

So last night I was worked. HARD.

I had to complete a circuit of 4 exercises three times under 5 minutes each.

The exercises were:

Jump in the shape of a square i.e jump 4 times forward, right, back and left. Do this 5 times then reverse the jumps.

With 5kg weights spread your legs wide, then reach down with your opposite hand to touch your foot. You HAVE to keep your back straight and you should bend the knee of you the leg your are touching while your other leg stays straight. Do the same to the other leg. Then straighten up and pretend to punch with your right and left arm. That's one. Do 10.

Mini planks. Put yourself in the plank position. Bring your right arm and left leg up so they are not touching the floor, hold for three seconds. That's one. Do 10 and alternate between your left and right.

Last one. I did this with 8kgs, but you will probably want 5kgs if you are just starting out. Get into a squat position lift the weights up level to your shoulders, squat, then as you come out of your squat push the weights up so that your arms are straight. Bring back down to shoulder height then squat again. Do this 10 times.

Start again.

It's not the exercises that are hard so much as having to do them one after the other and as fast as you can.

I left feeling worked and exhausted and now feeling a little tender today. BUT it was a great work out and really got me back into the right head space.

I thought I would finally add a picture of myself. I haven't done so in a while!