Why??? Not safe for young eyes - contains sex language.

The why of weight loss is always interesting. What is the real meaning for wanting to lose weight and what motivates us? Why do we break these motivations and go off the tracks? Why is it sometimes the why of weight loss is so clear yet at other times such a blur?

One of the things for me I've been thinking about this week is the way I feel about myself. Mainly, when it comes to sex. Now, my husband loves my body. I cant go a day without him feeling something up. He wants it all the time and he is always telling me how sexy I am but I just don't see it. And i certainly don't feel it! In fact, the main reason I say no to sex is because I don't feel attractive or sexy in myself. And this is something I want to change desperately. I want to wear nice lingerie and look at myself and feel sexy and want to have sex. This is very important to me as I'm quite a sexual person and my weight has definitely affected that! And I feel as a 25yr old woman its my right to want to a have a good sex life with my husband! And that is definitely one of my biggest motivators. 

XOXO

WW W1

Weight watchers, week 1!

Had my first weigh-in on Thursday. 109.5kg. Geez!

With a goal weight of 72kg, thats 37.5kg to lose. Totally doable!!!

My daily points allowance is 39, and then we get an extra 49 points a week to use how we want, for example I could add 7 points onto my daily allowance each day if I wanted, or say I was going to a wedding, then I could use those 49 points on food & alcohol. The idea is to make you not feel guilty if you splurge! Obviously you will lose weight faster if you dont use them but the idea is that you still will lose weight even if you do have them all but its like a safety net so you dont give in! 

I really enjoyed my first meeting. It wasnt too crowded and my leader is really nice, she likes to get everyone involved in the meeting and everyone there is very inspirational. This week is mainly about focusing on tracking and planning. My leader wants us to write everything down for the first week and then she will review it for us, kind of like homework. I know from the last time I went to WW that this is a test. She wants EVERYTHING written down. And for those who have a perfect list with no blowouts and exercised everyday are usually not being honest with themselves. 

So far ive had 1 major slip-up, which I knew would be a battle for me and thats post night shift. I become a food monster! Luckily I was still within my points and I did have to eat into my weekly allowance but thats what its there for! Definitely something I need to work on! 

A new development

Talk about things developing quickly!

I was browsing through facebook and liked the weight watchers page yesterday and about 2 seconds later a girl I work with wrote on my wall asking if I was doing WW and within about 5 minutes and 30 comments later there is now myself and a girl I work with doing WW and 2 girls I used to work with and we have started our own little facebook group about losing weight and supporting each other. Crazy! So my friend Mel and I will be doing WW together (not at the same meetings though) and Jan & Steph are doing their own thing but its exciting!  We all represent a different stage in life aswell. Steph is the youngest at 21yrs old, then me (25yrs old), Mel is 31yrs old and Jan is 40yrs old. Jan is definitely the go to girl- she had lap banding surgery a few years ago and has lost 55kg and is now a triathlon queen! She just wants to lose a few more kg's and tone up her diet abit. Steph wants to lose a few kg's by xmas, Mel wants to lose about 15kg and im the saddest case with 40kg + to lose. 

We are all so motivated to get on with it though and im looking forward to how things turn out!  

XOXO

A new look and a new start

I've been doing some reading lately on the psychology of weight loss and its been a huge eye-opener for me. I have come to realise a few little truths which I know will make a big difference. With these little truths on board I have come to a decision- to join weight watchers again. I did weight watchers about 6 years ago and got to my goal weight very easily and became a lifetime member. Why I left is something ive always regretted and after reading into the psychology of weight loss ive realised that WW is the best program for me. So with this new chapter id like to welcome back any readers out there to follow along with a new looking blog.

Firstly, im going to share some of the things that really struck a chord for me and have had my little brain ticking over the last few days. The book I read is 'weight loss for food lovers', by Dr. George Blair-West. Dr. George is a psychotherapist who helps clients work through their psychological issues with weightloss and the techniques & truths he talks about are so true.

One thing that really stuck with me is what he calls 'Immediacy". Its when our minds block out the thought of the pain we would suffer in say, 40yrs time, from chronic illness such as diabetes or heart disease which is caused by foods we get immediate pleasure from. And pleasure always defeats pain. Its about training your mind to look at the food you eat and ask yourself if this food will lead to a chronic illness in your future and are you prepared to deal with that pain for the immediate pleasure you would get now? I can understand for some people this would be hard to visualise if they have never been exposed to people with chronic, debilitating diseases before and for me I also believe its hard being a nurse as I think im abit desensitised from it as I deal with it everyday in my job. If all nurses actually stopped and paid attention to this fact there would be alot more healthy nurses! After all, there are heaps of overweight nurses out there (me included!) 

Another great topic was to distinguish between 'effort' and 'self-discipline'. Dr. George talks about how we need to focus our efforts on the things that will make all the difference and direct our energies from the things that wont. He talks about how its easier to make an 'effort' to put practices in place that make life easier instead of trying to 'self-discipline' our lives around things that are difficult. To put it more simply, it is easier for me to put a little effort into requesting Thursday mornings off at work to go to a WW meeting then to miss a meeting and feel guilty about it and then try 'self-disciplining' and beating myself up for it later and probably falling off track. Putting in a little effort to have my meals prepared for the next day if I know im going to be busy. Its about putting the effort into preparing our 'outside world' so we our plans for weightloss run more smoothly. 

There are still alot of other topics I want to discuss but will leave it at this for now. This is just to let you know im back and in the right frame of mind this time. And its exciting. Its exciting to finding an understanding as to some of the reasons ive failed before and it makes sense this time. Its still very early days but I look forward to understanding it even further and bringing to this blog more frequent updates about my progress. 

XOXO