talkhealth Blog

Twelve months seems like a long time, but it bloody flies by!

This time last year, I wrote a blog post with some goals in it.

I wrote, ‘…summer 2014 will be here before we know it, and I want to be able to look back at this blog post and compare progress next year…so I am going to set out a little list of the goals I have in mind for the next twelve months and see how many I can tick off the list. Some of these are goals that I am really close to already…some are a bit of a stretch! As I am a fan of ticking things off lists, this might be a long one…’

And given that it is bang on the twelve month marker, I though it would be ideal to review that list today. I obviously want to see how I many I have ticked off. I also want to see how ambitious I was. And I want to see how I react to those that I haven’t achieved. So here goes…

1. Lose 200lbs
2. Drive Freddie without the steering wheel touching my tummy
3. Be able to comfortably wear my seatbelt
4. Reach my halfway point – 227lbs lost – 16st 3lbs off
5. Be able to take my niece into school on my own and my nephew to nursery
6. Take my horse for a walk around the village, on foot
7. Walk the loop at Inchree Falls near Onich, Scotland
8. Get under the 25st marker point…the lowest I can remember being in years…at least 8 years!
9. Get under the 20st marker point…a toughie…but that’s my aim for the next 12 months
10. Walk the Nevis woods trail
11. Be able to do a 30 minute BodyPump session standing up
12. Walk a mile unaided without stopping for a rest
13. Have a ride on my Mum’s mare
14. Brave a swimming pool – or more to the point, a swimsuit!
15. To be fit enough to join a gym
16. Be able to do the Christmas shopping in shops rather than online
17. To go into Asda on my own and do a big food shop
18. Go to the cinema
19. Take part in Race for Life
20. Have a weekend away…on a plane…scared of flying and not fitting into the seats, so this is a biggie!
21. Be able to buy clothes from Evans / Simply Be…’normal’ plus size places instead of men’s plus size places!

Well, what a list?! As I said, some were closer than others, some were designed to stretch my psychological comfort zones, and some were designed to stretch my fitness levels. I think I gave myself enough to be working on.

Which goals have I achieved then? 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, and 21! Not bad going at all. I have lost 200lbs – almost 300 now! – I can drive Freddie Freelander and now have quite a sizeable gap between the steering wheel and my stomach. I wear my seatbelt with pride…and am very conscious of the safety benefits of doing so. I have reached my halfway point…and am way past this now. I walked the loop at Inchree falls, am under 25st, and walked the woodland trail in Glen Nevis. I can do 30 minutes of BodyPump without resting, and I have walked a mile unaided. I have braved a swimming pool – on many occasions now! – and have joined the gym…and am seriously in love with the gym! And I can buy clothes in most plus-sized shops now…I just need to work on getting the money to do so!

Which goals could I have achieved but haven’t? 5, 6, 16, 17, and 18. I did collect my niece from school on my own…but the school didn’t know who I was and wouldn’t let me take her! I haven’t yet managed the nephew part of this goal, as I just haven’t had the opportunity yet – although I did take him to see Peppa Pig, which was far more traumatic than collecting him from nursery! As for taking my horse for a walk…I could definitely do this, but I value my safety and his and the roads are so bloody busy…but this is another excuse, so I am going to try and do this one very soon. As for Christmas shopping and a big Asda shop, well, I did do some Christmas shopping in the shops so suppose I could tick this off the list – but I do prefer shopping online as I don’t really like shops or people! So this is the reason that Asda hasn’t been done either. I have been into the store, and did some shopping…but people dawdling in the aisles piss me off…so it’s probably safer all-round to avoid these ones! As for the cinema, I could definitely do this – we watch a lot of films online, as it’s cheaper – but maybe I could count going to the theatre for this one…as it was a case of trying to see if I could fit in the seats when I wrote this goal, as I have managed to squeeze my cheeks into cinema-style chairs!

As for the goals that I haven’t achieved, these were 9, 13, 19 and 20. I acknowledged that this would be a toughie at the time, and I am not yet under 20st…I am 22st 9.5lbs, so a fair way to go yet. I was on track for this but the training I do has slowed the weight loss somewhat. Despite this, the training feels amazing, so I am not too fussed at all. Although sitting on my Mum’s horse hinged on me reaching that weight goal, so it is a little bit gutting at the same time. I had set myself the goal of sitting on her on my birthday – but next year I will definitely be in the saddle on my big day! Race for Life…well, I would love to do it – or would I? I hate fecking running. I think that I will only ever run if something horrid was chasing me. I suppose that I could walk it one day. I think my goal now will be to climb Nevis instead…this is more my cup of tea. So I am not so bothered about this one. I always have a fascination as to why ex-fatties want to run marathons…I am not sure that I will ever get the running bug. The same goes for planes really. I fecking hate flying. I reckon that I could fit into a plane seat now, but am in no rush to try. In fact, I am not far from an place that I could go and sit in a plane seat, so I might take a photo out of the plane window and cheat!

Goals. I think they are really important. I don’t like goals that hinge on things like losing weight for a wedding…as once the date has been and gone, the resolve seems to go with it in my experience. So if you have a goal like that, then make sure that it’s included in a list of loads of others…you need other things to spur you on. And once you have ticked those off, then get some more. Motivation needs constantly topping up…a bit like my stomach used to!

Today then. Today has been lovely and relaxed-ish. Mr WLB and I had a nice lazy morning courtesy of our Pilates class being cancelled. So we lazed in bed and chilled out, before I got up to get juicing for him. We then had a bit of a barny over his ‘issue’ with peanut butter. He says that he doesn’t like it…that it makes him feel sick. I gave him some in last nights smoothie – to pack in some good calories – and he said that it was delicious and loved it…no sign of sickness at all. Then he read the blog last night and noticed that I had been putting in peanut butter. So today he didn’t want it. He says it would be like me trying to eat Pringles – urgh, they make me really heave…but only because I once ate a whole tube when I was a kid and made myself sick! Now, my argument is that if I ate Pringles in something and liked them, and had no ill effects, then I would man-up enough to admit that my tastes might have changed. I mean, when I was a kid I used to think that cottage cheese was like baby sick…I hated the stuff. I eat it by the carton now!

So anyway, the argument finished – and I am not easy to argue with…he calls me a ‘spin doctor’! He tipped his smoothie away. I didn’t make him another one. He went hungry-ish. I have so far crammed in about 6 pints of various juices into him, and about 2 pints of avocado, oat, and nut smoothie…with hopefully another banana, honey, oat, and nut one later. I have to say that it has been a challenge to resist. I did lick the peanut butter spoon, but there was a minuscule amount on it – less than a syn…as I do measure it out and know how much I get for my syns! I would love to guzzle one of his smoothies, but a calorie count puts them anywhere between 850 and 1100 calories depending on what I put in them for him. I am safely on plan!

We went to the shops and then headed to see the horses. My uncle, whom I haven’t seen in a number of years – but have kept in touch on Facebook with – came to see me with his lady-friend. I am never sure what to call ‘partners’…girlfriend seems like a school-age thing, partner seems really old…so I will go with lady-friend for now. She was lovely – whatever I should call her! It was great to see him again and catch up. He follows my WLB stuff, so probably knows far more about me than he wishes to!

I am now at home, in my PJs, relaxing and looking forward to another lazy day tomorrow. I am not a heat lover. I am a winter girl at heart. So this weather – as much as everyone else loves it – does my bloody head in. When people tell me to ‘get out and enjoy the sun’ I do wonder of they realise how sweaty a fat girl can get…and my saggy skin sticks to other bits of skin and pisses me off…I can think of a number of things I would rather do than to ‘get out and enjoy the sun’! I might stop being such a grouchy bitch. I might go and buy a paddling pool and put it up in the yard at the stables and lounge around. What’s the betting that the old lady in the village decides to drop by though? She always appears just as I have my leggings around my ankles and am having a wee in the stables…so I guess seeing me in my Sloggis in a paddling pool won’t be quite so bad!

Breakfast: Banana and egg batches (2 x HEB).

Lunch: Chicken and feta salad (3 syns).

Dinner: Spiced mince and roast marrow with cheese (2 x HEA).

Snacks: Bounce Ball (10.5 syns) and fruit.

A lovely food day today! Egg batches for brekkie with a banana. Lunch was a nice chicken salad from the juice bar on a high street reserved for the cool and trendy…we didn’t stay long! Dinner was lovely. I fried off my mince with red onions and added cumin, mixed spice, chilli, and Worcester sauce. I added mushrooms, peppers, and spinach, and roasted some marrow to go with it…and topped it with cheese.

Exercise: Nowt today – I soaked up the sun and spent time with family instead of doing Pilates…although my group was cancelled today, so that gave me the ideal excuse!

Thank you for reading,

Weight Loss Bitch xxx

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WeightLossBitch

On a health and fitness driven journey to lose over 32st / 448lbs / 203kgs – yes, it is a considerable amount – I am committed to losing my excess weight without the aid of weight loss surgery, diet pills, or quick fixes…as there aren’t any! Changing my eating habits and building up my fitness levels, along with addressing the ‘head issues’ will be crucial in order for me to achieve my goal. Living in England as a 31 year old super morbidly obese woman can be challenging to say the least. I have been shouted at in the street and verbally abused far too many times to mention; hence the name ‘Weight Loss Bitch’…the day I am just called a ‘bitch’ instead of a ‘fat bitch’ will be the day that I know I have cracked my weight loss! With many reasons to lose this weight I am documenting my journey for a number of reasons. Firstly, I would like to keep a record of the ups and downs, the highs and lows, and the challenges I face with such an enormous task to tackle. Secondly, I would also like to inspire and encourage other people who are in a similar situation and to show them that significant amounts of weight can be lost naturally…with a bit of motivation, hard work, dedication and will power. Thirdly, all of the blogging, Facebook-ing, Tweet-ing, Pinterest-ing and YouTube-ing keeps me occupied and keeps my fingers out of the fridge!