My lips are unsealed

I have been biting my lip up till now (you should see the scars I've made!! lol). I've been bursting at the seams to tell you!! I've had questions asked that I couldn't answer!! The day has come that I can announce ....

MY MAGAZINE ARTICLE COMES OUT ..... TOMMOROW!!!!

Yep ... tommorrow!!!! I promised Hayley (from Woman's Day) I wouldn't say anything till she gave me the green light. After it was confirmed last week that it would be in this weeks issue I was apologetically asked to keep it secret for one more week until Sunday morning .. so here I am 7am in the morning on a Sunday morning ... doing my update when the rest of the country is sleeping. (can ya tell I'm excited?? lol)

It's in the Woman's Day (NZ) which goes on sale tomorrow. Woman's Day are sending me an online version of the article so everyone who isn't from New Zealand can read it. They're sending it after it goes offsale (so probably some time next week or the week after)

I want to take this part to sincerely thank Hayley (deputy editor for Womans Day) ... she is the coolest lady!!! I have felt so at ease around her and through our phone calls, emails back and forth and of course the actual interview I've made an awesome friend. I was really nervous about the actual written material ... that I would be portrayed as someone I wasn't. And I'm a bit of a perfectionist, control freak (shhh you didn't hear me say that) when it comes to the finished product of anything. Handing the reigns over to her on this was a big thing for me. But I'm wrapped to say she's done a fantastic job on the story and portrayed EXACTLY the feel I wanted. Honestly this lady is the most talented lady and a fantastic friend too .... THANKYOU HAYLEY!!!

The countdown starts ... 25.5hrs to go (the earliest shop that sells mags here doesn't open till 8.30am)

Just a quick note too ... with my website address being published there will be a bit of traffic on here over the next week or so. And I'm sure all my friend's links (bottom right) will get the flow on traffic. If you don't want yourself linked on here let me know before 5pm tonight (NZ time). If I don't hear from you ... your link will remain. Thanks.

Wahooo I'm so excited!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 69.7kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65-68kg

Eyes say it all

I've had to relogate another lot of clothes to the "too big" box. I still haven't made the break of actually getting rid of these clothes. Before you all start nagging me (lol) I will get rid of them but all in good time. My brain is slowing bending to the fact that I can say I will NEVER need to wear these big clothes again. I've maintained my goal weight for 2mths now! Wow has it been that long? That's got me thinking about putting a "weeks I've been at goal" figure on the side achievements of this site. It really doesn't seem much of an achievement to just stay the same but I have to be proud of that!

I watched Eat Yourself Whole last night. My heart went out to the girl on this weeks show. She like totally put herself out there, worts and all, showing her weight, measurements and cholesterol levels on nationwide tv! There's one thing to have before photos/weights when there is an after one to follow... but to only have 6wks to show a difference there wasn't much she could do in that time. Seeing the food she ate at the start (chips, burgers, lollies) brought back alot of memories of how I used to eat. We forget how we have actually changed. For the most part we are hard on ourselves because we could have done better with the changes we've made. But we have to continually remind ourselves that Rome wasn't built in a day and that one small change for the better is moving us closer to our final goal. So what if we didn't make all those other changes this week!! As long as the benchmark is shifting we will be shrinking.

Then I watched Extreme Makeover on two sisters who were born with a clef palet (sp). One of them had survived 24 operations to try and correct their birth deformity. I had tears in my eyes on their final reveal! They shined!! Not because of their beautiful new enlarged bossoms, or their corrective surgery on their lips, or their new hair extentions, or their georgous new outfits and make up ... but their eyes!!! Their eyes were so proud of themselves!! (and rightly so!) The saying "beauty is from within" is sooo true!! When someone feels so good about themselves it shows through in such a refreshing way! (especially two woman who have been through so much teasing and stares)

Someone said to Bill the other day "Lyn's a really good sort huh?" to which he replied "she's perfect in everyway". He was telling me this that evening and I tried to correct him saying I wasn't perfect. He interupted me to say this ...

"When someone is beautiful on the outside, but their face says 'I know I'm beautiful and you can't have it' it does nothing for their beauty. But when some is as gorgeous as you AND has a friendly face with open eyes that invite you into their conversation ... THAT IS THE ULTIMATE IN BEAUTY!!"

I was blown away by his words! It was the ultimate compliment. I was embarrased and didn't know how to respond but my heart was beaming!!! The hard times we go through as 'fatties' ultimately makes us even more beautiful!!!

Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 69.7kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65-68kg

Fried brains for dinner?

Happy St Patricks Day and top-oh-da-mornin-to-ya!

Sorry it's been so long since I updated. Busy, busy, busy. Sorry no exciting news either.

I had probably a few more bourbens than I should have had on my planned Monday night blowout, but that's what I love about the points system ... we can savem back with no guilt.

Today was my first day off in 10days so I was exhausted!! Slept for like 2hrs in the middle of the day! (what a nana!!! lol) ... think it's all catching up on me.

Every spare moment we've had off we have been organising stuff for the new shop. We're putting in a really cool till system ... actually the same system that all Woolworths supermarkets in Australia use (well that's what they told us) but it's completely mind blowing at the same time. It does so much that there's sooo much to learn about it. We had a 4hr training session on Tuesday and my brain was fried by the end of it. We have another 8-12hrs of training still to do yet!

We've got the tedious task of entering every single barcode (of stock in our shop) into the system at the moment. Considering we'll probably have between 10,000 and 12,000 different products, and each product takes around a minute to enter in (and not even counting the time of bringing home 1 of each product so it can be scanned) ... am I starting to get it in how big this job is?? lol ... but really I'm not complaining because it's all very exciting too!! Once this system is up and running it will make our stock/GP control so much better!! At the moment it's very hit and miss.

Eating? Hmm ... I've been good, counting points. I'm trying to stick to 18pts for the remainder of the week (supposed to be on 24pts to maintain) to work back the extra points used on Monday night. Last night after dinner I ended up having dessert (which wasn't planned for) and went over by 4pts for the day. (finished up on 22pts). At first I felt really bad about it but on re-evaluating what I did... think I did a pretty good job. I ate fruit salad, custard and a ww pudding. Hang ... 2yrs ago an overindulgence would have existed of far unhealthier things than that!! lol ... I've really got to give myself a break sometimes. But really ... things are going good, I'm eating good, and life is finally back to some normality again!! Yay gotta be excited about that!

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 69.7kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65-68kg

P.S. Janine ... thanks for the tip. Yes my area leader also suggested this to me. Apparently she gets similar requests alot from soon-to-be leaders.

P.P.S. Thankyou Karen and Jules for your congrats :) And LOL Jules - Christchurch is a liiiiiittle far for me to travel, maybe. :) Thanks for the compliment all the same.

Quick update

Weighin last night gave me a 700g gain. Wasn't quite expecting that much as my scales at home showed a stay the same result. Ahh well, I had a bigger than expected loss (1.2kg) last week so can't complain. I'm still in the 60's so that's all that matters.

My ww leader anounced to the meeting last night that I was taking over being leader when she leaves. A very emotional proud moment for the both of us!!

Sorry this has to be a short and sweet update, I have the computer guy arriving any minute to install a new program for our new shop till system.

I'll update my stats later.

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 69.7kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65-68kg

2 successful days

My day went really well helping mum with her furniture. We had a few hiccups when we realised at 4.45pm that one truck had delivered their furniture to the wrong address ... 223 instead of 233!!! I walked 5 doors down to see mum and dad's table, 8 chairs and 2 lounge suites sitting under their deck!! I tried to talk mum into the both of us carrying it the 100mtrs to their place but she wasn't too keen on that. We managed to source down a trailer (albeit a very small one) to put the furniture on. So I had our car and trailer down at the neighbours place ready to load it all on with the help of the lady living at number 223. I was nervous about putting it on the trailer incase it got scratched. Lucky as we were about to lift the first piece of furniture the truck turned up again. Their boss had told them to turn back and fix the problem (they were half an hours drive away). I'm glad they did the right thing and came back to fix it, delivering it safely (with no scratches) to mum and dad's correct address.

We left there at 6pm after a good day of hard work (painting mostly). I'm glad I'd taken a packed lunch of salad because mum brought wraps but didn't have any salad to put in them, so we combined our lunches. YUMM!!

On the road home Jordan and Jese were saying they were hungry so I called into McDonald's drive through and got them dinner and you'll be proud of me ... I smelt their food and even handed it all out without putting any of it into my mouth!! 1.5hrs driving home with the smell of McD's in the car when you're tired and hungry ... that's gotta be worth a few bonus points!!! lol

Got home and cooked myself up a healthy low point dinner instead. Talk about a successful day!!!

Yesterday I spent most of it in the shop. I sat down to have my salad for lunch and the staff member I was working with gasped at how much I was eating!! lol (I had a lunchbox full of salad, with smoked salmon and dressing) She said "Are you going to eat all of that?" "yeah? It's my lunch" I said with a chuckle. She couldn't believe that was just my lunch. She said that would be all she would eat all day!! I went on to tell her about my pre ww days when I wouldn't eat hardy anything. No breakfast, no lunch and big dinner. She said yeah that is like her now. I told her I eat far more now than I ever did before ww. But it's about eating the right things ... and lots of them!! The more 0pt things we eat (within reason of course) the more our bodies have to work at burning them up, the faster our metabolism burns.

Until our conversation today I'd actually forgotten how little I used to eat. It's such a psychi of our day .... eat less to lose weight ... IT'S NOT TRUE!!!! I actually try and push the boundaries of how much 0pt food I can eat without gaining. Some nights for dinner I have 3 plates of food!!! But only 3 or 4pts for the whole thing. I'm not saying everyone should do this but for me it works. I fill up 1 dinner plate of 0pt salad with a little dressing, 1 plate of 0pt veges (either corn cob and stirfried zuchinis or something similar) and a small side plate for my meat or ww meal. I don't do this every night but probably 2 or 3 nights a week. I don't believe we should ever go hungry on ww. If you are hungry then I don't think you're making wise enough food choices. There is a difference between being hungry and wanting food tho, but that's a whole nuther journal entry!! lol

I've done a play round with my website here and now there shouldn't be any side-to-side scrolls ... please tell me if it's fixed?? If they are still there I'll have another play. I want to get this right. I know it's no major but I like to have it right.

Thanks for your imput and WOW Chris what a huge achievement!!! 61kgs lost!! I love hearing stories like that, even now that I'm at goal I still buy the ww mags and slimmer mags to see weightloss stories. I never tire of them!!! Now THAT'S inspiration ... 61kgs!!!

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 69.0kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65-68kg

bits and bobs

We had a great day yesterday on our trip to Hamilton. All the papers are signed and we have our finance for the new shop.

We did our grocery shopping too so I have the pantry full of healthy food again. I've bought up large on lean cuisine frozen meals. I find some days after working hard all day in the shop I'm too exhausted to come home and cook a healthy meal. I tried all the ww frozen meals a few weeks ago and although they are really low in points there's only two that I like, the rest are a bit bland. The lean cuisine ones are slightly higher in points (5-6pts each rather than the 4-5pts that the ww ones are) but they are just yummy!!!

My scales showed an all time low weight this morning!! It probably won't stay down there as my weight goes up and down each day but it's a good sign and motivates me to keep ontrack. It's a big debate whether to weigh yourself daily, and most people shun it. But for me it keeps me incheck with what's happening. I think if you do weigh daily then it pays not to get too disappointed if it does go up (especially if there's no reason for it) because our bodies do go up and down, that's normal. Each to their own, I understand both sides of the argument, but for me it works.

I'm off to mum and dad's batch in Pukahina today. They're shifting alot of furniture and stuff over there so I'm going to help mum lay the house out ... yay that will be heaps of fun! Looking forward to it!

I'm going to pack a lunch for myself so I won't be tempted if anything comes out that I shouldn't have.

It's funny how last week everyone was having a hard time and motivation was at a low point for us all. Then this week we've all made a huge recovery in the motivation side. Shows how much we all help eachother out!! This support network is really second-to-none!!

Thanks to those of you that let me know about the width scroller on my site. I'm having a think about it and will play around and see what I can do to fix it over the next week or so.

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 69.0kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65-68kg

Kindness breeds kindness

I've finally got sick of the old tagboard being down one too many times so I've changed over to the other one people seem to be using. Only problem is it plays up with my layout a bit by making everything wider. It seems to look ok on my screen but I have a 21 inch monitor. What does it look like on your screens? Does it mean you have to scroll across from left to right? Let me know if it's not right, I only want an up/down scroll not left/right one.

Thankyou for your awesome tags/emails. Today I'm feeling really positive about stuff. Bill and I made a challenge for ourselves yesterday to 'crack' any stiff and cold customers by being REALLY friendly and chatty. And it worked!! One particular customer who has been short and sharp with stiff bodylanguage the last few days I made it my mission to get her talking!! We got talking about what they were doing and I asked her questions about her life. Her face lit up, the ice cracked and she ended up walking out with a smile. Boy that was such a fantastic feeling!!!! That's our stategy (sounds such a calculating word... lol) to overcome this whole situation by making it our challenge to smother everyone in friendliness. It not only helps people forget the gossip, but helps us stay positive and ontop of everything, rather than getting dragged down.

Things always turn out for the better if you have a good heart about it. Flippin hard thing to do in reality, far easier said than done, but boy the rewards are soooo good when you do!!!

We made the plunge of putting Jese and Jordan into full time daycare Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Mostly it was the cost that stopped us doing that in the past but it's been fantastic allowing Bill and I to work together in the shop on those days. Not only is it good for us, the customers love it too seeing a husband and wife working together. And Jordan and Jese are loving having the other kids to play with at daycare. Infact we had tears this morning from Jordan when he discovered he wasn't going today. They haven't had a lot of interaction with kids their own age since we moved here 7mths ago so that was another big reason. It will also help to develop Jordan's language. He's off to school in July and he still talks in a language only select people can understand. I'm not too worried about it because Malachi was the same and now at 7yrs he's doing great academically.

My eating?? ... mostly good ... by that I mean I've counted points and stayed under, but had a couple of lollies in the shop. Not too worried because I also made wise choices too. Bill and the kids went and got KFC for dinner, asking me if I wanted any. But I'm proud to say I declined and heated myself up a ww dinner instead! So I ended the day having drunk my water, eaten under my points and no alcohol!

We're off to Hamilton today to get all the paperwork signed for our finance on the new shop, so that's exciting. By choosing to focus on the positives rather than the negatives makes our lives so much more rewarding!!

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 69.0kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65-68kg

My sanity place

On with today ... I've put myself back up to 24pts. For the last couple of weeks I had dropped down to 20pts a day to start losing again (fixing up the gain from last week). Feels weird and scarey to be on 24pts again. I've been a good girl all day!!

Thankyou so much to everyone who left tags and sent me emails. This place is my sanity, feels like everything else around is surreal ... like I'm back in high school with bitchy she-said-that-he-said. Meanwhile we keep our mouths shut knowing that defending ourselves will only make things worse. I am a big believer in what goes around comes around. Whether it be through me or through someone else along the line, everyone gets what they give. .. ok, ok I know I said no more on that subject ... k ... onto something else ... lol

Did anyone notice the new icon under my achievements section for lifetime membership? (hope ww doesn't mind me stealing a little pic for my site, lol)

With all the bad news happening around here ... I had something really special happen yesterday that made me smile. When I got asked to be a weight watchers leader back a few weeks ago, I thought about it for 2wks then said to my leader last week, that as much as I wanted to do it, I didn't feel I had the time to commit to it. She was very understanding of my answer. Then last night when she wasn't there (she was sick) a subleader held a meeting to sort out what they were going to do about it. I missed that part because I had weighed and left straight away ... and probably just as well. Because it turns out the members want me to be leader ... awww how sweet is that??? That was one of my concerns that because I was new to the group, I didn't think I had enough experience within the group to take the meeting. But apparently I was wrong. The subleader rang me last night to tell me what they'd all said ... it was a nice finish to the night after such a bad week. I've told her I will think about it again for a few more days and tell her my answer at the end of the week.

But between you and I ... I think I will accept to the offer. It will give me a different outlet to the shop and I can get the chance to mix more with some wonderful ladies in our ww group. My thinking is I'll take it on a 3mth trial basis ... do it for that long then reassess then whether I'm enjoying it or not.

I haven't checked out anyones journals for a few days so might head off to catchup on what you've all been up to.

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 69.0kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65-68kg

Nothing can keep me down!!!!

I know I said I was stopping ... and I was ... but after a good talk to Bill, a read of all your wonderful emails/tags ... I've decided that no one can stop me doing this weightloss thing ... and that includes this website ... because ultimately it's my website that has got me here!!!! ... well you as my readers ... via my website!!

So here I am ... no one can take me down ... I'm here for good!!!! So take that ...

I've had the most awesome night !!!! I lost 1.2kgs at weigh in tonight ... the success of that is unreal ... I put on 1.1kg last week and with the stress I've gone through this week (unlike anything I've gone through the last year or so) I was very tempted on numerous occasions to buy that bottle of bourben ... but I made a consous decision NOT TOO ... I WAS NOT TO LET THIS RUIN MY WEIGHTLOSS JOURNEY .... I'm in this for good!!!!

This loss tonight gave me lifetime membership for weightwatchers ... unfortunately my ww leader wasn't there tonight so wasn't able to celebrate that at my meeting ... but tomorrow I'll put on a ww lifetime membership icon on my achievements section.

It's late so I'll update my stats tomorrow too! Yay 1.2kgs !!!! ... I'm damn happy with that one!!!! It's the lightest I've been in over 10years!!

Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 69kgs
WWGW 71kgs
PGW 65-68kgs

Alot to be thankful for

Karen I know you would never do anything to make me gain weight! lol

Yesterday set out to be a pretty boring day at home with the kids. But I got a call just after lunch to say my mum and aunty were coming over. So that gave a nice touch to the afternoon. We spent an hour or so wandering down the beach and back. Yay bonus points earnt there.

I ate well all day. This journey is a long, long one for me, infact one with no end. It made me realise how imperitive this website is for me. I think without it, it would be easy to wallow in my negative state and let it all get to me too much. But with the wise words you all give quickly puts the big picture in perspective. Back ontrack and rearing to go again.

Went to Lauren's Parent/Teacher interview last night and I am so proud of her! She's doing incredibly well and infact with reading and spelling she's 2yrs ahead of her agegroup. Her teachers first comments were "what an absolute darling of a daughter you have!". Sometimes when you're in the midst of bringing kids up it's hard to see the end in sight. But moments like that make you appreciate the gems they are!

I'm very privileged!!

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 70.2kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65-68kg

Not nice

Yep ... a 1.1kg gain at weighin as expected. Bringing my weight up to 70.2kg.

Sorry don't have anything insperational to talk about. Not a happy girl today. I guess the only good news is I'm still below goal weight.

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 70.2kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65-68kg

*update* I just realised after reading Karen's journal again that I got it off her!!!! The 1.1kgs she lost this week she must have thrown all the way up here and it got stuck on me!! lol

Must go to ww ... don't wanna!!

Well I'm definately in for a gain tonight ... hopefully minimal. Totally deserved tho! I guess we're all allowed bad weeks like this. I've had brief thoughts of not going but I know I need to go to keep myself ontrack. As long as it's below a 1kg gain I'll be happy enough.

Jackie came into the shop on Saturday to say hi. Although I wasn't there, but she gave all her contact details to Bill for me to catch up with her so looking forward to that. She's here for 5 days so hoping to catch up with her in the next day or so. I absolutely love meeting readers/writers of other journals.

I've had 2 weeks to think about my decision of taking on the leadership role for ww. I'm still undecided about it. Most of me wants to say yes I'd love to do it but a small part says that I may be over committing myself. With two shops to run in the next few months, 4 kids to keep an eye on, running a ww meeting might put me over the edge. Hmmm ...just really don't know on this one. Might have another talk to my leader tonight and see what she says.

Well as always I'll let you know later on tonight what the weighin results are.

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 69.1kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65-68kg

L-L-Loser!! Not!

Thanks everyone for all your well wishes! Awesome!!

I'd love to say that with everything going so well that my eating/weight is going well too. But my self control has packed it's bags and gone on holiday this week. I haven't gone crazy but just lost that control edge that's so important for keeping weight off.

I was saying to a friend of mine who was struggling weightlosswise while going through stress that it's really hard to deal with other issues and weightloss at the same time.

The words of encouragement and advice rolled off my tongue so easily. Like yeah, yeah I've been there done that, don't worry you'll be fine. But in reality it's a lot harder to do than say.

I told her that weightloss needs to be my priority and if other things come along that take away the number one focus my weightloss slips. This week has been one of those weeks for me. GST week for a start!! Trying to get it all to balance, finding missing dollars, preparing accounts, graphs and profit and loss reports for the bank to secure finance. The whole waiting game for both the lease and finance. It's all turned out great but sheesh what a week of stress in the meantime!!

It's ok, I know what I need to do. Now that things are starting to settle again (before the next big wave of life hits us) I can start focusing alittle more on weightloss.

I have TOM due next week and this week is always hard in the self control department, without the extra stresses to top it off.

I just want today and tommorrow to get over with so I can get to weighin Monday, record the gain and get onto another week with a new start.

Roll on Monday!
Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 69.1kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65-68kg

Bring on the sun

I couldn't say anything before now because I didn't want my brother finding out via here about the surprise .... but now that he knows ... guess what????

We're going to Fiji!!!!! My parents have shouted our whole family as well as my sister, her husband, my brother and his family and my younger brother fully paid holiday to Fiji!!!! Wahoooo!! So the whole lot of us including mum and dad are all going in August!!! yay I'm so excited!!

They presented this wonderful gift to us at a dinner we had a couple of weeks ago. I was in tears!! It is such a cool gift, especially since we missed out on going in August last year. And going this year means I can lie on the beach in my bikini ... at goal!! Yay!!

I'm so glad I can finally tell you guys, I've bursting for the last few weeks! lol A nice finish to two and a half years of hard work! :)

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 69.1kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65-68kg

yay!!

You're all waiting to hear if I had a loss ... right? ... yay I did!! a 200g loss!!! I was sus as to whether it would come back as a loss earlier today but was plesantly surprised to have the weigher say it was good news!!

Think I might agree with the Leptin theory tonight.

Last night i managed in a 30min run and 100 crunchies. Maybe that helped :)

Not much else to tell!

Catcha
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 69.1kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65-68kg

Leptin ... interesting

Well shoot me down and gag me with a spoon!! My weight is down today, yeah like not just less of a gain after my blowouts on Monday, Tuesday but looking like an actual LOSS this week!

I'm agasp at this ... Monday had a blowout (planned, so ok)
... Tuesday had another blowout (unplanned, bad, bad, bad, didn't track)
... Wednesday ate reasonable good, made good food choices, did huge amounts of exercise, but still didn't count points
... Thursday, Friday, Saturday ... was a perfect angel, tracked points, ate wisely, saved 2-3pts each day and did exercise...

Now today, Sunday morning, the scales are down. Theoretically they should be up because I am actually over points for the week, well I don't actually know because I didn't track on those bad days, but I'm sure I would be over.

My theory on this is the Leptin article that I read about via Kimba's journal yesterday (thankyou Kimba!!). And Lynda has also mentioned it previously too. I kinda knew what it was about and my common sence worked it out to be that way but to actually have it explained properly is fantastic. I really recommend you having a read of it. The article kinda gets very scientific and analytical into the process of burning fat but overall it's some helpful info.

Basically, to summerise ... (and Kimba and Lynda correct me if I'm wrong here) ... if your food intake is too low your Leptin levels drop which effects alot of other things in your body (metabolism, thyroid levels etc) to tell them hard times are ahead and to conserve energy. But if you have what they call a "refeeding" day your Leptin levels will suddenly rise, and positively effecting metabolism. Of course if you kept eating higher and higher all the time, you would have gains but by having 1 or 2 high point days it raises your Leptin levels and tells your body to increase motabolism.

Don't everyone suddenly go eating heaps and not counting points because of this theory ... you'll all get me in trouble!! lol

But basically it solidifies the Wendie Plan theory in my head and shows why when I had a big calorie intake this week then went back to eating my proper points I am actually (at this stage... might all change by tomorrow) showing a loss.

Food for thought huh? What's everyone else's thoughts on this?

Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 69.3kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65-68kg

for the record

Ok I'm over it now ... I'm officially back ontrack again ... finished my whole day yesterday ontrack and saved a couple of points ... yay me!!

Ummmm ... lol ... got nothing else to tell yas about today. Just wanted it to be onrecord that I'm done with my blowout and back doin my trackin thang again :)

Off to find out what everyone else is upto ...

Catch!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 69.3kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65-68kg

I need a clean slate, this one's getting messy!

Yeah I know what I need to do ... sometimes when we're in the midst of it all, it all seems so hard. Like so much effort is needed just to stay slim.

As usual after a good nights sleep everything gets put back into perspective and life goes on.

I made the decision on Wednesday to work off my points that I went over on Tuesday night. Normally this is good for me but this week it just didn't work. I think it started with not quite knowing how many points I went over. Kinda like I need to save but who knows how much?? So yesterday I started out with a healthy breaky, a good walk down the beach, then filled roll for lunch, another 1hr walk down by the Waikato River (we were in Hamilton overnight getting stock) then Bill spontaniously decided to take me out for dinner. I hadn't planned any point saving for that?? I walked up and down the main street twice!! to find the most point friendly restaurant. We settled on one that seemed good. I ordered my dressing on the side of my salad but the stupid people went and poured olive oil over everything. Sure had the dressing on the side but olive oil ... what a waste???? Then I figured I may as well have dessert since I blew the mains! Of course choosing something light ... mango and guava pulp in filo pastry with icecream, but I forgot to ask for no icecream! Grrrrr ... and of course I wasn't in any state of mind to not eat it by that stage!!! I tell ya this week is going down hill!!!

I have decided today to not save points back but to just start with a clean slate!! I'd have to eat nothing all week to save enough points for these blowouts!! LOL I started today off with a good grocery shop!! That always gets me motivated to carry on!!

I had a wonderful smoked salmon salad for lunch ... yum, yum!! (and only 2.5pts!!) And I have lots of wonderful lowpoint options to choose for dinner.

You are all right ... this was just a blimp in the road, but I needed my day to sulk about it all!! lol

Weighin is going to be an absolute shocker on Monday but that's ok ... we're all allowed some of those :)

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 69.3kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65-68kg

why? why? why?

Lynda ... yeah I know I should change the vertual model! I did that back 5kgs ago and I set the scale to "big boned" because I didn't truelly believe I looked as slim as the model looked to me. But you're right I think I do need to adjust it a little now.
Confession time ...
I wasn't going to update today, I really didn't want to face you guys, well not you as readers but the fact that I feel like an utter hypocrit!!
We found out yesterday that the new pizza place opening across the road is going to be selling novelty icecreams, iceblocks, rolled icecreams, slushies and drinks along with their pizzas. Is there anything we sell that they're NOT copying?? Not much!! I was soooo wild when I found out!! It's great having new businesses open up here but for pete's sake ... they're a pizza/chicken/burger bar!!! Not an icecream parlour as well!!! Fine to have drinks, but rolled icecreams?? Anyway I was so angry when I heard and I was at the shop by myself. And I cringe to say it ... but there was a bottle of bourben there ... I know, I know ... I said I would never have bourben at the shop after last time... but it was just left there from the night before when I left it behind by accident after our dinner out.
So I poured myself a strong drink to chill myself out ... ouchy ... please don't slap me (my face is literally cringed up right now as I type for the complete shame I feel) ... here I am supposing to be the inspiration ... the 60's girl ... the potential new ww leader ... the one who has made it ... and I totally blow it!!! One glass turned into many, many. My blow out once a week on Monday nights is planned and I have no guilt about that because it is just once a week ... but two nights in a row??? It's not good!!
I guess the only tiny positive thing I can say is there was half a block of chocolate open at the shop (don't know how it got there, wasn't me) as well as a free sample of a new white chocolate & smarties bar coming out. I considered eating all the chocolate there!! (white chocolate is my favourite) I had one piece of the open block and decided it wasn't actually that nice so went against the idea of eating it all and left it at that one piece ... but it wasn't that long after that it all went downhill with the bourben bottle.
I went waaaaaaay over points ... wouldn't have a clue how many. My 23pt allowance finished before the drinks started!
I feel a tiny bit better for getting all that out ... thankyou for all your tags, it means a huge bunch, but I kinda killed it all today with my bad example ... kids, don't do this at home!!!
Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 69.3kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65-68kg

I'm a disco queen!!

I'm doing the disco dance today!!! Cuz I'm a 60's girl!!!! 69.3kg ... Ohhhh yeahhh baby!!!! lol

900g lighter and doin the disco thang!!! LOL Nailed that one in the butt!! This brings my total lost to 38.1kg wahoooo!! And it also takes my BMI down one more number to 24 ... now I'm not just one the borderline of being fat. Feels fantastic! Now that I'm nearly 2kg under my goal weight I feel like I'm not going to accidently slip over the line again.

And I just realised that I have now lost 6 stone ... yay! I've put two little icon thingys in my achievements section on the left ... a 6 stone gem and a little 60's girl hippie :)

Sorry I didn't update my "wahooo news" last night but Bill ended up taking me out for dinner ... awww yeah ok he is a romantic lol (after all my complaining yesterday) Ok, ok ... I was wrong!! (I don't often admit that lol)

We went to a local restaurant and I had it in my brain that I wanted to order whatever I wanted ... no points counting tonight. I had deep fried cambenbergh for starters .... yummmoo (sokay it was only 3 little pieces) then seafood platter for mains (skipped on the chips and asked for double salad) but I just couldn't get through it and Bill laughed at me because I had taken all the batter off everything and eaten the insides lol ... I just could help myself!!! lol ... And even tho I promised myself dessert, had even chosen out the one I wanted ... the most decatant point filled thing ... when it came to ordering it ... I WAS TOO FULL!! So gave up and went home! lol ... even when I purposely want to have a night off weightloss food I end up eating light anyway lol. Probably just as well, meaning no guilts today :)

Some other exciting news ... After my ww meeting last night my leader asked me if I would become a ww leader ... wow talk about out of the blue!! I have such admiration for my leader, she is such an inspiration!! and filled with so many wise things to say! So to fill those shoes seems a little overwelming and impossible task, but she is retiring soon and wants someone to take over her role. I feel totally honoured at being asked but ... oh my gosh ... I really don't know ... my head is filled with all sorts of questions and doubts. Can I do it? What will I say? Will everyone leave? Can I be responsible and inspiring enough? I have to really think about this one.

There's a few other issues to consider too ... like I want to enter slimmer of the year and I can't if I'm a leader (well I can enter the staff section but that's not really quite the same) and can I fit it into our busy life with the shop? It's not just the meeting but all the prep work. But I don't work fulltime so maybe it will give me an interest/hobby. After all I do live/breathe weightwatchers lol. I have a couple of weeks to think about it ... I really need some feedback (both negative and positive) from you guys on this one ...

Well better go get this house tidy!! After all I have a cleaner coming this afternoon!!! hehehe

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 69.3kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65-68kg

That's not what I ordered

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!

My hubby has bought me the most romantic pressie out!!! ... NOT!!! I was thinking jewellery ... romantic picnic dinner on the beach ... nice new outfit ... nup ... a cleaner!! lol Don't get me wrong it will be a big help having someone come in and clean one day a week but hey ... for valentines day?????? lol

We went out for a lovely dinner with mum and dad and the rest of the family last night, to celebrate them selling the farm. Was a really nice night! My younger brother is shifting down to Christchurch (from Auckland) so was a good chance to catch up with him a last time for probably quite a while.

We went to Cafe Alma in Hamilton where Bill and I had gone a few months back. Last time I really enjoyed their food but was a little dissapointed with my meal last night. I had scoured the menu for the best choice and was happy with my choice of Grilled Snapper on a bed of bean sprouts, noodles and seasonal veges.

But when it arrived, sure it was grilled but it was DROWNED IN BUTTER!! Both the fish, sprouts and veges were dripping so much that there was a puddle a foot deep of butter left on my plate when I'd finished!! It makes me soooo wild when I think I've made a good choice, you know ... sacrificed all the really yummy things you would LOVE to have but know would be too high in points and compromise on something that sounds ok and low point ... only to find out its NOT LOW POINT!!! Grrrrrr!!!

Guess I have to be happy that we had a great night catching up with everyone. One thing I am proud of ... I drank water all night, no alcohol and NO DESSERT!! I actually got talked into having dessert so I chose fruit salad with passionfruit sorbet, but I was really too full. I didn't want to be the only one not ordering. Then the waiter came out to say that the two people who had ordered the apple crumble had to rechoose because they had run out. So we decided to all not have any dessert ... yay good choice!!

We went back to mum and dad's for a coffee instead and I tried a blackberry and apple tea that mum had. I'm not normally a tea drinker but this was really nice!! Might have to add that to my pantry.

I had dreams all night that this morning the scales would take me back up to 75kg with the heavy meal I'd just had. But was relieved this morning to see the scales being nice to me!! Not going to reveal exactly what they said because I don't want to jinx weighin tonight ... lol ... but should hopefully be good news ;)

Lynda .. LOL your comment about not losing any more weight .... hmmm ... I hear you but not sure I can do that just yet! lol ... I still have a few little areas to tweak. The week before I dropped down from maintenance points of 24, down to 20pts because of the magazine story/photos being done, but this week I have gone back up to 23pts. Basically how they work maintenance is that for 6wks you adjust your points up and down by 1pt depending on whether you lose/gain or stay the same. Well the week I'd done 24pts I stayed the same, that was a little close to the line for me. This week I've dropped them down to 23pts instead. So I'll see how tonights weighin goes as to whether I stick to 23pts.

I have decided tho that with my tweaking I'm going to do some muscle work rather than weightloss. I'll keep on maintenance points now and get out the video workouts. The photographer from the magazine really recommended the Windsor Pilates DVD saying her model friends had amazing fast results with it. For now I only have the ww exercise DVD so I'll start on that anyway.

Tonight I'm hoping to get to my next goal ... to be a 60's girl!! I only have 300g to go ... here's hoping!!!

I'll be back tonight with weighin results.

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 70.2kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65-68kg

I love that tapemeasure

The photo shoot was the coolest!! (for those who don't know yet I'm having a magazine article written about my weightloss (sorry can't disclose which magazine it is yet).

I was REALLY NERVOUS!! I don't normally get nervous for much but I sure was for this. I spent the day before getting my hair coloured (funky red with blonde streaks) then yesterday morning getting my nails and makeup.

They arrived (deputy editor and photographer) around 2.30pm and I was SOOOO RELIEVED to see they were everyday, down-to-earth people just like me!!! We got on really well and everything flowed perfectly!! I really can't say too much more than that, other than it went really well and you'll all have to wait and see when it comes out for any details ... heheh .... meanie huh?

Angie and Kimba ... no sorry it's a NZ mag but they're giving me an online version that I can put up on my website when it's published so you can all read it and see the pics. Not sure when that will be yet but I'll keep you posted!

Bizarrely enough I've had 2 different people comment in the last week how they have noticed I have suddenly lost a lot more weight in the last couple of weeks. Yet my actual weightchart hasn't done any big leaps downwards in that time. Yes I have losses constantly lately but not big ones. And then this morning I put on some jeans that I hadn't warn in the last month. They're size 12 jeans that when I bought them 2mths ago were snug ... fitted but with no room for weightgain lol. Well today they are hanging off me. Shoulda seen the shock on my face!

I tried on the Japanese dress that I bought in Sydney in October ... you know the one that the stupid sales lady told me to buy a size 16 in and I almost didn't buy because of the matchstick sizing. Well that's hanging off me too.

So I got suspicious with these details and decided to investigate further by getting the tapemeasure out. I usually do my measurements every 6-8wks and it's only been 5wks since I last did them but hey I wanted to know if indeed I had lost more cms like the evidence suggested. According to the scales I've only lost 2kgs in the last 5wks ...which I'm not complaining about but wouldn't think it would be enough to match the results the wonderful tapemeasure told me!!!

My actual measurements and graphs are here if you want to check them out, but before you do ... here some things I noticed!!

1. For the very first time in this whole journey MY ABDOMEN IS SMALLER THAN MY CHEST!! That means that I am finally a spunky woman ... you know like a "chest exclamation mark", not a "yeah she's got a chest but also a big BUTT!!!" This whole journey my abdomen and hips have been fighting for first place with my chest being well behind in definate third place ... but now my chest is coming up from behind (LOL that didn't sound right!) ... is passing the abdomen and into second place behind my hips. Very happy with my proportions now :)

2. I've lost 12.5cms in the last 5wks!! This blows my mind!!! Normal is around 5 - 8.5cm in 6 WEEKS! It's so weird ... because wieghtwise I haven't suddenly jumped down ... just plodding as always. But ya know what? I reckon it's the cutting out carbs for dinner thing I started a month ago or so. I'm not normally a huge supporter of "low-carb/no carb" diets but for me this has really made a difference. I still eat carbs for breakfast and lunch, just not in my dinner meal (meaning I cut out all pasta/rice and potatoes) Ok to get the hugeness of this sacrifice ... my favourite food in the whole world is pasta!! If I go to a restaurant, I always get pasta ... ask my mum ... I'M A PASTA FREAK!!! lol ... But I decided about a month ago I really wanted to get to goal and kick this final fat in the butt and if I had to sacrifice pasta I was in a headspace willing to do it! Now I know I told you last time that anything I couldn't do for life I wouldn't do for weightloss ... I still agree ... I've cut out pasta as a regular/normal food and put it in the "special once in a while treat" catagory.

3. I have lost a grand total of 150.5cms of my whole body since I started!! That's like over a metre and a half!!! That blew my mind! 36cms of it has come off my abdomen!! I've gone from having an abdomen measuring 127cms to 91cms now. And I lost 5cms of that in the last 5wks! That's my worst part of my body (well WAS my worst part lol) I had the classic apron tummy ... you know the overhang between the belly button and thighs ... like a huge tire that ran around. Even at 9mths pregnant with all 4 kids I still had the spare tire thing. I absolutely hated it!! As a teenager I used to dare myself to cut it off!! lol Of course I was too scared to do that! But for once my spare tire has nearly gone... it's not totally flat (yet) but very nearly there. I now have a nice hourglass figure without any deformity of a spare tire that shouldn't be there.

4. I have lost 5cms of fat off my NECK!! Can you believe that? 5cms worth of fat that used to be layered around my neck!! It's gone from being 36.5cms to 31.5cms.

There's a few of the cool moments I had this morning. I tell ya that tapemeasure is a really neat tool, shows the real picture that the scales don't always show. I dare ya ... go on get the tapemeasure out, you might find something that makes your day!

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 70.2kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65-68kg

Nothing to say

Ok my life has entered boring mode! But I'm not really complaining, I had too much drama last year!! lol

I'm feeling well again. Really don't know what was up with that. My only thought was that I had a drink from a sipper bottle on Monday, that I'd had while I was sick last week, so maybe I got recontaminated ... hmmm ... but then I thought once you had a bug your body built immunity against it ... lol ... who knows?? but hey I'm better now so who cares??

Ok I've decided since I've "been there/done that" with this weightloss thing that I need to start being more inspirational ... like come up with all this wonderful inspirational advice on how to do it!! Trouble is I can't think of anything!! lol

But seriously I have always said this and it's the best thing I can possibly say ... WEIGHT WATCHERS WORKS ... IF you follow it!!! So many people say they did all the diets and nothing worked!! You know the wonderful miracle diets that advertise "NOTHING ELSE WORKED EXCEPT FOR THIS!!" That's a load of crock in my mind. As soon as I read anything like that I immediately think it's a sham, a money maker!!

There is no miracle cure for obesity!! Any "diet" you do for long enough, as long as you properly do it, will make you lose weight. Problem being can you do it forever?? If not, you may lose but you won't keep it off.

I also hear of so many people that go hard out on Weight Watchers ... telling themselves they can't have anything, can't have chocolate, can't have alcohol, have to run 10miles a day. Don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with doing this ... but is it real? Can it be done for life? If not then IT'S A WASTE OF TIME!! That weight will go back on as quick as it came off!! We have to be real about weightloss. We have to be real with ourselves. I'd love to be a superhuman that could say no to anything above 10pts, and have the motivation to go for a 10km run everyday ... but shock horror I'm not superhuman (yeah I know you all thought I was!! lol)

We have to be able to live with ourselves for having our chocolate and our alcohol and our slack days. I'm also not saying that it's ok to eat whatever we want and never exercise... far from it! What I am saying is that everything has to be planned and budgeted for.

Every Monday night (incase you didn't realise it before now) I have a blow out!! But it's a planned blow out. I save my points for the week, I eat lightly on weighin day ... then come Monday night after weightwatchers I have my special treats. During the day I dream about what I'm going to have. I usually have a list a mile long in my head ... Magnums, triple scoop icecreams, KFC, Burger King, Bourben, chips, dip!! The works!!! But when it comes to deciding what I actually want I usually choose something realitivily low point. It's more the thought that I CAN HAVE IT IF I WANT IT ... that is the nice part. My weightwatchers brainwashed brain (just kidding) can't think any differently. I still have something nice but it's pulled back into reality .. like a 70cent kiddy cone icecream, not a triple scoop, and seafood chowmein, not KFC, and a ww icecream, not a magnum, rice crackers, not chips, salsa, not dip.

The point is we have to reward ourselves, give ourselves the important treats! Otherwise we rebell against ourselves, we rebell against what we are doing ... but my most important point in this entry ... IT MUST BE PLANNED!!! Continual unplanned eating will lead to weightgain!!

Wow that was pretty inspirational huh? lol ... considering I didn't think I had anything to say today! lol

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 70.2kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65-68kg

It's back

Thankyou Barb and Deanne for your nice words on my tagboard!

Life is pretty eneventful the last few days. I've managed to come down with the same bug I had last week ... AGAIN!! My horrible throat infection is back! I didn't know you could get sick twice in two weeks with the same bug! Grrrr!! With it being so hard to swallow it's making eating a bit of a mission, guess that's good for the weightloss. But I absolutely hate being sick. I'm such a bad patient! lol

In answer to your question Lynda about whether or not I'll list my website in the article of course it's up to the editor but I would like my website listed. I did this website firstly for myself but equally to help others see that weightloss is a process with lots of ups and downs. So I'd like to help as many people as I possibly can.

I won't however be listing anyone else's website in the article as it's a personal decision for each person, not my decision. Now I have a list of websites I recommend on my "cool links" page. If you have a website listed on there but don't want it to be listed after this article comes out, let me know now, so I can take it off.

Sheesh that was a bit serious huh? lol ... ya never know they might come and take my photos and realise they've made a horrible mistake! hehehe

Anyway I'm off to take some more pills and rest up to get rid of this thing.

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 70.2kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65 - 68kg

Had myself worried!!!

Weigh in tonight brought me down another 400g. Secretly damn relieved with that one. The magazine is coming on Friday to do photos and their interview and I was dead scared I'd put on heaps of weight and put myself above goal again!! lol ... but all that worry was for nothing. Lucky!!!

Yay only 300g to go and I'm a 60's girl!!!!! Whoop Whoop!!! Can't wait for that day to arrive!!

Sorry nothing else exciting to share tonight ... a 400g loss is good enough news for one day ... I'm celebrating!!!

Ohhh BTW ... incase any of you missed it... it did a little play around with my photo pic above and the mouseover pic at the top... got bored and thought it was about time I changed it.

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 70.2kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65 - 68kg

Party animals

Thanks for all your suggestions! I think the triathalon idea is a good one that I can combine different sports to finally decide what I want to specialise in. Although one big issue is TIME ... story of my life ... there is never enough time to fit everything in.

Thursday morning I started to come right regarding my throat infection. Although my belly button piercing was starting to look a bit yucky ... a horrible infection had got in there. Think it was a sign of my body being run down. I went off to the doctor to get some antibiotics and only a day later it was looking much better. I really don't like taking antibiotics and only when I absolutely have to. But the thought of having to take my navel piercing out motivated me enough to get medical intervention. Lucky I did ... it's back to normal now.

Wednesday night Bill suprised me with the news of a two day getaway to Rotorua. Almost said I couldn't go because I was feeling so yuck. But Thursday morning (day of our departure) arrived and I was feeling well enough to go. We got away around lunchtime after giving endless instructions to our friend who was bravely looking after 4 kids for the time we're away.

We stopped off at a roadside cafe just out of Tauranga for lunch. Set in a beautiful garden surrounding with secada tunes filling the air. I ordered a grilled chicken salad with avacado and cajun dressing. Proud to say I asked for the dressing on the side and to be prepared as low fat as possible. Unfortunately they obviously don't know that pouring olive oil over the whole dish is NOT LOW FAT!! I compensated by only using the minute amount of dressing and giving half my avocado and some chicken to Bill. Devine meal but very hard to point.

Then it was off to Rotorua. We arrived around 3pm, booked into our hotel room.... wahoo I was spoilt ... Royal Lakeside Novotel!!! We then did a spot of shopping for a couple of hours. Picked myself up a pair of size 10 (wahoo!!!) pinstrip three quarter pants and suede slippons at half price (gotta love a bargain!!).

Went back to the Hotel to freshen up for dinner. An hour later I was finally ready (ok, ok I had a bad hair day alright? lol) We walked all the restaurant streets looking for the healthiest choice and finally settled on the Fat Dog and I chose the most devine meal I have ever tasted!!! The Venison Medallions ~ Tender venison served with a kumara mash plump green beans and balsamic marinated field mushrooms with a blueberry & red wine jus. YUM YUM YUMMMY!!! And I think a pretty healthy choice too!! Had one glass of white wine and I was quite within points for the day.

We walked past a few bars on the way back to see if anything exciting was happening ... not much. Figuring it was only 8.30pm by this time we stopped off for a game of pool. A couple of games later I was tired and tummy full ... I just wanted to head back to the room to bed!! Party pooper I know! lol ... Bill told me that ... all the way back to the room!! lol He convinced me to go down to the hotel bar for a couple of drinks first. Then somehow (not sure how) he coersed me into going back out on the town. Dragging my feet and yawning the whole way (old fart aren't I? lol) we jumped into a taxi and asked him to take us to the best nightlife in Rotorua. He dropped us off at the Pig and Whistle

We could hear good music coming out so off we went. There were a few people round but nothing major happening. I was sick of walking so told Bill I was planting myself there and NOT MOVING, too bad if it wasn't going off lol. Rotoruanites must be late night owls because come 11pm suddenly it went off!!! People came in and started dancing ... and after quite a few drinks I was finally ready to dance. lol ... okay, takes a while for me to get the courage up ... or should I say takes quite a bit of alcohol. Then we danced for the next hour and a half till they closed at 1am.

A group of us decided to go find somewhere else and there was a mention of the name Lava Bar ... wow that place just rocked!!!! It's been a few years since I felt that young ... and get this!!! I hugged the bouncer and told him I loved him on the way in because he wanted to see my ID!!! How cool is that!! lol ... the first time in like 10yrs that I've been asked for ID. I didn't have any on me so showed him my line of stretch marks on my belly ... this is four kids later and no one that young could have had four kids and this many stretch marks!!! He smiled and told me to go on in ... ya gotta love that!!!

By this stage I had counted up 40pts for the day!! whoops a little over (and yes I was still counting them lol) So figured I needed to do a little more dancing and a little less drinking. So that's what we did till 4am in the morning ... danced the night away and it was a night to remember!!!!

I was actually suprised to wake up without a hangover, mind you think the dancing and water drinking helped with that. 11am we finally checked out of the room and headed off to find the greasiest breakfast Bill could find!! lol (yes he was hungover) We ate another devine meal at Capers And I ordered the Buttermilk Pancakes with 2 Rashers of Bacon, Roasted Bananas and Maple Syrup served with Fresh Seasonal Fruit (maple syrup on the side and I left 1 of the 2 pancakes, deciding I'd had enough ... yay me!!)

Then it was off to get some exercise in ... after all I had 40pts to burn off!! lol ... well no ... had 7.5pts saved up and with the dancing/exercise I worked out it was actually only 4 or 5pts I needed to work off. Still I'm always in for a nice walk.

We started driving as the rain fell down. It got heavier and heavier and we almost changed our minds. 20mins drive south of Rotorua we found the Waimangu Volcanic Valley ... wow what a place!! Fascinating!! I'm glad we still decided to go because as we got there the rain cleared up and the sun even came out!

We went on a 2hr hike through all the volcanic areas ... amazing scenery!! Bill took this pic of me infront of an artificial looking but totally natural blue water pond ...

As we got back to the car the rain came down!! Talk about pefect timing! I well and truelly earnt my 4 or 5pts needed. After grabbing a quick salad roll for lunch we headed back home, more tired than when we left! lol but we had an absolute blast!!!

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 70.6kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65 - 68kg

for life??

Thought is was bout time I did another update. Life is on standstill at the moment ... I'M SICK! I have a horrible throat infection that has had me up all night for the last two nights and not able to do anything but lie on the couch all day. I feel so lazy when I'm like this but my body just can't cope with doing anything else.

I feel a little more energised today so hopefully that's a sign I'm coming out of it.

I had an email from a dear friend of mine that really made me look closely at the reality of keeping this weight off. We can become so flippent with the phrase of "yeah this is for life" ... but the reality of this is such a scarey thing!!

It means that I have to count points FOR LIFE!!! I have to weigh myself FOR LIFE!!! I have to go to ww meetings FOR LIFE!!! I have to update my journal FOR LIFE!!! The alternative is not an alternative.

It's alot easier to stay motivated when you see the numbers dropping ... but seeing the numbers stay the same week in week out ... there's no motivation in that. I know I have to stay positive and motivated but wow this part of the journey is going to be soooo hard!!

I read something in my maintenance book 2 this week that struck a chord ... I have to find another goal to go for now ... another sport, or exercise activity ... hmmm ... not sure what. I would love to get back into bodybuilding again like I did 10yrs ago. But there's no gym facilities here and time is limited. I could take up running. After seeing Kimba achieve so much in her running challenges it's got me thinking. I've never been a runner, my lungs could never get enough air into them to keep me going. But I've heard that's just a time thing, that as you get fitter, it gets easier. The downside to running is the joint injuries, not into that.

Tramping ... that sounds exciting. Although again the tracks round here are limiting. We've done all the tracks possible in the near vacinity.

Tennis?? ... I was always unco when it came to anything involving balls. Maybe it was my weight ... maybe it was the lack of confidence I had. Now would be a good time to take up a sport like that ... but it's just so scarey!!!

Hmmm ... I might have to think a bit longer on this one ... I know I've gotta do something, have to set myself another goal to aim for ... It's just sorting out which one.

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 70.6kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65 - 68kg

No gain ... no shame!

Stayed the same .... yay!!! So ww's points do actually work ... lol. In the comment from Lynda (see "wasup yesterday?" below) under comments ... she mentioned about me staying on the lower points to get below the 70's and I definately want to do that. It would just be the coolest to say I am sixty something ... has a special ring about it dont you think? lol

For the next few weeks I'm going to continue doing the maintenance plan (goes for 6wks) so I can feel like I've done the full cycle of ww, got to goal then to lifetime. Then I will look at going a little lower. I've set myself a goal in my head that I'd like to be at my personal goal (65 - 68kg) by the time my bellybutton peircing is ready to change over to Bill's one ... 3mths ... being the 30th April ... let's see if I can do it!!!

Yeeeehawwww ... I stayed the same!!!!!

BTW - I did an earlier update today for those of you that missed it go to "wasup yesterday?" below.

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 70.6kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65-68kg

That soup might = gain

Weigh in tonight and I guess it's become so inground into my psychi to want a loss that when I stepped on the scales this morning and saw a "stay the same" or slight gain that I was really disappointed. Then after analysing it realised that infact this is the exact result I need this week. Of course this isn't an acurate result nor an official one. The ww scales tonight could show a whole different story.

We went out for dinner with some friends of ours on Saturday night to a smorgasboard. Those places are evil!! lol ... I had my plan ready with 12pts left to use and 3.5pts in the bank. And I thought I did ok pointing everything out but you can never REALLY tell what the points are. Take for example the seafood soup. It looked watery based, rather than creamy based, so I considered it to be a good choice. But on tasting it there was a rather strong flavour of butter in there. I couldn't see any fat floating on the surface so I really didn't know how to count that one. It could be anything from 2pts to 22pts!! who knows?? For the main meal I had all salady things with a small spoonful of potato salad and two roast kumera pieces. Then for dessert I had a plate of fruit salad and the tiniest slice of decadant biscotti/cream/chocolate slice (like only a 1.5cm slice... I measured it alright?? lol) But the fruit salad could have had sugar in it ... who knows?? There's just no way of acurately pointing out a meal like that. So can I fix it? No. Can I change it? No. Can I get over it and move on? YES!! That's what I'm going to do!

So if I do happen to stumble across a gain tonight I'm blaming it on the seafood soup and fruit salad!! lol I've stuck to my points all week and done a whole heap of exercise. TOM could have something to do with tonight's result too. But that's a whole nother thing to confuse things.

Had a guy come into the shop yesterday and the two girls I was working with were giggling after he walked out of the shop. "he was hitting on you" they tried to tell me! Yeah right?? Whatever! "Didn't he say he'd be back for another icecream tomorrow?" They asked. Yeah. But they got the shock of their lives when I told them I used to go to school with him and he was one of the bullies that used to tease me. Another fine moment of sweet revenge ... heheh

Well that's about all the happenings round here. I'll be back later tonight with my weighin results.

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 70.6kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

It's over

The plan was for the three of us to meet at our house at 9am on the dot and to pick up number 4 on the way. We had to be back by 4pm (so Bill could go to the shop) so time was of the essence.

Got a call from friend number 1 to say she had to be late, had some personal things to sort out first. Eventually we had everyone in the car at 10.50am ... a little late but hey we were on our way!!

Got to Tauranga just before lunch so grabbed a bite to eat at Burger King ... yeah, yeah I know, sounds bad but they actually have some pretty low fat stuff there now ... impressive or so I thought!! Had a low fat spicy chicken baquette and side salad with a bottle of water ...

I just checked BK's website and their SO CALLED LOW FAT chicken baquette has 13.8g of FAT!!!! How can that possibly be low fat!!!! I'm horrified!! 8pts!!! Spose it's better than a BK Whopper at 37.6g of fat and 13.5pts!!! But I really hate choosing what I think is a low fat alternative and finding out later it wasn't actually low fat! Lucky I haven't had dinner yet so I can compensate.

Then we set off to get our piercings done. Finally getting up the courage to walk in only to be told the guy who does it wasn't in today!!! Argggghhh!!!

We knew there was another place down the street so off we went only to find out they didn't do them today either!! Ohhh noooo!!

He seemed to think their other branch 5mins drive away did them today so we made him ring through to check and he promised if they didn't we could watch him throw things at himself... that would have been a few laughs.

Sure enough they did so we booked in an appointment and off we went.

I told the girls on the way that I wanted to go first so I wouldn't chicken out and as I walked into the room and saw the big black chair and all the torture tools I got a bad case of nerves and said they could go first!! lol ... common sence quickly set in and I was lying on that horrible chair before my nerves could tell me to run a mile!!

Lucky the lady told me to take a big breath in and out making me concentrate on something else... then all I knew was I was letting out a humungous OOOOUUUUCHHHH!!!!! No petite feminine squeal or scream but a superman butch YEEEOUWCCCHHH!!! LOL And before I knew it ... it was over and everyone was ooohhhing and arrrhhhing like a mother giving birth to a beautiful baby!!!

Next it was my friends turn to get her nose piercing done. She lay in the chair all confident ... but watching that needle struggle it's way through her nostal and seeing her yell in pain and eyes water made me relieved I went first. I definately would have chickened out if I was made to see that!!!

We grabbed a few things at the supermarket ... all my salady things for the week, bought a Wendy's lowfat chocolo icecream then made our way home... reliving and talking about each of our experiences all the way home!!

We had a great time and I'm home now whimpering over my wound! lol but very proud all at the same time!! Jese's comment on sighting my new attirement was "eeeewwww" LOL!

Here's the evidence ... I DID IT!!! My medal for 2yrs of hard work!

Karen... I have to leave this one in for 3 - 5mths till it properly heals then I can change it over to the one Bill gave me ... just enough time to get to personal goal I think ... whadya reckon??

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 70.6kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

The pain we put ourselves through

D Day is here!! I haven't thought about the pain I'm about to put myself through .... TILL NOW!!!! What the heck have I got myself into??? lol

Today I get my belly button pierced ... excited & nervous all in one. I'm dragging 3 friends along with me to make sure I actually go ahead with it ... sure I will ... but ouuuuuch!!! lol

I've done 3 days in a row on 24pts but also upped my exercise ... ya know, just in case my body wants to store the extra points as fat ... do I sound like I don't trust ww?? lol ... ohhh I do ... but, ok I'm still having a few doubts about eating so many points. I gotta get over myself and just trust them. I've done it tho ... eaten all my points.

My friend and I left our kids with the hubbies and took off for a hike over the hill to the next bay yesterday. Beautiful walk!! 40mins each way and worth every step of it... our little hearts got a good workout too!! Although I did notice how it was easier than last time I did the same walk (at 15kgs heavier). Spent an hour at the beach over there with a picnic lunch and then came back, met the guys and kids at the beach and went for a swim. Then home for dinner ... I reckon 5 or 6pts earnt ... success!!

BBQ dinner and no alcohol ... more success. Bill came in late last night(after the two hubbies had been out night fishing) with crackers and camenbergh (sp) .... yummmy ... ohh I so wanted some, but I'd already had dinner and dessert ... I shocked everyone and threw one in my mouth anyway. They all looked at me stunned because I was saying it was such a naughty food, that there was no way I was having any. I quickly ran away to find out the points I had just consumed in about 2 seconds flat. They guessed it at 2-2.5pts (FOR ONE CRACKER AND CHEESE?? comon ...) But wrong!! (lucky for me) 1pt ... half a point for the cracker and half a point for the slice of cheese. Anyway I'm rambling here ... point is I had a good night, ate all my points and didn't go over.

So wish me luck for today ... I'm charging my PXT phone now to take lots of photos ... hopefully they won't be too blurry.

I'm outa here!! Byyyyyeeeee!
Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 70.6kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

THANKYOU!!!

What an emotional two days!!! I've been floating round like a zombie with it finally actually sinking in that "OH MY GOSH, I DON'T HAVE TO LOSE ANY MORE WEIGHT!!" I've been doing this for so long that to actually realise that I have made it still is alittle unbelieveable.

I think I may have mentioned this before ... I am not an emotional person, well emotional yes but I don't cry easily. But it took me quite a few HOURS to read through all your mindblowing comments, because I kept having to stop for the tears rolling down my face. I got very emotional from your honesty. I was so shocked at (not the number of people, because my counter told me I got that many hits a day) but by the amount of people from all over the world that read what I have to say EVERYDAY!! I kinda just thought that most of my readers were passing through. But it makes it all the more special to know you are all there supporting me. I think it's the cups of coffee that does it for me ... lol ... I'm a "cup of coffee" website, like I'm part of your daily routines ... now that's cool!!! lol

I'm going to save a copy of your entries as a backup (incase some aliens come and steal my website away) I had this huge grin on my face the whole way down the page reading what each one of you said... truelly blew my mind!!

I'll leave the guestbook there for anyone else who wants to sign it.

Another moment of specialness ... at my ww meeting ... the moment of stepping on those scales. I knew I was in for a loss but I really didn't know of what size. And didn't want to get my hopes up that it was more than the 600g needed to reach goal. People were asking me as I stood in line "ya think you'll make it tonight?" I really didn't know. My weigher was so cute ... she was so nervous for me lol... then when I saw those magical numbers appear "70.6" I squeeled "I DID IT!!!" and the whole room burst into shouts of glee and clapping. My weigher jumped up and gave me a huge hug, the leader ran over, hugged me and presented me with a shiny red bag ... a bottle of wine! How exciting is that???

I had invited a friend over for drinks after weighin. I told her be at my house with alcohol!! lol I'll either be celebrating or commisorating ... either way it'll be fun! So when I drove in the driveway she came running out to hear the news ... when she saw my shiny red bag she knew!! "you did it!!!" "yes I made it!!!" and hugs and squeals started again lol.

I ran upstairs, put everything down and apologised to her that I had something I needed to do ... to go down to the computer and update my website NOW!! She knew how important it was to me to share my news with you guys. It was honestly the very first thing I wanted to do when I walked in the door.

By then Bill arrived home from work with dinner ... a hawaiin burger and two pineapple fritters! My absolute favourite yet no-no foods. And I enjoyed every tiny little mouthful as I nibbled away like a little mouse trying to make the moment last as long as I could... devine!! But yet the saying is still true ... as delicous as it was ... being at goal felt even BETTER!!!

It was only one kilo from last week but I suddenly feel so much slimmer now. I don't see any tweaking needed anymore. I'm currently sitting in my bikini at 8.10am because I feel confident to do so. I don't think I was there last week. I had my head down, butt up and all I thought about all day was tracking, water, exercise, get to goal, get to goal!!! It's like now I can suddenly put my head up and enjoy the moment! It's ok I won't be silly with it ... that wonderful pineapple fritter was just a treat, it won't become my daily bread lol.

So the three of us sat on the deck and chatted the night away (ohh and had a couple of drinks too) Around midnight I decided to declare to the world that "I MADE GOAL, I'M AT GOAL, AND I'M A DAMN SEXY CREATURE!!" By shouting it at the top of my lungs, you know with the whole arms flung in the air thing. LOL ... Everyone was cracking up laughing (the things we do with a little alcohol)

I enjoyed my night of success, I smiled from ear to ear all night!!

I'm off on Friday to get my belly button pierced! We're making a girly day of it. I'm taking two friends with me who both want to get piercings done (one her nose, the other her tongue) ... it'll be so much fun!!! I'll have some pics to show on Friday!!

Then yesterday it was back into it! I got out my maintenance book 1. Then a sentence punched me in the face and scared the heck outa me!! "you will now be on 24pts per day" There is no way I could eat 24pts and stay the same weight! Although my leader says she eats 25-28pts per day and she's as slim as they come. It honestly still scares me ... I've been on 20pts for nearly the last 2yrs. My head agrees with it and I will use the 24pts because everything else ww has said for me has worked so why doubt it now? I'll take it bit by bit and see how it goes. If I have a little gain this next week I'll know to drop it down a little.

So my first day yesterday on maintenance I finished on 23pts ... pretty happy with that. And I earnt a few bonus points ... Bill and I got a babysitter in and went out for a guided sunset, moonrise 2hr kayaking trip up the mangrove waterways ... was quite funny I wanted to row real quick (of course to earn more bonus points) and Bill kept telling me to stop rowing and enjoy the moment of tranquility ... no but there's bonus points to be earnt here ... have to get my heartrate up!! lol ... in the end he banned me from touching my paddle "ah NO, DON'T TOUCH, NO! DON'T YOU DARE, leave it! uh! NO" filled the silent air as I tried to sneak in a few paddles. In the end I gave up and did situps in the kayak!! lol I tell ya I'm pumped!!! I'm so motivated again. Even tho I'm only supposed to be maintaining right now I think it's the change of program that has spurred me on again ... and of course reading all your wonderful words ;)

Something Argy said (infact I had many lightbulb moments reading all your feedback) about there being a difference in my face and eyes between the two photos ... and you're exactly right!!! I hated cameras in my fat days ... infact I refused to have a photo taken of me unless I really felt it really necesary. Hence I don't have many before photos. And when I did relent to have a picture taken I ALWAYS had my mouth closed, smiling but mouth closed. Don't really know why, think it's a pretection thing, an insecurity thing, like I didn't want anyone to say anything about me, I had walls up before the photo was even taken. I have no walls up now ... I'm me and I LOVE ME!! Eyes sparkling and mouth wide open! lol

So I'm now onto the next chapter of this tale ... another page turned but it's far from over ... I still have a lot of work ahead of me!! Maintaining is a big scarey thing for me. I've done it before and failed. I lost 40kgs over 10yrs ago and only kept it off for 6mths to a year ... this time I'm prepared ... this time I'm planned and motivated ... this time I have you guys to kick me up the butt if I don't ... deal??

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 70.6kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

No words can describe!!

Tonight on the twenty fourth of January, 2005

I MADE GOAL!!!!!

Here is my surprise ... my size 10 gown bought by Bill on my birthday and photographed professionally by Janice van Huenen (thankyou Janice)

I have daydreamed of this day and of what I could say but to tell you the truth at this moment in time I am lost for words. Instead I'll show you these pics and enjoy the bottle of wine my wonderful weight watchers leader bought me tonight.

749 days ago I looked like this!!

WOW WHAT A JOURNEY IT HAS BEEN!!

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 70.6kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

Big IF's

One more day to go before weighin. I really don't know what to think about the pending result. My home scales say a small loss, but they are those stupid scales that only go in 1kg incriments and if you lean to one side you can make yourself lose another kg!! lol

I honestly can say I have tried my very hardest this week! I have walked to and from work 3 days, have limited my lolly eating and counted them in my points, drunk all my water, kept within points and saved up 16pts to help pay for my blowout last Monday ... oh yeah that's right ... last Monday. See that's why I really don't know how ít's all going to go. All those kilojoules from last monday might suddenly decide to jump on my hips tonight in my sleep! You just never can tell.

Can you tell I'm a little aprehensive about this weighin?? I'm not stressing don't worry bout that, but I just so want to get there. Like Lynda said it's only a few pathetic hundred grams and it's only numbers but there's nothing like the satisfaction of ticking it off and saying Yeah I did it ... not yeah I nearly did it, almost made it, not quite. Besides I want to show you guys my surprise and I can't until I get to goal. See? you'd all forgotten about it huh?

And remember ... if I do make goal ... a BIG IF!!! ... I'll have a special guestbook I want you all to sign ... silent and "loud" readers alike(heheh I didn't know what else to call you non-silent readers) .... k??? is that a deal?? please?? I know there's 200 of you different people out there that read this joural everyday and I would absolutley love it if you call all sign my special "got-to-goal-guestbook" ... but only IF I get there ... tomorrow ... hopefully ... damn I better, I worked damn hard this week to get there ...

Ok I'll sign off here before this entry becomes a novel.

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 71.6kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

Masterpiece in the making

I've started reading a journal of a girl that has lost over 66kg ... an amazing achievement. Infact I've been reading her journal for awhile but yesterday I went back to her first 6mths worth of entries. In reading them it brought back a whole lot of memories for me. Memories of feeling discusted with myself, of self worthlessness, of shame, of feeling like the big picture of all this weight I had to lose was just too much to comtemplate. And here I am only a few hundred grams from goal. Some days it still feels like it's too hard. Yet I see how much I have changed. Not just my body but my whole outlook on life.

Back when I was 107.4kg I used to ...

Look around the room to see if I was the biggest person in the room (and usually I was)

Feel jealous of anyone that was slimmer than me

Hide in my house and not go out for weeks on end for fear of being humiliated

Wear black everyday in the hope to hide some amount of fat

Put my arms around my waist when someone looked me up and down presuming they thought I was fat!

I've have now morphed into a person that ...

Proudly walks in a room with nothing to hide

Feels confident around anyone, regardless of what size they are

Goes out everyday and wakes up excited about what I'm going to wear today

Wears all colours and loves to mix and match my wardrobe to see what new combination I can come up with

Has started to realise than when someone looks me up and down, it's not because of my fat but because I am now a beautiful creature!!

That last statement may seem very "full of myself" but from where I have come from, from the low self esteem I once had, it is a testiment that no matter how low you feel, how little you think of yourself, no matter how much weight you have to lose ... there is a posibility (and a very feasible one) that it can all change around to something very sweet ... with time and persistance!

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 71.6kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

They missed out on hungi

I'm feeling much more positive today. I'm ready to kick butt again. I don't know how many times I have to go through this up/down cycle! lol! It's the same everytime ... I have a gain, bury my head in the sand, decide that's it ... it's too hard ... then tell myself to stop being so stupid and get back to it, then bounce back again.

Monday night after weighin I had a friend staying with us. I was angry about my weighin result, so I bought a bottle of Bicardi and took it home for everyone to share. Part of it was "I'm so pissed off, I don't care about points, I'm going to have some fun" and the other part was saying "hey I've done well, I'll just have a couple of drinks to celebrate"

Well a couple of drinks ended up meaning between the two of us, my friend and I (Bill was drinking beer) We finished the bottle!!! The next day I was so disappointed in myself. I guestimated it at around 20pts for the alcohol alone (thank goodness I had it with diet coke) ... I gave up counting all my points for that day.

Then I went into the whole cycle of thinking I'm only going to be able to have 16pts each day to make up for it, now I've blown it again for next weighin. After an hour or so I gave myself a good telling off and realised today is another day. Yesterday can't be changed so I'm just going to get right back to it and forget about my points for yesterday.

And that's what I've done. My weight was up both Monday and Tuesday but today it's dropped back down again. I've drunken bucketloads of water for the past two days with the dehydration from all that alcohol and diet coke.

I tell ya ... I've been good ... no you don't totally understand ... I've been reeeeally good!! Like get this ... everyone has fruit salad and icecream for lunch and I make a salad & tuna for myself. Then everyone gets a hungi for dinner (I know hungi's aren't too bad but I'm trying to cut out starchy carbs (pototoes and kumeras) out of my dinner meal. But I went home and made myself another salad/smoked salmon/zuchinis & garlic/sweet corn. Funny thing was they stood in queue for over an hour, got to 3 people infront of them and they'd run out of hungi!!! LOL!!! So they came home hungry! HAHAHAH!! I know I'm mean! LOL Fish and chips was eaten instead while I enjoyed my huge healthy feast of only 3pts!!

I even walked to work and back (after being offered rides both ways!) I reckon if someone offers to take you somewhere yet you turn them down and STILL walk that you should be able to earn double the points!!! Or if you turn down food and eat something healthy that it should be worth half the points ... whatya reckon? Might approach Weight watchers on that one!! hehehe

So I am giving this 100% and getting this 600g off my butt finally ... for good!!

The retail therapy did wonders!!! I bought quite a few tops and shorts and they were ALL size 12! (I'm mostly a 12 but sometimes a 10, sometimes a 14) But it was 12 all the way that day ... yeah baby!!!

When I get a chance I'll get Bill to take some pics.

Well we're off to my mum and dad's today. It's a sad and exciting day all in one. We're going to the auction of their farm. The one I grew up on, spent my life climbing trees, making huts, crawling through the maze paddocks, creating mazes in the haybarn. So it's very sad in that fact but a relief to finally see mum and dad retire and stop working. They're both in their 60's and still milking cows night and morning. They're both showing the stress of still working. We've been trying to talk them into selling for years and finally they've agreed to it. So all the buildup of open homes and bidders registering and talking prices ... has finally led up to today ... the big auction.

Hopefully they get the price they want ... no I want them to get much more than the price they want!!

I'll letcha know how it goes!
Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 71.6kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg