The Carb Monster!

[Poison Ivy]

Wow, this is harder to get going than I thought it would be!

Some of you I may have already spoken to last year, and some of you I may not have. Hello to everyone just the same I'm 24 and hailing from Glasgow. I'm a shiftworker in a casino, so have no body clock left, I am also a total carb and stodge addict! I love food that sticks to your bones!

I'm a repeat Slimming worlder, and have tried and given up more times than I can count. This time I am stamping my foot down! I've said that before, but this time many things are different. I gave up my last attempt at losing weight shortly before christmas due to some unpleasant happenings in my family life, and I wanted to make the most of the festive season and my birthday shortly after new year. I say without shame that I am glad I did this, it was the best Christmas I have ever had I believe, and the food and drink flowed in abundance. However, as it does, January came now upon us. I am heavier than I have ever been, way past the point where I started to take issue with my weight and something needs to be done!

The differences this time are perhaps small, but they are mighty. I appreciate my life a lot more, and the world around me due to the experiences of last year, and I want to enjoy it to the full, which I feel is not possible at the moment. But it could be! It is only myself holding me back, so it has to be myself to change it!!! I was feeling like this for a few weeks already, but then my long-time boyfriend, wonderful man that he is, said something the other day that really hit a chord and struck it home. While I was bemoaning once again my weight he said to me:

"Honey, don't worry, everyone is fat after christmas!"

Now, I know him well enough to know that he loves me as I am, and he did not mean it in the way it sounded to me, but it was the first time he'd ever used the word fat in relation to me, and I had my "moment" if you will, like many people do with a picture. I had never had one before, but I had it then and finally understood the stories I had read from other people. Although we laughed about the comment, it has lodged in my mind like a thorn. I went and had a long bath and really evaluated my body and health and self-esteem, and found them ALL lacking. :cry:

So, here I am again. I knew I would be back, but I didn't realise it would be quite like this. I have a lot of things this year to keep me on track, and I have a lot planned towards the end of the year to aim for. I'm no longer concerned about it coming off quickly, I just want it off! I need to plan and organise and keep everything written down, because I know myself well enough that if I don't I will fail. So I've used this morning to make up a document with my start weight and measurements, start this diary, and I may take some photos if I'm brave enough!!

I hope I haven't rambled on too much, but I'm glad to be back and looking forward to meeting and greeting new people on the forums and here

Here's to Success in 2012!!

Ivy xxx

 

[melissajayne83]

Good luck hun, sounds like you are in the right frame of mind

 

[Poison Ivy]

Thanks MelissaJayne My journey really starts today!

The past few months I've been analysing my diet, my habits, my comforts and (lets call a spade a spade) my weaknesses. I thought it was important to know what these are if I'm going to go to war with them!! siholog:

My main shock has been the amount of tea I consume!!!! EEK! I take Milk and 2...and a half.... so over a day I'm consuming around 10 cups - that's an unbelievable 25 tea spoons af sugar!!! probably more like 30 if the OH is making it!! My excercise to work it off was nil - I'm now taking a pole dance class once a week, but I need to do a lot more than that. My job is very sedentary, so I'm looking at going to practice 3 times a week. I also need to cut down on the tea and sugar!

Another main problem is the way I eat. I typically only eat one or two large meals a day. I can't face food when I first get up, so I need to make something I can take with me to work to eat maybe a couple hours later, and prepare my meals the night before if possible.

I'm hoping the third problem will resolve with the change of diet. I am constantly tired. I work 40 hours a week (4 days at 10 hours) but the pattern is constantly shifting. when I sleep I sleep a minimum of 10 hours, and even at that I still find it incredibly hard to get up. I'm fine at STAYING up...it's just the waking part that is hard. I sleep solidly so I can only conclude that it is my diet and lack of excercise that's causing this. Ideally I'd like to rely on only 8 hours!!! there's so much I could be doing, I don't want to sleep through it

the last issue I have is the way I shop. We work on a very limited budget as it is (around £35 a week for food), and I wasn't making it go as far as I could. I've been lurking around here and saw that many people receive the supermarket newsletters - so I joined the Main 4 and Aldi and Lidl's last night. I'm going to try and make shopping part of my excercise routine by going to all the different stores for the best prices - all of them are within walking distance (1.5 miles) with no bags and all have a bus back to my front door

I also have to add that three weeks ago I decided to give up Alcohol for 6 weeks, just to see the difference it made. I changed nothing else, just gave up the booze......I have lost 8 lbs in three weeks. I swear I am not making that up!! I'm mainly a wine and dark rum drinker as vodka doesn't agree with me, so I think I'll be trying to make spritzers and stick to diet mixers when my 6 weeks is up. that amount of weight is just crazy!

anyway! I have rambled on enough today. I'm off to make my weekly meal plan to take me to sunday, I was reading the soup posts......they all sounds delish!! think I'll try making a different one every 3 days with my new soup pot!! mmmmmm!

Hope everyones week is going well! Look forward to talking to you all a bit more on the boards real soon

xx

 

[Rkmriddell]

Youre making the right changes well done. It's not a race, as long as jt comes off in the end x

 

[melissajayne83]

your post sounds like i could've written it (apart from the tea )

I gave up booze for 4 weeks last year and lost 10lbs, it really opens your eyes to the damage alcohol can do and i've really cut down since then making much better choices and only drinking once every 2 weeks instead of all weekend and sometimes in the week too!!!!

Am also on a strict budget which is soooo frustrating but as i live in the backend of no where i only have asda i can rely on regularly but they do decent deals and reductions most of the time

Good luck x