MY STORY

This blog started after a period of successful weight loss. From 86kg (size 18) on my 38th birthday to 60.5kg (size 8) on my 39th. Although the journey has seen ups and downs the success always comes after consistently keeping to a healthy calorie limit.

The aim of this blog is to capture and build a data base of the meals that helped me stay within my 1300-a-day limit, a place I come back to regularly for motivation.


What's with the 1300 calories?

1300 calories a day means I can easily have a small treat every night after dinner without the need for any exercise. That's our thing - my husband and I like to have something sweet at the end of the night.


My 1300 calories a day breaks down to:
Breakfast 200
Morning snack 100
Lunch 400
Afternoon snack 100
Dinner 400
Treat 100

This blog started as a data base - to collect the meals that fit into my personally allocated limits. Then I started to build the 'Tools' page and this page about my journey so far.

This is what works for me. It may or may  not work for you. I'm no expert. This is my journey for you to take inspiration from if you chose. It's not "easy" but it's certainly not "hard" - I found that it rarely feels like a "diet" and it is most definitively manageable! Even for someone who has had a lifetime of bad habits and self sabotage! My husband will also vouch for that - he joined in with counting his calories and lost 5 stone!

Good luck in your journey and please leave any comments that will help me or others on this road of weight management and getting body beautiful.

The Story behind the journey (which is ongoing!):
Whenever I read success stories about weight loss I want to see the evidence! So I have gathered some photos from over the years. If I had them on my computer I could go back to my high school days with shots of me as a size 16 - 18 then. There are the odd times when I was a size 20 (not that I ever bought the outfit and sometimes that would be a wake up call to kick start a diet). There have been times when I was a size 14 (around 72kg or 160 pounds) and there was once when I was fitting size 12 (around 65kg or 145 pounds). Those times did not last for long because I was doing diets that could not be maintained. Since the age of 19 years I have tried Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, Paul McKenna, Gillian McKeith, The Fat Flush Plan and other tactics. I lost weight on all of them but never as much as this time and never as easily as this time - they all felt like a punishment and I resented them and wanted to rebel (I have a rebellious nature). So yes, there is a risk of gaining the weight back (hence the plan to keep recording for at least another year). I am confident however that I have gone past the point of failure though. That could have happened around Christmas time last year - after 3 months of calorie counting and being in a size 12 and feeling amazing - but I had my goal to reach, I kept to my limits, allowed just two splurges (xmas and new year's eve) and then got back on track. These photos are a great incentive to keep going too!

So here are some before, during and "after" (or rather "ongoing") photos:

The weight wasn't because I stopped smoking after 17 years of being a smoker (I did that in January 2007 and actually lost weight because I learnt some tools from the same book that helped me stop smoking). It wasn't because of health problems (I have thyroid & adrenal gland issues) because that was being dealt with through medication. It wasn't because I was in love (single for over 10 years) or lonely and bored (kept busy with work and friends and traveled loads). It's because I ate and drank too much without any conceptual idea of what that meant energy wise.

In April 2008 I met a wonderful man, we fell in love, soon settled down and bought a house, soon after that we discovered I was pregnant - I lost over a stone during the early stages of the pregnancy because I ate healthily and stopped drinking alcohol. We had our son in November 2009 and I weighed 78kg. My weight fluctuated around 80kg (175 pounds) until I stopped breast feeding and then rose up to about 86kg (190 pounds). We got married in December 2010.

The pledge to be body beautiful 

Around my 38th birthday I made a pledge to shred the fat. Not a new situation to be honest. I'd tried diets before. I've made pledges before. I wanted to do something that I could be successful in and maintain. Nothing too extreme, nothing too restrictive but something that gave me results. I didn't know yet how I was going to do it, I just knew it was time to at least get beyond the stage of contemplation!



In September 2011 I visited my family in New Zealand and three things happened. I got a tattoo - and I made a pledge to get the body to match the beautiful tattoo (and use it as a daily reminder). I visited my wonderful healthy fit sister who told me that 1 pound of fat is equivalent to 3500 calories, therefore by eating 500 calories less a day (x7 days = 3500) I would therefore lose a pound a week. Lastly, I got an iPAD and was shown how to find useful calorie counting apps by my amazing mum.


So the calorie counting journey began on 1st October 2011.

For the first two weeks I just recorded what I ate since the concept of 500 calories was meaningless to me. The calorie counting app indicated that if I wanted to maintain my weight I should eat 1850 calories a day. That didn't mean anything to me then, now that seems like an indulgent amount and I'm not surprised I was overweight because I'm sure I ate that most days - certainly more in the weekends! As I was staying with my sister, who was midst a gym challenge at the time, I was able to get a good idea of what a healthy living menu might look like. Then I went to visit old work mates - and joined in our usual drinks and snacks. Learning quickly just how fatty and calorific that lifestyle is.

Then I started to make an effort to stick to a manageable amount. Initally that was 1350 a day, as indicated by the app. For the most part of the "diet" phase this ended up being a limit of 1200 calories (net) a day. By net I mean I would eat no more than 1200 calories worth of food if I didn't do any exercise. On the app I considered myself "sedentary". If I did do any sort of exercise then I would eat a bit more that day. So I would often plan a good gym workout on a Friday morning and that night I could join in a nice dinner out with a couple of glasses of wine. Occasionally I would do an extra workout in the week and 'save' those calories for later in the week. That was tough to do and rarely did I enjoy the head-spin of working out when I would use the calories. So in the most part I stuck to 1200 a day and would eat more on the days I did more - and I counted cleaning as exercise!




Between November and March I had made a concerted effort to do more exercise and I got a personal trainer with weekly killer workouts. My body fat analysis when I started the gym sessions in Nov 2011 was 42.9% of 76kg. At the last session on 2nd March 2012 I had 35.4% fat of 66.4kg (a loss of 9kg - 18pounds - of fat)

A new challenge period was approaching with a move back to the UK after a year in Singapore and full time work to start again. I had made the most of my wonderful lifestyle and was determined to maintain progress.



Back in the UK with clear spring days I would go walking for at least half an hour a day while my son dozed in the stroller (and for the odd shopping trip). It felt great to be trying on slim clothes! My weight was still coming down, more slowly than before but still noticable. Easter Sunday was a massive splurge, then the following day it was back on track.

In July 2012 I decided to slowly increase my calorie intake within a range of losing no more than half a pound a week (1300 a day). Now back at work full-time and little time to exercise with basically a desk job, I started to leave the car 10 minutes walk from work so as to build up a few more calories. I joined a local gym and once a week I do an hour long challenging class (giving me about 350 calories to use over the weekend). I've biked the 11 mile journey to work, twice.

With the ultimate goal still in sight (I want to be in the mid range of 'healthy' for my height, which is 59kg and a maximum of 27% body fat) the next three months had my weight fluctuating between 62kg - 60kg. I've seen 59.9kg on the scales twice.





October 2012 - one year of calorie counting. My weight is floating at 60kg. Over FOUR STONE ......gone!

I have been keeping my daily limit to around 1300 calories. I then eat a bit more in the weekends (so looking over the week I average out at 1400 a day but try to have at least three 1300 days a week). This should be more than manageable with doing gym at least once a week and allowing myself the odd night of not really worrying about the calories (perhaps once a month - ladies you know when I mean!).

I still record it all, even on the 'blow out' nights!

May 2013- Winter and Christmas indulgences meant that I relaxed for three weeks and four months later I'm still trying to work off the 4kg gained in that time. It was easy to relax, thinking that I could just do what I know works and have a period of sticking to 1200 - 1300 calories a day but it is so much harder doing a 'diet phase' after a period of maintenance. I was able to do the 1300 a day during the week, as always, but the weekends were too easy to indulge. The head spins and motivation surges have been a challenge. I've been floating between 62kg - 65kg (that's the highest) and so am at least assured that I have managed to not let the Xmas & New Year indulgent period turn into an ever increasing rise. I'm maintaining at about 64kg -that's the same as what I was on 2nd January. I'm still fitting into my wardrobe of size 10s - although the muffin top is obvious. Reality check - less than two years ago I was dreaming of being able to complain about having to do a 'spring diet' to get rid of the muffin top like the ladies in the glossy magazines!! So yeah, I'm finally one of "them" - I look good in clothes, I look pretty hot at the gym (well, to be fair, not until after returning to my routine again ... those first few sessions of 'Body Combat' and 'Step' were a hell of a red faced breathless challenge!). So yeah I'm actually doing ok. The thing is ...

There are less than four months until my 40th. My dream goal is to wear a bikini on my 40th - not just wear one but look good in one!! It's bikini body challenge time!! Right at the start of spring and 108 days to go.

Bikini body challenge before photos and motivation board ( ...the pic on the left my tummy is relaxed, the one on the right has me holding my tummy in - not bad really ... I'm aiming for getting rid of the fatty pockets and building a toned, sleek and fit figure!!)

This is a end-date goal orientated challenge. This is not however the end of the journey. My long-term goal is to maintain around 60kg (at the most 62kg - if the body is toned from extra muscle due to regular exercise then obviously I'm going to weigh more!). I would rather be fit and slim maintaining this body in a state that I'm happy with through mindful healthy eating and exercise every day while I am fit and slim - rather than struggle with up & down diets when I'm not entirely happy with how I look. I don't want to binge away for a couple of weeks then struggle for a couple of months then binge away for a couple of weeks. That Xmas indulgence has taught me a fine lesson. The odd 'feasting' day won't be a problem. The odd feasting week is another story! So here is to 108 days of old style dieting at '1200 a day' (net! - so exercise means some indulgence allowed) in order to relax (a little) and feel the warmth of the sun on my toned body on the holiday booked to celebrate my birthday.

THE BIG 40

The 108 days from the challenge start day and my birthday were a roller coaster! I did really well during the week, then still had the weekends to get through. The 1200 limit was tough. Why I didn't stick to my own mantra of an achievable 1300 a day bewilders me. In hindsight I was also aiming for too low a weight limit with the time I had! Having already lost a lot of weight and my metabolism, hormones and emotions all just wanting me to not diet it was tough. Despite the benefit of dreams with deadlines in order to achieve goals, I had a number of other deadlines and pressures with work, study and full-time parenthood while my hubby was away with work for most of the challenge period. This meant that I didn't have my usual Friday at the gym, nor my Sunday morning gym blast while hubby looked after our son. The plan was to be focused and motivated and back on top of the game. It didn't quite work out like that ... the number on the scale was still reading 65kg - it had gone up & down from 64 to 67kg for those three months. However, the holiday and the birthday itself were great! I actually felt pretty ok.

UPDATE: June 2014

Time is a funny thing. It keeps on ticking. Regardless of successes or hic-ups, time can be a friend or a foe. Eventually what happens every day adds up. This can be for the better or the worse. The battle continues and this time I'm really trying to address the emotional undercurrents behind the little voice and inner itchings that have me standing at the cupboard trying to find that 'something' that will satisfy me. I'm reading various books on the matter and they seem to be helping. It's about eating right, it's about exercising, it's about sleeping better - and stressing less!!

Taking on a full-time job and not having my routine of two 1hour work outs a week and increasing exhaustion with the job, travel and side business commitments my weight crept back up. 70kg. Ouch. My mindlessness and frustration needed some attention and soothing.

UPDATE: Jan 2017

Wow! 3 years since my last blogging and calorie counting routine. Despite attempting to calorie count for weeks at a time, it was no match against the hydrocortisone prescribed by my endocrinologist. I had never wanted to put my weight down to my thyroid condition but during the two occasions I have been on hydrocortisone (steroids) I have gained weight - approximately 1kg a month. So my weight slowly went up to 76kg. Still nowhere near the weight I used to regularly carry but the need to buy bigger clothes was disappointing. In August 2016 I was taken off the steroids and that meant I was no longer gaining weight - but it also meant it was now time to do some work to bring the weight down. The motivation to do that didn't come until I booked tickets to visit my family in March. So the last 2 months has seen me exercising more, counting calories again and keeping a check on stress and sleep levels. As a result I've lost 3kg and I've been motivated to return to the blog and my ongoing journey to contentment and containment with myself.