I take it you're referring to me as the 'slow and steady one' Lindor. Just to prove your point I would like to report that I dropped the grand total of ZERO POINT ONE kilos this week
But everything you said in that very poignant post is right - ONE foot goes in front of the other - and there are many days when that is all you can ask of yourself.
I'm up for your challenge. Mine is water - I want to drink at least 1.8L on a consistent daily basis.
Kel you are absolutely right - DIETS DO NOT WORK! They never have, and never will. The only people who benefit from diets are those who make money from the weight loss industry. In the 123 weeks I have been losing weight I have never felt the urge to part with money for a shake, a fad or advice.
I am of the unshakeable belief that the only thing that really works, over the long term, is to change the way you think about food - and change the way you eat it.
I eat everything - and I mean EVERYTHING I want. I don't miss out on a single thing, and I often have more food on my plate than other people. But I know now what my body wants, and I know how much it needs.
It's a really simple fact: in order to lose weight you have to burn more food than you eat - and the best way to do that is to count calories.
And if you can't identify the origin of what's about to go in your mouth, chances are it isn't 'food'. Next time you go to shove a MacDonalds in your mouth, try to identify which plant or animal that food came from… if you can't recognise it, the chances are high that it was made in a laboratory or a factory - and that aint food!
But it isn't easy to lose weight. Every single kilo that comes off - then stays off - is a major achievement. There are so many factors that come into play - emotions, social events, expectations, habits, and life changes - and it's why we have to find something that works for us, no matter what is going on in our lives.
You have to be consistent. You have to be disciplined. You have to want it. There are no shortcuts, no magic pills, no secrets - you have to control what you put in your mouth.
Sorry if I have gone off on a bit of a tangent and had a bit of a rant this morning. The weight loss 'industry' sh!ts me to tears. So does the societal expectation of what a woman 'should be'. I hate it that they prey on vulnerable people, and treat us like second-class, undeserving women. I hate it that they tell us we are unhealthy/unattractive/undeserving - and then try and flog us a "quick-fix' solution for "just a few hundred dollars".
I get treated differently now that I fit into "normal" in most people's eyes. And that annoys me a lot.
I decided to lose weight for myself - for my health and for the way I looked. I wanted to be able to do more, feel more and have a lot more stamina. I was embarrassed that I couldn't fit into seats properly, that I was literally taking up too much space. I hated being out of breath, not being able to shop in a 'normal' clothes store; I hated how people formed judgements about me when they watched me eat. But I mostly hated what I was doing to myself, and what I had become.
I was invisible to so many people - just a big, fat nobody who could go through life emotionally safe and unchallenged. I was sad. I was obese.
Even now I can't identify the moment when I knew I had to change things, or what motivated me to lose the weight. I think it was a gradual thing - and I had unsuccessfully tried for a couple of years. I would lose 8-10kg and then put it all back on… and more.
But it occurred to me one day that I had to find a way to live a more healthy life. That I had to do something I would be able to live with forever. Aussie Chicks has been the most important tool I could have picked up. Far more valuable than scales or measuring tapes, because it has given me support, information and a whole bunch of things I couldn't have got anywhere else.
It frustrates me, to be honest, that I can't give back to you girls what you have given me. I SO want to share the success I feel with you, and to find a way to encourage you more, to help you more to lose weight. You are my friends in the truest sense of the word, and I feel like I have let you down somehow.
More than anything in the world I want you to have what I'm having. I don't like this feeling that I have taken more than I have given to Aussie Chicks, and I feel really selfish.
Again I am sorry for the rant, and the very self-indulgent and rambling post. But I've been feeling it for a while and I wanted to say it.
