Second Progress Pics Update

67.2kg this morning. Yay, I knew I could get back here in a reasonable time. I'm feeling good about my eating and exercise lately. The exercise has been status quo, but I've actually started consuming more calories. Looking over my spreadsheet I noticed on some days (even workout days) I would only consume like 1000 kcals. Not fucking enough. So now I'm making sure that my intake is somewhere between 1200 and 1500 and it's going well. Still losing weight, apparently.

Right now I'm wearing some pre-children pants (the black pants from my pre-children clothes post, actually) and they're even becoming a bit looser. I figure I might not be able to wear them when I'm at my goal weight. Hmm, maybe with a belt? We'll see.

With this new lowest weight I've reached another milestone, i.e. 20 pounds lost. Hurrah! That calls for some new progress pics.

When combining the pics I saw that I took the profile one on the wrong side, so I had to mirror it before pasting. Hahaha! I haz the picture dumbz, that's for sure.

And yes now I can see a difference for sure! The love handles are a LOT less, and my stomach is looking so flat. Quite happy with those results. 7 more lbs to go, but I bet the pictures won't look much different than today. It's OK, if I can maintain looking like this, where do I sign up?

Here are the new stats, too. I normally only do stats on Friday, but who fucking cares? I'm excited enough to wanna share. There we go:

Height 165cm (5'5")
Starting weight 76.5kg (168.7lbs)
Starting BMI 28.1
Current weight 67.2kg (148.1lbs)
Current BMI 24.7
Lost weight 9.3kg (20.5lbs) - 74.4%
Goal weight 64kg (141lbs)
Goal BMI 23.5

In running news, I did a new long distance yesterday. This is becoming so much fun, I'm even thinking of doing a half marathon someday. Not soon though, because this summer and fall are going to be hectic enough, I don't need any added stress. But maybe next year.

Pre-Children Clothes

68.5kg this morning. Hurray! The past few days have been good and I guess it shows. I'm going to do a stats update today because we are having a fancy dinner tonight. I AM planning to make good choices and stay on track, plus I'm going for a run during my lunch break, but I predict there will be some bloating going on tomorrow morning and I don't want that to throw off the results. Without further ado, here come the stats:

Height 165cm (5'5")
Starting weight 76.5kg (168.7lbs)
Starting BMI 28.1
Current weight 68.5kg (151lbs)
Current BMI 25.2
Lost weight 8kg (17.7lbs) - 64%
Goal weight 64kg (141lbs)
Goal BMI 23.5

Just 0.5kg away from being classified as "healthy". Woot! And apparently I'm almost 2/3 of the way to my goal weight. This is so exciting.

----------------------------------------------------

In my previous post I said something about posting some outfit pics. And here they are! I took some last night.

Item the first: A wrap dress that I really love because it's comfortable and it hugs my curves in the right places. The colour is a little dull but I usually add some cute accessories to liven up the outfit.

Item the second: OK, this is not technically a pre-children. I actually bought it on sale right before I got knocked up with ZwitsalBaby. BUT it didn't really fit back then anyway, it was too tight. The pricetag is still attached haha! Last week I tried it on and it fit! I was ecstatic because I love polka dots and it's the perfect skirt for summer; it's dressy enough to wear it to work but light enough for the weekends too. Looking at this picture now honestly I think my body looks good! My stomach is pretty flat. The amazing shrinking boobs taken into account, the only flab left in my body are on my arms, butt and legs. I can't wait to see the difference side-by-side once I get to my goal weight.

Item the third: Workout pants! These fit nicely around the stomach but probably a bit tight in the ass area. Definitely wearable though.

Item the fourth and fifth: A black shirt and pants combo. (This is actually the uniform that I wear when playing music in on the of the ensembles I'm a part of.) I totally forgot about those pants until I discovered them in the back of the closet last weekend and I'm relieved because the post-children black dress pants I have are getting seriously big on me.

That was all for now. I still have some favourite pre-children clothes lying around that don't fit quite yet. I hope I'll be able to update this when I get to goal (sooner or later).

Holding on

69.4kg this morning, hellz yes! Holding on to that loss, like I planned.

Nothing much else to report, really. Had a good day yesterday and played some awesome badminton.

Except off course new stats. I added the % of the way I have made it to my goal weight so far. Great motivation.

Height 165cm (5'5")
Starting weight 76.5kg (168.7lbs)
Starting BMI 28.1
Current weight 69.4kg (153lbs)
Current BMI 25.5
Lost weight 7.1kg (15.7lbs) - 56.8%
Goal weight 64kg (141lbs)
Goal BMI 23.5

Fries Hangover

70.5kg today, same as yesterday. I'm very happy with that. Especially since yesterday evening we ate fries. FRIES!!! It was a small portion, without extra salt and with just a little bit of ketchup, but still FRIES. I think it evened out because I was very conscious during the rest of the day, plus I drank plenty of water because I was afraid of the bloating.

I'm feeling a bit tired and I've got a headache today. We took the kids to a playground yesterday so I think it might be from standing and running around in the sun all day. Or I figure fatty foods give me a headache nowadays, so it's like a fries hangover? I hope it gets better because I would like to go for a run during lunch break.

Otherwise I don't have too much to blog about today. Just the stats! Quite happy to see my BMI is now 25.9. It's not that much lower than last week, but I see that magical "overweight" barrier 25 slowly coming closer. I know it's only a number, but I will still be extremely relieved once I'm on the other side.

Height 165cm (5'5")
Starting weight 76.5kg (168.7lbs)
Starting BMI 28.1
Current weight 70.5kg (155.4lbs)
Current BMI 25.9
Lost weight 6kg (13.3lbs)
Goal weight 64kg (141lbs)
Goal BMI 23.5

Progress Pics Update - Finally

Since starting this blog... uhmmm... 9 months ago I finally have some progress pictures to share. At this moment I lost a little over 10lbs so I figure that's a good reason to look at the progress, if any.

Yes you read that right, another loss today. We are at 71.8kg at the moment. *Waits for applause.* This puts me firmly under the pre-pregnancy weight from ZwitsalBaby. 5.8kg to go until I'm at the weight I was before MiniMe and then another 2kg to goal weight. Somewhere in my mind it starts dawning that I might actually be able to do this thing. The scales going down is certainly quite the motivation.

Enough with the blabbering, on with the pics and stats. I blacked out the camera flash from the before pic because it bugged me. At first I thought "Meh... not that much progress." But looking more closely, I think I can see some shrinkage going on. 4.7kg is not an earth shattering large loss either; I have to keep my eyes on the goal. I'm at one third of my lost goal now, so still some way to go.

Height 165cm (5'5")
Starting weight 76.5kg (168.7lbs)
Starting BMI 28.1
Current weight 71.8kg (158.3lbs)
Current BMI 26.4
Lost weight 4.7kg (10.4lbs)
Goal weight 64kg (141lbs)
Goal BMI 23.5

Spirits are back up again!!

First an update on yesterday: I continued feeling like crap for most of the day. I took something for my headache that gave me some relief, but the fatigue and the sore muscles stayed.

I did make sure to eat more calories, unfortunately I was too exhausted to really prepare something healthy in the evening so I just ate some of the kids' cereal. It was yummy though. Then I had to decide whether or not to go to play badminton. I seriously did NOT feel like it. Hell, even mounting two flights of stairs to put on my workout gear had me catching my breath. But I went anyway, because I was sure I would regret it if I didn't. It was harder than usual, but I played my usual 1.5hours and it was fun. I certainly felt a lot better afterwards. Back home I drank 600ml of water and had 20g of "student mix" (a mix of raisins and nuts) for a total of 90kcals. Yeah!

from http://northsoundlife.com/

This morning I woke up quite refreshed. I did my morning pee and did a massive number two, which was SUCH a relief! I had been kinda constipated in the past week, and it seemed like a few days worth of shit finally came out. I think that might have contributed to yesterday's "shitty" feeling as well. I hopped on the scale and KABLAM: 72.9. Another half kilo gone. I shrugged. I can't keep worrying about this fast weight loss anymore. I'm feeling really good today and I'm certainly eating enough calories. It was probably shit weight, literally.

I guess it's time for a stats update then, is it not?

Height 165cm (5'5")
Starting weight 76.5kg (168.6lbs)
Starting BMI 28.1
Current weight 72.9kg (160.7lbs)
Current BMI 26.8
Lost weight 3.6kg (7.94lbs)
Goal weight 64kg (141lbs)
Goal BMI 23.5





So that puts me nicely under the weight I was before I had my son. Woot! Also my BMI has gone down from 28.1 to 26.8. I think that's fucking fabulous. Still overweight, but definitely on the way down. Woo to the hoo.

Where have I been?

Sooo... I'm back again. I have no idea why I stopped posting. All I know is I'm back again, ready to roll.

Life's been good. MiniMe is doing great at school and growing up so fast my head is spinning. ZwitsalBaby's lungs are completely better now. The only real ailment that's still bothering him is eczema, which we are keeping under control with a moisturizing cream. He started walking at the end of January, which he is clearly loving. With the weather improving in our area, they are enjoying playing outside together; they are becoming more independent and frankly, I'm loving it.

On the exercise front I have been able to keep up the momentum. I'm still running my 7km twice a week. In december I finished my first run: 8K! I did it in 51mins, not too shabby if I say so myself. Below is a picture to prove I'm not lying. I'm the second one from the left, my father is the guy next to me. We ran the whole thing together and I had a lot of fun. There is something exciting about runs like these. The anticipation in the group before the starting signal, the wild outfits (this was during the end-of year holidays, so lots of Santa Claus hats, reindeer antlers and such), listening in on other runners' conversations. Definitely something I'll be doing again.

I'm also still playing badminton weekly and going to work by bicycle. In other words: Same old, same old.

On the eating front: Blech. Well, honestly it could have been worse, but it certainly wasn't great either. My main weaknesses, as always, have been potato chips and booze.

Weight wise I was holding on to my weight loss until December. then over the holidays it completely went to shit. I did have a lot of fun though, so I'm actually not feeling too much guilt. Own up to it and move along. Right now I'm at 74.9kg. New stats update and ticker below.

Updated stats:
Height 165cm (5'5")
Starting weight 76.5kg (168.6lbs)
Starting BMI 28.1
Current weight 74.9kg (165.13lbs)
Current BMI 27.5
Lost weight 1.6kg (3.5lbs)
Goal weight 64kg (141lbs)
Goal BMI 23.5




As far as food intake goes, I'm in a complete slump; I'm so over those fracking WW points. I need to shake things up with a fresh approach, so I decided to go with good old fashioned calorie counting. The nice thing about this is there are so many on-line resources out there, making it easy to look up anything, including calories burned from exercise. I'm logging everything right now in a spreadsheet: Weight, calories in, calories out and water intake. I am shooting for an intake of 1200-1500 calories a day. I'm not sure if I will take the exercise calories into account as well, i.e "eating" my exercise calories. At this point I'm not, but let's see how the first weeks go and maybe I will start doing that at some point if I notice my energy levels are problematic.

I'm making a commitment to myself to blog about the calorie counting as often as possible. Because I want to log not only the numbers but also how I'm feeling. From everything I've read online - and that's a LOT - I have realized that all of our bodies respond differently to certain diets. It's important to find out what works FOR YOU, physically and emotionally. So these first few weeks are going to be experimental. I'm going to try to stay on track as well as possible and then make some graphs to see the fluctuations in weight, energy levels, mood etc. I lurves me some graphs.

Back on the wagon we go!

Soooo busy

Crazy busy lately. But even so, I've managed to lose some additional weight! I'm at 73.5kg right now. I love seeing the weight moving down. This has also marked a milestone: I'm officially at my pre-pregnancy weight (of my son's pregnancy). Back in January I bought some pants that are getting seriously loose right now. I should not be wearing them anymore but they're so comfy... I don't feel like buying anything new right now either, since I want to lose some more first.

Let's deal with those first world problems later. For now, I'll just update my stats and move right along.

Oh and on a family related note: ZwitsalBaby is responding well to the antibiotics and his lungs are almost completely better! I didn't think it was possible, but he is crawling around even faster now, getting into loads of trouble already. He is also pulling himself up and started cruising around. I guess I will need to have a good physical condition if I want to be able to keep chasing him around! Now there's some motivation.

So here come the stats!

Height 165cm (5'5")
Starting weight 76.5kg (168.3lbs)
Starting BMI 28.1
Current weight 73.5kg (161.7lbs)
Current BMI 27.0
Lost weight 3kg (6.6lbs)
Goal weight 64kg (141lbs)
Goal BMI 23.5

Stats Update

Soooo happy to finally be updating my stats. No, we didn't get a new scale, sadly, but I visited my parents two days ago and hopped on their scale. And it showed... *drumroll*... a 1kg loss! I am so excited right now. So here are the new stats:

Height 165cm (5'5")
Starting weight 76.5kg (168.6lbs)
Starting BMI 28.1
Current weight 75.5kg (166.4lbs)
Current BMI 27.7
Lost weight 1kg (2.2lbs)
Goal weight 64kg (141lbs)
Goal BMI 23.5

I updated my ticker.

Now, 1kg might not seem like so much in 6 weeks time, but I have to keep in mind that in those 6 weeks, we went on vacation where there was wine, seafood and croissants. We also had a wedding where I enjoyed the buffet and the open bar without thinking, and in general the other weekends were not so good either. So in that respect a 1kg loss, or any loss at all, is wonderful. I have been sticking to healthy eating in the week and all the exercise I've been doing is rewarding me with an overall weight loss anyway.

This shows that if I stick with my diet during the weekends as well, I can really shed the pounds fast enough. But if I do cheat in the weekends, it'll be OK too. That last part is really important to me, because I want to be able to cheat now and then. As long as the number on the scale goes down, it's all good. That being said, I hope I'll be able to stick to healthier eating in the weekend as well, just for my general well being. A cheat day once every two weeks sounds good to me.

Before stats and pics

So here they are, the dreaded before pics! I didn't really think too much about lighting and stuff. I just took them last night with our tablet before I went to bed.

When I first saw them I thought "Oh but you won't be able to see my arms very well because of the way I'm holding the camera." On second thought you can see my right arm in all its glory with bingo wing! So it works out quite well anyway.

Is it strange that I still think I don't look too bad? I mean I'm clearly overweight, but my shape is still nice. Sometimes I believe I have inverse body dismorphia, i.e. I don't grasp the full reality of my overweightness, even when looking in the mirror or at pictures.

Well I guess that's a good thing anyway. I don't want to hate my body ever. It has done some amazing things, and I still need it to get around for a few more years.

Hmmm I'm getting off track here. Oh right, the stats! As I've mentioned in a previous post, our scale is broken right now so I don't have an exact idea of my current weight. The last time I weighed myself was a few weeks ago at my mother's house and the scale said 76.5kg (168.6lbs). I don't think I've lost so much since then so I'll take that as my starting weight.

So here come the stats!
Height 165cm (5'5")
Starting weight 76.5kg (168.6lbs)
Starting BMI 28.1
Current weight 76.5kg (168.6lbs)
Current BMI 28.1
Lost weight 0kg (0lbs)
Goal weight 64kg (141lbs)
Goal BMI 23.5

I'll try to update these once a week. Possibly less, but we'll see how it goes. I don't want to stress out too much over numbers.

 I also got myself a ticker. Cool huh?