Goodnight and Good Gardening

well ... this is a monumental post and ... it will be my last.

Today, 4 years ago I walked into my first WeightWatchers meeting. 8 January 2004. I had never felt so embarrassed, ashamed and humiliated in my entire life and those emotions dredged up a desire that I'd never felt or faced before. I had got to a point in my life where I was sick of being fat, feeling ugly and undesireable. All the while I displayed an outward showing of confidence and composure, but inside I was burning with a self loathing that only others that share my obesity dilema would understand.

Four years ago I embarked on a journey of self discovery. I learnt so much about myself. I learnt how to love myself again, I learnt how to respect myself and I learnt how worthwhile I was to my family, friends and society in general.

I still remember my first WeightWatchers weigh in so bloody clearly, it makes me tear just thinking about it. I remember being told to get off the electronic scales and use the hospital scales and the horrifying figure of 174kgs being written on my "passport". I remember sitting at my first WW meeting not really listening to my leader, just thinking ... holy fucking cow - how the hell did I let myself get like this? I remember coming home and bawling my eyes out to Craig telling him I'd joined WW! He'd had no idea I was even contemplating "another" weightloss effort. I also remember that fleeting look of "oh god here we go again" flash in his eyes.

All that didnt matter because I'd made the decision to commit to me on that day, and although I really didnt consider what the final outcome was going to be four years down the track, I was determined I was going to give it the very best shot I could - it was either that or I would die a horrible early death and I didnt deserve that - neither did my family and friends.

If someone told me four years ago that I would lose 80kgs, 25% of my body fat, 100's of centimetres, undergo extensive cosmetic surgery and accomplish the most amazing fitness goals of becoming a gym bunny, competing in triathlons and tramping national parks I would have thought I was reading the biography of a superhuman. I mean that kind of thing just doesnt happen to normal people does it? Well bugger me ... you and I have witnessed just that. It's surreal and its humbling.

I have accomplished what I wanted and now I have the tools to live a lifetime of health and happiness. For the rest of my life to be fit and healthy I know now what I need to do and I know how to go about doing it.

Little did I realise four years ago how much support I would have in my journey, how many friends I would make and how many peoples lives I have influenced for the better!

Thank you for sharing my journey. My weightloss blog has now run its course. I wont be deleting this blog, it serves as a reminder for me of where I've come from and what I want to maintain. I'll still be around, I'll drop in and visit your journey's and I'll leave a comment when I think its needed. Email me if you miss me heaps LOL

Craig and I have wonderful plans for our future - we are going to live our dream. We hope you get to live your dream to. Onwards and upwards. Keep an eye out for us in your travels.

HAPPY 2008!

WOOHOOOOOOOO ...

not sure how this year could possibly be any better than the last three,

but its gunna be, I just know it is!

Our trip away was fab, weather was absolute shite, but we had a really relaxing break. Any more relaxed and I'd be fucken dead LOL. Really enjoyed the company of our mates on the Gold Coast, first time we'd travelled together and got along really well, lots of laughs, heaps of booze and hillarious drunken conversations - god we talked some crap LMFAO! The apartment was awesome and in the same building there was a bar that made the most amazing $6 dacquari's ... mmmmmmmm

Life is a blast, we went to Dreamworld and I was in my tankini top and boardshorts ... can you believe that ... I'm gobsmacked by that one ... had to get a photo to remind myself of how bloody fabulous I am and that "cant" isnt in my vocabulory now. No-one has to be a bikini babe to have a good time. I did all the rollercoasters, the big drop was pretty hairy, it was lovely going up up up and seeing all the pretty sights of Brisbane, but the way down was literally a scream, I closed my eyes and shrieked the whole way, Craig and Dave thought it was awesome LOL

I got the purple Tcup, Christine got the green LOL we were the only adults on it, yahooing and giggling, the littlies must have thought we were nuts LOL Amazed Dave and Craig hung round long enough to take photos LMAO!



Even the clown whispered that I looked hot *grin* - despite the flat helmet hair look after doing the rapid river and log rides LOL


Christmas Day was at my niece's house. There were heaps of us, and it was lovely to spend the day with family. We managed a pre lunch swim in her pool - fab! and after dinner played 10 pin bowling on their Wii game, I won! It was hillarious! Very impressed with myself considering my brother is the Brisbane masters gold medal 10pin bowling champ!


Had the pleasure of finally meeting Lynda and Stu from AKL, on the Gold Coast of all places, had a yummy Italian meal, great conversation and no food police in sight! WOOHOO

New Years was at a local RSL chartered club. I got trollied and danced the night away (as you can see from the first photo) LMAO!

Start the year as you mean to carry on I say!

Last Post for the Year!

Well its a bit crazy at the moment, so this will be the last post for this year!



Friday was my end of year function that I was on the organising committee for ... as you can see we were the awesome threesome *wink* and everyone had a ball, especially me talking to the great white telephone at 1:00am on Saturday morning - it was the dodgy hot dogs from the piecart on the way home ... thats my story and I'm stickin to it! LMAO





I'm likin gingham LOL



Funny how some things we learn real quick and other things take repeated efforts to um ... sink in! The pics get messier as the night wears on :D On Saturday Craig and I had a team meeting with our mates we are travelling to Australia with ... I was quite hungover and vowed I would not be drinking again ... until Thursday! LMAO@ me




Sunday I was fully recuperated again and Craig took his sister on the harley and I rode Trude over to Denny's for her birthday treat. Food was decidedly average, but the outing was great. I went to the pub and only had a coffee! LOL Sunday night was my 6yr old niece's Christmas ballet concert - fuckin hillarious, havent laughed my arse off like that for ages - and that wasnt because of the little kids looking gorgeous in their cute wee outfits, but more because Rachel and I shared christmas party chunder stories - but thats a whole nother post and I'll leave Rachel to update you on that one *grin*


This morning I had another fanfriggentastic PT session with Fraser. I'm really likin him. I find the sessions so rewarding, I told him I felt the first programme didnt have much leg work in it ... so guess what I spent an hour doing this morning ... yep leg work ... lots of it ... squats on bosu balls, lunges with medicene balls, deadlifts and presses with powerbags, step ups with hand weights ... yeeeeeehaaaaaaa, I think I'll have to be carried onto that plane on Thursday LOL

Got to work, went online and ordered tickets to go see Ozzy Osbourne and Whitesnake as part of the Rock2Wgtn festival at Easter - cant wait to find out who the 3rd international act is - there are rumours of ACDC, Poison and Aerosmith ... so excited about it I could whizz my pants! LOL


Anyway, as per usual there doesnt seem to be a dull moment in my life at the moment. I'm not going to reflect on the past year, you've all been reading and followed the trials, tribulations and success this year has brought me. It's fair to say, I'm tired, I'm over this year - I'll chalk it up to experience and move onward and upward. We can now look forward to our holiday and taking some time out, being warm and catching up with loads of family and friends.


Craig and I wish you all a wonderful festive season and that the new year brings you whatever it is your wee hearts desire. Cos remember, if you arent happy with where you are, what you are doing or how you feel, then get off your fucking arse and do something about it. Nothing will change unless you are prepared to make it change and you ARE the master of your own destiny.


Think positive and it will happen.

*smooch*

Happy Christmas From Craig

Craig has been practicing his new dancing techniques and is showcasing his moves just for you this Christmas.

http://www.scroogeyourself.com/?id=1296812371

Happy Christmas

Plastic Surgery

A 54 year old woman had a heart attack and was taken to the hospital. While on the operating table she had a near death experience.

Seeing God she asked "Is my time up?"

God said, "No, you have another 43 years, 2 months and 8 days to live."

Upon recovery, the woman decided to stay in the hospital and have a face-lift, liposuction, breast implants and a tummy tuck. She even had someone come in and change her hair colour and brighten her teeth! Since she had so much more time to live, she figured she might as well make the most of it. After her last operation, she was released from the hospital. While crossing the street on her way home, she was killed by an ambulance.

Arriving in front of God, she demanded, "I thought you said I had another 43 years? Why didn't you pull me from out of the path of the ambulance?"


(You'll love this)


God replied: "I didn't bloody recognize you."

On Holiday Next Week

yippeeeeeeeeee its been wonderful announcing at work today that ... next week I go on holiday! YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

and I'm not planning on taking much ... tankini top, sarong, boardshorts will be my standard dress ... pity the patterns clash but hey I'm not going to be venturing too far, just between the pool and the fridge :D

I'm determined not to get a tshirt tan ... arghhhhhhhhh

10 sleeps to go!!!!!!!!!!

Swimming @ Xmas

I WILL be swimming at Christmas - I'm all healed - both wounds! YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE The nurse took my dressings off and TAAAAAAA DAAAAAAAA everything has completely healed. Couldnt believe the side one ... on Tuesday when I last changed the dressings there was a raw hole about 3/4s of a centrimetre long ... today - fresh skin and no rawness - HOT DIGGIDY DAWWWWWG. I get to wear my fancy schmancy tankinis in two weeks time! I'll still wear tapes for the next few weeks just to support the new skin but otherwise I'm discharged from nursing care YIPPEEEEEEEEEEE

Incredible

It's incredible how quickly your body remembers things! I'm no longer in pain! woohoo ... I worked out Wednesday and Friday mornings - worked through the burning heat in my quads, thighs and backside and today everything is good! No ouchies or stiffness yay! My biggest issue now is to stop staring at my gorgeous self in all the mirrors LMFAO @ me!

I'm not quite sure where the hell last week went, Monday turned up pretty quickly after the weekend and here we are at Saturday again!!!??!?!??!! Worked out I only have another 5.5 days of work left for the year so that makes me one happy camper indeed! We have our work Christmas function next Friday. I'm on the organising committee, a couple of years ago we organised a mini olympics at the local Greek Taverna and I was dressed in a toga looking like a greek goddess lmao, last year I was face painted like a girraffe for a safari theme, this year is another fantastic theme which is highly secret, so you'll just have to wait for the pics the week after next LMAO!

Did all my housework on Thursday night, so it was a lazy sleep in this morning, lazy breakfast together, hung some washing, pottering around doing christmas cards, printing newsletters, might do some baking for a friend, bit of internetting and my mum is picking me up at 12ish to take me for my hospital appointment as Tweetie is getting her window fixed up. Speaking of Tweetie, the two boys caught aged 17 and 18 are remanded on bail under curfew until 14 Dec when they will appear in Upper Hutt District Court, the delay is while they seek "legal aid" ... what about fucking us? We are $300 insurance excess, half a days annual leave plus we lose our no-claims bonus - OUT OF POCKET. Little bastards apparently they are being done for the damage to our car, kicking in a local primary schools doors and a recent commercial burglary! - I'm sick of victims having to pay the price and the criminals get all the support - theres something not quite right with that equation! What worries me is they know who we are and where we live - part of their bail conditions is that they are not allowed in our street! Our information is on their charge sheet and yet we know nothing about them. We've alerted the neighbours if they see anything suspicious to call the cops quick smart. I just hope Craig never catches up with them ... it could get ugly LOL. Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time! arghhhhhhh

My doggies are beautiful. I love them very much. Dumb but beautiful.

Not sure what is happening with the weather it was supposed to have caved in today, it's not raining but the wind has definately come up. This arvo will be a pottering kind of arvo, friends are picking us up at 6:30 and we are heading to the club for a meal and evening. Should be cool.

I think I might go give myself a pedicure.

Vandals and Vigour

Well not sure what we did wrong to deserve this, but our Tweetie car was vandalised parked outside my sisterinlaws on Sunday night. Little bastards threw a road sign at her and smashed the windscreen and put a nice dent in the guard and scratches on the bonnet. Fuckers. They then carried on to the local primary school and smashed a few doors in. We called the Police and two of the degenerates were apprehended. The Police said it was the second time that DAY they'd chased their sorry arses. We are wanting a prosecution, or we'll be $300 out of pocket through insurance excess. Our Tweetie was in the wrong place at the wrong time :( All this drama took place at 10:00pm on Sunday night, so alas we got to bed extremely late and didnt get up to go to the gym on Monday.

Not a great start to the week, but the week definately got better!

On Tuesday, I met Fraser my new personal trainer for my first reassessment. I have put on weight, however not unexpected from sitting around on my arse for three months and living the good life. Happy to report my body fat has gone from 48% to 31% WOOHOOOOOOOOOO - what amazes me is when I started all this 3 years ago my body fat was 52% - 70kg loss later it was still 48% and then with my 10kg fat removal through surgery I dropped 17% body fat just like that! absolutely proves that most of my body fat was sitting around my hips, belly and arse.

So I have a started point again and I'm ready to get back into the vigorous swing of things. I'm not posting my weight, I'm not weighing myself weekly, I'm not worried about the scales. Fraser will weigh me every 6 weeks as part of my reprogramme, but I'm over the scales. I dont care about them and I really dont want to know. What I do want to know is how I feel about how my body looks and feels - numbers dont actually have the same meaning to me now. I dont like my thighs, so I'll be working to trim those down - I'll also in the course of events lose a few centimetres around my hips and waist and I cant wait to retone my body. I did tell Fraser I wanted abs ... watch this space LOL might take a couple of years. Fraser is lovely - I've found another trainer that genuinely cares about my achievements and reaching my goals. Bless him! So after chatting for about 20 minutes we hit the gym. Did some wall squats, lots of cable machine and bose ball work, free weights (curls/presses) - all working on my core again. Works for me! He said that my muscles will wake up real quick and over the next few weeks I'll be able to up my weights quite quickly as my body kicks back in and remembers what we were up to back in August (god that seems like such a long time ago now!). So even though I havent been using them for a while, they are still there - they just need a bit of encouragement to pick up where they left off! yay!

Needless to say, I can hardly walk today LMAO! My quads scream in protest everytime I stand up, sit down or attempt to walk LOL! My shoulders are reminding me they are there and my hammies and glutes are still on strike from last Saturday's effort! LOL I tell ya, I'm looking like a REAL athlete right now *yeah right* :D

I've written my annual newsletter now, very happy about that - Christmas can bring it on now.

Lynda you are on for coffee on the gold coast baby ;)