My journey thus far.......

This is my experience so far on my weight loss and, in particular fitness journey. Those of you that know me- I'm sorry, this is a little long winded and boring. Those of you that don't-welcome to my little wonderland (well my name is Alice) Kim has asked us to share our experiences and ahhh mine is a little long to post on face book....here goes nothing.

At the beginning of the year I decided, along with my best friend, that I Alice Kane would attack and win my continuing war on obesity!
I think deciding to lose weight is one of the easiest things to do.....all of those over weight people would agree that the decision is simple, its the doing that is hard....and by hard I mean HARD!

So I decided that I would take the quick fix approach, which this time was definitely going to work. Off I went to my local GP with the mission of acquiring drugs-the wonder drug! I started taking them and did in fact lose some weight but to the detriment to myself and my body. It didn't take long me to realise that staying on a drug that is not dissimilar to 'speed' was not my answer, especially considering I needed to lose 60+ kilos.

I sat and pondered for awhile trying to figure out my next option. Little did I know that my option had been across the road staring at me for months-Group outdoor training! At first my BFF and I use to 'tease' those ladies across the road but every time I came home from McDonald's and needed to get out of the car 'in front' of them I knew I was not teasing them, I was teasing myself. For months I watched these ladies work out and then sit on the grass chatting after and all I had for them was harsh thoughts. I took me a long time to realise that I was the 'silly fat girl', not them, they had control over their life and their fitness and I did not, they were showing a great example to their children and loved ones, and I was not. They had goals and were slowly achieving them, and I was not.

So the fear of my impending 30th and the realisation that I, at 29, was not in control or happy with my life spurred me to join those ladies, and I truly believe that my life began that first week of training.
When I began I struggled to run the warm up, well I actually couldn't run the warm up. I think for that first week and that first week only I was embarrassed of myself, I couldn't believe how 'fit' these ladies were and that I was so morbidly obese that I stopped time and time again to walk. By week two/three my mind set started changing, and from week six/seven I started really believing that I was 'thin'. It was only when I looked in the mirror that I forgot that I was still big, but that mind shift is EXACTLY what I needed to keep me going and going and.....
So each week it got 'easier and easier' and I found myself repeating the same words I had been told and encouraging new woman that joined the way I was.
There is no doubt in my mind that Kim has saved my life. When you struggle and settle your whole life, it takes a miracle to overcome those obstacles....and Kim is my miracle.

Every week I am pushed to my limits, every week I receive encouraging feed back, every week I know I will be yelled at by somebody who cares, who actually cares about me as a person, my children and our future as a family and for that I am eternally grateful. I have NEVER been so motivated, so strong, so determined (just ask boot campers who go up against me ;) and so empowered than I do right now. Going into my 30th year is now exciting, not daunting.

So now for a quick shout out too my laaaaadies.....

I can absolutely 100%, without a doubt, guarantee, that if you decide to come to fitness training/boot camp you will be training along side some truly amazing woman. I feel so comfortable being myself around you girls and without that I think, in fact I know I would have quit week one, day one!
It doesn't matter what you wear, or if you have hair thrown on top of your head, or if you just had a screaming fight with your hubby walking out the door you will feel accepted and supported. There have been tears, vomits, melt downs and hissy fits and these woman don't even batter an eye lid. You are who you are and that's what matters. So ladies thank you! thanks for supporting me when I told everyone to fuck off, thank you for constantly telling me how great I look and thanks to a few of you who continually tell me how funny my run is, it makes me chuckle while I am running to know that you are getting a laugh out of it ;)

So my top tips for weight loss......(please note that this is what is working for me right now but may not always)

-Start moving! Just start, it makes a huge difference to how you feel about your self and also, it's burning calories regardless of how many your eating in a day

-Counting Calories: for me this works best, I have tried every diet around and a few have worked (weight watchers etc)

-Start eating breaky: I'm bad at this so have started making low fat smoothies in the morning...ice cubes, skim milk and a banana and a bit of honey-super simple and can be carted from kitchen to bathroom to bedrooms to.....ya get my drift, its easier for me than trying to get down a bowl of cereal etc.

-Have a 'go too' snack: for me its some rice biscuits with salsa or tomatoes on cruskits.

-Understand how much effort it takes for you too work off that burger/cake/chips. When I understand how much running (I hate running) it would take to burn the calories in that treat I instantly re-think my decision on eating it.

-Most importantly: make mistakes, eat waaaay too much (or drink way too much,like 2800 cals worth of rum-ouch) but get up the next day and know that all is not lost, just start again! I have had MANY blow outs and still to this day and every day I struggle to make the right decisions but, I'm alot smarter so I know what needs to be done when I do blow out.

-Actually this is THE most important piece of information-DON'T TELL KIM IF YOU EAT A WHOLE PACKET WAGON WHEELS, if you do decide to dob yourself in, I mean really who would ahem, then theres no telling what she will do.

-No actually this is THE MOST important thing- surround yourself with like minded people, find people that are as passionate and motivated as you are to ride the journey with. Without these people you may never run at 7.30pm on a Saturday night, or go walk the bib track, or enrol in another boot camp, or encourage you to do the easy 12km city to surf (yes Denise it's on the bucket list). When your social circle reflects your new way of living it makes the trip so much easier.

My stats so far.....

 Before and Half way

I'm no where near telling ANYBODY my heaviest weight, I have decided to wait until a particular goal weight then I will reveal, for now though it is too raw, too real and waaay too embarrassing.

I will tell you though that at the beginning of the year I could not fit into size 26 pants at Big W (too tight) and I was pushing size 24 on top. Today I bought a size 18 pants and a 14/16 size top. I mean really, that alone is proof of the AMAZING work that Kim does. ;)
So I am nearly half way through my journey, a few more kilos to go before I hit the big 30 (huh, ironic) then, (I hope)a very sweet ride to the end of the next 30 kilos.

So to those of you who are lurking around the face book page trying to get a feel for the group and Kim's work PLEASE please drop by, if it's not for you then fine, you tried and that's all you can ask of your self but if it is for you then, wow, just wait because your life will change- for the better.
I will be using this blog for my weekly ramblings from now on so feel free to drop in and have a look, I'm sure it will contain plenty of whinging and talking about weight loss and training (in fact I'm heading into boot camp #2 so I'm sure there will be whinging ;)

So that my friends is the first part of my story :)

Feel free to leave a comment, I would LOVE any tips on eating well and motivating yourself.

Alice xx