jayne

I am realising how out of balance my life has become. Not just my eating, but everything else that I do. I seem to just have a habit of being ‘busy’ all the time.  And I don’t really make time for myself just to have fun or enjoy myself. I work and thats about it. I’ve been in a rut and I’m climbing out for good this time.

I remember once doing a writtten exercise where there was a wheel with six spokes, and I had to rate where I was on that spoke out of 10. The idea was to try and get the different areas back into balance so the wheels can turn smoothly and the journey of life is less bumpy. The spokes were:

• health
• spiritual
• financial
• relationships
• career
• hobbies

 Right now if I had to rate them they would all be about a 4 out of 10…..

So to try and get some balance back in my life I am drawing up a loose timetable for each day so I can set aside time to work on each area.

My goals for this weeks balancing act:

• less time online

• exercise 30 minutes every day

• relaxation exercise 30 minutes every day

• shop for healthy food

• phone a friend and arrange lunch out to catch up

• organise my desk ready for studying

• spend an hour in the garden this weekend

• declutter my lounge room and clean my desk
• go through my bills and write up a new budget

I’m going to try and set weekly Balancing Act goals and check off my progress.

I had such a good time while I was gone! Someone I used to work with about 25 years ago was also at the seminar and omigod!! did we relive our younger days!! We had a real hoot just reminiscing about some of the very funny things that happened to us years ago during our nurses training. Honestly, we were crying just with laughter both nights when we went out for dinner, mind you the couple of wines probably helped!

So I think it did me good to just get away for a few days and unwind.

I went pretty good with the food. I had bacon eggs and tomato for breakfast; Cheese, salad, nuts and fruit for lunch & snacks and steak and steamed veggies for dinner. The wine was a treat.. I didn’t do any yoga or exercise but I think I needed the extra sleep really. 

I have returned feeling refreshed and ready for my weigh in tommorrow morning. I only have to lose a pound to reach my mini goal and then I will get a good haircut and colour as my first reward. I’m going to read a few blogs and then I’m off to bed early.

Another 3lbs down!! Yee hah!!   I feel so much better this week. Much more positive and I have a lot more energy. I start my reduced days at work in 2 weeks and I am daydreaming about all the things I will be able to do with a 3 day weekend. At the moment I am thinking of taking a yoga class or maybe swimming.  I also made some changes this week that will start to solve some of the problems at work for me. I think I have been avoiding the issues and putting other peoples needs before mine which ended up only hurting me in the end.

I can’t believe how much this forum has motivated me and helped me take ACTION!        I felt so STUCK for so long and you great buddies have helped me get up and out of my well furnished rut.

I have also decided to start tackling the clutter that has taken over my home. I think the clutter and the weight gain go together. Both a result of too much stress over the last 18 months. So with the help of flylady  I will be transforming my home as well as my body over the next few months.

Today I am cleaning out the kitchen and the pantry and tossing out anything I haven’t used in the last 12 months. I have tons of pots, pan, containers, odds and ends and boxes of “stuff”. I am going to ‘makeover my kitchen into a happy, health conscious haven, so there is no room for temptation in there.

I had a really good day yesterday. I hung out my ‘busy ’sign at 10.30 am and had a very quick, early lunch and then again at 2.30pm. I did 90 minutes on the treadmill as well. 

Heres a great thought for the day that someone sent me:

Only one to a customer…

This bright new day, complete with 24 hours of opportunities, choices, and attitudes.  A perfectly matched set of 1440 minutes. This unique gift, this one day, cannot be exchanged, replaced or refunded. Handle with care. Make the most of it. There is only one to a customer.

I have requested a change in my working hours so that I work less days for slightly longer hours. Then I will have a 3 day weekend. I am really seeing how much the frantic schedule at work affects my eating. Yesterday I packed a healthy salad and my snack so I wouldn’t be tempted.

The day went haywire as soon as I got there ,with urgent/ crisis stuff sideswiping my plans completely. It was 3.45pm before I could even stop to think about lunch and I felt so flat, had only 15 mins till I had to attend a meeting and so I went for the packet of chips again. I will do better today I hope. Hopefully these changes of working less days will help me to get a bit more time to myself on the weekend. I really love my job , but I need to be realistic about the way it is affecting my health at the minute and change what I can.

 I know I need to reduce stress to be able to get healthy. And thanks to all you great buddies out there ! Your support and reading other stories really has helped me and  made it possible for me to stick to my plans. Maybe not perfectly, but for the first time in a long time I feel like I can really do this, and that I will see it through to my goal and to maintenance, however long that takes. Thanks

That has been  my mantra today. I don’t know why but it hit me like a tonne of bricks this morningthat I have a choice about the whole health, weight, looks thing.  I have a choice every time I tell myself that ‘just this once’ it won’t matter, or when I eat my feelings instead of trying to work them out. My body at the minute is just the sum total of all the choices I have made in the past.

It’s my decision to cope with my emotions in the past by eating. I can choose to do it differently now. And I am, one meal at a time. One exercise session at a time. One emotion at a time.

I have never shared my before pics before. However this forum is just so great and you all are so supportive I am going to be brave. Seeing my photos the other night just shocked me. I deleted the worst ones but here are a few before shots of me over the last couple of months. Look fast, because I will not be looking like this for much longer!

Last night I went to a party and thought I looked pretty good. Then I say the photos!!   I had several chins and chunky arms.  I just looked fat. There is no other way to say it. I  kept reminding myself that at least I was thinner than I was a couple of weeks ago.

It has made me really determined to lose the weight !

I have to go to a family dinner in a little while and I can usually eat reasonable food there. I am going to track everything I eat and my exercise from now on. I am also going to bite the bullet and upload some photos later. I always avoid doing this. I think I have some kind of illusion about how I really look so photos always shock me.

Just before I was about to attend a  work meeting yesterday someone suggested we meet over lunch at the Italian restaurant. Arrgghhh!!!! Not Pasta!! I said I would prefer to eat at another place where I knew that I could get chicken and salad and  few others agreed. So it was a good start to a lunch meeting!

However then I got told that the other person who works with me will not be replaced immediately when he leaves at the end of the week.

To say I was not happy is putting it mildly! We have been complaining of the workload for some months now and this is only going to increase the pressure on everyone. I was really annoyed and ate most of my meal in silence. I didn’t have dessert, but I did have a skim coffee.

I thought about it a bit more and did work out what I was feeling. I was feeling like I was taken for granted! As if I didn’t matter to them. Once the lunch was over I went and had a talk to my boss. I explained that the workload is already brodering on unmanageble and I wasn’t willing to burned out while they saved some money!

As a result I am now trying to set it up so I the same hours but over less days. This will reduce some of the stress but not affect my income. I am going to review my work and stop accepting so many people and set a strict limit on how many appointments I take a day. I find this really hard to do when I have tried in the past but I am determined. If I burn out and get sick then they will just find someone else to do the work. If I don’t take care of myself then nobody else will.

I have declared 5-6 am My Time! This morning I got up and did 30 minutes on the treadmill and then 30 minutes of relaxation / meditation. I feel really good for doing it and I am sitting here now with my cup of green tea feeling pretty good about myself.

Have a good day everyone!

Where to begin… well I have realised that I can’t lose this weight on my own that’s for sure! My weight is now 198 lbs. It was 204 a few months ago. I’ve been an emotional eater for years. The last few years have been very stressful and so my weight kept going up and up. It’s reached the point where my health is affected. Now I am at risk of diabetes which runs in the family and the Dr is really nagging me about my weight.

I started a journal about my emotional eating and that has really helped me. It made me realise the need for support, that it’s Ok to ask for help. So here I am and it feels like I’ve come to the right place!

I have joined the Hot Rods and I’m strapped in, have my helmet on and I’m rearing to go! I look forward to meeting and making some friends on the way !