New Year New Body - Losing that last six pounds

Lots of people have made it their aim to get a new body this year.  This has been my quest all year round for the last twenty years. I go up and down like a yo-yo.  Whenever Oprah is pictured looking a bit squidgy round the edges, I empathise. When she is pictured looking lean and mean, I know how she is feeling then as well. I have had a rock hard six pack and I have been four stone overweight with a billowing belly.

July 2009 Big and 37 weeks pregnant

I am a trained fitness instructor, I used to work at the Taro Gym in Petersfield and I used to teach Spinning Classes. I did a personal trainer course with Future Fit. Although I haven't worked in the industry for the passed ten years there isn't much that I don't know about nutrition. I have had pretty much every diet/fad book on my bookshelf at one point or another because I like to learn all the latest theories. Or tut at the same diet ideas repackaged.  I am fascinated about how the human body works, how it looks, how it can be trained and what foods do to your body. I used to have an iron will.

August 2009 - In-between - Dizzy was 9 days old when this picture was taken - our 2nd day out of hospital - notice the tartiness can't disguise the eyes wide shut knackeredness 

But somewhere along the way I developed a fault and my guarantee seems to have run out because I can't exchange my body for a new one it seems.  Somewhere along the way, my subconscious mind began over riding my conscious mind and even though I had made a decision to eat healthily, I would get to the end of the day and realise I had rammed a ton of unwanted crap into my mouth all day long. How could that be?  I used to have an iron will!  but everyday, the same thing kept happening.  I'd make a decision to eat healthily. Then I wouldn't be healthy at all.  I downloaded hypnotherapy CDs to retrain my thinking and they used to work too. But now, I put one on and pass out within the first 30 seconds due to the relaxation hypnosis.  Somehow, my unconscious mind has over-ridden my conscious and my subconscious mind!

Dec 2009 - Skinny Again

Because I am determined to be really determined about this healthy eating malarkey I am going back to basics.  In order to really start thinking about what I am eating and to over ride my sub-conscience I am going to make a record of everything I eat.  I have written bout this before on my fitness blog here.  Now, there isn't a lot of time in the day, I have three children and businesses to run.  Writing things down is time consuming and tedious but it is very effective, because you start to make better choices about what you eat just by analysing your eating habits.  So, I am going to photograph everything I eat before I put it in my mouth.  I am not going to go on a diet I will just eat as I please and photograph things.  Of course, I am pretty sure that I will start eating more carefully because I won't want to photograph my grosser eating habits such as drinking spoonfuls of last night's gravy straight from the jug as I was serving dinner or snaffling that stray square of toast that the toddler threw on the sofa from his high-chair.  I will picture everything.  Everything for a week or two!  I will record it all here:  http://www.bestfitnessdvds.net/category/abigails-fitness-diary/ as it will make for a very boring feed on the Rare Designer's Facebook page where this blog appears automatically.

Dec 2010 - half a stone heavier

I know I don't look much different, but I have a wardrobe full of clothes that do not fit properly, I'd like to lose six pounds so that I can sit on the sofa wearing my jeans  without cutting the circulation being cut off to my entire lower body.  I was expecting to have to do this.  I ate and I drank like a loon for the whole of December, I've been walking less and I haven't been to the gym for a month.

To get things started though, you can see what I have consumed so far today.  You're not yawning are you?  No?  Hmm, okay.  Here goes.

Macchiato latte

I have drunk three of these.  What is it?  It's a Tassimo macchiato which I added Starbucks toffee nut syrup to.  Total calorie count, um.  About 339 cals on coffee, plus about 35 cals per teaspoon of syrup.  So that's 444 cals wasted already on three little drinks.  Brilliant, I can see where things are going wrong already!

I am five foot nothing and in order to maintain my weight I only need about 1700 cals a day.  Any more than that and I will put weight on.  In order to lose weight I need to eat about 1200-1400 cals a day, but I am also quite active so all movement counts towards that calorie goal.  I plan to burn an extra 200 cals at least through activity.

Cinnamon and raisin bagels

For breakfast I had one and a half cinnamon bagels with butter.  See how my subconscious mind took over while I was getting ready to photograph them?  I took a bite already.  Hopeless! These total to: 540 cals plus the butter: an extra 36 cals.  I tapped them into "My Plate" on The Livestrong website which records and tallies everything up for you.  In fact it's even better today since I last used it.  Very fast and everything I searched for was stored on there, although I cheated and used an American brand of bagel, but they are roughly the same.

So, it's 11.45 and this morning I have already consumed 1040 cals!  Brilliant.  It tells me I can eat a further 413 cals to stay within my limit today.  Oh dear, I still have lunch and tea to go.  I will continue to eat as I please and chronicle it, but I am certainly thinking about and realising where I am going wrong.