Over The Yo Yo Effect!

The magical answer....

How many New Years resolutions have you had that started with 'I will try to be healthier this year'? Whether it be to lose weight, to reach a fitness goal, or to eat more real, nutritious foods. I feel like that has been my first point of call for resolutions every year since I was 13. This year will be different. This year, I will change my life. Next year, I won't be sitting here wishing the same thing over and over again. And each year so far, I have found myself wishing the same thing because for some reason it didn't happen.

Now, I told you previously that I underwent hypnosis to help me live a healthy life without having to fight myself along the way? Not to lose weight, but to eat well and to exercise (and clearly the weight will follow). How's that going for me? Well, I think I thought it was some kind of magical answer, that I no longer had to try and be conscious of eating well and exercising regularly. And I have stopped focusing on my end goals and what I will feel and look like when I arrive at that golden BMI range. Because I have stopped giving myself time to look after me.

Over this past fortnight things have been incredibly hectic! Poor little Lucy had her first fever which gave us quite the scare - especially when it dropped to 33.4! And obviously not much sleep is had by anyone when the baby isn't well, so we were all running on empty. Add to that Lucy's norm is to wake every 2 hours at the moment even when she is well and you have a little family of exhausted individuals! My saving grace has been my wonderful family and friends who have offered to take Lucy for an hour or two so we could sleep, or clean or do whatever it is that we wanted to do. Admittedly, we didn't take up any of those offers...but knowing that they are there is half the gift. And if we truly needed to, we would. My other saving grace has been eating/drinking high energy foods with no nutritional content. Booo! And as a result, for the first time in quite a while, the scales went UP! Dang! Not surprising though, considering not a great deal of exercise was happening...more likely I was found lying on the floor with Lucy, her playing, me unable to muster any strength or energy to move.

So previously, my feelings would be along the lines of 'well, now I have stuffed it all, might as well give up!', but what I am thinking now is I am glad I have noticed the change early enough to stop it. It is completely within my control and I don't have to sit by and watch my body re stack on weight that doesn't belong here anymore. Be gone evil double chin! Your banished love handles! You don't belong on this body anymore!

Man, I wish that I had stopped and taken notice when I had put on weight in teenage years and then again once I was married. It is so much harder to take it off than it is to put it on!!! Believe me, you are looking at a Yo Yo dieter from way back, getting in on all the fads I possibly could! I've tried Weight Watchers, Cohen's Lifestyle program, Tony Ferguson, the Atkins Diet and Lite'n'Easy, plus I'm sure many more. And you know I have had considerable success with some of those. But my life is full of socialising at meal times and I have found time and time again that I can't maintain a diet as such...I end up resenting it and everyone around me.

 With Ali, at my healthiest I have been in years - NYE 2005/2006

So by chance I stumbled across the most amazing answer in the whole universe, a secret that I seemed to have missed seeing this whole time. Something so miraculous that I can't believe everyone doesn't know it!!! It's that old story of eating real, nutritious, whole foods and being active. You know what they crap on about on the TV all the time, the signs up in your doctors waiting room, and just normal common sense knowledge? WOW! It actually works! I feel like a real idiot for trying so many different things when the answer was here the whole time.

So I am pumped to go to my second Zumba class tonight and get active in a big way! Get that tomato head going! And I am going shopping this morning for groceries when Lucy wakes up - so I can fill my fridge with excellent options, rather than quick fixes. Because stuff returning to a higher weight than I am right now. Screw that! No way. I have released this weight to never return, and I will not accept it back in my life.

You know, the day before I had Lucy, I weighed in at 23kgs heavier than what I am today. And before I got pregnant, I was 2kgs heavier than I am today. By the time I am pregnant next, I must be within my healthy BMI range. Which means I am to release a further 40 kgs! Yes, I do have that much to say goodbye to. And I want to be honest with you. Because being honest to approximately 60 people out there provides a great transparency for me, and I can't trick all of you into thinking I am doing well if I am not.

With Amy and Kat, at my heaviest January 2009

So I'm focuses again. And I can tell you the Lauren in my mind that I see at the end of 2012 is the best Lauren there ever was (physically). She is confident, active, graceful, quick, and she loves life! Oh yes, she loves life! And she will give herself the best chance of having a healthy, strong and enjoyable pregnancy so that she isn't stuck within these 4 walls for 5 months again.

If you too are on this journey to a healthier life, tell me. Give me the inspiration to know I have you by my side. Share your goals with me, so we can encourage each other. And make sure it stops now, don't continue this unhealthy lifestyle you may have developed. I know we all have valid reasons for falling into such traps, but there is very little justification for staying there. You actually have control of your life, so take it by the balls and GO!

Ciao for now,
LG, Life's Good!