Day one

So I made it through day one, I got up and made it through the routine, made my lunch and I am keen to do it all again tomorrow.

I decided to write everything down that I ate today to be accountable, so here it is:

Breakfast - apple muesli, I even weighed it out to 50g
Morning snack - banana and two mouthfuls of tea
Lunch - whole meal sandwich with ham, home made mayo, relish, spinach, cheese, carrot and cucumber
Afternoon snack - nothing
Dinner - pork steaks with stir fry veg & jacket spud
Dessert - two pieces in Lindt dark chocolate

All very boring but I am going to write this down every day...

One day to go...

So I am starting the 12wbt tomorrow. I have done the shopping and am ready to get up tomorrow morning and get into it.

Today at church the message was reinforced about reaching ones potential. It is disrespectful to our creator to not utilise our talents. The message series has started called "Get Up - your best is yet to come". I feel I need to align myself with Gods plan for my life and a big part of that is giving my body proper food, not man-made junk with toxins to upset my brain and body function in ways scientists do not completely understand. I need to get back to nature, the foods that were created for us not artificially manipulated.

I will bring you on my journey to learn to nourish my body in the best way, not feel deprived and not be controlled by so called cravings. The time has come to 'get-up'!

My commitment

I promise to stick to the 12wbt Program, eat healthy, train hard, follow the program. No more excuses!

I am a woman of my word.

I am committed with every fibre of my being.

I acknowledge my past, it is in the past, and now I am going to commit to my future, MY future, not what anyone else went through, this is my journey.

I am committed to do the work it takes to get me there!

You are fully responsible for what you eat, no laying the blame.

I am an organised person!

Things I have been reading

I was recently given a copy of the book Real Weight Loss by Dr Doug Sellman and he devised a five-point strategy - take control, eat well, enjoy life, get moving, persist.

Some of the main points I learnt from the book was the following:

- the answer lies in a permanent change in lifestyle
- arrange to hit rock bottom before rock bottom hits you
- tips for eating less: take small mouthfuls, one small mouthful at a time (don't start the next one until you have finished the other), chew, put your food down between mouthfuls, concentrate on the flavour, don't eat all your food.
- don't live to eat, eat to live!
- don't feel deprived when eating
- be prepared to work hard to be a better person to be genuinely happy

There were several quotes that were included that I wanted to remember:

It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves. Edmund Hillary (1919-208)

The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology or the president. You realise that you control your own destiny. Albert Ellis (1913-2007)

It is never too late to become what you might have been. Mary Ann Evans aka George Eliot (1819-1880)

I would also like to include some ideas from Kiera Sanders
1. Temptation - remove it from your house
2. Motivation - make a board to keep you going, watch hungry for change, write down the goals that can be sustained forever
3. Visualisation - going to the beach in a bikini, hiking with short shorts on, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro
4. Affirmation - look in the mirror & say "I love myself unconditionally from this day forwards, and I am a healthier person today that I was yesterday".
5. Progression - monitor the progress. Take measurements & keep on track with my goal.

Journey to health

I have recently started using a thermomix and since then have also started following people on Facebook to get recipe ideas. There is a common theme for a desire to eat foods closer to their natural form, free of preservatives and anything artificial. I have been continuously inspired by people's creativity with developing recipes and the wealth of information available.

Reflecting on my own food habits I have come to realise how un-educated I am and that I have a lot of bad habits that I need to eliminate from my life. I am hoping to use this blog to hold myself accountable for my food choices since if I write that I know something is bad for me and then continue to consume it - how bad does that look?

For example - I have recently been learning about how bad cool drink is for us. Don't get me wrong I was not living under the assumption that it had any nutritional value but now I realise just HOW terrible the stuff is. It would be foolish of me with this new-found knowledge to then turn around and purchase some coke. But it is still a habit of mine when I am tired I think I need some coke to get the caffeine, although it is my hope by starting this blog I will be held accountable by you the reader (whoever you may be).

It is my plan to write a daily entry of exactly what I have eaten & how I am feeling and what new habits I am working on. This has all come about since today I am singing up for the 12 week body transformation by Michelle Bridges for the second time... The first time was round one this year and I was convinced I would fail before I started because it was the 'wrong time'. The main excuse was I was moving from Aus to NZ, needing to sell cars, possessions and find a new job. I told myself I was 'too stressed' to get up and work out for the day, I 'deserved' to get as much sleep as possible. Then in the evening I had too much to sort out, I could not 'waste' time exercising. Not to mention my food habits - feeling that I deserved to go out for nice lunches with my friends since I would not be seeing them for a while, or I had no time to shop... Excuse after excuse.

I do not want to keep creating excuses! My mum always said do not complain unless you are going to do something about it. So I am going to do something about it, now, before my health gets any worse and my excuses have a chance to get more elaborate. I want to change my habits to be the best version of myself. There is no such thing as 'good timing' because life is now!

Ok, so this is my first blog post ever! I have not been one to want to share my life on the Internet before although I thought blogging would be a better way to go about it rather than filling up people's facebook news feeds with my journey.

As I opened the blog to start it asked me what this page would be and I pondered on this for some time before coming to the best description I can think of - my own journey to 'doing life better'. I want to keep a diary as such to help me gather my thoughts and reflect on my own views and hopefully each day start making small changes and improvements. One step at a time...