Before & After - And The Winner Is........

BEFORE

AFTER

Well my 12 weeks are over and I am feeling good. I am still sticking to my diet. I have not done any exercise this week due to being sick. No I am not the biggest loser, but was the runner up, so that makes me second, still good. I was not the winner, but I was still a winner to me. I lost 7.7kg in the 12 weeks and 30 odd cm's. Well my road is still long another challenge awaits me in 2 weeks and so looking forward to it. Have 2 charity walks I plan on doing. One on the 25th two days before my birthday and another one next month, it feels good to be able to enjoy something like this, especially when you can do it for charity. Well as I have said here is my before and after picture, now it is time for me to go to bed and rest these eyes and sore throat for tomorrow I have work to do.

12 Week Challenge Is Over

I have succeeded and have gotten through the 12 weeks. It was a rough road and there were many falls along the way, but I looked forward at my goal and made sure that when I fell I picked myself up and aimed for the goal. It is amazing how one's eating habbits change and how you get so use to it, that when you go a day with out any veggies or fruit your body craves it.

I was going to put my before and after picture up this week, but decided that I'll wait for next week as we are having our prize giving on Saturday to find out who the Biggest Loser is. I would say hold thumbs it is me, but hey I am still a winner. I gotten to a place I know I would never have gotten on my own.

Look ahead, look towards your goal, smile at the loss you do loose and strive to do better next time. Don't get discouraged, find some good in what you are feeling and turn that awful into good feeling. If you concentrate on the bad, it is the bad that you will see, if you stumble and say you can't do it, you'll stumble more then once, but if you stumble and shrug it off you'll for sure walk a smoother road. Stay motivated, don't let your busy life get in the way of you feeling good. Always remember you are not alone, there are many out there who are going through a similiar thing you are going, find comfort in their story, let their story be a motivater in your life. If A can do it so can I, tell yourself.

I still have a long road to walk to reach my ideal weight, 9kg still to go to get to my goal weight and what I keep saying to myself is 'I CAN DO IT, I WILL DO IT, I AM DOING IT.' Motivate yourself. If you aren't motivated you'll never be motivated.

Well that is all from me today, till next time.

Just One Of Those Days

You know when things seem to be going well and then all of a sudden there is a crash and stress just fills up inside you? Yesterday was that day for me. Since Thursday I have been depressed, today it has been the worse. Today I feel like indulging in that chocolate, I feel like drinking that coke and just not stopping, I feel the past 11 weeks has been a waste with the way I am feeling and just want to give up. Then to top the stress levels my eldest son is rude, fights all the time with his younger brother and back chats when you speak to him. I lashed out at him yesterday when he was fighting with his brother. They both have these bean bags that we bought them, now J has a green and C has a blue. J felt like sitting on C's bean bag, so C allowed it and went to sit on J's one, J did not like that and tried to push C off his bean bag, so C accepted that he couldn't sit on J's one so went to his one and sat there, J then was pushing C off the blue bean bag which is C's. J has this attitude, leave my things, but whatever you have is mine. You can't play with my things, but I can play with your stuff. This is so not fare on C, so yesterday was just the last straw for me and I lashed out, throwing a lemon I had in my hand, not meaning to hit J, just to scare him, but my aim got the better of me and the lemon hit him on his arm. I really felt bad about what I did. Not sure what else to do with him. I speak nice to him, I give him options, I punish him by putting him in his room, but it does not help, he just gets more frustrated. I have noticed that his behaviour has been worse now then before with my husband stressed, it is putting the stress on me and I think J is feeling it to. I also think with him constantly being sick, it has added to him being like this. I am trying to stay calm as much as possible. We had a long chat just the two of us without C around and all was good, except this morning when J decided that it was a good idea to take his cereal and put it on C's clean pair of pants I put on him. I was really upset with him when he told me that he felt like doing it, because C was lying down. I told him he has to clean C's pants bofore he goes to school, but that did not happen as he got his father to take him to school a bit earlier. He did not even say good bye to me or give me a kiss, he was out that gate waiting by the car for daddy, but little does he know that mommy has not forgotten and when he comes home he is going to be washing C's pants (am I doing the right thing?).

Well today I do feel so much better. I don't feel like the 11 weeks of challenge was a waste, especially when I weighed myself this morning and found out that I am down to 77.8kg. I am over the moon. I am already down another 200grams. Saturday I was down to 78kg, that was a kilo lost. I am loving my Hip Hop Abs DVD and my body feels good. Also we are eating a lot more healthier then we have ever been, more veggies and salads then we had before, I can't believe what eating can do to ones weight. There was a time I weighed 93.8, I managed to get down to 82.8, but picked up 2kg when I gave up. Then this challenge came, I took that extra step and did it and walla I lost more then just 2kg, you can say I lost 7kg all together, who knows, maybe it will be 8kg by the end of this week.

I have a busy week ahead of me. Tomorrow Jarid and I will be making cup cakes for entrepernuers day on Wednesday at his school. He is so looking forward to it. Today and tomorrow we will be making a poster for our table decorating it and then making our table look nice on Wednesday. The evening I will be capturing the memories of a Matric Banquet (what fun, I so love capturing memories of people). Thursday morning I have an Heritage Day event I will once again be capturing. Then the weekend is my final Challenge meeting and I'll be also taking pictures of everyone there. A before and after. I know I promised pictures of a before, but decided to let you wait in anticipation a little longer until I get my after picture. Well that is me ranting on about who knows what, but it does feel good to just get everything out instead of keeping it all bottled in. Have a fab week all. Good Luck on your journey.

'When you at your lowest, don't let temptation get you down, rather tempt yourself with something good, look at the positive side and pick yourself up and make your rocky path smooth, don't let temptation win, but let your will power to fight get stronger.'

Update On My Son - walking

Thought I'd update everyone on how my son is doing. He is like a jelly bean jumping from wall to wall. We took him to the doctor and found out that he has indeed asthma. He is on a 3 month course of allergy meds and asthma meds. For now I have to nebulise him 3 time a day for 2 weeks and give him cortisone meds (preflam), The asthma pump and allergy meds and nasal spray I have to keep on giving him for 3 months, then we take him back to the pead and take it from there, and then give it to him less. It really is not fun having an allergy asthmatic child, especially when they can't express themselves too well. According to the pead Jarid was extremely comfortable with the tight chest and we didn't even pick it up, I felt very sad that I didn't pick it up. Though the pead said that sometimes it is difficult to pick it up unless like now he was sick and the wheezing was loud. I thought the doctor was going to be like our other pead and tell us that he is fine as we took him the day after the wheezing was gone, only to find out that his chest was still just as tight. At least now we know what is wrong with him and we can make sure he is more comfortable then he was.

Was going to send him to school today, but my husband told me not to, so instead he went with daddy to work. He misses so much, even though he is only in Grade00, I still feel he should have gone, well at least now that he is being treated school attendance will be much better then it was, especially next year when he goes to gradeR.

WALKING

Well I have decided to do something for charity. I saw that Avon Justine is having a walk, which a few of us have decided to do. I must be crazy as I am going to be doing a 20km walk, but I really think this is also going to be a motivation for me. I am really looking forward to it. Then in November I am thinking of doing the Big Walk, but won't attempt the 80km walk just yet and me who sleeps till 6ish will never make it at 3:45am, I'll die lol. This is making me feel really good about myself. I'm motivated and can't wait to enjoy a day of walking with family and friends.

Well that is my update on my son and a little bit on what I am planing on doing in the near future. Thank you all for your kind words and inspiration, it really helps to know you have support.

Mmmm What Do I Eat, What Am I Doing

Someone asked me what I eat besides taking the Herbal Life products. Well basically this is how it goes for me during the day. In the morning I wake up, have a cup of Thermo Herbal Life Tea, 250ml water, 250ml Herbal Life Shake (vanilla) and that is my breakfast. I have been having snacks, something I usually don't do, they aren't always at the same time only when I really feel like it, then I will have either fruit or provitas with low fat cheese wedge with a cup of Thermo and another glass of 250ml water. At Lunch I have my Shake again, Thermo, 250ml water and sometimes if I really feel like something more I will have a fruit, usually an apple or naartjie. Mid Afternoon Snack Again I will have either a fruit or yoghurt or provita biscuits. Then for supper I have my main meal, now that is different each day, so I'll tell you what I had last night. Last Nights supper, was roast potatoes (didn't eat it, I am not really a fan of potatoes), roast veggies (sweet potatoes, butternut, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms and carrots), steamed gem squash, roast chicken and a salad. As I said I didn't eat the roast potatoes, but ate everything else. I weighed myself this morning and I was down 300g, which brought me down to 78.7kg. I am really proud of me, even my husband has made comments to me how proud he is that I stuck with it. He thought I would not stick to it, but I persevered and showed him that I can do it and I am nearing the end of this challenge a week and a half and then I am done with this challenge, there is a part two to it which I might do, but we will see how things go as It is far to travel every week or even every 2nd week, also I am heading towards a busy work schedule, but I feel I'd need it more as I so need to have this drive I have at the moment. I do fear I will loose it if I stop here, but I have to keep positive that is what it takes to get you where you want to be.

Yesterday was another big challenge for me. My 5 year old was again sick, same as before, wheezing, every month for 4 months he gets sick. I nebulized him last night and gave him the celestimine which he seems to be doing fine now, not too bad, I got him to eat today which was a relief, I was so happy about that, I really felt like eating the biggest slab of chocolate I could find or even indulge in loads of sweets, but I quickly put that thought aside and went for a protein bar which I have to say made me feel so much better. My husband was impressed with my stressful levels I had during last week and then yesterday, he is finding that I am managing stress so much better. I think so to, usually I will get loads of sweets and chocolates a 2lt of coke and stay in bed when I am stress and work gets left undone, but I am finding that even though I am stressed I am doing the work and it has not stagnated and left for the last minute like I usually do. I do my work and complete it. If I don't say it myself, I am very proud of my accomplishment. I still have a long way to go. I still have 10kg to loose to reach my first goal weight I have set for myself and another 20 odd kg to loose to reach a weight I want to be, but all in time I will get there. I have already lost 15.8kg, who is to say I can't loose 20kg.

One of the things that has really motivated me even more which shocked me to, was that my mom told me that she can see I lost weight. That really has motivated me even more now to eat healthier and do exercise. Talking about exercise, I have been doing it for an hour each day. I have now moved from the Tricia Penrose Body Blitz to Shaun T Hip Hop Abs and I tell you I really can feel it. I was feeling like my body was getting too use to the Body Blitz exercise, so decided to go for something new. I'll do that until I feel I am stagnating and then will move back to the Body Blitz again, but I have to admit that I have been feeling so much better now that I am exercising.

Talk about exercise, it is time for me to go and Hip Hop my way to a thinner me. Hope you enjoyed the pictures from the walk, someone asked me which one am I. I am standing next to my niece with the red hair. Mmm the one that does not look too impressed, actually I couldn't really smile, because I had a terrible rash on my face which made it feel like it was on fire, but I am ok now.

Some photo I took on our 6km walk, more like 20km (lol)

THE WEIGHT CHALLENGE GROUP MINUS 2 PEOPLE

INTO THE HOLE WE GO, SCARY LOOKING AINT IT

MY NIECE, I LIKE THIS PICTURE

SOME LEAFY PICTURE WITH WATER DROPLETS I TOOK ALONG THE WAY

EVERYONE AHEAD OF ME

OUR LEADER

THE BEAUTIFUL VIEW FROM WHERE WE RESTED

2 weeks Left

This weekend I did not get measured, but no stress, my body water came up (good), body fat came down (good), muscle index came up (good), veral fat (arround the stomach area came down, yippie (good) and I lost 1.7kg (yippee). I now weigh 79kg. I still have a long way to go, but I am getting there. I am eating a lot more healthier and I am exercising more. I have changed my exercise for Tricia Penrose Body Blitz to Shaun T's Hip Hop Abs and I have to admit that I feel great.

As a family we have even started with our own veggie garden, the kids love it and I have to admit I feel on top of the world. I am very energitic and feeling I am getting more done during the day then what I was before. I can't believe what a difference it has made in my every day life. I was under a lot of stress last week that even my face broke out and became dry, I was getting enough water eating correctly and still exercising and to my husbands suprise he said that I handled the stress very well, normally when I am under so much stress all I want to do is eat, eat, eat and all the junk foods too, but I never had that problem last week, I kept to my plan and just took each day as it came and hoped for the best. I am glad I had the power to push foods away that I did not need. I am also happy that even though I had craved chocolate I did not go for it, all the sweet stuff I avoided and I am proud to say I DID IT. What a wonderful feeling.

Hope everyone had a great week and remember just take each day as it comes, if you have a low just move on and try better the next time, don't give up or think you cannot do it, I thought that many times and still do, but I knock it out by saying I can do it, I will do it. It feels good to take my big clothes and put it in a black bag and say by to it. From a size 40 jeans, to a 38 and now a 36, what a wonderful feeling. Soon it will be less and I'll get to a smaller size before my birthday which is on the 27th October, a month and a few days time. If I can loose a kilogram a week that will be 7kg I need to loose which will bring me down to 72kg and I know I can do it, yes I can. Just need the right attitude and perseverance that I have and I can do it.