Mt Remarkable

 Rose and I headed back to Melrose.

Today was beautiful, sunny and a little warm.

The perfect day to attempt a climb of the mountain.

 Rose set the pace.

She had me almost power walking up the mountain!

 We stopped at a huge rock for a rest.

 And we climbed higher and higher.

Past the remains of a plan that crashed into the mountain in 1980.

 It took us almost 2 hours to make the 6 km climb to the summit.

My thighs were not happy.

We sat and munched on strawberries and apples.

 Rose climbed onto the top of the pile of rocks that mark the summit.

We searched for the geocache that is here but were not successful.

Might have to make the climb again.

 The scenery, fauna and flora made the ache in my body a little easier.

The kookaburras laughed at us often as we made our way back down the mountain.

We stopped at the huge rock again for a photo.

By this time it was my bum that was hurting for the downward slope.

More information HERE on the beautiful township of Melrose 

and the Mt Remarkable National Park

Renewal and new beginnings...

 This morning as I did a sprints session on the block next door.

I found the first Jonquils had flowered.

I looked up and saw the almonds in blossom too.

Spring is on it's way a time of renewal and rebirth.

Pretty fitting for me too!

I see hope everywhere these days.

My glass is more than half full.

Instead of seeing the negative, I'm see the positives in my life.

And I do have a lot of positives!

I later took Heather for a bike ride in the baby trailer.

And it suddenly hit me.

I'm not a fat woman dreaming of being fit anymore.

I am that fit fabulous woman I dreamed of being 6 months ago.

The photo quality isn't the best.

I had Fern take the photo on my iphone last night.

Pete's been away for almost 3 weeks and last night he came home.

I wore my new dress and makeup.

He was pretty impressed!

He's been warned the new wife is high maintenance!

She likes nice clothes and pretty things.

Wishing you all joy in your world today.

Dear Diary....

Since taking the comments off I feel like I'm writing a diary rather than a public blog.
I feel safer to say what I want to say in many ways.

Yesterday felt a lot like Christmas used to feel like when I was a kid. I'd anticipated and dreamed of the day so often. Thank you to everyone who sent me emails congratulating me. I could not of made such huge changes to my life without the love and support of family and friends. I do still want to stay in contact with all of you and love getting emails. Emails are so much more private and personal than comments left on the blog. I'll add my email to the side bar later for those who don't have it.

I'm doing really well at avoiding the forums. I was finding I was whining too often and being too negative. Once I wrote down my grumbles, I gave them too much power. I'm working really hard on being more positive and focusing on the fabulous in my life. I've also been really good at not spending hours on the net. I spend around 30 mins a day now. Mostly checking on Ravelry and Weight Watchers and the occasional blog post here. The kids have noticed the difference. I've been a lot more present with them.

Reaching Goal weight isn't the end just the beginning of a healthy, happy life. I'll still be at the gym most nights, because I like it! I'll still be making healthy food choices because I want to stay healthy.
Last night I ran 60 minutes on the treadmill! This morning my bum is sore and I like feeling sore, because it reminds me how hard I worked.

Yesterday I bought another new dress, got a hair cut and waxing, dyed my hair and splurged on some Mineral makeup. The biggest reward was seeing my huge smile in the mirror and knowing how far I have come and being so proud of myself for doing it.

Pete is rewarding me with a generous amount of money to go shopping with in Adelaide. I need to plan a wardrobe! I don't have many clothes left that fit. My Gym buddy dropped me around a pile of size 10 jeans as the 12's I'd bought were very baggy. I've bought a couple of nice dresses. I need new underwear desperately, my knickers keep falling down and my bras are too big to give much support. I've taken to wearing a crop over my bras to keep everything in place when I run and jump. I need to take my wedding and engagement rings to the jeweler to have them resized. My feet have also shrunk, I need smaller shoes too.

So what am I going to buy?
What is my 'style'?
Decisions, decisions....
What do I want my outwards appearance to say about me?
I want it to show a happy, confident, fit, creative, loving mum.

When I was obese I wanted to hide under polar fleece, not that it ever made me invisible. It just said I don't love me enough to make the effort to show the world who I am.

I'm scared and excited all at the same time. It's been so long since I could walk into any of those trendy clothes shops and know something would fit me. What colours do I like? What suits me?

Thanks for listening, I hope your day is filled with happiness.

Goal!!!!!!

I did it!

Time for a new hair cut and outfit.

Goodbye Obesity!

Goodbye Plus size clothing!

Goodbye Fat

Hello Fit

Hello cute little summer dresses, hurry up summer!!

Hello shorts!

Hello swim suits.

Hello health and energy.

I am NEVER going back.

Fibre clubs.

EL spun from the lock and plied with itself.

 June's Fibre clubs are all spun up.

I loved spinning both.

EL spun in the lock letting the tips hang out. Plied with silk

Incredibly soft angora bunny and silk.

Suri Alpaca and silk. Oh so yummy.

One of Kathy's beautiful batts plied with EL X Merino from Jane.

Another of Kathy's batt plied with EL from Jane

We are loving school holidays here.

School Holiday fun

The school holidays are just whizzing by.

 We've been having a cold snap here.

The fire has been needed to keep us all warm.

 It is all hands on deck when we get a firewood delivery.

 The Teen managed to get out of her PJ's to help.

 Heather helped out to.

She loves to join in.

 We've only managed one trip to the park.

It's been so cold and wet here.

 Sausage sizzles at the park are a favorite thing to do.

 We've baked and decorated cupcakes.

 And eaten them too.

 Decorating bought biscuits is a fun thing to do

when it's cold and wet outside.

I have dusted off my spinning wheel and spun up a few yarns,

while sitting in front of the fire keeping warm.

Fiber club goodness... June

English Leicester, carefully washed to preserve staple

 Jane is running two fibre clubs at present.

One is a natural Fibre club and the other Dyed.

 The July installment arrived yesterday.

I need to get some photos of it later.

My wheel has been packed away of late.

Heather is fascinated with it and likes to stretch out the springs!

Thanks to the lovely Kathy, who sent me a couple of replacement springs,

I should soon be spinning away again.

English Leicester Locks and dyed Silk Cap

After my initial dislike of spinning silk, 

with lots of practice, I've come to enjoy it.

The more I practice the better I get.

My new project is...

HERE

With project BIG almost at goal I needed another challenge.

The stash of Hand spun yarn is increasing quicker than I can knit it

I need to find some of it a new home,

and more space for all my fluff!

Day 2 and 3 Of school Holidays.

 Day 2 - Sunday

Rose had a sleep over guest.

Too wet to go the park again so we settled for an itunes movie on the AppleTV

We all enjoyed chocolate dipped strawberries.

I worked them out at 1 ProPoint each.

5 ProPoints later.....

They were nice.

 We had to use white chocolate.

Mr Nobody had visited again and all the 

milk chocolate had disappeared from the fridge.

The usual culprit is in Tennant Creek!

 Day 3 - Monday

Another wet day.

We dug out some art and craft supplies and got creative.

 The teen didn't make it out of her PJ's ..again.

 

Michael had fun with some stickers.

I discovered, Shape Wear avoids the muffin top!
I need to sit down and do some wardrobe planning soon.

I'm looking forward to some serious clothes shopping when Pete gets home.

Running, jumping and playing

I've fought depression on and off most of my adult life.

Being obese didn't help.

Does depression cause weight gain or does weight gain cause depression?

Who knows? but the two are very strongly linked.

Interesting read HERE

Getting fit and healthy to live an active happy life

is not just about losing weight.

I need to do something about my mental health too.

If I don't work on my mental health then the chances are I'll end up undoing all my hard work of getting to goal weight.

When I watched 'The Biggest Loser' this year the thing that struck me the most was how the participants got happier as their weight went down.

They grew in confidence and self esteem.

I realised that losing weight isn't only a physical process it's also a mental one.

 My mental health and my physical health are interdependant.

Getting physically healthy and staying there means I need to get mentally healthy too.

I need to stop the negative self talk.

I need to work on developing positive self esteem.

Getting active is more effective in helping people with depression than the drugs!

Interesting read HERE

I love running. Something I thought I'd never say.

I can now run for 60 minutes at 7.5km/h!

I started with the C25K programme

and I'm now using the Bridge to 10k.

The feeling I get when I finish a run is so wonderful.

I come off that treadmil so proud and happy with myself.

I love that I'm doing something I thought I could never do.

When I first started I struggled to run the 1 minute.

It took me 4 weeks to complete the first week!

At Week 3 I was ready to give up, I just couldn't do the 3 minutes.

What got me thought is some great advice to slow it down, just work on getting the motion going.

Plus my self talk ....

"Woman, You have birthed 7 times! You can do this! Just get on with it and stop your whining!"

After the intial physical challenges of getting my body to run 

I found comes the mental one.

Once my body was used to the running motion,

the mental battle started to keep me going.

I now feel like I'm winning the mental battle too.

Change is hard but the rewards are worth it.

Losing weight and getting healthy are just an hour a day.

You can do it too.

School Holiday fun

 First day of the school holidays.

It was wet and cold outside, so no trip to the park today.

Instead the kids organised themselves to make biscuits.

Wendy bought them  a cookie cutter set with over 100 cutters in it.

 Everyone helped with Rose directing the action.

She's a little bossy... I wonder where she gets that from?

 Michael joined in, 

as you can see by the amount of flour on his jacket.

 No one thought to wipe the table down afterwards!

The kids played table tennis a lot during the day.

And now they have decided not to play a competition but to aim for the longest rally,

the fighting has eased.

 The teen never managed to get out of her PJ's!

The biscuits were iced and shared out.

I had a little nibble and they were nice.

Can you see my hand weights on the bench?

I keep them in the kitchen for when I have a couple of minutes.

I use them to do exercises like these, while I'm waiting for things to cook.

I get a few sets in during the day without feeling like I'm exercising.

What you give out, is what you get back.

 With spending less time on the computer. 

I'm doing more with the kids and house.

When I'm restless I would normally head to the computer to entertain me 

now I'm looking for other options.

Yesterday Heather, Michael and I headed out shopping.

Things went well for a little while.

We had a lovely morning tea. 

Vanilla slice for the kids and a skinny cap for me.

The kids were happy and I was happy.

Then I went into Kmart to have a browse in the clothes section.

Michael didn't want to be there. 

He was bored, it wasn't what he wanted to do so he made up a game.

He was using the clothes aisles as a maze.

And three times I lost him.

There was no way I could look at anything,

he'd disappear on me as soon as my attention was off him.

I hadn't brought Monkey with me!

Monkey is a backpack with a tail attached that I can hold.

I like Monkey as it means I don't lose him.

I have been told using Monkey is like putting a dog on a lead!

Well today with no Monkey, Michael disappeared 3 times in Kmart.

Then when I was at the checkout waiting to be served he ran off again.

I eventually caught him at the front doors of the mall.

Michael won't let me hold his hand and I'm pushing a stroller with Heather in it,

I can't keep all my attention on Michael.

Ok, thinks I, I can solve this.

I put the stroller back in the car and loaded Healther and Michael into a trolley.

I still had food shopping to do.

Michael did not want to be in the trolley!

 Tantruming 3 year olds in supermarkets, are not fun.

There is always the older woman who looks at you like you are the worse mother she has ever seen.

Yes, after 14 years of being a mother and having 7 kids you'd think I'd know better but I did it anyway.....

"Michael if you don't behave, we will not go to the park!"

Can you guess what happened next?

 " I WANT TO GO THE PARK!"

was screamed for the next 10 minutes.

It got me thinking. 

We really do get back what we put out.

I was angry and frustrated with Michael 

and Michael was giving me that anger and frustration back.

 While In Kmart I bought a table tennis net, bats and balls.

School holidays are starting here and I want to give the kids something fun and active to do.

When the kids got home from school they were so excited to see the new table tennis set up.

There was about 30 minutes of happy cooperative play.

Then it started, they made rules.

The competition starts and the fights began.

One child screams, then another.

Then the tears come.

Lots of "It's not fair"

And finally, "I hate YOU!"

Emotions are contagious,

When we are happy, others smile back.

When we are angry with others, others are angry back.

When we hit out at someone, they tend to hit back at us.

When we say mean things to others, they tend to say mean things back.

When we are negative around others, others are negative back.

Many a time I've been guilty of taking part in the negative game.

You know the sort of conversation.

 "My life is so hard, I have 2 toddlers and they never stop!"

"I have a teenager who ..... plus a toddler."

and on and on the conversation goes with each person adding to the negative game.

Then somehow it turns into a competition to be the one with the most negatives!

And then the fights.

What we put out, is really what we get back.

If we put out negativity, then we get it back!

The best solution is to avoid the problem in the first place.

To avoid being negative and entering the negative game.

And if I end up sucked in then I need

to let go and move on.

While at Kmart I also bought a couple of kites 

and a badminton net and games set.

I'm looking forward to many happy days in the park being active with the kids.

And maybe we can teach each other some conflict resolution skills!

You gotta have goals!

1st of March 2005, over 105kgs!

Bronnie asked, "Couldn't you find a worst before photo?"

Well Bronnie, I CAN!

I've been asked many times, "How have you done it?"

So here it is, I've put together a few of my blog posts from my Weight Watcher blog.

If you are bored with life, if you don't get up every morning with a burning desire to do things--you don't have enough goals. ~ Lou Holtz Quotes

When I started 5 months ago I wrote down my goals.
Writing my goal made it specific in what I wanted to achieve.

I thought about the reasons why I wanted to achieve my goals.
My biggest reason is my kids. I want to be healthy and fit to be the best mum I can be for them. I want to teach them how to be healthy and fit so they too can live happy, healthy lives and bring up healthy children. 
Losing weight has nothing to do with WILL power. That's right! I finally figured it out in my head. Loosing weight has nothing to do with Will Power. It's all about Want Power.
I Want to be fit and healthy.
I Want to live a long life, to see my children grow to be adults.
I Want to see my grandbabies born.
I Want to be an energetic Grandmother who's children will shake their heads and tell off for traipsing all over the world. And as badly as I WANT all this is how hard I am going to work at getting it. There are no more excuses. I WANT it all and to get all of this I NEED to look after ME. It's selfish of me not too. My kids need me, my future grandbabies will NEED me and I NEED to be here for them. The selfish thing to do would have been to continue to ignore my own health needs. To continue to let my weight get out of control.  My health is my NUMBER ONE priority. It's not about losing weight to look good, it's about being the healthiest I can be. My Dad died at 60 from cancer. My youngest will only be 16 when I'm 60! If I can now make myself as healthy as I can be I'll have a much better chance of fighting any illness that may come later in my life. I'm telling you all, it's not about having will power, it's about having what you want and need. Work as much as you want to be healthy, fit and energetic and you'll do it too!

I made a plan for how I was going to achieve my goal.
I joined WW, I found the time for exercise. I read lots from the WW site about healthy lifestyles. I tracked my food and learned about my food choices. I got the support of Peter, he gives me the time to exercise each day by looking after the kids while I go the gym. When he's away for work I walked each night back and forth on the road in front of our house while the kids were sleeping and later as my fitness improved I rode my bike with the two little ones in the baby trailer.

I set myself a deadline for my goals and broke my big goals down to smaller goals.
I set a weekly weigh in and dates for my fitness goals. Giving myself  a specific time to reach each goal. I worked out little goals to help me get to my big goal. I broke my weight goal down to weekly and monthly amounts. By achieving my little goals I know I'm on track to getting to the big goal. Like eating elephants it's one bite at a time. This stopped me getting overwhelmed by how BIG the goal was.
I bought myself a size 16 dress from the op-shop which was too small and every morning I tried it on. I got excited when the buttons fastened. Once that was fitting I bought a Size 14 skirt. 
I set myself challenges for my fitness. I started the C25K programme and used a programme on the exercise bike and aimed at bettering my times.

I revisited my goals often and changed them as I needed to.
I decided 60kgs might be too low a weight for me and reset to 65kg. I moved back my date for the 5km run. Now I've moved my fitness goal to 10kms.

Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star.
W. Clement Stone

I have rewarded myself along the way with new clothes and time to myself. With 7 kids time to myself is a treat. Pete looks after the kids while I have my 'mummy days off'. I take myself off to nearby towns and go for long walks on my own.

I am only 700gms from goal and I need to think about my next set of goals. I need to start working on my self confidence and self worth issues because if I don't I'll end up back where I was. I'll continue to bury my feelings with food instead of speaking up and saying how I feel. I need to kick the 'need to please' and learn to be true to myself.

So have you set your goals yet?
Have you given yourself a great reason for getting to your goal?
Have you written your goals down?
Have you a plan on how you are going to achieve your goals?
And how are you going to reward yourself for meeting your goals?