Down Down I'm Going Down!!

I have been meaning to update you on my weight loss for a while now, but I have had other things to blog about, work's been busy bla bla.

Anyways, so last week was the 8 week or 2 month mark, when I wanted to be down to 65kgs.

Unfortunately, I didn't make it there...I did however lose 1.3kgs in that one week and get down to 66.1kgs.

Victory!

This week, after Melbourne, China Bar, Kebabs and all.. I managed to drop another 800grams and get down to 65.3kgs!

MORE THAN HAPPY WITH THAT!

I have now lost 5kgs exactly in 9 weeks.

I have lost of 7.1% my body weight.

I am not sure what has suddenly "kicked in" these past couple of weeks, but I am loving it and must continue to exercise (skipped a couple of days this week).

I know my journey to the aisle is not just about losing the kgs, it is also about getting smaller, toning up and in general looking my best on the big day, so I thought I'd show you something else..

This is me wearing my Bettina Liano high waisted jeans in Melbourne.

When I wore these jeans prior to starting 12WBT or in the first few weeks of the program, I would have red marks across my stomach and obliques from where they would cut in. I believe one day at work, I even undid them for a while, because they hurt me so much.

This is how the jeans fit as of last weekend.

It makes me proud seeing this.

I am getting Sarah back.

Why did I just start singing I'm bringing sexy back in my head?

bahaha.

Don't you think that watching your clothes fit better is so much more satisfying then what the scales say?

.....them other boys don't know how to act....

Down South

I had the most amazing weekend with A down south.

Before he moved to Melbourne we had been seeing each other every day, living with our friends and probably without even noticing it.. slightly taking each other for granted..

Well 2 weeks apart is a quick-slap-in-the-face way to fix that!!
 

From the moment I saw A at the station I really couldn't stop smiling and felt a whole new lease of energy, as A pointed out all the important things, and things he has discovered.

 

 2 of those things - Melbourne city doesn't have many McDonalds and you have an overload of pie face!!! Do melbournians really go there? I love pies but find pie face too overpriced and not that fantastic.

Anyways so Thursday night I saw his apartment and went to crown for my late night dinner - a dip plate MmmmMM! I could easily eat this most nights. soo much dip yummmmmm

A also gave me a present to congratulate me on Dat Girl-  A Mimco clutch.

I love it and this photo doesn't do it justice!

I'll probably take it out this weekend and try and get a better photo.

On Friday A was at work, so like a good little girl I worked out in his gym :)

The view made it that much easier.

Then I grabbed a massive chai and hit DFO - what a perfect day!!!!

This what I wore shopping.

Portman's Knit

Bettina Liano Jeans

Boots and Scarf - who knows?

This is my haul... I bought a new guess wallet, some bras from La Sensa ,a dress n top from Witchery, basic tops from Cotton on and a sparkly black clutch.

Like my new wallet? I wanted somethign bright!

After dropping off my goodies, I picked A up from work and we headed to

Allumbra for "catch up" drinks.

With all the seasons in one day Melbourne showed me, it's not surprising this beautiful rainbow popped up.

 

This is catch up drinks when you're both boozers lol.

 

Not much more to report on the rest of the night except some awesome kebabs, a TV show where you had to guess who's gay or straight and passing out with the light and TV on.

Don't you find it freaky when you can't remember going to sleep like that? I do and I always wake up in a daze... Trying to piece together the final moments of the night! I always say something stupid too like, "but I don't remember falling asleep...".

Sat started off with a trip to the Queen VIctoria markets, I begged to go to

South Melbourne because Holly suggested it, but A insisted it was the same and wanted to show me'the ones he found :)

Still awesome.

This lady was making Gozleme near the markets and ohh my it was so yummy and cheap.

After some shopping, we hit China Bar HOOORAHhh!!

We got there at 1:30pm and the lunch shift finishes at 3, I looked at A and asked "are you sure that's enough time?". He just laughed at me.

These desserts were soo yummy, but I started to feel full early on.

I was cursing the gozleme and everything else I ate in the days leading up to China Bar.

The Pork Belly was delicious, but I didn't save enough room for Cheese..

next time Cheese will be first!

There will be a next time. haha.

Didn't get much of this bar either.

yum yum dumplings in my tum.

my dessert plate.

The strawberry mousse was amazing and I went back for seconds, before an icecream dipped in chocolate - mmmm

After A granted my China Bar wish, I granted his Game Masters wish..

I actually really enjoyed it! They had all kinds of games from old school Pacman to new 3D games.

I made A do singstar and dance connect.. if we were playing games, all sense of dignity was going out the window!

For Saturday nights dramas - see my last post lol.

Once we were smiling again on Sunday we decided to check out the immigration museum and I'm glad we did. I don't go to museums much but I really enjoyed this one... I enjoyed the displays and the message it was sending out.

We found some things humorous :)

After lunch we did some more shopping and I scored another top and 2 pairs of work shoes, boring but necessary.

We picked up these cupcakes from Joy after lunch, they look cute, but I have to say they were probably the most flavourless cupcakes I have ever purchased. My red velvet tasted like nothing more than a regular sponge.

Another stint at Crown and then it was time to look after my boy... Set up the washing, cook him a mass batch of pasta to freeze and then get as Many last minute cuddles in as I could!!!

I didn't want to leave Monday mining but A will be back in Sydney this weekend so it's not so bad ;) ;)

Bedroom

I had a realllly quiet Saturday!

After dropping my flatmate off at the airport (he went to see A - bromance or what?), I was home alone for the rest of the day and night. This led to a lot of cleaning, organising, chucking crap out, wearing tracky dacks, eating meat pies (3 on one weekend) and making furniture.

I started Saturday off with a super session workout, which made me feel like I was going to vom. I didn't eat much on the Friday or at all before I worked out, so I'm sure this didn't help. The wines on Friday night MAY have had something to do with it too..

I did...

 75 burpees

100 lunges on each leg

100 mountain climbers on each leg

100 box jumps

and about a 5k run.

After the airport drop off, I hit the shopping centre for much needed bits and pieces, grabbed a Chai latte (obsessed) and went into Sarah mission mode!

I chucked out a whole trolley worth of stuff just from our bedroom, I dusted until the dust was scared to come back, did all the laundry and made furniture for our new soon to be vamped up lounge room (post when it's done).

I felt really good when I finished everything and the room looked great. I realised I hadn't shown you our bedroom since we moved out... so here it is....

We bought this lil gem of a shoe holder from Homemart. It is currently empty, because we have to wall mount it, but how awesome is it?

Bedside lamps - one of our engagement presents from Mum

I haven't finished this off yet, but you get the idea

Another engagement present (TV) and A's star wars shrine haha

The picture above our bed - it's from a nightclub in Vegas. I made this canvas for A on our one year anniversary.

As part of my organising, I even put my new business cards in the holder my mum bought me for graduation.

It felt good to stay home for a weekend, organise my life and get sh$t done, but now I am ready to go play again :)

2 more sleeps until I see A!! wooo hoo!

Any must do things for Melbourne? anyone?

Giveaway and Ramblings

First of all, a big thank you to everyone for their kind words and advice on my wedding makeup trial.. I loved it at the time and my stupid head was starting to get to me, so thank you for making it go away! :)

Secondly... the GIVEAWAY is ending tonight, so get your entry in. I swear it takes two seconds (ok not literally two seconds, but it's quick and easy - like a frozen pie) and at the moment there is only one entry so your chances of a FREE blu-ray are pretty darn high if you ask me. Enter now by clicking here.

Now on to my ramblings...

A left me on Sunday. Not left left me, but left me to live in Melbourne for a few months. I was pretty good at the airport until he was going on to the plane and I couldn't stop hugging him, I kept making him go to the back of the line and when I looked over his shoulder I saw a lady smiling at us, that was it.... the crying started!! It hit me- I won't be on this adventure with him! It's hard, but I'm proud of him and happy for him.

Since A has been gone though, I have not been sleeping well at all. Night 1 - scary scary nightmare. Nights 2 & 3 - restless sleeps and Night 4 - another nightmare.

WTF<>?!

 I thought I would be in starfish heaven having our huge lush bed all to myself, but damn it I can't freaking sleep!!

I had a weight gain this week, but that was expected it was the "monthly gain".

Despite my gain, yesterday was still an awesome day, because I did two things I previously thought were impossible....

I ran for 26minutes straight without stopping (remember my previous celebration of 20 minutes?)

ANNND..

I finally did a pole dancing trick, the upside down V that I have been trying to do for FOR-EVER!

oKK.. so I still haven't perfected it and my hips need to be up higher, I need to have more strength in my landing and stop sliding, but the last one's the poles fault lol and it is only the third time right here, I just took the video to show my friend who didn't believe me. You can here my excitement at the end :P

What's everyone got planned for the weekend?

I am off to see Anh Do tomorrow night, but that's about it for this weekend..... I'm keeping it low key before I head off to Melbourne next weekend (yaaahooooo!)

Here's a funny heading in to Friday... I saw it on FB.



Sooo close.. yet so far

Like I said in my last post about my weight loss journey, I am getting serious about this stuff now and I am going to post about it to keep me on track - so I hope you enjoy reading it too!!

The first ever time I did 12WBT was 2 years ago when I returned from my exchange program in Canada. I didn't tell anyone (except A and my family) that I was doing it and I didn't do it with anyone. I didn't want the embarrassment if yet another "fad" didn't work out or people to know that I was following a celebrity trainer.

 I chose the outdoor program to keep my costs low, but I decided I would put all my trust in Michelle Brydges and follow her program exactly and that's what I did.

I remember looking at some of the exercises and thinking "yeah right, as if I can do that", but I did it nonetheless. I did them by myself in the park and I didn't care how long it took me to finish each round, I did it.

Before I knew it, my mentally had changed. I would arrange to meet friends for coffee and not dinner (to avoid bad choices), I would only go out after my exercise had been completed each night and I would wake up on a Saturday morning ready to run, ready to complete super Saturday session. 

After a few months I couldn't keep this program a secret anymore, because people were commenting on how I looked and asking what I was doing. I wasn't ashamed anymore and I told the whole world what I was doing, as I explained to them the different calories in each food item and my new hate for food courts.

After I finished the first round, a friend joined me for the second round of 12WBT.

From those two rounds, I lost an amazing 15kgs. I didn't realise how well I had done or how good I was looking, I just knew I felt amazing and I felt like this was the new Sarah.

I posted this picture on Facebook at the time and my friends couldn't believe it.

(I use to mess up A's room like this everytime I visited lol)

I then went off the program and tried to do it on my own and I did.... for a good 6months, I gained no weight at all... then I gained a little bit and lost a little bit.

Unfortunately, I am now currently 6kgs heavier than I was then. I am not completely back to my starting point, but I am not happy either. The thing that makes losing weight so hard now (and this may seem funny to you) is that I only have 6kgs to go... this changes my mentality tremendously!!!!! I see some lollies at work and I think oohh one won't hurt, after all I don't need to lose 15kgs this time, right???

I see myself having this mentality and I hate it. I need to imagine I have 100kgs to go.

I think it is this mentality that makes it so difficult to "lose the last 5kgs".

But no, not anymore sister, this is a turning point and yes there have been several posts on me turning myself around and that is because I am trying to reinforce it every time I say it.

Your healthy weight is not always what a BMI tracker tells you  (e.g. Muscley men are usually seen as overweight) or some Facebook app, to me it is when I FEEL healthy, fit and on top of my game.

6kgs to go!!!

Weigh in Wednesday

Okay.. so I wasn't going to do my weigh in every week like I did last round, but then I thought to myself if I blog it, I can't lie.

I actually weigh in on Tuesdays, because I am at my mum's house every Wed morning, but weigh in Tuesday doesn't have the same ring to it. haha

So here it is...

This week I gained 500grams. :(

I was expecting a gain, it is that time of the month and that NEVER goes well for me! (sorry if this is too much info) but usually on the first day I gain a MASSIVE 2kgs! In addition to that I have the added cravings to eat our entire cupboard and the chocolate aisle of Woolies- whyyy? why?! Like the PMS isn't enough we have to deal with gaining weight as well?!!

I am annoyed because I was on such a good run and I was picturing my skinny self, but i'm not going to let myself get down because of this.

I have a goal of loosing 3kgs at the 4week mark... that is next Tuesday, I can still do it!

So far this week I had a cardio session on Monday, pole dancing last night and i'll have pilates today at lunch time.

I have eaten well this week, with only a slight mishap of a slice of cake on Monday morning.

Already by writing about the cake I feel like I have made progress... is that weird? When I don't tell people that I missed a training session or ate badly then I feel like it didn't happen.. I can just forget about it completely.

I can't just keep riding the waves anymore, I need to go back to old Sarah... after all it was on my 2012 to do list- hehe

Tomorrow I have lunch with a friend and on Sunday I have a christening, these will be my biggest challenges food wise this week, but I think I can make the right choices.

Roast Beef sandwhich made by A yesterday

Here is my plan for the next few days exercise wise:

Wednesday - pilates and practice pole dancing at night

Thursday - 12WBT weight training IN THE MORNING

Friday - cardio (because I do pilates on Wednesdays at work, I swap the exercises around)

Saturday - super session

Sunday- my friend Alessia is coming over to practice our pole routine

I really need to change the batteries in my heart rate monitor too, because I feel like i'm dying but the gym machines never seem to recognise that.

How are the other 12WBTers going?

Gettin' my Body Back!

The second thing for me to do in 2012 is to get my body back!! I have lost the weight before so I know what works and I know how to do it, the problem is just making myself do that and to not get fooled into thinking that I still look how I use to (harsh but true).

In the spirit of gettin' my body back, I went for a run on Monday and hit the gym last night. I have also been making sure that I am eating the right stuff. I will share the recipes I whipped up last night in a following post.

Another thing I have decided to do is to say NO to soft drink!! I love a good glass of coke or Pepsi, but I know the damage it is doing. Leading up to our engagement party, I banned myself from soft drink for two weeks and it did wonders. If I give it up completely like that again I will never make it, so I will make soft drinks a weekend drink, except for the occasional V needed to get me through the working week ;) I think cutting out the sugary drinks will also lead to more water drinking, which I am horrible at.

I have also joined the 1 million kilo challenge, after reading about it on Running in Cute Heels. It seems like a free alternative to the 12wbt program, which I loved so I am super keen to begin. It provides you with exercise and eating programs.

I will be posting about my progress.