the journey..............

this is potentially a long post without photos.............but its one I want to write as a record for me and if you make it to the end well i'm not sure what it will be for you maybe some motivation because if I can do it anyone can do it......anyway here I go..........

I've thought long and hard about whether to write this post...........but I want it for my record.........it's my little spot in the world..........at times I wished I had written a blog along the way..........

3 years ago I started a journey..........didn't think where I would be in 3 years at all.........what i wanted to do was buy a Fitbit........I tried a few pedometers and they didn't work or I knocked them off my waist band and they cleared the step total.........I tried a couple of mobile apps but they varied way to much so I wiped them............late August 2014 I finally got a Fitbit flex..............

I had one simple goal to do 10,000 steps/day to make myself fitter.......its the bench mark they all recommend...........

My first walk was with my friend Jannimary............I remember that walk so well............OMG it was terrible...........she had some up and down country at the time............I live on the flats............I could not say they were hills but just a bit of a rise in our walk and I was puffed and it was terrible.........could barely talk walking..............NOW I cannot believe I let myself get so unfit and unhealthy..........but weight just slowly  creeps on an suddenly wham...........

I will never forget that first walk..........

So the first week I didn't do anything extra except for that walk to get a bit of a base reading of what i normally did............I was way under the 10,000 step goal...........so I got moving.......I walked out the wrong door and the long way around the house to the clothes line...........parked further away at the shops..........just tried to add in incidental walking..............do an extra lap around the house when I went out to do something...........if I was ironing I would take one item to a room at a time.........just picked up what I could where and you know all those extra steps slowly added up...........I would do short walks.............

then I paid a little more attention to my Fitbit..............it was  also showing me how many calories I may have burnt during the day............

I started looking at labels on food and thinking OMG I just walked for X amount of time and it burnt off X amount of calories.....I cannot possible walk enough time today to walk off those calories...............so I stopped eating some foods I needed to wipe out anyway.............I started looking at my meal sizes........not really much about what was on my plate but how much was there.........

At this point I was weighing myself weekly.........I found this was difficult for me.........some weeks I thought I had been good and I would not lose much or put some on...........I was losing dedication to the steps.............I started weighing myself daily.............for me this is something I would have never thought i would do but for me it works..........your weight is constantly up and down.............so long as it goes up and down in a downward direction that is all that is important..........

I started walking..........actual walks.........to start it was to the gate...........then  the ramp.......then the dam......then it was minimum 10-15 mins.......it was coming into summer...........I love walking at sunrise or sunset..............for about 5 months I didn't even really walk in joggers..........mainly slip on thongs............my girlfriend gave me a good pair of joggers she didn't fit right and OMG it was like heaven...........so much better then the crappy ones I had............. 

I slowly started changing what I ate..........and how much of it..............

there have been ups and downs along the way...........

major life crisises/changes.........

sometimes things were easy to do............somethings felt impossible............

I'd fall over so to speak but then pick myself up again and get back on track..........

I ended up seeing a natropath/nutritionist.............for me this has been wonderful............something I would recommend........not a dietitian.......they are different and better in my opinion..........

my health is so much better...........some foods just don't agree with my body...........life is better without them...........

Walking comes and goes..........over winter it is a little harder......days are shorter..........excuses easier to find.........I've discovered i still have crappy knees but know how to manage them.........also found out I have exercise asthma.........walking is like stitching for me........it's like therapy.......it is crazy but using energy to walk actually creates more energy.........revitalises you........

I've thrown out a ridiculous amount of clothes.........heaps to a friend who lost her home...........as I have lost weight i've brought new clothes and the feeling when you realise you have grown out of those is amazing..........while I look at photos I still can't really picture myself  then to now...........how big I really was.........anyway it's still a work in progress.............I still weigh myself daily............a few months ago I tried not weighing myself daily and for a month or two just did it weekly if at all and really that does not work for me........it's much easier to see the daily changes and I pull my head in much quicker.................you have to adapt what you eat or how you eat it.........think outside the square a bit to get what you want.........

ie. if I have a hamburger I still have it but just on a plate instead of in a bun..........don't add the chips to the plate.........

I drink tea, green tea, lemon and ginger tea (thanks Kris), soda water with lemon and water........I drink limited coffee.........at times I have gone months without it.............

1/4 of me is gone.........my body is healthier, I am heaps fitter then what I was, I have much more energy, I am not tired like I used to be........some of that was weight related but some due to other issues I had with my body which we have sorted out along the way.........

Winter is nearly done and the days are starting to open out so walking will be much easier again..............excuses will be harder to find........

i've challenged myself in ways with food and exercise............amazed myself with what I have achieved along the way..........

I've probably said to much here and forgotten some points I wanted to put in here............I've been writing this post in my head for ages but as I hit the 3 year mark I decided I needed to get it down on a page for me............

I wanted to change what and how I ate for the better permanently..........life changes...........not just for the minute changes that don't last.......changes that will stay with me............it has been a slow transformation but one that will stay with me hopefully forever.......

to celebrate I brought a new Fitbit HR and next time I am away shopping I need a new pair of joggers.....i've worn these ones out.....my journey continues

my words of advice........

go take that first step...........

take baby steps to start with in food or exercise........

make changes you can keep........

massive changes suddenly I think are to hard to stick with........
slow and steady wins the race............

thanks for reading if you made it his far.........

Goodluck.......

Catch you later......

Chookyblue.........