A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Dinner....

Hello loyal readers, (all two of you!) I’m sure you’ve all been missing me! Well forgive my absenteeism, but I have been busy with the end of school. I’ve been sticking to my diet, (see stats below) so I haven’t not being writing out of shame.

So anyway, a funny thing indeed did happen on the way to dinner recently. Whilst on holidays in June, my boyfriend of almost 10 years asked me to marry him! Of course I said yes! I’m so excited about officially recognising our relationship and I can’t wait to throw an awesome party to celebrate with my nearest and dearest...

So every girls dream is coming true for me... except every girls dream is really my ultimate nightmare...

As we’ve been dating for so long, there’s no need to wait, so we’ve booked our wedding for early 2010. I’m getting my dress made for me by a lovely old school friend who works for one of Australia’s top bridal ateliers’ (whom I won’t name is case she’s not allowed to work on the sly!) but I need to have the final material cut in November. Which means I have three months to get to my goal weight of 65kg.

Possible? I guess. Healthy? – NO!

So what to do readers? Should I accept my ‘big boned’ status and embrace being the Australian version of Beth Ditto? Do I accept that I won’t be that ‘princess’ that every girl sees themselves as being on their wedding day? Or do I go hell for leather on the Cabbage Soup Diet and hope to drop another 20kgs in three months?

An unhealthy lifestyle and excessive stress got me to where I am today, so I’m determined to lose weight in a healthy manner. However I don’t want to be unable to look at my wedding photos because I’m too ashamed of my size.

So please leave some comments on what you think I should do. That, and any suggestions you have to help me achieve my goal in such a short period of time. Or the name of any good plastic surgeon who will work for free :)

Until next time,

Maraccas xoxo

Start Weight: 90kgs

Current Weight: 86kg (10kgs to go until I'm back in a healthy weight range)

Height: 175cm

Current BMI: 28.1 ( Only three and one 'points' until I'm back in a healthy weight range)

Goal weight: 65kg

PS. Since my last post I've gone out and bought myself a new pair of jeans - in a size 14!! Yay!!

A State of Behind

I was watching an episode of Sex and The City the other day where Miranda realises she can fit in to her skinny jeans, having lost weight from ‘becoming a single mom and having no time to eat.’ In the words of Samantha, that’s not a diet I’ll be trying, but it did make me realise I have a pair of jeans in my cupboard that I’ve been hanging on to for some time in the hope that I’d fit in to them.

They’re not my skinny jeans, in fact they’re ones that I bought because I didn’t fit in to my size 12’s anymore, but I think I must have bought them on a day where I had the flu, because even though they were my ‘fat jeans’ I haven’t been able to fit in to them since I purchased them a couple of years ago. Very depressing when you can’t even fit in to your fat clothes.

Anyway, this morning when I was packing for the gym, I went to grab my regular jeans, (the now regular ones, not my 12’s), when I had this epiphany that I might actually be able to fit in to my fat skinny jeans! My day to day jeans now consist of a series of patches held together by the remnants of what was once material, but I have been holding out on buying a new pair until I could fit back in to a 14.

Standing in the change rooms this morning after my workout was a moment of excitement filled with trepidation. Although I knew I had lost weight having weighed myself earlier, I still didn’t know if my skinny fat jeans would fit me. I slipped them on and.... they fit! In fact, not only did they fit, but they’re almost what I’d call loose!!!!! And because I haven’t been able to wear them since I bought them they still have that brand new jeans stiffness, which means when they’ve been worn a few times they’ll actually need a belt!

So although I haven’t bought a new pair of jeans, I’ve gained a new pair. And although I might not look as hot as Miranda did in her skinny jeans in that episode of SATC, I certainly feel some of that positive outlook Miranda did when she fit back in to her jeans.

Unfortunately, in my excitement of the possibility of maybe fitting in to my jeans, I didn’t quite pack my gym bag properly and forgot my bra. The new svelte me was lost a little when I had to leave the change rooms with my boobs tucked in to my new skinny jeans......

Till next time,

Maraccas xoxox

Start Weight: 90kgs

Current Weight: 88kg (9kgs to go until I'm back in a healthy weight range)

Height: 175cm

Current BMI: 28.7 ( Only three and a bit 'points' until I'm back in a healthy weight range)

Goal weight: 65kg

The Diet Question...

Have you ever watched that show, ‘You Are What You Eat’? That Scottish woman with a mean case of short people syndrome gets amazing results for the people she bullies in to losing weight!

The results might be amazing but she has them eating the strangest food, (well, strange to me anyway). Looking over her website, there’s recipes such as ‘Simple carrot, leek and kelp soup’ or chicory, dulse and avocado salad’ (is chicory and dulse British words? Maybe that’s why it sounds strange to me). Add to the mix contestants who are:

a) Generally financially strained
b) Time poor; and
c) Never really eaten healthily before

and I wouldn’t be surprised to find out their weight came back on after the camera’s stopped rolling and someone stopped cooking for them and paying for their groceries.

That’s one thing I hate about going on a ‘diet’. In my experience they don’t take in to account the time and financial restraint they put on the user. It’s fine if you’re Gwyneth Paltrow and have the money to hire someone to cook for you, but what do the rest of us mere mortals do? (Actually I have a feeling that many a diet are created specifically to lead to failure so that we then go out and comfort eat/ shop/ drink… but that’s a different story)

I once tried the Cabbage Soup Diet, as I was going to Spain for a beach holiday and wanted to drop a couple of KG before I left. The diet basically consists of you eating bowls and bowls of cabbage soup to lose weight. The diet works really well – just ask any POW who is on the same diet! Anyway, it worked but all that sun and sangria and tapas made me stack the weight back on fairly quickly.

So, as much as I HATE prescribed diets, I have actually started following one that I think it quite legit – the CSIRO Health and Well Being diet. The book claims it’s more of a ‘lifestyle’ than a diet, but apparently it is also the only scientifically proven diet to actually help you lose weight whilst maintaining nutritional guidelines. It’s also designed to help you maintain your healthy weight range once you achieve it.

Being amazingly recalcitrant , I still can’t possibly let some book tell me what to do, so I can’t say that I’m following it to the letter. However, it is making me think a lot more about my food choices and portion sizes. For example, I’ve already hit my carbs target for today but I’m really tired this evening, so will go home and cook pasta. However, I’ll have a smaller serving than usual and make a salad or some veggies to go along with it – maybe a Chicory, dulse and avocado salad!

I guess the basis of the CSIRO diet is really about eating well and moving your body. Sounds simple I know….

Until next time,

Maraccas xoxo

The stats:

Start Weight: 90kgs

Current Weight: 89kgs (10kgs to go until I'm back in a healthy weight range)

Height: 175cm

Current BMI: 29 (One whole number away from obesity! Only four more 'points' until I'm back in a healthy weight range

Goal weight: 65kg

PS. So I know 1kg isn't a huge weight loss achievement, but you have to celebrate the little things. Also, apparently to burn 1kg you need to burn 5000kj a day for a week. Imagine grabbing 1kg block of butter and shlepping it on your thighs - That's how much I've lost!!

PPS. Thanks to everyone posting comments so far. I really appreciate the motivation and love!

The diary of a fatty Maraccas

So here it is – I’m a fatty. Yes, I’ve always said I’m big boned, and in photos I suck my guts in and my friends tell me I’m ‘beautiful’, (which in girl talk translates to 'You're fat but we still love you'), but at the end of the day, after all the gut sucking and Nancy Gantz wearing in the world one truth remains – I’m a fatty fat fat.

It seems all my life I’ve lamented my size and weight problems. From being in primary school and my ‘friend’ telling me I had to play the fat person role in make believe to now where I can’t stand next to my sister in photos because:

1) It's embarrassing for both of us that someone so thin could be related to someone so large and

2)I fill up the frame;

it’s a constant battle that I am yet to win.

Do I blame hormones, genetics, a slow metabolism, stress or society’s expectations for me to be a size 0 for my weight problem? Well, I could, but really I think the most likely cause for my weight problem is none of these things, but rather due to my incredibly bad diet and my amazingly sedimentary lifestyle!

So why am I telling you this? Well I’ve had a Dr. Phil moment in my life where I realised I need to ‘get real’ about my weight loss. As much as I love being curvy, (which I really do), and as much as I love sitting at home on a Saturday watching DVD’s instead of going to the gym, at the end of the day my health is in jeopardy if I continue down this road. So rather than continue to buy clothes from the fat lady store with sizing labels suggesting I’m an 8 just to make myself feel more comfortable with my weight, I’ve decided I should actually do something about it.

And what better way than to open up yourself to criticism from 2 billion of your closest friends! I figure if I open myself up for public criticism, maybe, just maybe, I’ll be shamed in to actually changing my weight and getting fit.

So this is the diary of a fatty and her attempts to lose weight. I hope you will read my posts and either:

a) have a laugh along with me, (not at me thanks!)
b) feel inspired to join me in my quest for beauty
c) understand some of the difficulties faced by overweight people and thus not judge them
d) post me encouragements or
e) fuck off if you’ve got nothing nice to say!

I’m staring down the gun barrel that it my thirtieth birthday and I would like to think I can manage to look hot before then!

Maraccas xox

The stats:

Current Weight: 90kgs

Height: 175cm

Current BMI: 29.4 (This puts me 5 points away from obesity – agh!)

Current Stomach measurements: not sure at the moment because I don’t have a tape measure but will get one and fill this out! And no, its not that I don’t have a tape measure that is long enough to get around my guts!

Goal weight: 65kg