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