Friday 3 July 2009

My "plateau"

This is a post I wrote for www.healthybodyclub.com.au

Many of you who have been here for a while know that I spent about a year at the same weight! Now that is a LONG plateau! It's more of a halt than a plateau but for the purposes of this post we'll call it a plateau!

Anyway, I spent ages wondering what on earth was going on?! Why was I staying at the same weight with all the exercise I was doing and the fairly healthy diet I was eating most of the time. I was challenging myself with exercise etc and it was just sitting there. So recently I decided that I really want to achieve my goals. I realised that I had become complacent and had spent too much time looking at how far I had come, patting myself on the back (which was a long way- 42kgs, then pregnant and gained, then lost 30kgs since- worth the back pat!) BUT not looking FORWARD.

Last year I got back up to 91.4kgs and managed to get down to 87-88kg where I hovered for about 6 months. So I decided to finish* what I started and get to goal as quickly as healthily possible. I then had a change in living situation and realised that the stress of the situation and the people I was living with were making it very hard to focus on my goals. I also had eczema which cleared as soon as that situation changed, but that's a side issue. Anyway, since I have a new lovely housemate who is also focused on healthy living, I have managed to drop another 6 kilos (as of last Sunday) and feel like I am really on track again.

On examining my lifestyle over the "plateau" time, I realised that there were loads of "extra" treats and snacks that I didn't bother to make a note of. My exercise was good but I wasn't varying it enough. I was training too hard but not often enough and needed to train smarter not harder. I was eating waaaay too many carbs and processed foods. Foods that my body doesn't know how to process.

I am now eating freshly prepared foods with real ingredients. I am hardly having any refined carbs and not any carbs after about lunch time other than piles of fresh veggies and salads (but mostly not for lunch either). I am totally turned off processed foods and I feel like my body is just sooooo happy! (apart from recent sickness which I guess comes from my occupation -social worker, lots of people contact, and being a mother of a 2 year old).

I am no longer making excuses and "forgetting" about those extra snacks and treats that were stalling my progress.

I think it's so much about making a decision and sticking to it. Then every choice you make from then on is either going to help or hinder you.... and if you really want it you will make the right choices.

Girls... plan plan plan, but when it comes down to it is about making one healthy choice after another and then doing it again the next time.

And there is ALWAYS a choice... YOU decide what goes into your body, YOU decide how much you want to prioritise your exercise and YOU decide how you approach the psychologial aspect of your journey.

You have to make the decision that YOU are worth the effort.

YOU ARE!

*the word finish is a flawed term when it comes to this journey, but for the purpous of my story.......

6 of you love me enough to comment...:

Anonymous said...

I'm still nodding my head! Great Post Ash. Way to go!!!

Miz said...

YES TOTALLY!

it is all about choice for me as well.

still.
daily.
deciding I AM WORTH IT.

great post and so powerfully phrased.

Miz

LBTEPA said...

Lately I've been deciding I'm not worth the effort - better fix that thinking, hadn't I?

philippa_moore said...

Could not agree more - it all comes down to us! Like MizFit, every day I decide that I'm worth the effort of being fit and healthy. Well done on identifying your obstacles and digging deep to get over them. You rock!! xoxox

beetricks said...

You should be running HBC with posts like this...if you were, I may have stuck around instead of feeling the way I do about it now...

:(

Congrats to you, Ash...

K not Kay said...

Love this, thank you for sharing :)