*Warning - long post. Continued from Part 1 and Part 2*
In May of my 30th year I met my (now) husband, Simon. When I met Simon he happened to be on Whole9's Whole 30 elimination diet; 30 days of Whole Foods. It was quite a conversation piece between us, as his eating plan didn’t include legumes of any kind, yet included bacon. There were a few other random things we didn’t agree on surrounding the eating plan, but nevertheless when the 30 days was over we both fell into the “dating” trap of eating out a lot!
In retrospect I know that if I hadn't been on my personal development journey, made peace with food, and been happier in my skin, my meeting Simon would not have developed into the relationship we have now.
Another trap I fell into was cutting out swimming in order to spend time with Simon. The up side to this is that Simon decided to join me at Kalanetics training and we were going together two to three times a week. Financially it made training cheaper however with our decision to commit to moving to Europe this became a financial strain and soon neither of us were doing any formal training.
In March 2012 my weight had been hovering between 110 – 116 kg and I was about to go to France with my Mum and sister for my Mum's 60th birthday. I knew I had to remind myself that I was at peace with food or I'd pile on the kilos whilst I was away. I didn't want to feel guilty for trying and experiencing all the great French food we came across. As it turned out I actually lost 2 ½ kg whilst away and was sitting at 112.1kg. Both my Mum, and sister (who went jogging almost every day) put on weight. I can only put this down to not applying guilt to food.
Generally speaking over the next 6 months of my relationship with Simon both our weights crept up, and whilst we didn't eat poorly, we didn't eat well either. We ate out a couple of times a week. We would both buy lunches at work a couple of times a week.
Simon successfully got into riding and rode to work almost every day. I had a lot further to go, didn't ride often enough for the bike seat to not hurt my groin area, so I only rode occasionally and didn't enjoy it as much.
In late 2012 I reached my highest weight ever! 122kg's! I felt horrible. I looked horrible. I was unfit, my pain thresholds were taxed and I needed to do something before I became diabetic (high risk with PCOS). I discussed it with Alli (Founder of Wind Water Health), our Chinese Massage and Acupuncture Therapist and friend, who suggested that I go on an anti-inflammatory diet to help with my neck, arms and general inflamed state, as well as suspected fluid retention. We waited until after Christmas and then Simon and I gave it 110%. We spent up big at South Melbourne Market every week on all the required ingredients and we both had amazing results! Granted, healthy eating during summer is waaaay easier than during winter and this diet required planning and preparation every day and we did it! We both lost somewhere between 3 – 6 kg over the 31 days. Areas of my body that were usually really "hard" (e.g. my forearms) I could grab whole chunks of. We both felt great, too.
The countdown was now on to moving overseas, 7 ½ months to go. When I flew back from France, at 112.1kg's, the flight was uncomfortable so I knew I had to reduce my weight to as close to that as possible or our long haul to Europe was going to be awful! Our anti-inflammatory diet had taught us a lot and already set up good habits. We continued the good habits as long as we could, in winter it got a bit harder so we also did the "old-school soup diet" for a week to kick-start our weight loss again. It's a horrible, hard diet but you get good results. I tried riding a few more times, went for more walks, practiced Pilates at home too, just to be a bit more active. In mid September, the week we left Melbourne, I was down to 114.3! Not quite the 112 I was aiming for but I was happy with the 8 kg I had lost to get to that point.
Simon and I had a great time on our trip to Europe and the subsequent Christmas/New Year adventure we had. We ate great food, drank tasty drinks (German beer, Hungarian Wine) but didn't do as much walking as we could have. When we got back to Amsterdam we had both put on weight. I was now sitting around 118-119kg.
As mentioned in my About page, my pain, ailments and complaints had gotten out of control. This combined with my creeping weight meant I had to take my health seriously and do something drastic!
So, I'm taking time off from looking for regular work to look after myself. I'm going to use food as medicine, be more active, do some soul searching and take back my life! I'm sick of feeling like crap. I'm sick of being in pain. I'm sad knowing that Simon worries about me all the time because of this. We only get one body and one life and I'd like to enjoy mine even more!
In May of my 30th year I met my (now) husband, Simon. When I met Simon he happened to be on Whole9's Whole 30 elimination diet; 30 days of Whole Foods. It was quite a conversation piece between us, as his eating plan didn’t include legumes of any kind, yet included bacon. There were a few other random things we didn’t agree on surrounding the eating plan, but nevertheless when the 30 days was over we both fell into the “dating” trap of eating out a lot!
In retrospect I know that if I hadn't been on my personal development journey, made peace with food, and been happier in my skin, my meeting Simon would not have developed into the relationship we have now.
Another trap I fell into was cutting out swimming in order to spend time with Simon. The up side to this is that Simon decided to join me at Kalanetics training and we were going together two to three times a week. Financially it made training cheaper however with our decision to commit to moving to Europe this became a financial strain and soon neither of us were doing any formal training.
In March 2012 my weight had been hovering between 110 – 116 kg and I was about to go to France with my Mum and sister for my Mum's 60th birthday. I knew I had to remind myself that I was at peace with food or I'd pile on the kilos whilst I was away. I didn't want to feel guilty for trying and experiencing all the great French food we came across. As it turned out I actually lost 2 ½ kg whilst away and was sitting at 112.1kg. Both my Mum, and sister (who went jogging almost every day) put on weight. I can only put this down to not applying guilt to food.
Generally speaking over the next 6 months of my relationship with Simon both our weights crept up, and whilst we didn't eat poorly, we didn't eat well either. We ate out a couple of times a week. We would both buy lunches at work a couple of times a week.
Simon successfully got into riding and rode to work almost every day. I had a lot further to go, didn't ride often enough for the bike seat to not hurt my groin area, so I only rode occasionally and didn't enjoy it as much.
In late 2012 I reached my highest weight ever! 122kg's! I felt horrible. I looked horrible. I was unfit, my pain thresholds were taxed and I needed to do something before I became diabetic (high risk with PCOS). I discussed it with Alli (Founder of Wind Water Health), our Chinese Massage and Acupuncture Therapist and friend, who suggested that I go on an anti-inflammatory diet to help with my neck, arms and general inflamed state, as well as suspected fluid retention. We waited until after Christmas and then Simon and I gave it 110%. We spent up big at South Melbourne Market every week on all the required ingredients and we both had amazing results! Granted, healthy eating during summer is waaaay easier than during winter and this diet required planning and preparation every day and we did it! We both lost somewhere between 3 – 6 kg over the 31 days. Areas of my body that were usually really "hard" (e.g. my forearms) I could grab whole chunks of. We both felt great, too.
The countdown was now on to moving overseas, 7 ½ months to go. When I flew back from France, at 112.1kg's, the flight was uncomfortable so I knew I had to reduce my weight to as close to that as possible or our long haul to Europe was going to be awful! Our anti-inflammatory diet had taught us a lot and already set up good habits. We continued the good habits as long as we could, in winter it got a bit harder so we also did the "old-school soup diet" for a week to kick-start our weight loss again. It's a horrible, hard diet but you get good results. I tried riding a few more times, went for more walks, practiced Pilates at home too, just to be a bit more active. In mid September, the week we left Melbourne, I was down to 114.3! Not quite the 112 I was aiming for but I was happy with the 8 kg I had lost to get to that point.
Simon and I had a great time on our trip to Europe and the subsequent Christmas/New Year adventure we had. We ate great food, drank tasty drinks (German beer, Hungarian Wine) but didn't do as much walking as we could have. When we got back to Amsterdam we had both put on weight. I was now sitting around 118-119kg.
As mentioned in my About page, my pain, ailments and complaints had gotten out of control. This combined with my creeping weight meant I had to take my health seriously and do something drastic!
So, I'm taking time off from looking for regular work to look after myself. I'm going to use food as medicine, be more active, do some soul searching and take back my life! I'm sick of feeling like crap. I'm sick of being in pain. I'm sad knowing that Simon worries about me all the time because of this. We only get one body and one life and I'd like to enjoy mine even more!
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