From 106.8 to 105.6 kgs in one week

I started at Jetts Gym last week and it is showing up already. By Saturday I had gone down 0.9 kgs and today all up I have lost 1.2 kgs. That is something that I find, since the LGS, is that you get an almost instant response when you change the amount of exercise or the food that you eat. Before I could eat too much and it wouldn't show up for ages or if I exercised regularly my measurements might change but my weight wouldn't. It would be very discouraging. Now it shows almost in 24 hours.

I was getting discouraged because I had gained weight but by using a closed Facebook page for people who have had or about to have WLS I am talking (on the page) with others in the same position. It is helping. The other thing that made me a little happier was looking at a picture from May 2013 and a recent one. There is a massive change in how I looked then and now.

I am second from the right and in my mind now  I feel I was the size of a bear

I am not small in this photo but am definitely much smaller than in the photo above by a minimum of 30+ kilos.

I still have a way to go but now I am back on course with cardio and weight training at the gym I think it will go back to a steady decrease. Weight loss surgery isn't the easy option it is the helpful option. In giving you at least 30-35kgs weight loss at the start, because you become very limited in what your body can tolerate, it often gets you to a weight that you can exercise again without injuring

 your legs or back. As the weight goes off and you become more pain free you actually want to get out there again. I no longer get remarks (offensive) from strangers going past me in cars. Hey, at least I am out there exercising while they sit on their butts, in a car, to go a short distance.

As you lose weight you become more confident again. You may not accept treatment from others that was always unacceptable (but you put up with it because of your weight and confidence issues) and this can change how you react to them now. I am not in a relationship and haven't been for a long time. You become invisible to most men over a certain weight. My thought is that the person inside that weight is the same as the person without that extra weight. I remain intelligent, strong, creative and I enjoy a sense of humour in others/myself. There are those that will only acknowledge you when you are a normal weight. Saying that, others who only know you as the fat person seem to become threatened if you become the much smaller (and more usual) weight. Crazy, isn't it? Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

I am still working through the mental part of losing weight and I feel that will be ongoing. I like that I have got this far and I have got back the desire to continue this journey. I think that after 2 years you become a little more lax in what you do in your life. You can eat more than you could at the start and unless you figure out why you want to eat at any particular time you can slip back into the habits that put the weight on the first time. So, yes, I do enjoy tasty food. Solution: tiny tastes and only very occasionally will stop weight going back on especially if you are hitting that gym or footpath. Trigger foods such as bread and biscuits. Solution: don't have them in your house. If you have them for your children put them into tins and out of your eye line. You may be able to catch yourself in time if you have to search for them.

As my mother is diagnosed coeliac we changed our food habits to gluten free for the household and it improved our health. There is so much gluten (wheat, rye, barley and some oats) and sugar in processed foods nowadays. We bake and cook from scratch with gluten free products as needed. We also grow foods, for our table, in containers. It is not all our food but enough to have really tasty food on our plates each day. Try it and notice the difference. Fresh picked beans, tomatoes, silver beet, strawberries, and soon bok choy, beetroots and spinach we put in recently. It helps to keep your food spending down too. I have had people stare into my trolley and ask how can I have so much for so little. Most of what I buy is what they call outside aisle spending. This has minimal processing; meat, vegetables, fruit, milk, butter, GF flour etc. These are always cheaper and unless you eat ginormous amounts you can either lose or maintain a good weight. These next images were Googled to show what I mean by outside aisle spending.

 This week's Intentions:

• Use the gym daily for the rest of the week
• Journal what is happening mentally to me in this weightloss journey I am on
• Listen to my body, check if I am hungry or bored when I want to eat
• Give myself joyful times to show I love myself where I am today
• Celebrate good changes in my life, look at not so good parts and change them for the better.
• Get back to Camp Nanowrimo writing today and every day. I have 17 days left and 18500 words to go to reach 25,000 wds for the month of April
• Enjoy my writing groups and attend Saturday's one. 

What are the reasons you overeat or under exercise? What solutions can you put in place to create changes in your life? Remember one day at a time. Every day you wake up is another day to create the change you want to happen.