not cool, we are talking about losing weight for free and i stress this there will be some one off costs that are optional and would benifit more than just the one person in your house trying to lose weight.

we have gotten to the point where we don’t feel we can lose weight by ourselves we don’t trust that the best things in life can come for free, most of us feel that it would be easier to use our bow flexes, eat our jenny Craigs pre-packed frozen dinners or undergo massive abdominal surgery in order to accomplish the result we want. But i have news for you the only reason why people lose weight using these gimmicks is because they want to lose weight they have made the choice in their mind to change their life’s.

there are more people that either don’t lose weight or gain the weight straight back after using these products and services that ose the weight and keep it off for life.

its a mind set if this thing called ‘mind set’ could be advertised at 9 o’clock in the morning along with wounder knives and steam mop it would be but it is simply not that easy. it isn’t easy to change your mind, making the choice to live life, its not easy in fact for some of us it extraordinarily hard. but thats why we think that some company can make our minds up for us that they can manufacture it in our minds, ‘fake it until you make it attitude’ just is not enough.

when looking at someone who needs to lose weight don’t say ‘they are just lazy’ or ;they JUST need to cut back on what they eat and excises more’ . would you look at an alcoholic and say ‘they JUST need to stop drinking’ we as a society acknowledge that alcoholism is a illness why cant we except that its the same for someone who weighs 300 lbs?

first these big corperations make us feel insecure by selling clothing that only goes to a size 14 and selling magazines which advertises thin they make us feel bad about ourselves, but if we eat their food it will make us feel so good then we gain weight and feel desperate.

then tell us if we buy their product or pay for their service they can make us feel like the people in the fashion magazines.

those pictures in those magazines and on billboards may make us feel like we are somehow infereir but that is their number one goal to make you feel like you are not as important and for alot of us who have been told in our lives that we are not worth it this just pushes a button. but the truth is we are worth it love yourself and know that marketing is  a tool for the negative and you can be a tool for the positive make the choice to be above the tv advertisements and
fashion mags but more importantly be above the machine that markets food as somehow making you feel better it is what has really caught some of us gen xers we are the breeders of the fast food generation, and we are responsible for what we listen to and what we put in our mouths.

if so well done you and your docter have probibly taken your blood pressure, come up with your current BMIand ordered a series of blood tests to eleminate any kind of physical reason why you have not lost weight.

if you have a mental issue or chemical imbalance then you have probably organized counciling or have been given some medication, so you are well on your way. this is such a positive step and hopefully it will be your only financial expense (if you don’t have health insurance).

Today i want you to start a taking a multi vitamin you are about to cut out alot of eating and your body will need to readjust, with this i want you to drink 5 400ml drinks of water a day spread them out throughout the day and you will easily drink an ideal 2 liters of water. and physically i want you to walk to a meeting, to pick up your children from school or when you pick up the milk, just chose one time a day were you would have used a car or bus to get from A to B and walk it doesn’t have to be fast just walk.

I suffer from stress induced OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) which was a recent light bulb that went off when I visit my doctor, we talked for a while about why I just cant seem to stick to an eating plan dispit the fact that i know so much about body science when it comes to losing weight and we found that my brain wasn’t linking the logical ‘your over weight you need to lose weight’ with the emotional and somewhere my rational was getting mixed up. For those of you out there who are looking for excuses as to why you are big it wasn’t just the compulsive eating that had my docter come to this conclusion. Let me tell you a bit about my history.

When I was 4 my mum and I left my dad he was an alcoholic and my parents lost everything in the crash of 87’ it was just after that that I first began to binge eat I had a horrible kindergarten and school experience which lead me to feel very bad about myself and my mother got engaged very soon after she slipup from my dad, that’s when I developed the compulsion to wash my hands and dreams of related anxiety.

There was very little calm in my life until my mother was diagnosed with MS and that was a big struggle to help me cope my mother sent me to stay with friends on a farm they are some of my most treasured memories. As it turns out my mother had an allergic reaction to chemicals which was eventually fixed by a homeopath with a series of injections it was this faith in herbal medicine that lead me and my mother to a homeopath for me and my weight at age 10 she put me on a diet that cause me to gain weight.

So in short I trust no one or nothing I have terrible intimacy problems and give up on pretty much everything I try either because I have an anxiety about it or someone pissed me off and I cut of my nose to spit my face, but mostly because I don’t trust the process of anything I feel like I was born into a war and I have been fighting ever since I even fight those who are on my side because I don’t trust that anyone’s on my side.

I spent most of my childhood at home, in my room watching TV. I didn’t even eat with my family and when I did my meals where always so different that I felt excluded.

All of the dieting from a child made me feel hard done by like I was missing out because I wasn’t good enough, pretty enough or worthy to experience the world.

For the longest time in my life I had felt like a failer because I could never seem to stop my binge eating, I have been on diets since I was 7 years old I have done everything from the dietitian at 7 to weight watchers at 9 to my mother calorie counting my meals at 12 to Jenny Craig at 15 as a teenager my mother took me to the doctor in the hopes I could go on xenical but I was not big enough.

There is so much more that happened between now and then but I will leave that for another day I just want you to have an understanding that this isn’t something I woke up with one morning nor is it an excuse it is a cause that I can now respond too.

The treatment for what I have is very simple; In its extreme a 6 week course of an anti anxiety medication and lots of cognitive behavioral therapy with a psychologist, But generally people see awesome results just from the therapy.

Ok so this is not free at all by any stretch of the imagination, we are in the middle income bracket and we cannot afford it so until I save up or we earn more I will continue to learn by myself and try and make each choice as it comes. The most important thing is support from your friends and family, but I understand that some people don’t even have that luxury, so let us support each other;

Today’s homework;

Make an appointment to see your doctor and talk about the fact that you want to lose weight and together come up with an individual plan just for you. I would love to hear about it so let me know.

So now I am an adult I chose not to make excuses despite being exceptional at telling myself and others amazing tales of emotional woes. The fact is I have a lot of things about me that I have become quiet comfortable with and I fear it is time to once again time to muster up the strength to deal with myself.

We are moving and this had bubbles a lot of stuff to the surface for the past 5 years I have quiet unhappily been a hermit crab in our tiny old house emotionally festering away at my coulda shoulda wouldas and now I have to decide what is a bigger priority in my life; fear or happiness? And yes I am afraid it is just a matter of priority.

I haven’t had the hardest life and I do not with to trivialize the issues in this world that are very serious but like most I have had pivotal moments in my life that have changed me, but I have learned something for a long enough time I have taken the hurt and fear of other people and made it my own I myself while have had hurt and fear can only deal with myself and not others.

So the challenge:

• First of all I want all of those of you out there festering away to listen and do it with me I want to live again and if you do to then we can do it together
• I want to have a happy family but I need to make myself happy before I can help make anyone else happy (it’s a bit of a ripple effect)
• So I will blog every Day for 30 days in an attempt to succeed at something from that success I will gain a scene of accomplishment which will help my esteem
• Lose weight I currently weight 123kg this is about 278lbs I have created myself a plan this will be about most of my posts as this is the one area of my life that is the core symptom for a lifetime of anxiety
• I will endeavor to earn money, contributing to the family financially with give me some independence and help me find an identity other than mummy.

So join me if you are like me chose today that fear is not a priority in your life chose courage and understanding you will feel better for it.

]]> http://ellieslife.wordpress.com/2008/06/08/the-challange/feed/ 0 Ellies life http://ellieslife.wordpress.com/2008/05/12/supermarket-shopping/ http://ellieslife.wordpress.com/2008/05/12/supermarket-shopping/#comments Mon, 12 May 2008 08:06:55 +0000 ellieslife http://ellieslife.wordpress.com/?p=7 ]]> yes yes i know totally boring subject but for those of us who really don’t know the first idea about being a Bree Vandercamp…. hodge or whatever.. anyway here are a few steps to being organized efficient and hopefully save you a bit of cash

1. PREPARATION, i am so going to sound like my mother when i say this, plan your meals sit down with your recipe books (i give myself goals of trying 3 new recipes every fortnight) and plan out your weekly or fortnightly meals i suggest plan for nights when you might just have eggs on toast or soup or even takeaways busy mother need a night off too.

Plan a couple of baking things keeping the cupboards full of home made goodies and supermarket brought snacks will help keep your family with a well balanced diet.

2. THE LIST so now you have a plan using the recipe books and meal plan, make a shopping list also add things you find missing in the cupboards (having a brief clean as you rummage for missing items will help you keep organized) and remember to ask family members what they might like or if they need any personal items.

obviously if your anal you can organize your list so that the items are in supermarket aisle order but most of us dont have the time.

3. BATTLING THE SUPERMARKET so you have your list, when should one do the grocery shopping? especially when you have little people around the house. Thursday night late shopping is what im doing at the moment im not very good at doing the big fortnightly shop with children so i just bypass the hard work and go at night. having said this though the meat specials are not that great at 7.30 when everyones picked all the good bargains.

If you have to take your children its always a good idea to keep them occupied bring home packed snacks by this i mean snacks that have been prepared and packed at home. for baby’s take toys that can connect to something so they don’t continuiosly fall from the trolley and you end playing pickup with your wee one. with preschoolers and older Children get them to help you. play counting and colour games, my daughter loves pressing the buttons on the touch screen computers at pack and save.

Sus the toilets very important i had a very stressful incident where i had to leave the trolley with my son in it and run for my daughter to go to the toilet and she slipped and got a fat lip so….goes back to preparation.

4. BEING ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY im just saying remember to take your reusable canvas bags its important guys!

5. SO YOUR AT THE SUPERMARKET and every things going well your well organized your children are occupied and you have chosen a time of the day when you are finding wicked bargains in the meat section, you are now ready to be a healthy kiwi 80% of your groceries should come the outer aisles of the supermarket these are the aisles that contain all the natural foods such as meat, dairy, fruit and veg. your supermarket trolley should be a rainbow of colours.

Im sure for most of you this phrase “can i have this mum” is not uncommon my advice is to always say no. LOL  just don’t treat your kids every time you go to the supermarket or they will come to expect it, and your pre-made snack should take care of any hunger.

awsome very sucessful shopping trip.

please add comments or tips im only one person and would love to hear from anyone else