Free Online Health

Introduction :

I find great inspiration in the sleek and powerful body of the cheetah. Duma is the african word for cheetah, and i decided  to use it as my screen name. I am the mother of two children, Eva is my nine month old girl, Jacob is my 4 year old son. We live in New Zealand, My parter (who is African) is Alex and is currently living in Australia for work purposes.

Weight has always been an issue for me. but not for much longer. Myself and my aunty will be workig together to loose weight and with great support sites like this backing us we will soon reach our goals.

This will be my progress Jornal and here it is here i will record my triumphs and tears. This will the pool in which my drops of sweat gather to evaporate into the universe taking with them those extra KG's I dont need. I will start by recording my daily eating and excersising, but as these become easier to control I will move on to recording other things of interest instead.

Upon opening this jornal, I have no way of knowing my weight, as i do not have scales, However I am being sent some scales in a week or so, So will record my weight as soon as possible.

Goals:

My weight loss goals are simple. In the long term to get down to 85 KG's or less. My medium term goal is to be 100 Kgs by march 2009. Short term is to lose Fifteen Kgs by christmas.

Even shorter goals are to walk 6 days a week, to eat three meals a day, to lose at least 1Kg a week.

(note: these goals are apt to change as I go along)

Day One:

Eating

Breakfast 9am - None

Lunch - 11:45am - Four Peices of "grandma" Bread (low carbs, wheat), made into two sandwhiches. one with cold silverside and cheese on it, the other with beetroot.

Dinner 3:30 - one cup of rich Tomato chicken curry with vegetables (skinless chicken used), One peice of Naan Bread.

Snacks/Extra - half cup jelly, one motherearth baked oaty slice, one packet two min noodles, 4 low carb beef nuggets.

Drinks: two cups of tea with milk, no sugar. One cup coffee with milk and half a teaspoon sugar. 2 Cups water.

NOTE ON EATING: Need to eat breakfast, need afternoon snack, need to drink more water, Better food choices could have been made.

Excersise

went to local netball courts, walked its length (three courts together) and back (280 steps), did this another four times walked home, took roughly half an hour.

NOTES ON EXCERCISE: Good start, the Netball court is an ideal place for excersise, the ground is smooth so i dont have to push pram over bumps that makoe my cd player skip. there is shelter near by so on wet days I can leave kids under shelter as i walk. The area is flat and fenced so i do not have to watch jacob too much as he rides his bike around courts while i walk. The area is fairly privite, this means if i feel like moving on to jogging i can do so shame free. I am pleased with todays excersise.

 

Hi Duma,

Welcome to the forum!

Great start to your Journal

Ray

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My new book: Winners Do What Losers Don't

Hi there, welcome to the forum.
Just a little suggestion further to your note on eating, it looks like you aren't eating enough fruit or vegetables. Make sure these are included in your eating, as they supply so much nutritional value. Try to include 2 pieces of fresh fruit, perhaps one with breakfast, and one for an afternoon snack. Also, making a pot of soup or chopping up a salad & keeping it in the fridge are both great ways to make sure you have healthy snacks and meals on hand that contain loads of vegies & nutrition.

Well done on the walking, a little bit each day will go a long way to helping you reach your goals.

Cheers

Day 2

Had a good day i feel, took a 50 min walk this morning, just a stroll around the streets and through the park. My poor old legs are getting a bit tender in both the calves and the shins, but hey I not going to use that as an excuse. they just need some time to adjust to a new lifestyle thats all.

Eating went well too I think, ate three meals, added more veges in. Think I chose the healthy option avalible to me at each meal. Eating will improve after shopping day on thursday I think. When i went shopping last week I wasnt thinking healthy.  Breakfast is proving to be a challange though, i just cant stand food first thing. Today i chocked down half a cup of unsweetened home made yogert, but just that was such an effort. A meal replacement would probebly be best, but my budget doesnt streatch that far, so i guess i just have to train my body to enjoy breakfast. The only other food worry i have is night time snacking, after the kids are in bed, but that is just breaking the habit i think.

oh and thanks for the welcome, and the advice. Its good to be here.

ok, so we are on day three, I went down the net ball courts this morning, and walked two coart lengths, then ran one, walked two and ran one etc, did this for a total of 15 court lengths. then walked slowly aaround the block of nine coarts to try and get my brathing back to normal, i dont think i will do this again. maybe just stick with long light excersise. took a total of 25 mins.

eating was again a struggle. skipped breakfast, lunch was ok, dinner was a foot long subway, not so good, but I did not have cheese on it and i chose the low fat sauce, I also choose one of there 6 grams of fat or less subs, and had it in wheat bread. If only i had kept it to a 6 inch.

So my scales arrived today and weighed myself, i am grossly dissapointed as i weigh 10 kgs more than i thought i did, I am absolutly disgusted with myslef and far to ashamed to post my  weight in a public place. maybe after i loose those ten kgs i will post it.

sounds like so far so good. have u tryed making ur own shake for brekkie i.e banana, milk, honey and malt or spending $3-$4 and buying a protein shake from somewhere like coles? its only been this last wk that ive been having brekkie again as i ususally wouldnt have anything until 11am or so. goodluck.

Hi Duma,

What you did on the netball court is actually quite good. Rather than avoiding it for a while, why not just adjust it. Try running 1 then walking 4. That way yopu'll still be getting your running bursts in but you'll have a little more recovery!

Let me know how you go. 

Ray

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My new book: Winners Do What Losers Don't

Yay Duma! Try not to focus on your weight, it is simply a figure!!! And one that will be different soon!

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Caution: Sarcastic and Cynical!!!

First up thanks for the advice and encouragement to all.

I will  give what you say a try tommorrow Ray, but i dinno, yesterday i felt as though i was going to fall over everytime i ran, (is it possible to forget how to run?), It also took over half an hr to get back to normal breathing (i am so unfit). I have found that finding myself even more overweight than expected upset me yesterday, but motovated me today.

Had a busy day so only got in a twenty minute walk this morning, It was raining, so i managed to convince my mother i would walk her dog for her, if she babysat my youngest child. So mysealf and my older son headed off for a brisk walk around the block. it was a bit faster than i usual, so i am not bothered that it was only twenty minutes. Also had a trip over to the hospital today (my son needed a hearing test) and that involved a fair amount of walking.

Eating has gone well so far today. Managed two peices of soy anmd linseed toast for breakfast with marmite. lunch was the usual four peices of bread with salads. dinner is still cooking but will be a skinless chicken breast cassarole with loads of veges. had a couple of coffees over the coarse of the day, but all sugarless, and one cup of milo. Does anyone know a healthy alternative to milo? i really like it, but even restrickted to one cup a day is too many i feel.

Was shopping day today, I am pleased wiht how i did, managed to come in on budget and now my cupboards have far healthier food in them. Even managed a few healthy snacks  to combat my "kids are in bed" munchies. With the amount of cabbage and onion i brought I am glad i sleep alone at the moment.

Hope everyone is doing well, will write more tommorrow.

 

Had a great day. really feeling good about my chnage of lifestyle choices I am making.

excersise was down at the netball courts again today. walked 4 lengths then ran one, continued on for fifteen lengths (or thirty if you count the return lengths), then walked around the block of nine courts twice. I found this easier than expected (although i still panted like a hot dog all through it), and walked away feeling like i could have given more. I am debating wheather to go for more court lengths next time or to change the ratio to three walks and one run. - 25 mins

later in the afternoon I took the kids out for a walk to the supermarket to grab somthing for dinner. The reason for this was to give my son a chance to choose his own vegetables in the hope he will eat them that way, but no such luck, he stil refused them. anyway this walk took an hr, but a lot of it was spent strolling around the supermarket deciding what to buy.

foodwise went ok. Again i missed breakfast, luch was a chilli and lime tuna salad. dinner was chicken (skinless) chopped into mouth sizze bites and cooked along with loads of veges in a roasting bag with herbs and soy sauce. I also had a glass of tomato juice, didnt much like it though.

I have been searching online for some scrummy healthy recipees to try that my kids would also enjoy and dont take too mucch time to prepare. I found a site called taste.com.au. Some really yummy recipees there, all catogorised into sections like budget, low kj, low fat, cooking for 1 or 2,easy etc, there are loads more catagories. Just thought I would share it with you all. (am i right that I am not allowed to post a link?)

thats all for now!

Posting a link is ok. We only delete links/posts when it's obvious that people are spamming the site.

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AK

It's an old world out there and I'm glad I was part of it!

well I don't think there is much to say today, eating has goine well aside from skipping breakfast again. Havvent had dinner yet, but my son is at his grandparents house for the night, so i will pull some leftovers out of the freezer. excercise was a half hour walk this morning.

 Benitfits I am seeing from my lifestyle change already:

• It seems to be helping my depression
• it gives my son and me time to talk about random stuff, such as leaves and the sun.
• I am becoming more regular in the pipes department
• Its helping me keep the kids in a good routine
• I feel more enegetic already
• I'm actually enjoying it
• I'm saving money from takeaways
• Its making me want to quit smoking
• I just feel so much better and far more in control of my future than I have in a long time.

Well thats about it. I just hope every person trying to loose weight feels like I do at the moment, I feel so successfull. I hope this feeling sticks around.

Hi Duma,

Get used to feeling so good cos its going to be around for a long time.  You have done a great job so far, well done.  Isn't it great how quickly you start noticing the benefits of a healthier lifestyle?  I was really shocked at how soon I started to notice a difference and after only 4 weeks of regular exercising again I've already started to notice a change in everything you said, except giving up smoking because I don't smoke. 

My husband has been recovering from depression for the past year and I can say from watching him that exercising (mostly just walking, he has a back problem) has really helped him alot, it has given him so much motivation.

Feeling so great is one of the biggest motivators of all.

Take Care,

Anna

 

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So my aunty weighs on a sunday , and i chose to weigh today so that we could have the same weigh in day, Its only been 3 days since i first weighed in, so I deidnt expect to much. But . . . .I have lost 3.5kgs. YAY FOR ME!

I worry that it is a too greater loss, not healthy. but they say the bigger you are the more you lose at first, and I am classed as obese, So I am just hoping its ok.

Anyways walked down to the shop and brought a spritezero to celebrate. I am pleased!