A new year !

Well - another year is over and new one just begun. I read Michelle's post earlier tonight and I could have cut and paste it into my blog and not worried about having to type anything - just about everything she said was how I felt, what had happened to me during the year, and what I am going to do about it - thank you Michelle for showing me that I am not the only one in this situation and for reinforcing that I can make a positive change in my life and get back to where I was 15 months ago.

I am not the type of person who makes New Year's Resolutions - I always feel that by making them I am setting myself up for failure. This was one of the reasons why I never started my life style changes yesterday plus it was a holiday and we had a broken pipe at home which needed to be repaired before the foundations under the back of the house were completely washed away !!!!

So today I got up, had some oats for breakfast, made myself a sandwich and took a WW fruit bar and some rice crackers into work - and that was all I ate at work !!!!!!!! An amazing feat for me who had become a regular shopper at Coles over the road during my lunch half hour (just long enough to get there - make it down the biscuit and confectionery aisles and get back to work with my supplies stocked up to keep me going for another day !)

I am working flexi time this week (as I am the only one in the office although the headmaster did come in for a short while today) and so I started at 7am in order to get home earlier this afternoon. When I got home Al had gone to Bunnings so I got changed and got onto the treadmill and walked 5kms/7kph with the occassional burst up to 9kph. I was absolutely drenched when I was finished but I felt fantastic - it is the first time in a long time that I have made the effort to do some exercise. BUT, it is something that I am going to work on doing every day - before I sit in front of the TV, before I start to cook dinner, before I worry about the chores around the house that need to be done.

This year it is about getting back to goal and learning how to maintain that weight - I managed to maintain for about 10 months after I got to goal in Sept 2005 but then things got out of hand and the big creep started. There are lots of "I should haves" and "I could haves" and "I wish I hads" but the bottom line is that I didn't and now I have to live with the disappointment of how I have let the weight creep back on and I have to just get back on track and do what I know I can do.

I have spoken to Al and K and they have both offered to help in any way they can which is great because I know that without their support it would be so much harder for me to achieve the results I know that I am capable of achieving.

I have joined in the Weghtloss 2007 challenge which Jodie has organised as I need the discpline of the weekly weigh-in plus the carrot of maybe being able to earn some money is good !!!! We have some big plans in the pipeline for this year and I would be so happy if I could be at goal (or at least close to goal) when they happen.

To each and everyone of you who keep coming back to read about where I am at - thank you ! The support I have received through this forum and the friends have made have been unbelievable - if anyone had told me 2 years ago I would have friends around the country and overseas and the difference they would make to my life, I would have laughed at them. You all are amazing people who have so many different talents to offer me and I thank you for that.

I wish you everything you wish for yourselves in 2007 and then some more on top of that - lets show everyone what a fantastic job we can all do losing weight and improving our life styles this year.