Was it easy for me?

"It was easy for you to lose the weight!" 

I know why people make such an inane comment, that belittles my weight loss. They do it because they think anyone who loses the weight it is easy for. It makes them feel better about not having lost the weight themselves.

I too made those excuses. It was too hard for me to lose weight, I have 7 kids under 14 years, I have a husband who works away from home, I'm breastfeeding, I don't have the time for me to exercise and on and on I'd make those excuses. They are just excuses!

I worked hard to lose my weight. It took a lot of effort and focus to change my behaviours. It didn't happen over night, it was day in and day out of eating to propoints and exercising. It was recording everything I put into my mouth. It was exercising when I didn't want to or feel like it. It was staying focused on remaining positive I was doing the 'right' thing on weeks where the scales didn't move or worst moved the wrong way!

Being in the normal weight range makes me one of the odd ones out these days. I go shopping and I'm often the only person in a normal weight range in the shop! I never realised when I was obese how many of us are.

And I also never realised how much harder it can be to find clothes for people in normal weight ranges these days. Miller's starts at size 10, and a very generous size 10 it is!! Dress sizes have been sneaking up, big time. I know because my Size 12 1990's Lisa Ho ballgown just fits me, but I can squeeze into a few size 8's these days.

With so many of us being overweight, it has become normal. To such an extent that plus size models are  becoming popular. The media jumped up and down seeing the super skinny models but no one seems to find plus size models to also not be a great role model. I want women of a healthy weight advertising clothes. I don't want permission to get big again. I don't want to feel comfortable to be outside of my healthy weight range again. I don't want clothes sizes to continue to get increasingly generous to make me feel it's ok to put on those extra few kilos.

It is not ok to be obese, it's not ok to be over weight! It's a health risk and just as smoking and alcohol abuse are not ok neither is over eating and under exercising. Like smoking around kids affects their health, being overweight and obese when you have kids affects their health too. Kids learn from what they see around them. As a community we do pay for the health care costs as a result. Not that I'd advocate we don't but I think it is all of our concern that as a society we are becoming so unhealthy.

If I can do it, you can too!

Oh so far.....

 Taken 25th September 2010

Taken 19th September 2011

Today I wore a swimsuit, 

I went to the local pool and swam my first lap in about...

I have no idea!  Must be at least 20 years at least.

Silk, merino, glitz and bunny OH MY!

 The fiber was from a Batt Club from Jane at Moseley Park

 I chose a simple pattern to show off the beauty of this yarn.

Josephine shawl

I added a crochet shell edge.

Where's Ollie?

Sleeping in a pile of fleece!

Spin and weave

 Spun from Lucinvale fleece, that I dyed with Earth Palette Rubin.

I left this as a single yarn which I heavily fulled to add strength.

The fulling must of worked as I was able to use the yarn in the warp with no breakage.

 I love the texture and colour in this scarf.

It's already gone to a new home.

Spin, weave, sew

 Romney X fleece from Lucinvale.

Spun and plied on itself. 

I spun mostly from the fold of the lock.

Woven on an Ashford Knitters loom into fabric.

 Sewn into little drawstring bags.

Embellished with crochet flowers also from handspun yarn.

 Amazing how much I get done when I'm not surfing the web for inspiration!

Interweave Fall 2011

 I love a good knitting magazine.

I do try to resist buying them as I have way too many now.

Interweave Knits Fall 2011 was too good to walk past in the newsagents.

 Yarn: Shiver

Pattern: Pembroke Wrap

This took less than a day to knit.

I bought the Shiver at spotlight on special for 50c a ball.

It's a soft acrylic and has been in the stash for a couple of years now.

From fleece, to yarn, to skirt

 There is great satisfaction in taking a fleece.

Washing it, combing it, spinning it, 

washing the yarn and knitting it.

 To produce something wearable.

Pattern: Bryn Mawr skirt - Interweave Knits fall 2011

 I spun the fleece by grabbing handfuls at random and spinning from the lock.

This lead to the lovely variation in the colour.

The yarn was plied on it self.

The fleece was incredibly soft a Finn X cross from Lucinvale.

 

 Now at 59kg, I am working on maintaining my weight.

I bought size 9 jeans from Jeanswest yesterday.

I finally found jeans tight enough in the legs with enough room for the mummy tummy.

Halloween

Bliss...

Two cups of skim milk Cappuccino, an hour of uninterrupted knitting, 

reading emags and NO children!

What more could a mum want...

to come home and do an 8km run before starting dinner.

Scream!!!!!

I didn't realize I was the first woman over the finish line and left after the run.

Turns out I won a medal and some cash! Not bad for a 44 year old mum of 7. All goes to prove it's never too late to get fit and fabulous!

How much yarn is in that ball? A simple way to work it out!

I have lots of balls of yarn sitting around that I have partly used and have 

no idea how many meters are left.

This is what I worked out to do....

It's the maths teacher approach ( in a former life I was a maths teacher!!)

Here 10 meters of yarn = 12 grams

 Measure out ten meters from the ball, 

make a little ball around your hand, without breaking the yarn.

Measure the weight of the little ball on the kitchen scales.

Weight all the yarn.

This yarn is 60 grams.

I know that 12 grams is equal to 10 meters

I divide 12 ( the mass of 10 meters) into 60 ( the mass of all the yarn)

Which gives me 5, I have 5 lots of 10 meters
Therefor 5 multiplied by 10 is 50 meters of yarn.

Now isn't that easier than measuring it all....

Another Goal Kicked!

 Way back on February the 2nd I set myself a few goals.

Even wrote them down.

To loose 30kgs and run in the Jamestown Fun Run.

crossing the finish line ..Time of 27:01:83

Today all my goals are complete.

I need to set myself a few more goals.

From Obese Couch Potato to Fit Fabulous Forty+ 

in 10 months!

Dreams do come true, it takes an hour a day.

Challenge completed

We made it. Ten playgrounds in one day! One in Alford and three in Port Pirie.

I didn't take a photo of the fast food outlet playground. The last one, at the beach, we made just on dusk!

Home safe and sound. All tired and happy from our adventures. I'm trying to work out how far I drove today, I'll estimate about 400kms.

The playground challenge update

We're up to six now.
We logged two in Port Broughton and two in Kadina.

Will we make 10???

We've done a little Geocaching along the way. Found one, missed one.

Today's challenge!

Today we are aiming for 10 playgrounds in one day!

Pete had taken James, Liam and Lilly away for a few days to visit friends. Leaving Rose, Fern, Michael, Heather and I with the other car and lots of school holidays to explore!

First stop was Gladstone! One park down.

Second stop Crystal Brook.
Now which way do we go from here?
We might just flip a coin and see which road we head down next.
Will be back later to update you on our progress.