Goal Weight Reached!

'On Set' my Stepford Wife look!

After ten long months today is the day I have finally reached my goal weight.  That is the goal weight I wrote down in my weight watchers book when I joined.  Not necessarily the weight I have decided I want to be but that's another story!  In total I have now lost 24.2kg and feeling rather proud of myself this morning :-)

Looking back over the last ten months I would like to tell you it's been easy.  In the hope that it will encourage others who want to lose weight but I would be lying.  It has been a long, hard journey fraught with stumbles, mistakes, really low times and grumpiness!  However and this is a big however watching yourself change is a remarkable journey and I am not just talking about the number on the scale however thrilling that is.  I am talking about the changes that take place inside you as a person.

I want to be around for my kids! 2011

Ten months ago my wardrobe was bordering on a size 18.  My clothes were uncomfortable and unattractive.  I had absolutely no wish to shop or buy clothes and I had got to the point where clothes buying only happened out of necessity.  Baggy pants and t-shirts had become the norm for me.  Inside was a woman bursting to get out but the road seemed so long and hard and not one I thought I could be bothered to travel.  With no one special in my life I didn't see the point of making the effort.

That was the first thought that needed to change and the first lesson I learned.  I am that special person it shouldn't be about anyone else it should be because you are worth it, that you care enough about yourself to make a change.   Of course there are other factors involved for me. Being so ill over the last five years and watching the devastating effect my absence had on my children and my family made me want to do it for them too.  I wanted to make sure their Mum was going to be there for them and not in a box before she reached middle age! But looking back the most important change I made and it was a hard change was to be able to look in the mirror and like the person staring back at me.  The expression 'how can anyone love you if you don't love yourself' rings very true for me and many others like me I am sure.

The minute you start to like yourself more it makes the journey easier, you actually start to care!!  The first wondeful moment for me was losing a dress size and although I didn't rush out and buy any clothes to celebrate it proved to me that I could do it, I just had to stick to it.  The thing I really love about weight watchers is that it's not a diet plan it's about finding a way to live your life differently, it's about a lifestyle change.  My problems were basic there was nothing complicated about what I needed to do.  My meals had grown too large, I choose the wrong foods and I ate for comfort.

The most difficult one of those three to break was the comfort eating.  Funnily in the last month I have also learned that comfort eating isn't just about being down in the dumps or depressed.  I have discovered I like to comfort eat when I am really happy too.  I looked it up on good old google and it's actually a fact that when you start dating a new person or you get married that the average person puts on weight.  Will be keeping an eye on that, as I am currently suffering with extreme happiness!!

A year ago

Now I start the life long journey of actually keeping it off and my next goal is to reach my weight watchers life time membership.  To get that you need to maintain your weight loss for six weeks and then no more having to pay!!!  I think I will always go to meetings, there is something that really works for me about having to climb onto a set of scales and face myself on a regular basis.  If I know I am going to do that once a month then just maybe this will be a long term change.  I don't want want to go back to the person I had become it was a miserable existence.  I like the new confident me....gosh I even like shopping!!!  That's something I never thought would happen, I am positively hanging out to go shopping with Mum these days!  Just wish I could do more than window shop.  I don't think I am ever going to get bored of being able to pick up a 10 or a 12 and it fitting :-)

'Enjoying' a salad in Italy

They say you create your own happiness and I know that since I have made these changes in my life that new and wonderful chapters have started opening up.  I have more confidence, I do better in auditions, I have a new wonderful man in my life (who makes me smile constantly), my kids are happier and healthier too.  The up side of getting off my fat butt outweighs the hard graft it has been to get here by a million times and to anyone contemplating this journey I would say this.  Yes it is one of the hardest things I have done but it is the best thing I have ever done for myself.  You are worth it and you are going to feel amazing.  I absolutely guarantee it will be worth the blood, sweat and many tears you will shed because when you reach the light at the end of your tunnel it engulfs you and it's amazing.

Now I am at goal weight I am of course not quite content!  So I have a few new goals for myself and as my online buddies have helped me get to this point I will share them here and effectively set them in stone.

1.  I want to lose another 5kg and be right in the middle of my ideal weight range for my height
2.  I want to start exercising and tone up what's left!!  I might need to enlist some help on this point and wait till my back is right.

I know I still have much to learn and do and this journey will never be over but I just wanted to say thank you to you all for all the emails and comments of support I have received over the last ten months.  I would recommend blogging to anyone who is embarking on a weight loss journey it has helped me so much.  Made me accountable for every little decision I have made, every stumble I have taken I have been able to share and get help from others who understand.  Thank you all so much!

So onwards my friends to the next 5kg and I think I will do it for 'Million for a Million'  If you haven't signed up yet please do it's for a great cause!

Have a great day!



Kate x

P.s Forgot to mention that still doing well on the raw front.  My life has now settled well into a 70/30 raw diet.  All the aches and pains have continued to be absent from my life.  Although after having gluten last week I woke up with severe pain in my fingers so won't be doing that again any time soon!!