It's my party and I'll eat if I want to!!

Yes, another birthday is upon me. And I will eat but I'm going to try and not eat like an absolute horse but I'm also not going to be a food nazi either. So far so good. Went out to lunch with work friends and had steak and chips, but barely ate any of the chips. I did have a beer, but it's to be expected!

Tonight is dinner with the family at the gorgeous chinese restaurant we go to occasionally. I generally get steamed prawn dumplings for an entree cause they're so damn beautiful, so no dramas there. Mains are usually stir fries and hubby usually gets roast duck, so I might have a bit of that. Always with steamed rice though, I hate fried rice. I'm sure a few glasses of wine will be drunk, but everything in moderation!

Tomorrow night hubby is taking me somewhere - no idea where yet! I have tomorrow off so I'm going to get my hair coloured/cut to make myself all bewdiful. Saturday is lunch with friends at The Rocks then off to the NSW v Victoria 20/20 match. I'm sure a LOT of beers will be drunk, but I'm going to the gym tomorrow and Saturday morning so here's hoping I can counter balance! I figure at the moment, something like not being so strict might even help my body to keep moving. It's happened before, so here's hoping it can and will happen again.

As for pressies, well I have definitely been spoilt. My mum gave me a bottle of champagne and $500!!! I nearly died! Hubby gave me chanel perfume and apparently there's more to come, and I got the most gorgeous bunch of flowers from my best mate who I also happen to work with. Haven't even seen most of my family yet, so I've definitely been well looked after this birthday.

Well, I'm off to continue doing what I was doing before this...not much! Even though I'm in air conditioning, it's still hot inside (it's a tick over 40 degrees outside my work and we're on the water!) so not much is getting done by anyone at all today. Oh well, as I said it's my party and I'll cry if I want to!!

So close...

Yet so far. I seem to be stuck 10kg from goal. For about a month, if not more, I've hovered around the same weight and it's slowly getting me down.

We were introduced to the new plan at my meeting last Wednesday. I am keen to give Fast Start a go to see if that shakes things up a bit, but as it's my birthday on Thursday and I have 3 separate family/friend things to do, I figured last or this week wouldn't be the best time to try it! So as soon as the weekend is over, I'm going to give it a go. I'm really interested to see if it makes a difference, because I have a feeling that once I get past this plateau, it won't necessarily be smooth sailing, but I can't see anything slowing me down from there.

On a brighter note, hubby and I had a bit (understatement!!) of a shopping spree on Sunday. We lay buyed heaps of stuff and also bought some stuff home - all up will end up spending about a grand!!! I bought some really nice things, in sizes that I am very happy with from shops I would never have been able to shop in before WW. It was so much fun taking things into the dressing room knowing they'd either fit, or possibly even be too big, and then coming out and showing my hubby. I have NEVER shopped like that and never thought I would, but my god it was fun! I just can't wait to pick up all my laybuys now! I made sure I bought home a really cute top I'm going to wear for birthday drinks on Saturday though - I'll try and post some pics if I remember!

Another photo

Yes, I actually remembered to take a full length photo on NYE. I know I don't look particularly impressed as we were kinda running late at this stage, but here it is nonetheless!

It's not an overly flattering shot for some reason, but you get the idea!

I know, I've been slack...

As Tegan pointed out to me, it probably is time for a christmas/new year update!

Not much has really happened since I last posted which is a bit tragic! I survived the 4 family lunches/dinners that we had to attend (just!), and have since had the best new years ever on a harbour cruise out on Sydney harbour right underneath the fireworks.

My food intake has probably been far from ideal (especially the last couple of days, I seem to have had an insatiable appetite), but according to the scales at home I've managed to balance that out with exercise and as of this morning, I actually weigh less than I did before christmas. Whether that remains the same at my official weigh in on Wednesday, who knows, but at least I gave it my best shot right?!

So here are a couple of pics from new years. I wore an entirely new outfit including the most gorgeous pair of shoes (which were surprisinly comfortable and I didn't end up walking from the wharf to the train station in bare feet, so that's gotta be good right?!). I am slowly becoming more comfortable in my own skin - I don't feel ridiculous when I wear a dress now so that's definitely a start. I also don't always feel the need to wear a jacket or cardi to cover my arms so I'm really pleased about that as well.

I'll add a couple more later on, including a full length one which I managed to remember to take somehow and a few from chrissy (I also wore a dress christmas day much to the shock of my family!). I hadn't seen some of my hubby's family since last christmas so they were a bit shocked by what I look like now (in a good way I hope!) so it was quite nice to not only shock them with that, but I figured I'd wear a dress and really surprise them!

So I hope everyone had a great christmas and here's to a happy new year!

New pics...

Just thought I'd post up some pics of my department's fancy dress christmas party from Friday night. It was a Hollywood theme so everyone had to come as a movie character. I, obviously, went as Dorothy!







I was trying to show someone a yoga pose and they just weren't understanding...so I decided to demonstrate, honestly!



Me skipping up the yellow brick road...well, red carpet, to collect my award.




Me with my Amy Winehouse Detox/Rehab award!

At last....

I have now lost 35kg! Well, 36.1kg to be precise. After basically being at a standstill over the last couple of weeks, I managed a loss of 1.3kg this week, even after having our department christmas party and my dad's birthday thrown in there. I certainly was far from angelic with food (and more specifically, alcohol) this week, but perhaps my body just needed a bit of a jolt, some sort of a shock to the system.

I now have 10kg to go. Just 10kg. I seriously can't believe it. I never would have thought in a million years that I would lose over 35kg from the time I started (mid February) to now. Never ever would have thought it was possible. Well, possible, just not possible for me I guess!

I decided yesterday I would lay buy myself some christmas presents so did a bit of clothes shopping yesterday on my day off. Everything is either a size 12 or 14. Me, a size 12?! I kept taking size 16's and 18's into the dressing room and was surprised when they were too big, I still can't quite get my head around being the size I am because to me a size 12 is someone tiny, and I'm definitely not tiny. I'm 5ft 10 with a big build, so I wouldn't have thought a size 12 was at all possible so it's going to take some serious getting used to I would think. I bought 2 cute singlet tops, a really nice white cotton top, a gorgeous summer dress and skirt and a pair of linen shorts. I can't wait until I get to REALLY buy an entire new wardrobe! I'm sure my credit card can wait, but it'll get over it!

Uh oh....

I think I have reached the dreaded....PLATEAU!

I lost 100g today which is exactly the same as I lost last week. I know I lost a heap a few weeks back, but my body generally only has a small loss for 1 week after a big loss, now this has happened for 2 weeks. And I'm not even sure I really lost weight this week, I just wore long tailored shorts to work instead of trousers which probably accounts for the 100g!

I'm not really sure how I'm going to cope with a plateau if that truly is what it is. Given that it's nearly christmas time and I also have my dad's, my niece's and my birthday all within a couple of weeks of christmas, I was going to be happy to lose just a kilo in between now and the new year. If I have hit a plateau, that makes that extremely unlikely I would think.

I feel like I'm working so hard at the moment and it just feels as though it could be taken away from me in one swoop. I know that's a stupid thing to think, as I'm not going to suddenly gain nearly 35kg back, but it's hard for me to see the light at the end of the tunnel at the moment I guess. I'm so close to goal with just over 10kg left to go, and I am really starting to feel like those 10kgs are going to be sooooo hard to get rid of. I know they say the last few are the hardest, and I was prepared for that, but I don't think I'm prepared for losing virtually nothing for weeks on end, barely inching towards my goal weight.

Aaargh, I realise how ridiculous I'm being. I just need to remind myself how well I've done so far and perhaps accept that it's going to be rough for me for the next however long. But I also need to not get complacent and think that I've already lost so much, that I can simply relax for a while. If I have hit a plateau, now is the time for me to seriously shake things up and get my arse seriously into gear. I know it will be hard given how strapped for time I will be over the next few weeks, but if I truly want this (and I do), then it's just something that has to be done.
Here's hoping I can double my weight loss next week (surely 200g wouldn't be too much to ask?!) and reach that elusive 35kg!

Oh, and just on a final note, here are a couple of pics from the weekend. Hubby and I went up to the Hunter Valley for the day to look at the Christmas Lights Spectacular at the Gardens up there. It was sooooo beautiful. I've even got a full length shot shock horror! It isn't the best as I was not only a bit sunburnt, but my hair looked like a drowned rat as there was some pretty severe storms off and on during the day. Don't know why I bothered to straighten my hair in the first place!