Fire up for Fall - Week One

It's Autumn...and boy oh boy is it Autumn! I can almost taste Winter in the air, but that's probably me getting way ahead of myself and getting much too excited for Christmas way before time. So without further ado, and without tripping over myself for holiday festivities (I mean come on, less than 100 days!!!!) let us concentrate on the here and now and I'll get myself sorted for this season first!

1 - What are your goals for the fall challenge?

1. Stick to my diet plan 100%
2. Get into the habit of drinking 4 pints of water a day
3. Work towards hitting point 3 in my PCOS action plan
4. Work out at least 90 minutes a week
5. Loose 5 pounds
6. Don't beat yourself up if things go slow

2 - Why have you chosen those goals?

I've explored them all more on my challenge page but in brief the reasons behind my goals are;

1. I haven't got a good track record of sticking to my diet plans when push comes to shove and the going gets tough. No more excuses. If I want to loose this weight and get a bun in my oven before I'm too old for it anyway (because lets face it that's the only reason I'm seriously up for this at all) I need to stick to it.
2. I know from experience that I find it easier to loose weight when I'm drinking this much water a day, but like everything else it's a case of having lost the habit.
3. This plan isn't a weight loss plan, it is a plan to eat healthily in order to kick my ovaries in the nuts (lol). By the time I hit point ten and am fully following the plan my entire outlook on food and my relationship with it will have changed completely (it will have had to in order for me to follow it at all!)...it's going to take a lot of time to implement all of the points, and point three is where it starts to get difficult (for me, at least), so I think reaching and sticking with point three by the end of the ten weeks will be a major victory in itself.
4. Need to work out to loose weight and improve fertility and reduce chances of prematurely popping it. I lead a very sedentary life. Need to kick start my engine house and get my rear in gear! Also, starting the gym in a couple of weeks...I need to get into the habit of going! Once I'm in the habit of going I can begin to make tougher challenges for myself in this area of my life.
5. Whilst I'm making all these healthy changes to my life, it would be nice to loose a few pounds in the process ;)
6. I always get discouraged when the going slows down, and get off track. I'm so easily led astray! So I need to keep everything in perspective. I need to acknowlege that I will face these feelings during the next ten weeks, and know that I will not just give up on myself yet again.

3 - What have you done this week to make yourself feel fabulous?

I hit the 16 pounds lost mark! I've already blogged about why this is a major personal milestone for me, so I won't go into it again. But I do feel great for it, I feel a tad smaller and my work shirts already fit better (not much because they are poorly designed, but better nontheless) which makes me feel less of a twit at work!


4 - What do you think will be your biggest challenge in reaching your goals?

Dealing with the negative feelings that inevitably come when progress is halting and slow. Staying motivated, and not letting those feelings overwhelm me. There is a reason I never hit my "loose ten pounds" goal over Summer, and this is it. It didn't matter so much because for much of the challenge it wasn't about weight loss, it was about lifestyle as a whole. I didn't start off in the right place, mentally, to even consider loosing that ammount of weight. I've done a lot of thinking and introspection over the past month, however (as is evident on my blog!) and am now mentally, physically and financially invested in it. I can't think of a time in the past five years where I've been better equipped to finally get up and do it than I am now, and if I balls it up by becoming unmotivated or defeated then I'll be doing myself a massive disservice...I'll be letting a lot of people down, not just myself, so this time it has to be for real.

5 - Where in the world do you live? What's amazing about it?

I live in Liverpool, and let me just say, what's not amazing about it? Ok ok there is an awful lot about it that isn't exactly stella...especially in my neighbourhood...but on the whole, I love the place. I'm not from Liverpool originally (check out my sisters blog for more about my homeland), but since moving back to my home town or to Ben's is not an option, I can't think of a better place to be "in exile". It has history, it DOES have culture (despite what the nay sayers think!) in fact it has a rather distinct one all of its own, it is possibly one of the best cities to have fun in, and it is situated so perfectly, nestled up against both mountains and the sea. Ok the people are all absoloutely bonkers, I've yet to meet a local who is quite all there in the head...but that just means I'm surrounded by my own kind! They all know how to have a laugh, and a more family oriented bunch of people you will have a hard time to find here in England. Cameron may talk of a broken society and the collapse of the family...but if you glance in the wrong way at someone here, expect to have their cousin thrice removed who they've never met before baying for your blood. It's brilliant. It's mad. It's awesome :)

And now for a positive picture! Since I've yet to figure out all the new and wonderful photography features on my shiny new phone....I shall start with the best thing I have to a full length "before" picture...

This was just before Christmas when I'd put all my weight back on for the first time. It's positive in only a roundabout way I suppose...I LOVE that dress, and I love my curly curly hair and I love my style. I love an awful lot about myself. And despite how humongous I am here, and that this Christmas was going to be one of those stupid "first one without..." ones and I was out of work and skint, and we thought Ben was about to be made redundant...I'm so happy! And that night was pretty damn amazing! I have one of those photo keyrings of me and 2 of my best mates in the whole damn world taken on this night, and it makes me feel happy whenever I see it cause that night was just brilliant. I'm not in circumstances quite as shit as I was when this picture was taken...in fact I couldn't have asked for a better out come really, all things considered. I want to hold onto everything about this picture, how I feel happy and content despite the feeling that everything was collapsing all around us, and use that positive energy to help me stick to my goals. At the end of this challenge I'm going to put that dress on again, and I'll be damned if I look as fat in it as I do here come ten weeks time!