What to do...

And so here we are yet again. After spending a few months away from this blog I am back. I am back with a lot of questions that is. 

• Will I continue posting often? 
• Will I continue to keep everybody updated that cares?
• Does it all really matter?

I think for myself and this blog we all need to go back to the original mission of why I started writing to the randomness of the internet and that was to keep myself accountable and to continue strong on my weight loss journey or as I like to think of it now, my journey to changing my lifestyle. 

This represents me trying to sort out my lifestyle

I have not been here for quite a few months now and I have to admit that in that time a lot has changed in regards to the weight loss journey. Not long after my last post Easter occurred. With Easter came chocolate and an end to my commitment to sugar freeness. From that ending things got a little bit out of hand and a little bit crazy. I went from my original 120kgs to 108kgs in April before I let go. This saw me putting on a bit of weight and consistently hovering around the 115kgs mark which is still alright in terms of I lost 5kgs and was able to maintain a steady weight but I allowed it to happen and was a bit annoyed at that fact. 

So here we are now and over the last 3 weeks I have given up sugar again. Now I just want everybody to know that I do not view giving up sugar as a magic bullet or diet that will solve all of my weight issues. I genuinely enjoy giving it up. See I have come to learn that my brain is wired to be sucky at healthy eating. By the time I try and figure out what is healthy and what is not and what I have eaten to day and what I can and cannot eat it is just saying let's go get some take out and it does not cope or last long. What giving up sugar allows me to do is to create a black and white rule which i can judge my decisions by. Sugar is one of those things that is probably not that bad for you in controlled amounts but is probably not that great for you in large quantities just like pretty much everything in my opinion. But it does allow me to cut out a lot of the crap and to cut down my kilojoule intake significantly without really trying that hard. Sure, food choices do get harder and you do need some flexibility but that is all part of the journey. For instance, I do not want to be that guy who goes to someones house and they offer you brownies that they baked that fternoon just becuase you were coming over to visit and I say "Sorry, I am not eating sugar." I think that is a bit rude so in social circumstances I instigate what I like to call the I am not going to be a jerk rule and eat that brownie!

Since round two of sugar free has started a couple of weeks ago I have instigated a few changes that may be important to note here. Firstly, I have switched to logging my weight using Google fit which is quick and easy as I can just do it on my phone in 3 clicks. I have also switched scales from using my home scales to only logging weigh ins from the gym. This is because I discovered that if I move my scales slightly in my bathroom the weight dramatically changes. I do still use them to give me a rough idea of how I am going throughout the week and to try and learn how my body changes throughout the day and in relation to what I have eaten but I rely on the gym scales for official logged wieghts so they could be different to what I logged previously. Generally I think my home scales are 1.5-2kgs lighter then the gym so when I said i was 108kgs previously the gym scales probably said about 110kgs for a comparison. 

But here is where I stand at the moment and we will see what happens over the coming weeks.

Week one...no sugar for me

Here we are....one week into no sugar. I just want to start out by saying that this blog and journey may not appeal to everybody and that is OK. I know there were hundreds of blogs about no sugar and diets and healthy eating and all sorts of similar things and I encourage you to go and read and learn. My goal here is to note down thoughts as I progress through this journey. I don't know how long it will be or where it will lead me, but I do hope that if you are reading this we can care and share thought, ideas and experiences below to encourage one another.

Back to business though, I am one week into my little experiment and it has been interesting I guess you could say. So far what has happened is  I feel rather spritely! I have more energy then I have had before and not in the sense that I can go go go all day but more in the fact that come mid afternoon or evening there is no slump or lull to the energy but rather I can just keep going or need to keep doing something to be mentally active. Although I must admit that with uni break currently in full swing and more then a month until I return I do watch lots of TV and am not the most active in life which would usually lead to lethargy but not in the last week.

The other big thing I have noticed is my taste buds. In two different ways. The first is that they always seem dry and almost as if I am thirsty. I can guarantee that is not the case as I drink a river every day in water to help clean out my system but yet that feeling remains. I think it is their way of craving sugar and requesting that sweet, flavoursome sensation again. Last night I did notice a big change though. We had baked pumpkin stuffed with mince from the I Quit Sugar website and it was yummy but that pumpkin was the sweetest pumpkin I have ever tasted in my life! It was amazing to see a new world of flavour open up. Honestly, in all the books I have read about this sugar thing they all speak of sweet vegetables and taste buds changing and even milk becoming sweet but I didn't really believe them. BUT IT IS TRUE! Things do taste sweet and yummy like they never have before!

For my wife and I this week has been an eye opener. She unfortunately got sick on the first day and vomited. She believes this was not sugar related but I am skeptical about that. Each day after lunch she felt queasy and not hungry at all as if she would be sick. Thankfully a quick jelly bean did the trick and made her feel fine so I would not be surprised if sugar was the culprit here but we will never know! Good news though, after 5 days with the jelly beans she now does not have them and feels fine.So there is hope for all of us.

But did we cheat at all? Well, we are just trying to give up added refined sugars and any sweetener alternatives for now. So carbs and fruit are still in but only whole grains and not in large volumes. We did eat home made pasta, which is delicious and some bread but the good expensive stuff. The only non strict day was when we were invited for Chinese dinner. We ate the Chinese food but avoided dessert. I am sure there is some sugar added into it somewhere but I was not too worried as it was one meal only. We do not want to be people who go and make everybody change just for us so may eat sugar occasionally if it is a\unavoidable and that is fine by us.

What we did eat was lots of vegetables, baked meats, cheese, yoghurt, bacon, eggs, avocado and nuts. Below I have some pictures of a few meals I ate. They were all yummy and you really do not have to feel like you are missing out on yummy food and eating lettuce that is for sure!

Roast Lamb with home made gravy, roast potato and vegetables

Salad with tuna, chia seeds and crushed almonds

Natural Yoghurt with chia seed, crushed almonds, banana and a freshly made coffee with milk!

Please leave your experiences below and ask if you have any questions or thoughts!

The New Year...A New Goal

So I have realised what many a blogger has probably realised when they start out. Blogging is HARD! It is hard to keep up with the timing and to keep continuously posting and keeping content up to date. For me I am only blogging to help keep myself accountable and hopefully for some of you to see the struggles and successes of just an ordinary bloke trying to change the way that he lives and feels. I do not aim to make this the world's best blog with the world's best writing and photography but rather just a little bit of sharing and caring for everybody's benefit.

Well it has been a fair few months since I posted last on here. A lot has happened and a lot has changed. I completed another year of university, I got married, I went on my honeymoon and I celebrated Christmas (See what I had to endure below). All of those things together with their stresses and celebrations have meant that I lost control of the whole weight loss thing yet again. But alas, there is still hope. With all the yummy food at weddings, in Fiji, Christams and what I like to call 'study food' (really its just lots of chocolate and chips and yummy stuff) comes consequences. Those consequences have meant not much weight loss and a touch of weight gain. The dream was to lose 10 kgs or so in time for my wedding. I mean, everyone says that you need a goal and some motivation. That was perfect..groom loses 10kilos for wedding was perfect. But, there was one problem. With uni, weddings and I guess life comes time constraints and stress. And so that did not really work out. But with a new year comes new challenges, ideas and understanding. And so we (My wife, myself and you) are going to try and make this year more successful. We will try and set ourselves up for more chance of success. A new year means a new me. I know it is cliche and all but it is a good time to start. For me, I need a line in the sand to commit to and being from so LET'S DO THIS!

Here is a picture of my wife's gloriouis Christmas Trifle...It was delcious!

If you are liking my take on life from an odd males perspective then please come back for more. The next post will be up in 2 days time!

But why...

I think this is a really big question that needs to be asked when starting any form of weight loss sort of journey. I am the kind of person who needs a reason and motivation to do things or else it just is not worth my time or effort. Weight loss is one of those things that I really struggle with because it takes such a long time and it is so easy just to say no to exercise and do other things...kinda like uni work.

I guess to know the reason you will have to understand who I am first so here are some of the details:

1.  I am a 23 year old guy
2. I currently study at university hoping to one day become an industrial arts teacher (high school teacher who teaches woodwork and metalwork and fun stuff like that)
3. I am a Christian who loves God (that one might not seem important but I think it is one of the most important parts of me)
4. I have a fiancé whom I am due to marry in November (Heck Yes!)
5. I don't really get up to much besides uni, church, bible study, studying and catching up with friends

Hopefully that helps to give you a bit of a better picture of who I am and to understand where I am coming from. I really am just an average Joe you would walk past on the street and probably nnever even realise or notice in anyway.

Anyway back to my reasoning...I guess that I have been struggling with my weight for the last 5 years. Ever since school finished my metabolism slowed down and I suddenly went from sport 6 days a week to almost nothing which made me add on the kilos fairly quickly. When I finished year 12 I was 105kgs. Most of my teenage years were spent in the low 90kgs until I finished my final exams. After I finished school I worked in outdoor recreations (running school camps) for a couple of years. Now this may sound like it should help being outdoors and active running things like abseiling and rock climbing and running around with kids. I am sure it did help a little bit but it also meant I spent two years eating every hour and a half. The way camp works is that happy customers are well fed customers and they were highly refined carbs most of the time. Eating breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, dessert and supper everyday started putting a few more kilos on. By the time I finished working there and started uni I was fluctuating around the 118kg marks or so.

And that is where it all had to change. I struggled for a year at uni with trying to eat healthy but with not great budgeting skills and laziness I often turned to fast food out of convenience. So Here we are in 2015. I got engaged last September and am getting married in November and have decided it is time to start getting serious. So far I am down to 114kgs which I am proud of so far seeing as I have not really tried that hard but last week we got even more serious about it all so we will see what happens. The main reason is about marriage. It is a little selfish and materialistic of me as I do not want to look fat in my photos mainly because I have to look at them forever but I think more of the reason is so Em (my future wife) can be proud of me and not have to tell me she doesn't care or mind which she probably doesn't but it is so hard to believe so it is time to start.

Most people say it is good to have a goal in mind when starting a journey and my original goal was to give it a go and try and get to 110kgs by Easter. Probably not going to happen seeing as there is only 2 weeks left til Easter but I feel like I have done well still. My dream goal would be to go under 100 and into double figures for my wedding and we still have 8 months to get there so hopefully we can stick it out!