Michelle Bridges 12WBT

So....I just signed up for the Michelle Bridges 12WBT. This is something I've been thinking of doing for quite some time, but have always put it off with thoughts like "I don't need it", "I can do this myself", "we cant afford it", "its not the right time"....

Yesterday the thought occurred to me....When will be the right time? The reality is, no we can't afford, we probably never will be able to...BUT I can't afford not to anymore. My weight is getting out of control. I am certain my constant susceptibility to every germ bug and virus going around is due to my weight. My exhaustion is due to my weight, my joint pain is due to my weight. If I don't do something soon, it will become an overwhelming and insurmountable task. 

I worry that the cycle I saw and despised in my Mum will happen to me, and then, inevitably, I will follow her path....being too sick to tackle to weight, being too sick because of the weight, and eventually, like my Mum, I too will give up. I don't want that to happen, and I know my Mum wouldn't want that for me either. I have an amazing fiance, 2 beautiful girls and a life to live. I have a wedding coming up and want to not only look amazing but FEEL amazing. We want to have another baby next year, and at my age, health is going to be a determining factor in whether or not we can do that. I don't want to give up...so even though we can't afford it, I willing to try anything to get my health, and my life back...

So, this time I am NOT doing it on my own, I have 4 other brilliant mums doing this challenge with me. Although they are all friends online from mum amazing mummies group, they are friends, and we can share our failures and triumphs together, support each other and know we are all facing the same challenges. There are forums and chat rooms for everyone doing this challenge to share successes and ask for help with failures. Shane is by my side and doing it too, which is simply invaluable to my success. I will have meal plans, and exercise plans and Michelle motivating me with weekly videos and chats. This is about not only changing my eating and exercise habits, but just like she does on The Biggest Loser, making me face and challenge my mindset, my thought processes that have made me the person I am. That is the part that scares me most! Facing and changing my mindsets, but I WILL do it.

So for the next few months I am going to try and blog about my successes and failures with the massive challenge, to make myself accountable. I have spent a lot of money on this and I don't want to waste it. Every place that I have to be honest and held accountable for my choices is one more place, one more reason to ensure I do WELL, that i succeed. 

The first 2 warm up challenges are what I am tackling this week. Simple steps to start the changes I need to make. Week 1 is to change something small in your eating & exercising. So, I am choosing to give up soft drink & reduce my meal sizes & make an effort to do some exercise EVERYDAY. Week 2 is about what we drink, and the challenge is to only drink water, tea and the occasional coffee, so I am doing just that. My morning coffee (some things simply cannot be given up!) and then water for the rest of the day. According to Michelle's water intake scale I should be drinking 3.5 litres of water a day...I'll start by ensuring I drink 2 litres and work from there.

Here is the BEFORE picture. One of the pictures that made me realise how much I NEED this!

I hope you will join me on this journey, and support us as we tackle the 12 week body transformation challenge!!

Proud of my Eldest

As you would ALL know by now, Maddi is doing Relay for Life this year. In the matter of a week she has raised $225. I am so proud of her. She wants to make a difference, and even at the young age of 11, is setting out to do just that, one step at a time. She has so much she wants to accomplish, so many people she wants to help. She sees scouts, not only as an adventure and fun, but also a way to help those people.

At school she is a part of the Kindy peer support program, making sure that all the new starters at school are settled and have someone to turn to if they have problems in the playground, and even helps out with reading time. She is a part of the Youth Environmental Council at school, which runs initiatives like water conservation, veggie garden, litter free lunches everyday, and even a worm farm for food scraps! This is her second year doing this, and she takes her role very seriously!

For her research assignment this term, Maddi had to choose an overseas charity and present to the school council a fundraising idea. In researching some of the overseas charities she became aware of the plight of other children her own age who don't have enough to eat, don't have clean water or access to education. She could relate that to her experiences with local children when we went to Fiji, where she chatted (in somewhat broken English) to another young girl the same age as her about the differences in their lives. Their disadvantage has touched her heart, and I am sure in years to come she will be promoting all sorts of causes, trying to help people less fortunate than herself! 

She wrote a poem yesterday, written from the point of view of a young girl in Africa. It shows, I think, just how much she feels for these kids. Here it is:


One African Girl


I am a girl who travels so far
Just to get a clean drink of water
Rain hail or shine
My life is still on the line


I live in Africa where my family dies
I hate having to say so many goodbyes
Knowing tomorrow I could just die
I lay down on the ground and start to cry


With no education I don't know much
All I know is tomorrow there will be no lunch


Now this is what an African child would say
So please donate to World Vision today.


I am proud of her. 

My Second Baby

So Molly turns 1 this month. Its amazing how quickly this time has gone. Especially as I have seen more hours in these last 12 months than I have in most of my life!! But, regardless of how difficult she has been at times, I feel truly blessed to have her in my life. 


Has she been difficult? Hell yeah! She has been one of the biggest challenges I have faced these last few years. From day 1 she has been a challenging. Example?

From day one she didn't like to breast feed. Whether it was because she was given a bottle while I was recovering in ICU or whether it was because, even when not full of milk, my boobs are HUGE and they scared the nappy off her, I'm not sure. It doesn't matter. She didn't like it & would scream every feed time until I relented and gave her a bottle. If I'm honest, I was keen on breastfeeding either. I felt like i was trying to suffocate her or shove a water balloon in her mouth & hope she figured out how to drink from it! 


Molly also suffered from Reflux and Colic. I hate the term Colic. Reflux is a treatable medical condition that is treatable. Colic is what doctors say when a baby screams for hours and hours on end for no reason they can figure out. Even Tressilian nurses couldn't figure her out. It was heartbreaking to have hours and hours of screaming that no amount of comforting could stop. Even now, she has bouts of crying for no obvious reason, she hasn't grown out of it....yet! 

BUT.....

This little girl has an amazing way of warming your heart and making you smile in the hardest times. For no reason at all, she will toddle over, climb into your lap and wrap her little arms around you and nestle her head into the nape of your neck and just cuddle. She loves to give kisses and has done from a very early age. She will pat you on the arm or on the back when you hold her, just because she can. 

Molly loves to laugh. She has the most contagious laugh, as most babies do. She will go out of her way to play a game with you that makes her laugh, like hiding around the corner and peeking out at you, cause when you notice and say "Boo!" she will laugh hysterically! 


Just like her sister (and her mum), she has a love of music. She will dance and rock and clap her hands to any sort of beat or song. She loves watching The Wiggles and more recently Hi-5. She loves to crawl into Maddi's room, turn on her keyboard and play it! She even knows how to turn on the backing beat and claps her hands when it comes on!


She LOVES being outside. She is happiest toddling around in a park or in our backyard. Eating leaves, grass and if I'm not watching closely, rocks! She also LOVES the bath. Bath time is probably her happiest time of day, regardless of how tired she is, she will always happily splash and play in the bath for hours if I let her. That love also spreads to the "big bath" in our backyard, the pool. She already knows how to kick and is learning to float, and doesn't even mind being dunked under the water. She just laughs!

She loves to read books. Often, when she is quiet, and I wonder what on earth she has gotten into, I will find her sitting in her room, books all around her (because the only way to read is to pull EVERY book off the shelf then choose one off the floor!) She will sit there and chatter away to herself and point to things on the pages. She will laugh at whatever she has said about the story she sees. She will happily sit in your lap and let you read story after story to her, turning pages as you go.

Molly has been a blessing in this house. She is the product of a love I thought I would never find. She reminds me everyday to be thankful for my beautiful family. Sure, not everyday is fun, not everyday is easy, but I have a loving partner, and 2 beautiful healthy children who are thriving in our family. Her love for her family is obvious. It is unconditional, pure and innocent love. She has complete trust in us and that alone is enough reason to ensure we don't let her or Maddi down, ever. 


So to my little girl I say


Happy Birthday! 


Molly, Mummy loves you very much and you make me proud to be a mum each and everyday.


Thank you for being the beautiful loving caring fun loving little girl you are. I hope you continue to grow up, always knowing you are loved by not only your immediate family, but by so many more people, whose lives you have touched.