More New Beginnings....

I am very happy and proud to say Hubby starts a new job on Monday. He has been out of work for a long, stressful, trying and hard 14 months. I know this isn't long for some people, but it seemed like a lifetime to us. 

The financial strain, especially when getting married and going on an already booked expensive honeymoon, Christmas, birthdays, etc has been tough. We have, only by the grace of God, kept our heads above water, but we have

So now, we can finally start to tackle all our debt properly, and get rid of it. Cut up the credit cards, pay of the car and the rings (yes, we spent a lot on our wedding rings, we wanted them to last....well, that was my excuse!). We can finally get our finances back under control.

The most important positive though, is for Hubby. He has felt like he has let me down, and has failed his family by not providing financially for us. It has been a dark dark place he has been in these past few months in particular, so it is nice to come out on the other side with the sun shining down on us again!!

Yet.........

I am looking at the next few weeks apprehensively, nervously, in fact, I am not looking forward to them at all.

Why?

I think, and I am just guessing as I still haven't figured all this out yet (hence this post....its my "figure it out" platform!), that I have gotten used to him being home. As much as I have wanted to be the stay at home parent, the thought, after not doing it for so long, is a little daunting. 

I will still be working 2 or 3 days a week, at least for the time being, which means no "days off" to do the housework etc. My availability at work has been significantly reduced to an evening and a couple of days a week, namely, Molly's daycare days. This means now, like most stay at home mums, I will have to tackle the housework with a certain Mini Miss Tornado following close behind me! It means I will again responsible for running our family, organising dinners (I really really do hate cooking!), and all the other things a stay at home mum does, as well as still working. To me, that sounds a little exhausting! 

And, to be honest, I will MISS HIM being home. I will miss him being just a text or phone call away. I will miss his visits at work, and him coming in for lunch. I will miss our time together on the odd day when I had a daycare day off work (like today, it was loooovely! Some shopping, going to the movies, so lovely and peaceful). 

We will have to work harder at being organised, making sure we still spend quality time as a family, and as a couple as well as have time for extended family and friends. Most importantly of all (as I am currently TRYING to, seriously, is 10 mins of uninterrupted peace to write a blog too much to ask?!!! lol!) we will need to make sure we still have our "me" time. Have time for our passions, our hobbies, for just having some much needed TIME OUT!!! Well, in fact, we will have to live the same life most working couples do. I guess we aren't alone in all this. 

Yes, I do know it will all be worth it! I know we will tackle the new challenges together, as Husband and Wife, and with God as our anchor, we will find our way. We will pull together and make it work.

Yet, I am still a little nervous. I am not a fan of change....so I guess, all I can do is wait and see what this new direction, this new beginning, has in stall for our family.....

HOW DO YOU HANDLE CHANGE?

A New Beginning........for Me

So this week I started an awesome new challenge. 


MY JOURNEY SO FAR........

As is well known, and I have never hidden, I have always struggled with my weight. Actually, I have always been overweight. As long as I can remember. In primary school I was chubby. In high school I was overweight. By the time I left school I was obese. It is in that scary worded place that I have stayed most of my adult life. 

Have I ever tried to lose weight?! Of course I have!!! I don't LIKE being obese. It sucks! 

When I was 23 I was successful in losing 35kg. I was young, became addicted to the gym, and ate healthy. Funny how that works hey? Exercise and eat good food and you lose weight! 

Then I got pregnant, has a few scares early on and was warned not to keep going to the gym. Then everyone told me it was ok to eat for 2 now....the excuse list is endless, but I put on 25kg during that pregnancy and never really shook it.

At my worst I am ashamed to admit, I weighed in at 130kg. 

Sounds disgusting doesn't it. How does any self respecting person let themselves get to that weight? 

I wasn't self respecting. I hated myself. I was beyond depressed at losing my Mum who was my strength, my rock. I had moved to a new town and knew nobody, I was working full time and basically I was miserable. So I didn't care what I ate at all. 

Then, I realised what I was doing, and I realised at the very least my daughter deserved better! 

My Mum left me too soon to be on my own, and her weight had a lot to do with that. So I promised myself I would never do that to my daughter. I dropped 20kg, and since then I have hovered between 100-120kg. I have had another baby, but somehow managed to not put on too much weight this time. 

Before we got married last year I attempted Michelle Bridges 12WBT. I lost 10kg in those 12 weeks. We got married, went on our honeymoon, came straight back into the holiday period, and by the end of it I was back up to 110kg.


AND NOW.......

So recently when a wonderful friend suggested I check out Bod Squad Training on Facebook I was like, sure, all the while being skeptical. She was asking for bloggers to trial her 4 Week Fat Flush for free, in exchange for blogging about our experiences. I did my research, checked out her website, then I wrote to the lovely Chriss, and I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of the bloggers!!! 

So here we are. After a small technical difficulty, I am on day 2. The first 3 days are about cutting out carbs and sugars to "flush" your system. Then, its about exercising at least 3 days a week and eating fresh healthy food and eating it right! Funnily enough, that is how I lost all my weight 14 years ago! 

So after years and years of trying pills and shakes and "programs" and doing a lot of nothing, I have come full circle, doing what works!

What I am loving already is that Chriss EXPLAINS WHY! I love this. I have pretty much always known what the right and wrong things are to do regarding my weight, but I never knew why. She makes it so simple and clear I can hardly believe I never thought of it all before!!!! Also, she doesn't deal out a set menu plan. She gives recipe suggestions, tells you what foods to avoid, what foods to eat more of, and she lets you do the rest. This is a life skill. I am not here, doing this to be spoon fed then sent back out into the big wide world. She gives you exercises that you don't need machines or a gym membership to do. They can all be done, in my case, in our large spacious backyard. They can also be done at the park, on the beach, in someone elses spacious backyard (if they don't mind....or you don't get caught!!), somewhere with just a little bit of space.

So, here it is.....

 

These are my before photos. Taken Sunday. I have a LOT of work to do! My starting weight is 117.2kg. I look at these and feel physically ill, but that is going to change!!

My goals for the next 4 weeks are....

1. Lose 5kg (this is my realistic goal, I am hoping for more)

2. To be healthy enough and able to walk at least 16 hours at Relay for Life at the end of the month.

I am putting it out there.

Making myself accountable.

I HAVE to do this. For Chriss, because I KNOW her program works. For my family, because Hubby, Miss Teen and Mini Miss deserves a healthy happy Mum who will be around for a looooong time to come.

But most importantly, I NEED to do this for me....because I am WORTH IT!!!

I have a long way to go, and this is just the beginning!!!!

If you want to show your support of me in this challenge, please comment below, or even better, sponsor me in the Relay For Life <----- follow this link to find out how! 

Thursday's Madness

Back to school this week. 

And, yes that does mean that our bored Miss Teen is no longer sitting in her room, listening and singing to way too loud music, nor is she holed up in the same room reading story after story on some fan fiction app that she has downloaded. No, I am not complaining about the reading....no matter how rubbish the content, she is READING!!! Voluntarily!!!

It also means that our Crazy Thursdays start again. For some reason, thanks some weird glitch in universe, all our kids activities fall on the same day. All of them. It is a mad and crazy world I tell you! And Thursday's during school term is the peak of the craziness!! 

So, Thursday mornings are spent at swimming lessons for Mini Miss.

        

Usually this time is spent with Daddy, unless he has something on. Mini Miss LOVES to swim, so the end of the lesson usually ends in tears, but those tears are easily distracted by the awesome sticker and small packet of chips (judge me if you will, yes once a week my toddler eats some twisties!) and the promise of the next activity!

Next we are off to playgroup at Tabatinga. This is run by "Fairy, Fairy"! 

Mini Miss LOVES her friend Fairy! They play games, dance, sing songs and do craft. She also climbs all over the play gym designed for 3yrs+ like she owns the place. Nothing wrong with this kids gross motor skills! 

    

Her favourite time though, is craft time! She gets stuck right into making a picture, eating glue, oops,I mean, using glue, and pencils and sticking and drawing. 

      

All the excitement is over, and by 12pm Mini Miss is usually sound asleep....Avoiding the desire to join her is damn hard! By this time, I'm usually exhausted too! But, now we head home and do that boring thing called HOUSEWORK. And that's all I have to say about that.

Not soon enough comes the school pick up. I pick up Miss Teen and we have about 1/2 hour, just the 2 of us before her activities begin. I try very hard to use this time to have some afternoon tea (why is it, that they always finish school and are starving, like they haven't eaten for a week? Or is that just my child?!) and we, get this....TALK! I know, talking to a teen is hard work. Getting more than a Yes, or No, or uh huh is HARD! Thankfully though, Miss Teen and I, so far, have a good relationship and we can talk, sometimes with a little prompting, and removing of the mobile phone from her hand. We talk about school, friends, scouts, whatever she wants. Its never long enough, but still, its something.

      

Piano lessons then follow. She takes these very seriously! Miss Teen has decided she wants to do something in music when she grows up, so her aim this year is to get to Grade 3 in her piano. She also has an Eisteddfod this month, so fingers are crossed, hours of practice are being done, in the hope she does well!

Then we get to have a quick trip home, scoff down some dinner and then it is off to Scouts for the evening, before I head home again, and then head back in again an hour and a half later!

ANZAC DAY 2013

Its about this time every week that I realise just how busy I have been all day, and also, just how much petrol I use! It would be ok if we lived IN town, but living 20-25 mins away from these activities....ugh! I hate to think.....

But, Miss Teen is a girl with many facets. She loves to get all dressed up and act properly, like her recent entry in the local Junior Showgirl (check out this link!!) at our local show (more on that in an upcoming post!), but she also likes to camp, hike, tie knots and hang out getting dirty and messy and having all kinds of grubby fun with the kids at scouts.

     

Exhausted reading this yet? 

By the time I get home at about 9.30pm on a Thursday night, I am ready to fall into bed, and I usually do!

But, you know what?

I wouldn't have it any other way! 

The smiles on my girls faces, the fun times I get to spend with them, makes it ALL worth it in the end!!