a diet to end all diets

I'm a chronic dieter. Always have been. Keeping myself at a healthy weight will always be a battle. I've done Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, Lite N Easy....you name it, I've more than likely tried it. They have all worked at some point, but I usually find myself back in the old place of being overweight. This time, I'm at an all time high and I'm desperate to regain my health and my vitality.

I've learnt a thing or two in my dieting travels. I've learnt that just about every diet will help you lose weight if you stick to the eating plan. But what they don't often deal with so well is the mental side of things. This is where the real battle lies for me. I can follow any diet but I will never learn to equip myself to deal with the daily temptations and excuses in my mind to not exercise, to eat another serving, to finish that chocolate block off so it won't be in the house anymore. My mind is my worst enemy. I knew that if I was to diet again, I would have to really want it in my mind, and it would need to be something that meant teaching me about lifelong changes to my eating and physical activity.

I sat and watched the latest The Biggest Loser series and would often find myself sitting on the lounge watching it while eating a bowl of ice-cream, or a serve of MacDonalds because I was too lazy to cook anything. I'd look at myself and not believe what I was seeing. Disgusting. The sort of person I would criticise.

Not long after The Biggest Loser finished I was playing around on Twitter and discovered Michelle Bridges on there. I started following her and before long I started coming across some of her tweets: 'Your excuses are your roadblocks. You know that, don't you?', 'Yeah, it's winter, yeah it's cold. NO you don't need a frickin pie or chips to 'warm u up'! Get a grip! You are the one steering this ship!', 'No, you don't need a family block of chocolate to watch the movie tonight!!get a grip! A freddo frog is totally fine! You'll thank me tom'. Oh my goodness, was she in my head? That's what it certainly felt like. I found it very confronting and felt very driven from that point that I really needed to do something about my diet and my health, and that I really did need to stop with all the excuses to not get on with it.

Through Michelle's tweets, I learnt about her 12-week Body Transformation program. Another diet program, but much more than that - inspiration and encouragement from Michelle as well as a nutrition and training plan. From watching TBL, I really began to appreciate how much more the trainers are than that. They are counsellors as well, and I certainly needed someone to help me with my inner demons on this weightloss journey and this was the perfect way to access the wisdom and inspiration from someone who I already knew had an amazing impact on people. I wanted Michelle to be MY personal trainer too.

Over a month ago, I joined up to the program. I've started training and following the nutrition plan. I'm even thinking about going in the City 2 Surf with my sister-in-law. And I've lost nearly 4kgs. I already feel so good and have loads more energy back, and better yet, I know I'm treating my body well. This weightloss journey for me is mainly about making myself into the healthiest person I can be for my husband and children. I want to be around for them, in the best way possible, for as long as possible. I've been cooking meals with the freshest of ingredients, I've been getting up early to exercise before the day begins.....and I feel alive. On Saturday morning, I ran around our front yard playing chasings with Josh, and I felt so good.

I can honestly say that this has been the best decision I have made in a long time. It truly is a transformation that is taking place. A change in my diet, a change in my physical activity and a change in my mind. Michelle's guidance is keeping me on track and I'm learning to put out the temptation 'fires' quickly (and there are LOTS of them!) and stay focused on my goal.

I'll see you at the end of my race, 15kgs lighter.


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