My journey, In Pictures...

So how far have I come on this journey... I was going through my pictures and discovered the photos from the day I started going back to the gym, I was horrified!

Here is my journey in pictures....

18th August 2012

I took this the morning I returned to the gym. I weighed nearly 73 kgs, the heaviest I have ever been (besides pregnancy). My skin was suffering, my confidence was very low but I knew I wanted to get back to the old me.

October 1st 

At this point I am at 68.8 and feeling so much more energised but still feel uncomfortable as I was still not fitting into my clothes but knew that my hard work was paying off- I was more energised and my body was thanking me for it. I was being SUPER strict with my eating.

I am now down to 64 kgs and feeling great physically and mentally. I still eat well but allow myself treats and not to be strict 24/7. I have worked hard to get to this point so I think I deserve to take a step back and just enjoy food a little more, enjoy exercise and enjoy my family.

November 25th 

I am now working on toning and shaping and turning that baby stomach fat into a distant memory that is no longer to be seen in the mirror everyday.

November 25th 

I still have a lot of progress to make and a goal to get to what I was before having my BB2 but I know that is months of hard work and involves pushing myself at the gym.

Current Loss Results as of 25th November 2012:

Weight: 64 (-8.6kg)

Waist: 79 (-13cm)

Hips: 88 (9cm)

Thighs: 45 (-5.5)

When I write these results down and see the progress in photos I smile because I am so proud of myself for staying committed and not allowing myself to just feel sorry for myself and accept that I've had two babies so those extra 10kgs are 'allowed' to be there. My clothes fit again, some even starting to get loose, I am happier, healthier and enjoying more time to focus on my girls rather than worrying about every single thing that touches my mouth or how I look in the mirror. 


So if you want something, go for it!! Only you can change what you do not like 

Andrea x 

Somebody Save Me from the Terrible 2's

What a week... The Bubble is really showing me what the Terrible 2's is 24/7. Screaming, biting, hitting, drawing on walls, yelling at me, not sleeping Gahhhhhhh someone help me!! 

My dear friend Miss. Angie has truly been a godsend over the past few weeks offering me advice and letting me know that most children go through this and if people tell you otherwise they really are full of s**t! Without her I would probably be banging my head into a wall- literally!! I hope that in turn my advice I give me in her weight loss and fitness journey are as helpful as the advice she gives me. 

It is time to try some new techniques. I am not one of those Mums who is going to sit back and think 'they'll grow out of it' or 'oh there's nothing wrong'. I like to be proactive and fix the issue at hand. She may be going through a stage (fingers crossed) but it does not mean I will not go through every single option and tecnhique that can help. If I help the situation it makes happier toddler, happier Mummy an happier Daddy. 

So in saying that I have gotten on the Supernanny bandwagon (thanks again to Miss Angie) and have invested in a naughty spot and that seems to be working more and more everyday. I have also made an appointment with The Bubbles kindy teachers so we can sit down and do an Action Plan in regards to her biting that seems to be happening on a very regular basis- this action plans aim is to use it at kindy, home and gym creche so we are all using the same techniques, language when talking through incidents with her and what we are hoping to achieve. I have also made a time to go and see Child Health clinic to get advice from a child nurse about the best ways to discipline and prevent this behaviour as much as possible. 

I know some people could read this and think all this is extreme but I think it is important to try and teach your children the right ways to behave and how they can show their frustration and anger through other ways rather than biting, hitting, screaming and all over meltdowns. 

I have a feeling a lot of The Bubbles issues come from her lack of complete language development at this stage. Her vocabulary is increasing every day but when she gets upset, frustrated even excited all her words turn into jibberish and she becomes so much more frustrated because in her mind she seems to know what she is saying. She is a very emotional little girl- always been quite intelligent and I am hoping that once her speech catches up to her mind she will calm down a lot.

In the meantime I am doing everything I can to avoid these meltdowns- today we went to Sea World and she was so well behaved. This also made me realise that some of this behaviour could be boredom. Since toilet training we have not ventured out as much as we normally would and perhaps she is getting bored so now that I have a great routine set up at home and my mother in law now lives only 25 minutes away that I will try to have one whole day a week that we do something together while the MIL watches BB2. 

So I may be frustrated, crying, yelling and hardly sleeping at the end of the day I know we will get through this and in the meantime all my friends can deal with my messages and phone calls so I can keep my sanity and the gym can continue to be my outlet for frustration.  

I am not wanting a perfect toddler- that would just be boring! I just want a toddler that does not use shrilling screams and rip apart their rooms for attention or as a way of trying to vent. Oh and if she could keep napping during the day and not be up at the crack of dawn that would be nice too. 

Andrea x 

My 21 Day Grit Challenge

Hello Readers, Sorry I have been not posting lately I have been taking some down time to relax, rethink my journey, focus on different elements of family life and spending time to bring back the old me!

So after 2 weeks of no measuring and weigh ins I feel a lot more relaxed and am no longer worrying so much about every single thing I eat and how I look. I have still been eating eating well so I am in a really positive frame of mind right now in all areas of my life. It has been a really exciting week for this household not only for myself deciding to take up a new fitness challenge and trying to decide what Les Mills module I want to instruct but in our personal lives we have had an engagement in the family where I have been asked to be the Maid of Honour (eeek Wedding Planning time!), The Boss Man will be venturing to Korea for a week for training to repair and operate what I like to call 'Robots'- I am not good with this engineering technical stuff- this is extra exciting because he will be the ONLY person in Australia that will have this training so there will be so much opportunities for him, The Bubble has entered the world of underwear and doing very well but she is now biting (I will talk more about that next post) and BB2 is just her normal well behaved self. 

So what has been happening with me...

The only recent pic I have at the moment which is a dodgy Webcam picture due to a toddler smashing my phone screen, oops. 

I am so excited to have reached less than 65kgs now and have lost a whopping 8kgs and 13.5cm off my waist (exact measurements will be back next week) in under 3 months. After all my hard work I feel great wearing all my old clothes and feeling comfortable with what I see in the mirror. I can enjoy an ice cream without freaking out that the next day I'll suddenly put the weight back on- Yes I know that cannot happen!! 

This week I have started a 21 Day Grit Strength Challenge. I am not doing this to lose weight as such but to increase my strength and start shaping and toning my body. 

So first of all WHAT IS GRIT STRENGTH? 

A 30 minute High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) class. The short, sharp, demanding workouts combine weightlifting, running and plyometrics for a full body workout that increases aerobic capacity, strength, muscular endurance, metabolism and power.

YOU WILL GET SUPERFIT, SUPERFAST! 

So the challenge started through my gym Go Health Clubs on November 10th and runs for 21 Days. The challenge only cost $21 so for $1 a day you simply cannot go wrong. The challenge required you to complete 7 Grit Classes within the 21 days. When I signed up I was given a pack (I love packs full of goodies so this made me very excited), within the pack you received:

• Challenge card to be signed off by the instructor after every class 
• A postcard that you write 3 goals on and hand it back to the club reception. At the end of the challenge they will send it to you to see if you achieved your results. 

        My 3 goals were: 

1. Increase my squat weight
2. Strengthen my core strength
3. Achieve 16 triceps push-ups on my toes

•  Grit Wristband: I love accessories so I have been wearing mine very proudly since the minute I got mine
• A 16 page eating plan: I have looked through this taken a lot on but I don't feel this eating plan suits my lifestyle, family so I think I will take some of the recipes but continue to eat a healthy, balanced diet and I have had such great results so far so I am sure this will continue. 

If you haven't done Grit or heard of it and reading this going half an hour- pfft!! I thought the same and I before Friday's class I had not worked so hard so fast and intensely in a very long time. I was sore for the first time in before I even had BB2. If you want to get fit, this class will do that. WARNING though: NOT FOR BEGINNERS! Some level of overall fitness is required! 


So stay tuned for updates on how my challenge is going and hopefully my level of fitness will be improving as well as my strength and maybe those flab parts will start to become a little tighter. This journey has now changed directions so expect more posts about me improving my strength and shaping myself inside and out rather than just weight loss. I hope everybody has a great week.

Love Andrea x

Sorry Huggies- It's time to go!

This is completely off topic to my normal posts but I thought I would share. Nappies, the never ending debate between what brand is best, should we use disposable or reusable. I was a BIG  Huggies advocate from before The Bubble was even born. I swore by them, believed they were the best quality and would never use any other nappies for my kids but of late they were not so reliable. So I was paying $30 just for The Bubbles nappies every week and they started to leak, I had to change her 2 times a night even after I cut down her water intake after dinner time. This then means more washing of sheets, daily washing of PJ's or buying more because that's how much I hate washing everyday.

I then started asking the Mum's at mothers group what nappies they used. The answered varied but the most popular were Baby Love and Aldi. I had tried Baby Love in the past and HATED them so that was not an option so I considered trying Aldi. I was then reading the Mother and Baby magazine and it had their 2012 awards and I discovered that Dymples Nappies- Big W Brand- had come in second to Huggies. So the next day I went to Big W and for an 84 box of Crawler nappies it was $16! So the same amount of nappies for half the price- How would they weigh up to Huggies though? 

BB2 had been wearing the Dymples nappies for 3 days now and they have had no leakages or explosions out of the side. I haven't bought them for The Bubble yet though because she is toilet training and is using her remaining Huggies nappies at night but I will be moving her also to Dymples for sleep time when she runs out.


My only critisim about the Dymples nappies is that they do not hold the smell of pee as well as the Huggies but that's a small sacrifice to make when the savings are huge! So Mums out there if you need to save on the money you spend on nappies think outside of the Huggies box because expensive doesn't always mean better and this is coming from someone that 6 months a go said to someone 'Sorry not to be rude but I only buy Huggies nappies, they are the best by far'. 

So why not give a cheaper nappy a go, especially if you have 2 bubbas! 

Andrea x