Trinny & Susannah - the body gurus

I love Trinny and Susannah, they are funny, firm but fair and most of the time their advice to women is spot on. A friend of mine has recently bought their "Body Bible" which shows you how to determine which of their 12 body types you fit into and then how to dress to flatter your shape. I decided I could use a bit of this kind of advice because like I have mentioned before, even once I lose weight I will still be the same disproportionate shape which is a shape that I am less than satisfied with. So finding out how to make the most of what I have (don't have?) could possibly be advantageous.

Anyway I found this article here which shows the none too flattering real women pics from the book with descriptions of each type, but on close examination I just couldn't decide which one was most like me. A further search revealed this site here on which you choose the characteristics of your bits; short legs, small boobs, big bum etc and like magic you are boxed into a body type and the knowledge of how to dress in order to look drop-dead gorgeous is instantaneously at your fingertips.

I always used to think I was pear shaped but according to our knowledgeable twosome Pears have toned arms and a tiny waist so we can scrap that one because toned arms and a tiny waist I have not! Problem though is that I really don't appear to fit into any of the other 11 body types.

According to the "find your body type" gadget I am in fact a "cello".
However a cello apparently has:
Big Bum - check
Short Waist - check
Big Hips - check
Slim Lower Legs - check
Big Boobs - *beep* fail, epic fail.

Whilst my boobs are no longer the bee stings they once were they hardly qualify as "big". So moving right along they then suggested that if I thought I wasn't a cello I could possibly be an hourglass or a vase. hmmmmmmm ... cue raised eyebrows.

Hourglass:
Small Waist - not really *sigh*
Short Waist - check
Big Hips - check
Big Thighs - BIG FAT check
Big Boobs - *beep* fail

The Vase is an even bigger write off, it's not even remotely close to my shape. Once again it has big boobs and this time slim legs, ha! I wish! If there is one part of me I hate almost as much as my barge arse it is my thighs which I think are each similar in circumference to my waist.

So after all that it appears I do not fit into any of the 12 body types, therefore none of their fashion advice applies to me. I always thought on their show that they deliberately picked people of certain body shapes whom they knew they could help and this just proves it.

If the ultimate body shape gurus can't help me then what hope do I have?

Moment of truth

Weigh in last night didn't turn out as bad as I had expected after the coffees and Anzac biscuits last week. Oh and did I mention the 3 or 4 bite sized sausage rolls I had on Saturday when we got held up in town after the Anzac parade? I didn't? Oops.

Like I said in my last post though, apart from my permitted transgressions in NZ I have been really very good with my diet, much better than I expected, so I wasn't too concerned about last week, at least until I had to step on the scales.

As it turns out I need not have worried. I didn't have a brilliant week, in fact it was one of my lower losses but all things considered, with the food slip ups and lack of exercise I am quite happy to have lost even this much.

Stats for this week:
Height: 160cms/5ft3in
Start Date: 28th Dec 2008
Start Weight: 81.4 kgs
Current Weight: 70.8kgs
Lost this week: 500gms
Total Loss: 10.6 kgs
Start BMI: 31.8
Current BMI: 27.6
Goal BMI: 23.4
Goal Weight: 60 kgs
Goal Date: December 2009

Diet disrupted

I didn't have the best of weeks this week, not only with the diet but just generally. It's school holidays here so I am taking advantage of the opportunity to sleep in and as such by the time I get up I feel it is too late for a breakfast shake and in some cases even too late for a mid-morning snack, so I have skipped a few of these this week. I have also been feeling a bit off, flu-ish maybe, headaches, and aches and and pains, and so I have missed three days of exercise this week.

We had a dramatic weather change on Wednesday with a 15 degree drop, so my diet has suffered a little there with a few extra warming coffees thrown in, coffee itself wouldn't be so bad except I must have sugar in it. I've been craving some crunchy biscuits to dip into my coffees and Saturday night I gave in and had a few Anzac bikkies, it was Anzac day after all! Aside from our holiday to NZ where I gave myself "permission" to be naughty this is my first real "slip up" since I've been on the diet so I don't feel too bad about it.

However, I am a bit worried about how I will cope when it gets to real winter here. I love my hearty winter meals, stews and roasts with lots of potatoes, pasta bakes, and home-made soups with home baked warm crusty bread. It's fairly easy to "eat" shakes, drink 2 litres of water a day and eat salad when the weather is nice but these few days of cool weather have highlighted how much of a struggle winter is going to be.

Mirror, mirror

They say that the mirror never lies. That's crap, who invented that saying anyway? I think the mirror does lie, in fact I know it does.

I know I still have a long way to go and by no stretch of the imagination can I call myself thin, I'm not even close to ideal, butI have made progress, I can see this in the mirror. My reflection does not reveal a spectacular metamorphosis but I am beginning to notice the changes. I am seeing the differences, it's happening, they are there, or at least this is what my deceptive mirror is telling me.

And yet when I get my Hubby to take photos of me so I can compare how I look at the start of each month to how I looked in January and last year I see no difference at all.

It's madness. It defies logic. Therefore I can only conclude that my mirror is a compulsive liar.

Apparently weight loss with thyroid issues shouldn't be a difficult feat!

I just read an interesting article on this blog here:

Is Weight Loss With Thyroid Disease Possible?

It was quite a good read although the last line "Weight loss with thyroid disease shouldn’t be a difficult feat once the patient learns to adapt a well regulated lifestyle." pissed me off immensely because for many people it is a difficult feat, plain and simple.

Besides that though I found the article informative and reassuring.
It's main tips for weight loss with Thyroid Issues were:

* Exercise
Normal people can get away with 20 minutes 3 times per week, people with Thyroid problems need to do much more, not very bloody fair is it?
* Drink lots of water to boost metabolism.
* Eating fibre rich foods is also a metabolism booster.
* Eat smaller meals more often rather than larger meals infrequently.

As part of my diet/lifestyle change I am doing all of the above so perhaps that is why I am losing weight? I have toyed with the idea of going off the CS and just going it alone with a sensible diet and exercise but I don't know if that is a step I am ready for. According to the article, simple calorie control does not work for thyroid patients so there is a real fear to let the CS go, especially while it seems to be working quite well.

Last weeks weigh in was an anomaly

It must have been, either that or this week is the anomaly, or I need to lower my medication even further and I really dont want to have to do that because this week I have lost 1.2kgs!

I have no idea what I have done this week that I didn't do the week before, in fact I am pretty sure that there was nothing so dramatic to make 1.1kgs of difference, so how the hell I have managed one of my best weekly losses to date I cannot tell you. Perhaps I am making up for last week? Perhaps I am heading into another 100gm week? (please not that again). I am almost too scared to mention this to my Doctor in case he orders another blood test and it shows that I need to lower my meds again. That would be a major bummer.

Anyway tonight is special not just because of the amazing weekly result but also because I have passed 10kgs, one of my "mini" goals! I am nearly halfway to my goal weight of 60kgs and I have promised myself that if I get to 60kgs and I am still moving along nicely, still not feeling too deprived and still motivated I will push myself further to get to 55kgs. I don't think I have been 55kgs since I was about 13 years old. I have no idea what a 55kgs me will look like.

I hope I get to find out.

Stats for this week:
Height: 160cms/5ft3in
Start Date: 28th Dec 2008
Start Weight: 81.4 kgs
Current Weight: 71.3kgs
Lost this week: 1.2kgs
Total Loss: 10.1 kgs
Start BMI: 31.8
Current BMI: 27.8
Goal BMI: 23.4
Goal Weight: 60 kgs
Goal Date: December 2009

Thinspiration - not the anorexic kind

So I have a new hobby. I search the web looking for peoples "before and after" photos. Inspiration, proof of the greatest feat a fat person can achive, becoming a thin person. There is certainly no lack of these kinds of photos, countless people seem not only happy to post pics of their new gorgeous selves but also the pics that are not so flattering, those which display their gut rolls, flabby upper arms and their two extra chins. Who can blame them for wanting to flaunt their new figures? And even to put up the "before" pics to show exactly how good a job they have done, how far they have come. That takes guts, not the kind of guts that hangs over your pants either, courage real courage. Here are a couple of courageous, beautiful women.


My Weight Loss
Originally uploaded by LittleRedCera


Weight Loss Comparison 2
Originally uploaded by &Tracee

I don't know if I will ever have the courage to post "before" pics. But then I can't imagine myself ever looking as good as some of the people whose pics I admire. Like I have said before, I've lost nearly 10kgs (for my American friends there is a kgs to lbs calculator at the bottom of this blog) but I see no difference, when I look in the mirror I see still a huge fat person, logic tells me that 70kgs isn't that huge but that is what I see. I hate how I look, I hated it 10kgs ago and I still hate it. It's different with other people though, when I look at their pics I see not just someone who has lost weight but someone who looks "just right", with toned arms, a flat tummy and a butt that is in proportion to the rest of their body. I don't think I will ever be like that, even many years ago when I was a size 10 I had a disproportionately huge butt and a flabby tummy and I believe that if I manage to get to a size 10 again I will still have a huge butt and flabby tummy and I will still feel fat.

To my Hubby's disgust I am seriously considering liposuction once I get to my goal weight. I want to fix the bits of me that I have always hated no matter what size I am and which will never look good no matter how strictly I diet or how much I exercise. Does that make me vain? Or stupid? Realistically unless a miracle happens and we become independantly wealthy I will probably never actually get liposuction. There will always be something that those thousands of dollars could be better spent on such as a new car, a holiday, new furniture, school fees, but I can dream. I can dream of a body that I am happy to be in.

Food boredom

I've been doing this diet for ten weeks now and if there is one thing that could make me give up it would be boredem, food boredom, my taste buds are soooooo bored.

I can handle a shake for breakfast and lunch. I can handle the previously mentioned aquaholic camel-esque water intake. I can handle not drinking soft drink or fruit juice and not eating lollies, cakes or biscuits. That's all fine, no big deal.

But what I am really struggling with is that lack of variety in our evening meal. Before beginning this diet I had embarked on a new way of cooking, I'd been to taste.com.au and downloaded hundreds of recipes, I was creating a weekly menu planner, we were eating lots of new things and different things all the time.

Now each and every week is basically like this:

Monday: fish and salad
Tuesday: sausages and salad
Wednesday: Omlette, or scrambled eggs or tuna and salad
Thursday: chicken breast and salad
Friday: meal at the pub (comes with salad, yay!)
Saturday: Steak and salad
Sunday: crumbed chicken and salad

I'm bored to death, and I'm particularly sick of salad. I've never been a fan of vegetables, cooked or in salad and ten weeks of it hasn't improved it's appeal. I'm also fed up with excessive flatulence and the associated stomach pains which I suspect is from all the onion and capsicum I've been ingesting. Initially I looked forward to the evening meal, real food to chew on after shakes all day, but now I dread it, it's just become something to endure and half the time I'm not even hungry. I'm starting to think that perhaps I am physically hungry but my mind is telling me I'm not because the food is so unappetising.

Of course the simple solution would be to find some great low carb recipes and get cooking but it's not that easy. Our shitty local "supermarket" lacks so many key ingedients for tasty food and even many normal staples are consistenly unavailable, for instance I haven't been able to buy cottage cheeese for 6 weeks. And you can forget herbs, they don't keep so they just don't bother, that lops alot of asian recipes off the menu. Want fresh meat? Buy it Thursday, the rest of the week you need to thaw out what you have frozen. The limited fruit and vegetable range is delivered Tuesday along with dairy and sliced meat. Fresh fish? Non existent, frozen/boxed only. If they forget to order something you wait a week and hope they remember it on the next order. To add insult to injury with the limited choice, the goods are inferior (I didn't buy strawberries today - furry strawberries, bleh) and we pay far more than anyone else.

I'm so sick of it, it's hard enough to create an appetising and varied menu here with the limitations of the supermarket, but when you are on a diet and have so many restrictions it's near impossible. The sooner we leave this place the better. I want to shop at a real supermarket again.

100 lousy grams

Well given the title of this post you have probably guessed I only lost 100gms this week. The title also probably gives away the fact that I am not particularly happy about this.

I've had a hard time getting back into my routine since returning from NZ. I've only been exercising every second day instead of every day and my water intake hasn't been even close to nearly enough. These are about the only reasons I can find for the poor result this week. It seems I could get away with this kind of slip up on my previous level of medication but on this new lower dose it's obviously an indulgence I cannot afford. So, I must push myself back into my routine of 30 mins exercise each and evey day, and guzzling enough water to make an aquaholic camel feel bloated.

I know even the seemingly insignificant figure of 100 grams is 100 grams closer to my goal but for fucks sake! ONE HUNDRED LOUSY GRAMS? In a whole week? That is lame, it's laughable, it's so frustrating and annoying and heart breaking and it makes me wonder why I am putting myself through this shit. Particularly since my lack of a thyroid means that as soon as I am no longer dieting I will stack the weight back on. Getting to my goal weight is not the end of this, it's just the beginning, and by that I don't mean beginnning of a good thing like people often mean when they say "this isn't the end, it's just the beginning". In my case it's the beginning of a life long battle. Forget over indulging, I won't even be able to simply eat like a normal person, ever again. This realisation, one week after being made to lower my medication, makes tonights shitty result an incredibly bitter pill to swallow.

So FWIW, here are the numbers.
Read 'em and weep ... with me.

Height: 160cms/5ft3in
Start Date: 28th Dec 2008
Start Weight: 81.4 kgs
Current Weight: 72.5kgs
Lost this week: 100gms
Total Loss: 8.9 kgs
Start BMI: 31.8
Current BMI: 28.3
Goal BMI: 23.4
Goal Weight: 60 kgs
Goal Date: December 2009

Been there, done that ...

Weigh in day yay! I am starting to like weigh in day, I even look forward to it a bit. Sadistic much? lol

I had a good week this week, a bit tough emotionally with the Doctors visit and all but good as far as weight loss is concerned. It will be interesting to see over the next couple of weeks how the reduction in my medication influences things but this week at least was one to be very happy about.

I've been taking pics on the first day of each month, in the same clothes each time, jeans and a black singlet, just for my own benefit so I can see the changes, motivation and all that. I had a look last night and despite a loss of almost 9kgs I really couldn't see much of a difference, that was a bit disheartening, how can 9kgs be so unnoticeable?

I'm not ready to post any of those pics yet but when I can see the difference I might.

Height: 160cms/5ft3in
Start Date: 28th Dec 2008
Start Weight: 81.4 kgs
Current Weight: 72.6kgs
Lost this week: 900gms
Total Loss: 8.8 kgs
Start BMI: 31.8
Current BMI: 28.4
Goal BMI: 23.4
Goal Weight: 60 kgs
Goal Date: December 2009

My life revolves around medication

If I was to have a discussion with anyone today who was facing removal of their thyroid gland I would urge them to get a second opinion, I would tell them to make sure that it was the only option before they went ahead with the surgery. I think most of us are ignorant about the functions of our thyroid gland and it is only now, three years after having mine removed that I have realised it is one of the most important glands in the human body. It is only now after living the way I have for three years that I have an understanding about the life long implications of life with NO thyroid gland.

I had my return visit to the Doctor last week for the results of my recent blood test and unfortunately the results (almost no TSH) indicate that I need to lower my Thyroxine intake. That wasn't the news I was hoping for because in the 3 weeks since I started the higher level of medication I have lost 3kgs, whilst at my previous level of medication I lost only 6kgs in 3 months. So the higher level of medication has basically doubled my weight loss from an average of 500gms per week to 1kg a week putting me on par with a "normal" person using a low carb/low calorie diet.

It is awfully tempting to ignore my Doctors advice (although I'd run out of medication and need a new script too soon) but the risks to my health, among them heart arrhythmia and osteoporosis, are just far too great and when it comes down to it that is far more important than losing weight. Therefore I am going to follow my Doctors advice. I have two thryroxine prescriptions, 100mcg and 50mcg, I was taking a 100 and a 50 every day, what he wants me to try now is one day of 100, two days of 150, one day of 100 and so on. Goodness knows how I will remember that, it may be time to break out my very Nanna like 7-day pill box.

So anyway, the bottom line with all of this is that it looks like my 3 short weeks of jubilation when I see the results on the scales has come to an abrupt end. I think I really just need to come to terms with the fact that I am going to lose weight alot slower than a normal person and that I should consider anything over 500gms a week a bonus.

And after all, any loss is still a loss, right?