Ok world, so, I have no idea how I did it, but I seem to have lost a little weight.

I'm now 63kg, and I'm 5'5" tall.  Yes, mixed metric and imperial, I really must convert it all etc.  Anyway, my boobs have not completely disappeared, and neither has my tummy, but I'm feeling more comfortable and more interested in clothes.

So, the honest truth, is that stress and being busy are what make me lose weight.  A little heartbreak does it too, just between you and me, though I don't recommend it as a lifestyle choice. 

Just not having as much time to eat.  Eating is still something I enjoy very much, especially my own cooking, like the lovely roast I shared with my kids on Saturday night.  But it's also, at times, something I have to do, a function, a necessity. 

Seeing eating as a function and a necessity can lead to a very analytical view about what it is I will actually eat.  This is good.  It makes me excercise more choice over what I actually consume and put in my gob.

Melbourne Australia is a wonderful place to live if you are into food (which I am).  I can get a Subway sandwich, or I can get home made spicy vegetables from a kebab shop, or I can get an awesome bowl of Vietnamese broth - fragrant, healing, comforting. 

And I can learn to eat until I am satisfied and then stop!!!  Unless it's pizza, but I'm working on that.

Yes, leaving perfectly good and yummy food uneaten, rather than experience the discomfort of my waistband feeling too tight.  A simple yet very important habit to develop.

Well, a lot has been going on (as usual) and I have not lost any weight, but have gained 3kg and am now 70kg.

Bollocks!

So what have I been doing to lose weight?  This is what:

-Not using my bicycle at all

-Not going for any walks other than up and down the supermarket aisles

-Eating whatever I like

-Not drinking enough water

My appetite has been normal and I have been eating regular meals, so that's good.

One thing I do know about myself and trying to lose weight, is that the mere idea of going on a diet has me craving junk food.  So that's just not going to work for me.  I still think the best places for me to start are with drinking water and getting more exercise.  Because I cook for my family anyway, and I love vegetables and salad, I do tend to eat a fairly healthy diet anyway, with a few treats thrown in.  Yes, I like wine, beer, chocolate, hot chips, potato chips, fish and chips, pizza, souvlakis, hot dogs and stuff like that. 

I recently read a book called Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin.  The cover says: "A no-nonsense, tough-love guide for savvy girls who want to stop eating crap and start looking fabulous!"  Hey, that's me, I thought.  Well, it was a very interesting read, with a lot of very good information, but basically, it's a book advocating veganism. 

I can't see myself becoming vegetarian, let alone vegan, though I have always thought I probably should for environmental reasons, and cruelty reasons.  I don't know if I will ever achieve this, but I am eating more beans!  I consider getting friendly with beans and lentils to be an excellent first step towards reducing my meat consumption.  I'm interested in switching to A2 milk when I can afford it (we get through about 23 litres a week and it's more than double the price).

Other than being a book telling you to become vegan, Skinny Bitch is quite funny and enjoyable to read, except the animal cruelty bits, which I just keep hoping are not accurate.  "Oh, it wouldn't be like that in my country", I tell myself.  We have standards and regulations!  I wonder.

Anyway, I also have Why French Women Don't Get Fat to read, and Marla Cilley and Leanne Ely's Body Clutter.  I also picked up Susan Powter's Stop The Insanity (to re-read - I read it years ago and thought it was great).

I'll keep you posted.

That's about 26 pounds, or 1 1/2 stone.

Why?  Well, when I weighed about 57 kg I felt more comfortable, my clothes were easier to wear, and I felt more attractive.  My current weight of 67 kg is within healthy range, and has been stable for nearly 1 1/2 years, since my body settled back to normal after my youngest children were born. 

Now, I do consider myself to be already reasonably healthy, within healthy weight range, and to have adequate basic knowledge about nutrition and so on.  And being quite busy, I do get some exercise, even it's it's just house cleaning, but I know I need more.

So, I'm reading a couple of books that appeal to me, and old one and a new one, and I'll be blogging about my progress. 

As it's now 27th of October, and a couple of month's til the end of the year, I do have the end of the year in mind as the time in which I'd like to achieve this goal.  I've heard it's safe and healthy to lose about a kg per week, which would approximately get me there.

The thing is, I've set this goal so many times before and never achieved it.  I did get slim a couple of times, but it was purely from stress and not from any conscious effort.  It was out of my hands, and this time I'd really like it to be something I decided to do and actually achieved.

My weight history

I was a slim child, and suddenly gained lots of 'puppy fat' soon after puberty, so when I was 15 I was about 10 1/2 stone.  I somehow managed to claw my way back to about 9 stone where I stayed until my first child was born at 26.

I put on 3 stone with all my pregnancies, and more with the twins of course, and I think this was a good amount of weight gain for me.  I didn't feel overweight whilst pregnant, just good and healthy.

It was following the births of my first two children that I lost weight and got to a lower weight than before I became pregnant.  After the first baby I got to about 9 stone, and after my second baby I was the slimmest ever, at 8 1/2 stone or 54 kg.  This was actually a bit too thin for me.  I had a lot of fun buying size 9 Levis jeans, but my face looked a bit gaunt, and there were veins sticking out of my arms.  That's why my goal weight is a bit more than this.  Somewhere between 8 1/2 and 9 stone, or about 57 kg.  I'll have to see how I look and feel and adjust the goal weight once I reach 9 stone.