Update!

The Last Day Of The First Year Of The Rest Of My Life

  So I am almost a month behind on my daily blog and it is likely to take me quite some time to catch up but I thought I would make a special incidental blog today as this is an important time to update you all on my progress and learnings.

        Day 1 vs. Day 365

  On Day 1 - July 1st 2012, I weighed 126.7 kg (just over 279 lbs).  Today, Day 365 - June 30th 2013, I weighed 96.8kg (213.4 lbs).  Total loss in one year has been 29.9 kg (66 lbs).  I did make it to 30kg even on May 18th but I've been fluctuating since then.  That's an average of 575g per week, though most of it was in the first six months.

  I've also lost substantial measurements.  Since I first measured up on Day 59 - August 28th 2012, I have lost a staggering 23 cm off my torso (the bit where the bottom of my bra sits), 18.5 cm off my hips, 14 cm off my right thigh, 13.5 cm off my left thigh, 13.5 cm off my waist and 13.0 cm off my bust!  Not a bad accomplishment really.  My current measurements in full are as follows:

  So what are some less obvious achievements brought about by all this change?  What's beyond the facts and figures?  Well...

• My pre-diabetes is under control.
• My back strength has improved, thus reducing my back issues.
• People no longer ask 'Have you been running?' when I pick up the phone after walking to my office.
• I can go for walks for the pure pleasure of it.
• I can recover much more quickly from exercise. 
• I can feel when I'm full and, most of the time, stop eating then.
• People listen when I say 'No' to food.
• I have received many compliments on my progress from family and friends.
• I can now use just one peg per pair of day to day knickers on the line!
• I can wear size 18 jeans off the shelf from Big W and no longer need them to have an elasticated waist band!
• I can stare at my naked body in the mirror and actually find bits of it attractive.

  That's all awesome and I hope to continue with the improvements, and appreciating my gains (or losses as the case may be).  At the moment though, my life seems to be in a state of flux.  Things are going from good to bad and fluctuating wildly between the two, often in the one day.  I feel demotivated and have pretty much only managed to maintain my weight in the last four months.  This is still a positive so I've not lost hope, but I'm definitely in a rough patch.  One thing I've learned is that it's very easy to be positive and healthy when everything is going well.  It's much much harder when life throws shit at you.

  Gub will be pleased to hear I got retested for hyperthyroidism last week.  I don't really have many of the symptoms but certainly exaggerated anxiety has abounded.  The doctor said she couldn't hear my thyroid when she put her stethescope to my neck, which was a good sign that maybe I was just very stressed, but she sent me off for the blood test anyway.  I get the results on Tuesday.

  I've achieved a lot this year not only with weight loss, but personally and professionally as well so I want to just say thank you very much to everybody who has contributed to my successes.  There are too many of you to name individually but special particular thanks to Mr Smart, for his continued support and forever nagging at me to get on the cross trainer (I know that's been an almost thankless task of late, but I really do and always have appreciated it), to Gub for always being on the other end of the phone on the other side of the world to cross examine the bumps in the road I come across when I'm lying in bed trying to sleep at three in the morning, and to Bertie for regularly measuring me up and laughing with me about the increasingly flappy bat-wings.

  Thank you all, and eventually I'll finish up the blogs for the remainder of this first year.  Where to from here?   For the blog... while life has been a bit tumultuous it's become difficult to keep up with a blog a day, so that may well change.  I'll still be wanting to update you all but I may look at changing my format to suit my current lifestyle.  Stay tuned for that.  For my body and health... well I'd like to aim to lose another 20 to 30 kg in the next year, and start to tone everything up a bit as I go, after all, tomorrow is also the first day of the rest of my life.

  Jess