Marvy Manic Monday More-ish Magnificence AKA as A Great Start to the Week!

It's Monday, beginning of a new week and I feel fresh and revitalized writing this blog entry...odd for someone who's been up since 4am, dashed to the airport at 5.20am, boarded a 1 hour flight at 6.30am to another city where I work basically a 2.5 day work week (lucky, aren't I? ) survived a manic flight and still got to work although wobbly knee'd but feeling marvy!

The week in review has been far from pleasant with feminine issues health-wise, and very testy in terms of eating clean, but eating clean for the past 103 days has aided me through this turbulent phase, which I can only hope will end soon!  The importance of sticking to my plan even in the testiest of situations is making me realize that my relationship with food is improving daily.  Attending a birthday dinner this past Saturday paid testimony to this,  when I chose to have a chicken salad without dressing - while the serving size was HUUUUGE and packed with the salad necessities, even shaved avocado which I dislike immensely, I got through half of the meal until I was more than comfortably sated.  The waitress obliged my request to have fresh lemon on the side as salad dressing and drinking soda water with lemon slices as my evening drinks, worked tremendously well for me. My dessert of choice was a black filter coffee on the drive back home.  For me, this tells a tale, one of adapting to something if you put your mind to it.  Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high, so high that best food choices come comfortably - I'm glad though that there were healthy options on that dinner menu!

Today marks the start of Week 6 of my entry into the www.sleegeek.co.za/sb Summer Body Challenge. When I entered (in it to win it LOL!) my confidence levels were at it's lowest and I was terrified of failure!  It was a daunting task to submit and even pose for my "before" pictures and I was haunted by this for a long time, and actually I still am!    Preceding my entry, I had lost over 16kgs in 60 days and I think my motivation for entering the challenge was the loss!  That said, by Week 3 of the challenge I went into panic mode, as my weight loss had now slowed down considerably!  That panic mode set off a spiral of events that I would not like even think of at this stage, which led to me being physically ill, doing what I consider considerable damage to my  body - all in the name of being "in it to win it"! I took some time out to think this through and re-energise my thought processes to motivate me to continue on this journey, Summer Body Challenge and all - and I am actually glad I did!  What came out of this was two things viz.  I was reminded of my personal goals that I submitted as part of the challenge requirements and realizing that this was far more important to me than causing detrimental health issues to my self AND also the knowledge that by the time I had submitted my measurements for the Week 4 I had lost a pleasing amount of centimetres.  Ultimately, I would be the winner in that I would have achieved at least 70% of my goal.  So I gently plod along at my own pace, comfortable with the knowledge that I am trying my best and if this yields pleasing sustained results, then I'll take that bonus! - and not frantically search the www in looking for a miracle weightloss potion or start a new miracle eating and training regime that will "guarantee" a flat belly in 5 days! ;)

This past week has had its moments of magnificence too!  so so many positive off-spins in my journey to health and weightloss utopia have been the mainstay to motivating me even further! :

• that I have passed 100 days without bread!!! and all the other nasty health-risk foods that have shackled me for so long;
• that I can now wear a size 36D Brassiere after being a 42-44D size 103 days ago;
• that I have the most amazing support base beginning but not ending with the 3 more-ish men in my life;
• that I have been able to blog mostly my own meals to assist others to eat clean;
• that I receive amazing encouraging support from a great group of online girls;
• that Today, (and this is a biggie!)  I wore a size 36 low rise pants and was comfortable in it (ok, tummy could be leaner!)

So all in all, i'm cautiously optimistic that this journey is going in the right direction thus far....I guess it's difficult to unlearn bad habits in the beginning of any transformation (yes I can say that word as I believe I am transforming as the weeks go by! :P) but with perseverance and hard work, there is light at the end of the tunnel - and in lifes' journeys, there are many tunnels that we all have to pass through, to get to the other side.... xxx

Not to have control over the senses is like sailing in a rudderless ship, bound to break to pieces on coming in contact with the very first rock.   
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi