MARCH 1 WEIGH IN...............

Righteo, I weighed in at 71.8kg today before brekkie today.

We compare that to 72.5 on 1 Feb and 74.5 on 31 Dec 2010.

Not that weight number is the most vital thing at all, (but it's an easy accurate immediate gauge). I'd love to get my skinfolds done or know my body fat %. In general when around my weight my BF is about 31-32%. Physically what I can see on me is that my shoulders, upper arms, calves are toning up rather nicely, even to the point of seeing a small bit of muscle definition in photos when just looking casual. Nice to perhaps see the arms and shoulders as a new area to aquire definition through the hard work of pushups, dips, some weights and training resistance work as well as my normal lifestyle. Thighs aren't bad, they are in proportion but not lean enough to see muscle, still a couple of dimples lol! I can see face is leaner than when 10-15 plus kg heavier, same with neck, - all good! Torso is the last to go. It still has quite a bit of annoying flab although it has definitely reduced. Actually upper back is kinda looking better. Just area around stomach is most stubborn and is a while from looking anything lean but tape measure says it's reducing. So there has it.

Something I noted last night was I tried on my sis's original size 12 bridesmaid dress. It actually fits enough to the point of in my way being acceptable to wear out in my view. My stomach still shows through a bit, I've gotta be careful of how I move my chestline however in my opinion.......it's OK! Now I can't wait to find an excuse to wear it out. When I was actually a bridesmaid for my sis in Nov 2009 I was about 10kg more and wore a different homemade dress in about a size 16ish. A couple of months ago I was 75-76kg but just felt sis's original bridesmaid dress didn't yet look 'wearable'. I may post a couple of late night pics of me with it on all done up properly, no make up and they are a bit fuzzy.

So.............Feb started off great, we had BF's birthday party. I was a bit slack for the 2nd and 3rd week of Feb, firstly with bushfire disasters in Perth and BF's party leftovers, then having a sore back for a week. Training almost stopped, nutrition was a bit slack but work was very busy and full on. However only went up by about 1.3kg those 2 weeks. This past week have gotten back into training and better dietary control. So I guess a big win is being able to rein it in sooner or not let things get out of hand in the first place.

Anyway: Goals for March:

* No weighing till 1 April!
* Shooting for below 70kg by then!
* Keep to training standards unless of injury or reason I'm satisfied with and ideally improve strength and see some speeding up on run, bike and swim times.
* Keep to alcohol goals.
* Be happy with my eats for a month.........I'm not that strict either.

BF gave me a lingerie voucher for Christmas that doesn't have an expiry date. When I see 68.0kg or below I allow myself to use it! And at that point want to get either my skinfolds done or body fat done to see where it stands and am hopeful of not being too far off 25% BF at that point!

I've decided to stop one guideline too. That is the one about only eating confectionary based sugar on social occasions where I feel rude if I don't blah blah blah............ It's mostly quite an easy thing to stick to at times when I do. However I decided to break that rule 2 weeks ago when I bought a takeaway skinny flat white from a shop that is also famous for local handmade chocolates. I avoided them choccies. However on top of my coffee I was served one homemade choc button about the size of a 20 cent coin as part of the service. I wanted to try it...........but was hesistant about my rule of breaking not eating any confectionary by myself. I could have thrown it........but I ate it.

Not a bad thing though! In the past deciding off hand to have just 'that' would likely have resulted in heaps of self loathing, it would have erased self confidence, I would likely have felt 'burnt'. I may have dug deep and with a huge effort got back on track at times.........only to a few days/weeks later do the same and totally lose focus and feel a um kinda failure for a bit. The result being mega bingeing, putting off stuff and putting on 10-15-20 plus kilos in only a couple of short months before 'getting serious' again. My 'cut off point' used to be 90kg, it got lowered to 85kg successfully for a year so I made the goal of lowering it to 80kg and succeeded at that one all last year.

This year cut off point is 75kg, (successful to date). My little episodes of getting 'off track' seem to be heaps shorter, (however still long enough to gain 3kg or so and lose momentum) if I allow. Also I find I just can't shed the kg as quick as I used to but then again it's not so out of control these days so that's cool.

So the message of my post rigmarole etc is:.........no rules about food other than if I'm gonna feel good enough/in control/ok with my choices I can go ahead with what I consider a controlled amount I'm happy with. If feelings like........'I shouldn't be eating this', 'I'll have to pay for it next week but can't be bothered controlling myself now' then yep.........no! Water and control! Less ways for mishaps!

Pip :-)