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[mallika2point0]

The declutter continues! When I started thinking about how to declutter the house I felt like I wanted some help because I knew what I wanted but wasn’t sure how I could ever get there. I found Marie Kondo’s book ‘The life-changing magic of tidying’ which explains how to go through all your belongings and really just keep the things that “spark joy”. This was a really interesting idea because it wasn’t about what you throw away but what you decide to keep in your house, surrounding yourself with things that bring you joy and that each have their own home. 

After going through my make up and getting rid of the excess I decided to move onto my clothes. Breaking down my house into the different sections feels less daunting, I don’t feel like I need a week to do the entire house, and I don’t have to worry about burning out halfway through and leaving the house a mess. This way I can progress my entire house declutter while also living my day to day life.

I loved that idea of actually thinking about which clothes I actually love to wear, that make me feel good, beautiful and confident. The book suggested breaking them down into groups and go through each one by one; tops, bottoms, dresses, outwear, underwear, misc, bags and shoes. This was a good idea as it help me focus even more rather than thinking about outfits. I picked up each item and thought about whether I still wore it because it was there and fit me or did I enjoy wearing it, or in fact when was the last time I had even worn that top.

Going through the clothes was quite hard because I am often gifted clothes by my mum or these were clothes I had recently bought and while all the tops were pretty, fit me well and were my style there were some that just didn’t spark joy in me and I couldn’t put my finger on why. However I had to trust the process and my instincts. I made a few piles, one that was for throwing, one for donating, and one for gifting. The bags and shoes were easier to do by the end as I had gotten into the swing of things and I was able to tell what sparked joy a bit easier, and was a bit more comfortable with letting things go. 

Marie Kondo says that you should thank your clothes for their service before letting them go, and at first I thought that was a bit silly, but actually when it came to letting things go this actually became a really nice way to think about the use I did get from the item and recognising that I wasn’t being ungrateful, I was just moving towards the life I wanted and that it was ok to let go of things that would allow me to do so.

I also tested out the folding technique she mentions, which I have now kept up for a couple of weeks. So far its going well, while I feel they do take up a bit more space now, the benefit is that I can see all the clothes easily so actually I don’t have to rifle through everything now to find one piece, I can see them immediately.

Well, its food for thought. Till next time.

[mallika2point0]

Recently I found myself getting caught up in the YouTube world of makeup. People show off their makeup collections, show off their latest “haul” of purchases and have more makeup than they could ever use. I would watch these videos with envy and think about how sparse my collection was and what other products I needed to “complete my collection”. Luckily I take so long to make decisions when I shop that the damage I did was limited.

One day while trawling through YouTube as usual I came across a video by Sabrina Milazzo called “BEAUTY & FASHION GURUS EXPOSED! How Their Excessive Consumption Is Harming The World”. She spoke about a few of the ridiculous things all beauty YouTubers do in every video in a humorous way but she also drew attention to the complete excessive nature of their behaviour and the repercussions on our minds, our fellow human beings, and the earth. In a way it was almost grotesque and left me feeling disgusted but I felt like I had seen the light.

This in combination with reading Marie Kondo’s book called “The life-changing magic of tidying” spurred me on to do a bit of a clear out. I wanted to have a clearer space with things I actually liked rather than things I kept to have a “collection”. The photos show all my makeup at the start of the process. By the end I had put aside the items in the last picture to give away to friends as the products were fine but I just didn’t like them, and the second to last photo shows products that I didn’t use anymore for various reasons and that couldn’t be passed on. Looking at all that was left still made me think I had bought a bit too much stuff. But it was a good first step and it meant I could actually see the things I did like to use a bit better.

Well its food for thought, till next time.

[mallika2point0]

Weigh in day

Its everyone's favourite day - weigh-in day! Last week's period related weight gain is officially a blip in my journey so far and I have now lost 4.9 kgs (10.8 pounds) in total. That's almost 10 bricks of butter which is both crazy and so exciting! That also means that I've hit 25% of my weight loss goal which feels like a huge milestone.

The last week has been really hard for me. I have been very stressed out with non-weight loss related things in my life and all I've wanted to do is drown myself in KFC. Luckily my husband was there to support me and ensure that I had nutritious food to eat but really deep down I just wanted to stuff my face with junk.

While I was having these thoughts, I started to almost feeling like a junkie needing their fix. That was a shocking thought to have. While it isn't a pretty realisation, its one that I can't hide from. For the moment I'm planning in my treats for the week, which I find really helpful way for me to stay motivated, but my relationship with food is something I really want to look into.

Well, its food for thought. Till next time.

[mallika2point0]

Weekly weigh in

So its happened. I've experienced my first weight gain. Luckily I know how it happened, I've got my period and its decided that I'm almost a kilo heavier than I was two days ago. I'm guessing I will be back to "normal" weight next week but will look at things a bit more closely if they aren't. This got me thinking; I don't currently measure my success in any other way than numbers on the scale. Yes I'm happy when I'm in my calorie goal or get up for my morning exercise, but do I congratulate myself just as much as when I lose the weight? The easy answer is no. So I'm going to put more effort into being proud of all the effort I put in. Yes I gained weight this week but I also kept within my calories for 7 days, I got out of bed in the mornings and exercised even though it was really hard and I wore an outfit that used to be slightly tight on me. Go me! Well its food for thought. Till next time.

[mallika2point0]

A few months ago I made the decision to decrease the amount of meat and dairy I have in my diet. Not for any nutritional reasons but for ethical reasons. I found myself understanding a bit more about the suffering animals went through in order for me to have meat and dairy on my plate and I decided that it was not something I wanted to be a part of.

I’m probably more surprised than anyone that I made this decision. It wasn’t something I thought about, ever really. But one day I read a news article about some animal abuse seen on a farm and it struck a chord, but I think what hit me the hardest was that cows are artificially inseminated in order for them to produce milk and when their calves are born they get taken away from their mothers so that we can have the milk instead. Babies taken from their mothers just gets me every time and my brain couldn’t ignore what my heart was feeling. 

At first the decision was hard and I would make myself look the topic up more and more so that my resolve would get stronger but it has got to a point where it my decision feels more natural on a day to day basis. I’m not sure whether I believe we shouldn’t eat meat or not. I’m not sure that if there was no animal abuse on farms and they really did live happy lives whether it would make a difference. But I guess its a moot point as we don’t live in that world. I will say that I am not 100% vegan, and I’m not sure if I ever will be, but I try to eat vegan most of the time. I feel like this is a journey and I don’t want to be too harsh on myself as I still think its better to be a vegan 80% of the time versus 0% of the time. 

The pictures above are some vegan meals that I have loved that have shown me that I can do this and eat the foods I like. From top left going clockwise we have; Black bean tacos and tomato salsa, Pepper Quorn steak with couscous, Pasta with a cashew “cream” sauce, and Tofu Katsu curry. 

Well its food for thought. Till next time.

[mallika2point0]

Just because I'm doing dry June (no its not a thing) doesn't mean I can't have a drink in a fancy glass. Ice cold diet ginger beer and a little bit of sunshine on a Friday. Lovely. Although I am looking forward to the 1st July :p

[mallika2point0]

I feel so good today. The sun was out for my morning run. My workday is looking manageable and Its early finish Friday! #goodmorning #pumped #fridayfitness #fitspiration #morningrun #run #feelinggood

[mallika2point0]

Weekly weight in 14/06/2017

Wednesdays are my weigh in day and I’m excited to say that I’ve lost 0.9 kgs (2 pounds) this week! So that takes me to 3.2 kgs (7 pounds) and 17% of my overall goal which is really encouraging.

This week went well. During the week I had my bulk made meals so that was easy for me.

The weekend was an interesting test for me. After work on Friday we went out of town to have a break for a couple of days. En route I kept feeling sad that I wouldn’t be able to just eat something delicious to my hearts content or being afraid that my husband may judge my choices. Isn’t it crazy the amount of emotion I have when it comes to food. I have such an attachment (or is it addiction) to food, which is probably how I got here in the first place. 

Once I was able to realize that my fear of judgment was coming from own guilt and that I could have treats but I had to be intelligent about it, things started clicking in place. So I decided that I could be slightly indulgent in one meal a day if I was “good” for the other meals and snacks and something incredible happened. When it came to tallying up the calories at the end of the day I was actually within my daily limit!

In that instant I understood that treats aren’t off limits and you can actually have them if you are smart about it. I think I’ve finally understood the concept of a balanced diet! Huzzah! I hope this has planted something positive in my mind and as I continue with this journey I can develop a healthier relationship with food.

Well, its food for thought. Till next time.

[mallika2point0]

One of my biggest challenges with starting my current weight loss journey was just that, actually starting it. In previous years starting was always the easy part. Things would then go well for a few days then my life would go back to normal. But this time it was so different. Even doing it for 2 hours was too much, let alone 2 days. In the end realizing this was part of my road to recovery.

In the months leading up to it I had been very stressed out at work, been feeling really down on myself and the world and just couldn’t bring myself to care about much. But as I took the steps to work through this, I soon came back to life and was ready once again to do something about my lifetime struggle with weight loss. I happened to have a family member and a colleague watching their diet and I think that helped me realise I wasn’t alone.

How should I go about it though? Previously I had tried weight watchers, my fitness pal and diet chef. All definitely worked but of course if it was that easy for me to stick to them or get back into it I would have done it by now! A quote suddenly came into my mind ‘the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result’. So I thought about what I needed to get on the right track.

Weight watchers was good because you got weighed every week keeping you accountable however I didn’t enjoy the actual meetings. The people there and topics discussed just didn’t resonate with me.

Then there was My Fitness Pal which is a calorie counting app which would work well for a few days but my enthusiasm was always short lived.

Then finally Diet Chef in which they provide all the meals and snacks. That was a hail mary before my wedding and worked wonders if you could stand to eat that food. That was the first time I realised how emotional my connection with food was.

That’s how I found Noom. I was searching for what else is out there and of course the beast that is the internet knew what I was looking for and Noom popped up on my Instagram feed.

Noom looked like a perfect mixture of calorie counting, accountability and education. And thus the journey began.

Well, its food for thought. Till next time.

[mallika2point0]

Mine is not a new story. All my life I have been fat. I’ve tried to lose it, I’ve hated myself, I’ve ignored it and I’ve also tried to love myself no matter how I look. Nothing ever lasted. In fact recently my motivation was at an all time low. I couldn’t even make the damn diets last more then 2 hours! I just hit an absolute low. I could recognize it was happening but didn’t have it in me to change anything.

Then a couple of months ago the dark clouds started to part and as my thinking became clearer a sentence came into my mind. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result. I knew then that I had to try something new, I at least owed it to myself to give it a go!

I saw on my instagram feed (the all seeing and all knowing) an ad for the Noom app. I had a quick read of how it worked and decided that it was worth a shot. The worst that could happen was nothing and quite frankly I was doing that well enough already so what was the harm. 

I am now almost 4 weeks into it and have lost 2.3 kgs which I’m pleased about. Which means I’m 1/8th the way to my goal, or just over 12% to my goal or have lost 4 and a half bricks of butter, however I want to look at it it’s a loss and I know I have put the work in for it. What I also know is that I’m 7/8ths away from my goal and this is not going to be an easy ride. One thing that does make me feel better is that I’m armed with a different weapon this time with my app. Every day every week there are things to engage with and learn on the app. 

Well it’s food for thought I guess. Till next time.

p.s. Noom just happens to be my weapon of choice, this isn’t an ad for them in any way, I just mention what is helping me at the moment. I’ve previously done Weight Watchers and Diet Chef and lost the weight (though clearly I put it back on otherwise we wouldn’t be here).