Hello June!

Its my birthday month! 

I am excited because this year I am 20 kgs lighter than I was on my last birthday....healthier too!

Whilst I admit I have not been working at losing more weight over the last 6 months I am proud to report that I have maintained my "losses" during that time... The secret (if you can call it a secret) is that I didn't go on a diet a year ago, I embarked on a lifestyle change holistically and because of that I adopted a number of good habits that have carried me through like not taking sugar in my tea or anything, cutting out adding salt, eating whole grains and sweet potatoes or butternut as a carb replacement, drinking plenty of water (2L ideally) and my absolute favourite, coliflower mash potatoes! These and more have seen me through my non active phase and enabled me to maintain the weight-loss gains I made last year. 

As my birthday fast approaches I considered how I should celebrate and one thing came to mind, ''Lose the other 23 extra kgs you are carrying around!"

Now to understand I should re-visit my numbers; I am 160 cm (5 foot 3 inches) and when I started my weight-loss journey I weighed in at 115 kgs ( 255 pounds) so while I have come a very long way, there is still some way to go to get my BMI into a healthy range. So the second part of my journey begins today with my first challenge, 36 by 36! 

When I first started my weight-loss journey in May 2016, I could not walk across a carpark or up stairs it was just not happening, wild dogs could not have moved me!!! But losing weight doesn't happen on the sofa so I had to get moving!!!! I started gently with the gym throughout winter and then as the weather warmed up and the weight-loss slowed down I recognised that I needed a challenge so I pushed myself out into the world and started doing 5 km power walks... after 8 weeks I did a 100km challenge and walled 10 km a day over 12 days and I achieved it! I even ventured into running until Christmas slowed me down to a stand still...

So my plan to get moving again is simple, I will power-walk 36 km in 10 days before my 36th birthday (36 by 36, see?) and then I'll #JustKeepMoving!