It is time now to do my (more than) 2 stone lost review!!! I can certainly see the differences appearing. I can't wait to do it again when I'm down to my original goal weight. So exciting!

Here are the progress photos:

And now the Comparison Photos. This shows a two stone 1 lb weight loss. 13 stone 5 on the right and 12 stone 4 on the left  :

The only difference Is the front and back photos are from 13 stone 1 as I didn't think to do those pics when I started. Phew, what a difference!

4 stone lost!

Today's scale reading:

Officially 4 stone down, however I had a pizza for dinner last night (bad girl) and I think there may still be some residual cheese/salt bloating. Also my period is still clinging on for one last day, so I think there is a possibility that I might lose a few more ounces if I weigh myself tomorrow. I think that will be my plan! 

New progress photos:

I got all emotional thinking about being 11 stone 5, and realising that would make me 2 stone less than when I started this blog.I have done some comparison photos, as I like seeing them, but I am excited to do the next set when I will have lost 2 stone from the beginning of the blog. These are today's comparison photos, today's weight on the right, and the photos from 13 stone 5 (side) and 13 stone 1 (front/back) on the left:

This is the first time I've been able to notice a real stomach difference. It just seems really noticeable here, on the side views, and I know that I have even been noticing little differences in real life so I'm pleased and long may that continue.

Right, well, I'm continuing with the exercise (shaved 2 mins 20 secs off my personal best at the 5km run yesterday :-) ) and NOT BINGEING. I've decided this is non-negotiable and I'm working now on reducing the over-eating that I do to break the binge habit. I'm pleased with my progress this week, though, and I have even been able to eat my way around a few treats (plain chow mein and prawn crackers from the chinese takeaway on Friday, and a personal Domino's cheese & tomato pizza with a few wedges yesterday) - I said when I started this that it was a 'weight loss journey' but also a 'path to healthy habits'. That means something I can sustain my entire life and that means periodically eating treats without everything going to hell in a handbasket so I'm proud of myself. Another pound down! Four stone from the beginning - it is hard to remember being 15 stone 10 now. I'm so happy.

Photos and progress photos

Today's pictures (12 stone):

Haha, I've just noticed you can see my actual shoulder in that back photo. Whoops! Well, I never claimed to be a photographer ;-)

I think a difference is gradually becoming apparent. Gradually being the operative word. For funsies, I have done some progress photos. These are 13 stone 5, 12 stone 5, 12 stone, in that order:

I think my back fat looks better and my arms look smaller. I am really struggling with seeing a difference in my stomach though. My arse certainly looks (and feels ;-) ) higher, although alarmingly I think my thighs look better in the middle pictures. I think that might just be a symptom of exercise though, and hopefully it will correct itself. The cellulite makes me sad but oh well. Shouldn't have been so fat in the first place!

These ones are 13 stone 1 and 12 stone as I didn't take any front and back photos when I started off:

Yes, back fat, arms and arse certainly noticeably improved! The stomach though... needs work still, right?

Just to heighten my curiousity a final comparison without the middle photo. So a comparison left and right with 13 stone 5 and then, 19 pounds down, at 12 stone:

Ok, well I can see the difference a bit better here! The whole shape of my back has completely changed! My arse is in a totally different place! My stomach is certainly less... although the shape is more or less the same - sticking out! I need to work more on stomach toning, this is obvious but there is a difference, it is clearly there. Phew!

I wonder how it will look at 11 stone 5?

1 stone lost photos

Somehow I didn't notice that I have now lost 1 stone since starting this blog. I started this blog weighing 13.5 stone, and now I am 12.5 stone. I am wondering if I messed my calculations up somewhere along the way as I was sure  I hadn't reached a stone yet... but the figures are there! So without any further ado I have new pictures and then comparison pictures. Today's pictures first:

 And the comparison photos are below. Left is the heavier ones (13.5 stone/187 lbs/85 kilos) and right is the photos from today (12.5 stone/173 lbs/ 78.5 kg). I wish I had taken a better shot of my left side when I took the first photos! Ugh!

I'm pleased to have made progress, but 1 stone in 6 months isn't great progress is it?! Let's see how we get on from here.

Seizing my motivation when I can!

With great excitement I weighed myself this morning. I am going away for a girlie weekend with much drinking and eating of convenience food planned, with the world's least exercise-friendly people so I am anticipating a possible gain but definitely not really a loss this weekend. I will also be away on Sunday for my weigh-in so I will attempt to do it on Monday morning. I wanted to know my final weight which I am counting for last week as it was affected by hormones which I think have finally dissipated. Guess what? 1 lb down.

It actually read 12 stone 7 lbs and 2 ounces, when I first weighed myself, as I took all my clothes off. My underwear put 4 ounces back on, crazy! So, another pound off. I must admit that I am secretly hoping that on Monday I will somehow,  by some miracle be down to 12 stone 6. I'm not sure how that would happen (I keep thinking about little things that might help - I'm getting the train, so dragging my suitcase over the platforms during changes.... maybe suggesting a walk...) but if it were ever possible to play my weight-loss version of the 'Get out of jail free' card, then I feel like this week would be it. If I could be 12 stone 6 for the beginning of next week, say I lose 2 lbs next week then I will start off my half term week-of-exercise with only 4 lbs left to lose before the second week of June and two whole weeks in which to lose it. Yeeeahh, that would be the dream but I know better than that, really, all I need is PCOS to rear its ugly head or this weekend to trigger off bad binges... but we'll see. In all the excitement, I did 12 stone 7 photos:

The backs of my legs aren't actually that red.. I'm not sure what happened there, but I'm still loving my arse in all its cottage cheese glory. It's so beautiful... I'm so happy to finally enjoy a part of my body. I'm wearing my new size 14 jeans today and smiling :-)

A positive uplift of the posterior

I weighed myself this morning and, yep, back to 12 stone 8. Phew. Although I am upset that it has taken so very, very long to lose my hormonal weight. It coincides nicely with my going away for the weekend where undoubtedly I will eat crap and do no exercise. I also had to cancel both of my classes at the gym this morning as I just did not have time. I did fulfill my eyebrow threading reward though, booya, I bet I've lost a pound right there!

As an interesting exercise, I went back to the start of the blog as I was wondering if I had lost even a stone yet (I haven't.) I put together two of the photos, one from the first photo blog entry at 13 stone 5 and one from the last lot of photos I uploaded, 11 lbs lighter. Yeesh, seeing it like that it does look like a great achivement. 11 lbs?? That's a lot, isn't it!? I'm sure I can see a difference. What do you all think?

My stomach seems a little flatter, my back fat sits a little better and there is more definition between my arse and my thighs.

I have a couple of other confessions too! This morning I was forced to go clothes shopping due to a lack of clothes that fit coinciding with some clothes shop sales as I have no money. I had to buy a pair of jeans and a new pair of work trousers. My current jeans are size 16 and my work trousers are size 18. I think I was having a particularly depressed day when I bought my work trousers and I think maybe they were a little big when i got them, but not that big. Now  they are definitely too big, and I can't spend my time working in a secondary school hoiking my trousers up every five minutes because they are falling off. The trousers I bought today? Jeans - size 14, work trousers - size 14. Yeaaaaah, baby! The jeans are just fine but admittedly the work trousers forced me into a bit of a muffin top. They feel comfortable though and I bought them anyway - I only have one more week at work before the week's school holiday, so I will work on working out over the next two weeks and I will go back to work after the holiday in my size 14 trousers. I. Can. Hardly. Wait!!!
I'm also feeling better about my body in general. More confident, even. I think the exercise is certainly helping me tone up and I can see parts of my body that I finally like. Whilst trying on my new jeans this morning I spent actually ages just staring at my arse. It's nice, isn't it? Shapely and getting toned. I think you can see the definition a little bit in the newest photo above on the left. I'm quite proud of my arse. And my stomach definitely sticks out a bit less. I think my breasts have got a bit smaller and with it firmer, which is fabulous news. One of my biggest issues is still my upper arm flab, and I think it has got fractionally more toned but clearly it is somewhere I need to work more on. Hmm, I might have to investigate more upper arm muscle exercises....

All in all, I'm feeling so positive at the moment. The last week of May is my school's holiday so I intend to go to the gym every.single.damn.day if it is even a little bit possible as I would LOVE to somehow make it into the 11's before June, or at the beginning of June. That is 8 mere pounds away, if I could get 1 lbs off by Sunday (well, monday as I will be away for the Sunday weigh-in) and lose 2 lbs next week, that gives me just 5 lbs to lose in the following two weeks.... Eek!

Photos

I didn't manage to take photos until last night, so I'm going to imagine these do not reflect the full 12 stone 8 glory! Still, it's better than nothing! I decided, also, as one of the first major changes in my body I have noticed (after losing my 'second stomach' which happened before I started this blog!) to take photos of my legs. A lot of the 'extra' workouts I am doing at the moment focus on my legs - running, weighted walking, squats. It would be nice to notice any extra changes there! I am not sure how often I will remember to take photos of my legs, but it will show a nice progression, hopefully.

I caved and had McDonalds for lunch today. I did it 'publicly' (not eating it secretly, after telling the world I had gone shopping or something). I've been so healthy and eaten an awful lot of fruit and I figure that one one-off isn't the be-all and end-all. I went for a looong weighted walk this morning in the glorious sunshine and this evening I'll go for a run. I'm going to the gym tomorrow morning and hopefully swimming in the evening too - I hope to work it all off!

So, progress photos from 12 stone 8:

And the leg shots:

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for this week... 3 lbs is such a great start!

Week 12

Sorry I am a bit late with this post, just been a busy day! After everything and attending the gym by osmosis this week I can report that I have stayed the same. On the plus side this means that my scales were still working even though they had run out of batteries last week, although on the down side I have not lost any more weight. I am still 12 stone 11.

Obligatory side views below. I think I am definitely starting to notice a difference. I can see it mainly in my legs (which are not in the photos below, obviously, haha) but I assume then that there must be a difference elsewhere and it is just more difficult to see when you are looking at you! The stretch marks and cellulite kill me though. When I have lost the weight the first thing I do (even before laser hair removal surgery on my side burns, thanks PCOS!) is to sort that out. There is no point having a killer body and not wanting to look at it;

 Maybe next time I'll post leg photos so you can see those too. I think that because most of my exercise is leg based that the muscles there have developed more than elsewhere (which makes sense).

I have been looking back through and I can see that I have lost 8 pounds since I started 12 weeks ago, and I have officially been in the 12 stones for 6 weeks. Yeesh. That looks both good and bad. It has been very s l o o w going but at least it has been happening. The odd pound I could call off as water weight but more than half a stone and over three months is positive, definite weight loss, am I right? Looking back at the photos I think I can see a minor difference in my back fat and possibly a slight decrease in the top incline of my stomach. Dear God in Heaven I can't wait until I am never able to speak of stomach in terms of inclines ever again. At the same time, at the rate of losing 2 pounds a week I could have lost 24 pounds by now - doesn't look so good any more does it... That I could be 16 pounds lighter if I were a normal non-PCOSer is beyond demotivating. 24 pounds is nearly 2 stone, for crying out loud! What with the gym to kick start me and the brighter weather meaning I can get out and about more it will happen. Six weeks until my birthday - I could lose another 12 pounds by then!!!! 11 stone 13 would be divine.

I do have a plan for this week! I am bound and determined that 12 stone 10 is in my grasp. The official three stone down goal point and I am so desperate to get my eyebrows done - it is like looking through a curtain! I have an added pressure now that in a few weeks I am going to see some old friends and I want to knock their socks off. I'm not sure they'll notice but I'll feel better just knowing. I've joined the gym now and I'm going to chase up my free personal trainer appointment tomorrow. Hopefully we can schedule that for Thursday. On Wednesday I am going to go swimming for an hour and maybe to a class if I can book one or I'll do an hour on something in the gym. Friday I will do whatever workout the personal trainer gives me and an hour in the pool and probably the same on Saturday. In the evenings I will go for my usual walk or run and I also have zumba on Monday night. Sounds good, right? Keep all your fingers crossed for me.

Week 11

I think my scales are broken. Partially because of the result I got, but mostly because at various points when I stepped on them they cut out completely. BUT. Despite the fact that I think they are broken or, more likely, have run out of batteries, it did give me the exact same result every time I tried to get them to work. So, I am going to give the scales the benefit of the doubt and go with their result because there HAS to be a benefit to losing almost my whole weekend to the stomach bug of doom. Todays result? 12 stone 11 pounds 2 ounces. 12.11.2. This is good! Although it does also mean that in five long, long, loooong weeks I have only lose 1 lb. I maintained, maintained, put on then dropped. And in those looooong weeks the only thing I have to show is a 1 lb loss. All the same, I will take these little victories where I can get them. My stomach bug has inspired me (!) to keep at the weight loss and I want to be 12 stone 10 by my week 12 weigh in. Yes, I do. I will be. It will have been a long time coming, but I want to have made it down to that official three stone down. Very hard to imagine!

Without much further ado, this weeks pictures are below. I apologise in advance for the hideous underwear, please consider this my "I've just recovered from a stomach bug and forgot that I was taking photos to commemorate my weight loss today" underwear:

What do you think, any noticeable difference?