Well today I did something for the first time! I had my first PT session! Alarm set for 5.30am, gym clothes laid out ready to go!

Got there a bit early so I did a 10 minute warm up on the cross trainer.

And then in began!! This is Anita my lovely amazing inspiring hilarious hard arse PT!! She didn’t get a say about this she just my got my phone shoved in her face!

We did my half hour work out. I did 3 sets of

• Battle rope slams
• Battle rope lifts
• Kettle bell upright rower
• Mountain climbers (only in the first set)
• Walking lunges
• Wall sits
• Lateral raises
• Elevated dumbell squats; and
• The rower

I felt physically sick like I was either going to hurl or pass out but with Anita’s “encouragement” I whinged my way through everything she wanted me to do.

My Fitbit said that I burnt 375 calories however I know that it would have been more than that because my heart stopped beating for 10-15 minutes of the session!

Well not actually stopped beating but my heart rate was not registering because my arm was that sweaty! I was one sweaty hot mess by the end of the session.

Got home and quickly got ready for work and off I went for another day.

I had meetings all over the place and once again used my legs instead of taxi’s clocking up extra steps for my daily target. My 10am I had already hit my daily target steps.

On my way back to the office I called into Country Health’s head office where I worked for many years. I haven’t been into that office to visit since about March. One lovely friend knows about my surgery and is always so lovely and supportive. It’s always lovely to be a surprise guest for JC! I then went to visit my old team, the EA of the team didn’t know about my surgery and her words “holy crap you’ve lost a lot of weight”…which JC and I giggled saying just a little bit.

I then knocked on the wall of the girl who recruited me back in 2007 who looked up and said “hi can I help you?” And then then took about 30 seconds of her staring at me before she realised it was me. Hahaha someone who has known me for 10 years and who knew I was having the surgery didn’t recognise me.

It’s a weird compliment to look like a different person 🙂

Overall a good day…..but will I be able to walk tomorrow?? I hope so as I have a meeting at the Women’s & Children’s Hospital that I am planning on walking to!

Weigh in Wednesday

This week – 1.0kg

Since surgery – 60.4kg

Total 79.3kg

I am gobsmacking that I have lost 60kg since surgery and almost a grand total of 80kg! I really hope I can hit that target next week, what a huge milestone. Never in a million years did I think I would lose 80kg let alone in the time frame that I have.

Yesterday was the Melbourne cup and I came second in the sweep and won $7 woohoo big winner!! Except I spent it on the way home at Target on the size 18 clearance rack dress for a massive $5.06 and today I wore it. That’s right I wore a size 18 skirt 😜

I also got to celebrate a non scale victory (NSV) in that while I was in a meeting with my boss I looked down and realised I had my legs crossed! What the heck?!?!? When could I start crossing my legs…..

After that I honestly spent the rest of they very distracted by my legs and admiring them. The lovely ladies I work with got a great deal of amusement laughing at me taking a picture of me sitting with my legs crossed.

Yes I am saying this out loud…..I like my legs, I really like my legs! Well from the knees down at least hahaha

Transformation Tuesday……no matter how many side by side photos I do I am honestly in shock and disbelief.

I am in shock that I was so large and I don’t ever remember looking that large.

I am in shock that the reflection I now see has shape and definition. She has normal womanly curves and shape.

I had had some weird belly pains today, the type that resembled a mild version of what I was having earlier this year when I was admitted to hospital for a week. I am feel that uncomfortable tightness and discomfort that comes with the sleeve life of high protein and low fibre diet! Tonight I will be doubling my doses of supports and aids, the last time I want to do is end up having that massive pain attacks again!

Today was my first day back working full time for the first time since before I started maternity leave in 2011.

Driving into work this morning I had a moment of extreme vanity in which I nearly crashed my car! I quite blatantly was checking myself out in the rear view mirror, it really freaks me out that I don’t recognise that reflection as myself!! It’s so surreal and abnormal that I don’t know who that person is???

Note: this photo was not taken while driving 😀

Day one was a cost saving measure for the health department. Why was it cost saving you might ask? Because I used my legs to get to all my meeting between hospitals and my office instead of using cab charge vouchers!

Not only did I get in some great incidental exercise….

I also got to enjoy some gorgeous Adelaide views along the journey as I walked the foot bridge between the Royal Adelaide and the Women’s & Children’s Hospitals.

I knew that I was going to be out of the office most of the day so I didn’t bother packing my lunchbox instead I took some high protein snacks I could have in transit and picked up some dumplings for lunch on my way back to the office. I’m such a cheap feed these days when eating out lol

So I survived day one of full time back to the office again tomorrow for my first Melbourne cup and first Tuesday in 6 years! But my lunchbox is packed and ready to roll.

So I don’t really have anything exciting to talk about today so I thought that I would do something that has been floating around my instagram news feed the last week.

People know me as the C4K Goes Bariatric girl but do you know anything about me as a person?

So here you go, here are 25 things about me that not everyone else knows.

1. My name is Holly
2. I am 36 years young
3. I am engaged to my lovely partner in crime, Jamie
4. We have one little man, Lachlan who is 6 on 19th December
5. I grew up in country South Australia and have lived most of my life in South Australia
6. I work for the state health department as a project officer
7. I work to live BUT I love that I have a job that means something and impacts on people
8. I am sensitive to lactose
9. I am allergic to black bean sauce and seafood
10. I think that avocado and kale are the most revolting foods ever
11. I have 2 tattoos, a purple flower and the initials of my family
12. I don’t go anywhere without my glasses (or contact lenses), I have terrible vision
13. I won’t use a pen unless the lid is on the end of the pen
14. I will always change the toilet roll, regardless of my location, to be a waterfall
15. If I could meet any food celebrity it would be one of 3 people. Martha Stewart, Maggie Beer or Rachel Ray
16. As a kid my dream job was a singer, then I realised I’m an ok singer but not hit material
17. As an adult my dream job would be to host my cooking show
18. My favourite movie of all time is Steel Magnolias
19. I don’t have a middle name
20. If I could only every eat one food for the rest of my days it would dumplings or laksa
21. I have selfish reasons for being so open and sharing my recipes and my journey…..it gives me a great deal of personal satisfaction and worth knowing I can help and support others
22. I am a kind caring tolerant and accepting person on everyone I meet with the exception of my morbid irrational fear
23. My favourite animal is an elephant
24. I am addicted to coffee
25. I am slightly addicted to trashy MTV TV shows like Geordie Shore, Ex on the Beach and anything tragic like that.

So this is just a little bit of info about me….Holly – the face and person behind C4K Kitchen and When Holly Met Percy!

Another Instagram coming up on my news feed is #6photosofme so here is mine!

Well things got…….stressful today!!

My Saturday started off like any normal Saturday. I did a breakfast cook up for the family, I got a bit excited with mine and was completely dreaming when I served mine up!

After that I got myself motivated to go to the gym and what better way to be motivated than to actually have it written on your pants!!

30 minutes on the cross trainer, 15 minutes on the stair master, 20 minutes on the bike and 980 calories later it’s safe to say it was a decent workout!

And I have to admit Jamie is right, my normal work out tops are ridiculous and it’s time for them to move on to a new home, particularly since I had  wardrobe malfunction today and did some workout bra flashing lol

After that I came home to have a quick shower to get ready to go to a friends house for a birthday BBQ. I felt good, I feel that I looked nice and in a rare occurrence I wasn’t having massive clothing anxiety!

Well as we were about to head off that’s where things got stressful! The little man was running in excitement and tripped over his own feet and in the process face planted the textured concrete rendered wall out the back and cracked his head open! So within 5 minutes we were in the car and off to the emergency room!

The little guy with his ASD does not cope at all with situations like this and the environment of hospital and waiting. He also most certainly doesn’t understand that he needs to sit through treatment to help him feel better! Pre-sleeve I really struggled to deal with him in situations like this but now I am a calmer, stronger and more resilient person and it makes the stress of these situation so much easier to handle…..even if it means physically straddling him on the emergency stretcher and restraining his head while the emergency doctor flushes the wound clean.

He is ok thank goodness! No stitches or glue required and no signs of concussion or any damage more than a superficial wound. Some steri-strips to hold the wound together together with his “sore head special bandaid hat” and some pain relief we were able to come home!

My poor little man, he’s such a brave little warrior! While I had motivation written on my legs to start my day the truth of the matter is that any motivation I need to keep me going to be the best, happiest and healthiest version of myself comes from one place and one place only!! This dear little man….special bandaid hat and all 😍

Mourning is over and I am stepping out and proud and no black in sight!

This is another gifted designer outfit from a beautiful sleeve sister. It’s so really weird and daunting for me to wear a style that is so figure hugging and shape revealing however it must have looked ok as I was flooded with compliments today even going as far as being called a skinny mini!

Because I didn’t have any light colour work appropriate shoes so had to wear my nude heels. They were slightly uncomfortable so at lunchtime I went and bought some pale coloured flat shoes. It’s official my feet have also shrunk. I used to be a size 42 in Ruby shoes and even sometimes they were too small and tight, today I bought size 40’s shoes! That’s just a bit crazy that my feet have shrunk not one but 2 sizes! My body is changing in so many places I didn’t even consider.

I’m getting myself prepared for stage 2 of my refocus! I have finished my holly-ified reset, this week I am doing some home stretches with an increased repetition every day and next week I am starting back on logging my food diary. I was filling out the food diary I have and it asked me one simple question.

“Why I’ve decided to take on this journey”

Such a simple question but it’s a really difficult one to answer. In fact it took me nearly half an hour to find the right words to answer the question.

I am so glad that I finally found the right words to this question and I will be keeping this page as a reference point.

When I am feeling lost, when I’m feeling deflated, when I’m feeling hopeless, when I’m feeling like a failure, when I’m feeling like I’m fighting a losing battle – I will refer back and read this page to remind myself of where I WILL get to and where I am already so much closer to being than I was this time last year!

And just a quick side note…..my collar bones wants to say hello to everyone!

Weigh in Wednesday

This week is just a small week and to be honest I am totally over the moon with the results!

This week – 0.1kg

Since surgery – 59.4kg

Total – 78.3kg

It may have only been 100g loss this week BUT that number had a magical turning point and I dropped down into the next 10 group of numbers.

This 10 group represents a big deal for me as I am now in the range and on the home stretch to my next mini goal, I’m only 7.4kg away from FINALLY dropping to Obese III.

I have been this category for at least the last 15 years so I am beyond excited to finally think that it is realistic for me to move out of this category!

Today is my last Tuesday off before I start back at work full time next week. I’m wondering how I will cope working full time again as I haven’t working full time since 2011 before I went on maternity leave.

Being my last Tuesday off I used the opportunity to go to the gym. And I was totally out of my comfort zone as I was wearing the new gym top Jamie picked out for me. I am ALWAYS so crazy self conscious of my belly bulge and attempting to hide at all costs. Today this wasn’t the case, I wasn’t hiding the bulge under a tent I would normally wear instead I was wearing a smaller and shorter top – this is terrifying to me especially when I am wearing tight and revealing gym pants underneath. I hope I didn’t burn anyone’s eyeballs who had to look at me.

I did another RPM class!

I can honestly say that I have NOT yet been hit by the endorphins of loving RPM but it’s a crazy intense workout. My Fitbit recorded my burning just under 700 calories….I do however know that it would be way more than that as for over 15 of the 50 minutes it stopped working because I was sweating so much! Realistically it would have been a 1,000 workout and nobody can argue with that.

Red face and all! The instructor came and saw me afterwards and told me she could tell I was working and pushing myself harder and that I was doing really well.

I had a follow up appointment with my GP today and after doing my research and realising the wait list to access the public list for skin removal surgery is between 18-24 months. So we have decided given the issues I am already having and knowing they will only get worse with my excess skin that we have today sent off my referral to the specialists. I know it’s still a long way away and I still need to get to goal weight but I am already a little bit happier knowing that the process has already started.