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Perseverance

by Chavah Kinloch on January 25, 2012

This pretty much sums up my life right now.

Time and effort is all it will take. I WILL do it.

I wasn’t going to say anything on here but after thinking about it for a week I figure..why not just say it? Why is it so hard?This is why I have a blog after all. I’ve only told two people in real life, my husband and a friend the day it happened. Even saying it to my friend was hard.

I have officially lost 40kg’s (88lbs). In fact I’m closer to 41kgs lost than 40 now, so watch this space. The journey is far from over.

It’s hard to believe really. I’ve pretty much lost a Kourtney Kardashian or a Mila Kunis (apparently they weigh 43kg’s):

The thing is, even though to say it out loud sounds kind of impressive, in real life I’ve been struggling to see the difference. Like really struggling. Don’t get me wrong, there are moments I’ll walk past something and see my reflection and catch myself off guard and think “What in the hell? Is that me? Where’s the rest of me? What happened to the massive roll there that was there?” It’s just hard to get my brain caught up with reality.  I’m my own biggest critic.

After talking with my husband about it last night he said something that made a lot of sense to me. I don’t care about the number because it’s not what motivates me. I’ve spent the last year working my butt off and not focusing on a relationship with my scales so I’ve learned to love other results instead.  I need to physically see change happening and when I look front on, it’s hard for me to see that. From that conversation came these photos:

Please don’t judge me by my excess fat, loose skin and full belly. Despite all those things (which I’m working on) I’m proud because look closely…

Those shadowy dents you see there? That is muscle. It bulges and it’s solid. You can’t see it too well in the photos but through touch the most obvious muscle is my triceps. It feels like a  thick line running through my arm when I run my hand over it. I have never had this before but I love it.

This photo below is my favourite photo to date of a woman with trapezius muscles. In fact I have this labelled in my folder as ‘Traps for days’. Jessica Biel in general has amazing definition.

I know, I know, I’m probably going to have a lot of people with words like butch, manly, too much, eww, gross etc but this is the direction I’m choosing to go and I’ve never felt more feminine.

These photos my husband took for me to look at make me a hundred times happier than any number the scale doesn’t say anymore. These photos show how much effort I put in on any given day to make a positive change in my life. Thank you Andrew for helping me wrap my head around how I want to measure my progress.

I’m building a good foundation and I’ve got some very clear set goals – and so far since making them, I have been kicking their butt. I’m on track!

I don’t know what my body will look like by the time I’m done, I have a vision that I hope to make a reality but I’ve never been the athletic type so this will be completely new to me. I don’t know what to expect. What I do know is that the end result will represent the hard work, dedication and perseverance I am putting in to achieve it. Stretch marks, saggy skin and all, I love and appreciate my body.

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Keeping it Fresh – Will Smith is My First Love

by Chavah Kinloch on January 17, 2012

I cannot wait to get out of the house this evening to plug in my earphones and work it out. My gosh I need it today! It makes me feel like this:

Shout out to the tumblr who originally put all of these dance moves into one post. By far one of the best things on the internet.

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New Year New Look

by Chavah Kinloch on January 12, 2012

I’ve been wanting a new look for this blog for a while now, so with my husband being on holiday we decided to tackle a redesign. It’s likely things could change again throughout the year as I work on my ‘to do’ list but for now this new look is giving me renewed enthusiasm to write for the year ahead! Take a look around, let me know if you come across anything that’s not working properly.

If anyone out there is interested in his services you can contact Andrew here.

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Nas’ Karate Grading

by Chavah Kinloch on December 6, 2011

I live away from family, so as any good daughter/daughter-in-law would do, I’m making a post for the grandparents to see how Nas – my eldest son, went at his very first Karate grading.

He’s been so excited to take part in a grading to hopefully move up a belt. He’s been extra vigilant about mastering his Kata since he found out two weeks ago that this was coming up. The first words out of his mouth after school were “Grading tonight Mum!”.

He did so well, it was really fun to watch. It was great to see him walk away from the grading on such a high, he absolutely loves Karate! Since starting Karate he’s come out of his shell a lot more, he’s more confident and disciplined. Watching him grow like this is really heart warming. He’s always been a very shy and quiet child. Capable and athletic but far too shy to do much about it.

Everyone in class did all their Kata, the higher belts knew more of course and they had some really impressive moves. I hope Nas stays long enough to learn them. I’m sure he will.  Throughout the evening they went through a lot of other exercises, went through one on one routines, some light sparring and then to finish they did this:

Push ups

Sit ups

Burpees

Star jumps

Lining up

All finished

Yeah.. I said to finish.

Well done to my boy for doing what he loves with absolutely no fear. Here’s a short video of some of his ‘sparring’. It’s really just play fighting at this age. After tonight, my daughter is asking to join too. They’ve also asked me if they’re old enough to do kickboxing. We’ll see how this story plays out…

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Half An Hour to DIY – Recovered Lampshade

by Chavah Kinloch on December 5, 2011

Earlier today I posted this on my Facebook status:

The problem I have, is that with my youngest child now growing up and being more independent I sit around looking at things for my home and come up with random ways to change them. It’s probably a good thing we don’t have a tonne of excess money or otherwise my husband would come home and wonder if he was at the right place.

I have so many little projects I can do around my home. It doesn’t really need anything done (well a new kitchen, new carpet and converting the garage to a family room would be great) but in reality, it’s fine how it is. We purchased it because it covered our list of must haves – room to play basketball, fully fenced, two bathrooms, four bedrooms. We don’t have much ‘need’ for anything materialistic, I’m grateful for that but I personally have a need to create… All the time.

Originally today I really wanted to paint something. I have this huge blank canvas sitting there but I’ve dedicated that canvas to a project that will happen ‘eventually’  (read: it’s a really good idea I haven’t made the time to create yet) and so I don’t want to waste my $120 canvas on something that I may or may not like…even though I really wanted to. Sometimes I hate that I restrain myself to be sensible financially.

So anyway, from the painting idea I went outside to fiddle around with the log that’s been drying for months. When I realised I couldn’t be bothered working on that project either I decided to move onto the lamps in my living room that even though in the photo’s appear to be fine, are actually kind of grubby after being around my kids for years.

Juggling through my ever growing fabric collection I came across a certain fabric I received from fellow artist Karley Feaver and was absolutely delighted with the way the pattern looked on a lampshade so knew I was onto a winner.

With my trusty glue gun, scissors, fabric & old lamp I set to work and within half an hour (it may have even been 15 minutes) I modernised these out of date lampshades.


Easy peasy. If I had patience I would probably mod podge the fabric on & line the inside where the fabric overlaps with felt. Those would be my tips anyway for anyone wanting to have a go at recovering a lampshade but seeing as these are just for my home, I’m happy! The kids think it looks great too. I’ll finish the matching lampshade tonight.

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Oh Yah Know… Just Me and My New Belt

I got it today guys!! And I couldn’t be happier I think the last time I got given a certificate for anything I was in primary school. He called me up, gave me a proud smile and “Osu!” and said “It’s about time you got your belt.”. As much as I think my sensei is [...]

Overcoming Fear

One of the greatest lessons I’m learning this year has to do with the issue of fear. I don’t recall myself being the overly fearful type, as a child I was quiet, some would say shy… for a little while anyway until I was comfortable; a trait that has followed me through to adulthood but [...]

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