LIMITS LIST

"If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is compromise" - Robert Fritz

Our weight has limited us in more ways than we care to admit. Compromise can be considered a good thing, but because of our limitations, we've had to make a lot of negative compromises.

For instance:
- Filling up a tub with water for Sareia to "swim" in because we're too lazy to go to the pools
- Family photos mostly consist of our two girls because there's no way we want proof that we ever looked like this
- Movie and date nights at home/ no social life because 1. LETHARGY - You just don't want to do anything when you're overweight. 2. SHAME - Going out consists of the Duck'n'Dive.  Ducking and diving out of the way to avoid anyone you know who has ever seen you before you decided to balloon.

Our weight limits us from a number of things we'd like to do and experience. A few of them are:

* Theme park rides - This is the scene: Mad as roller coaster running through hotel New York - New York (Las Vegas) and you're waiting in line to enjoy this monumental ride. Everyone else is seated and as you too, take your seat, you realise the safety bar won't lock into place (your thighs are too big). There's nothing else you can do but suffer the tragic walk of shame past everyone and back out to the entrance knowing they're all secretly laughing at you for thinking you could fit into the ride in the first place
* Swimming - The classic "beached whale" jokes, being the fat fobs swimming in a t-shirt and pants
* Tying shoelaces - Bending down to comfortably tie them without having to hold your breath, or bringing your foot to rest on your knee
* Sitting down in public seats - Knowing that you're bulging in all sorts of places, worrying about getting stuck (this hasn't happened yet...knock on wood, but it is a fear!) or being full-aware that at any moment the chair might give way (this unfortunately HAS happened).
* Shopping for clothes - Nothing fits! (this is only a SLIGHT exaggeration). And if it does fit, it's ugly.
* Capturing precious family moments - We just want to be able to not only take photos OF our daughters, but WITH them.


The Challenge:
To review and reassess these limits in 6 months and hopefully, the revised list will be empty. 

Cheers to no more limits :)

Babies, you gon be my MOTIVATION!!!

Those who have known me for most of my life would know that I have always struggled with my weight. My weight used to constantly go up and down, up and down until recently where it has just continually skyrocketed up and up and up to the point where people question wether it is actually me or whether I am Manuel Uribe. (If you don't know who he is then CLICK HERE)

During my teenage years it was my fascination with Celebrities that motivated me to want to look better. I wanted to have that chiselled jaw line and the V-Shaped abs, I wanted to dress well and be well groomed. I remember always looking through magazines to get ideas of how I wanted to look and dress. (Yes! Pretty much like what all girls do) Celebrities acted as my main motivation to lose weight and look good.

In recent years I found that NOTHING motivated me to try to look good and maintain my weight. The celebrities still had the chiselled jaw lines and the V-shaped abs but I couldn’t have cared less. Even whilst dating Sian I didn’t care how I looked if she didn’t like the way I looked she could’ve gone and dated someone else. NO MOTIVATION=FAST FOOD EVERYDAY=NO EXERCISE=LACK OF SELF-ESTEEM=FAT BODY=176kgs!!!

Now at age 26 with a beautiful wife and two beautiful healthy baby girls I have found a new source of Motivation. No longer do I desire to lose weight just to look good like celebrities (there is still a small part of me that wants to look like Channing Tatum) but I want to be able to give my family my very best. 

I want to lose weight to be HEALTHY and to live long and offer my wife and my daughters a healthy ME, a HAPPY me, an ACTIVE me, a SEXY me, the very best ME!

Owning Your Weight

My husband often talks about owning your weight and how it's the first step to shedding it, so here we are.

108.6 kgs – The lucky (or rather, unlucky) number. 

That is the blatantly honest figure I'm faced with when I step on those dreaded scales.

108.6 kg….108 600 g…239.4 lb….17.1 st. No matter what conversion is used or whether I translate it to Samoan or Chinese, it is what it is. Fancying up the colours and font will do little to change the physical outcome.

I’m not ashamed of the number, which is why I don’t mind sharing it. 

I’m ashamed of the weight.

It has never made sense to me that some people might be hesitant to reveal their weight to others. I'm not saying they should be forced into feeling comfortable to do so. I just personally can't relate.

It’s not as if it changes the way people are perceived. For me, it’s just a number. I mean….. I look the way I look because of my body type and sharing the actual numerical figure isn’t going to make me appear any skinnier or fatter. 

Some people look bigger than what they actually weigh, and others look smaller.

If it made me seem thinner to change the figure by either adding or subtracting a few kilos (ok, maybe more than just a few), then by all means I would share that ideal number to complete the illusion. 

But no matter what lies I tell myself or others, the scales do the presenting, the weight calculations do the interpreting, and my body does the parading.       
      

There’s no hiding from it. The input of all the relevant data into the "BMI Healthy Weight Calculator" (There are better sites that offer more accurate results, taking into consideration a greater amount of data - Age, height, weight, sex, diet and exercise etc), all point to one undeniable truth.   

Hi, my name is Sian Mariana Chou Lee. I am 24 years old, and I am overweight.

This changes NOW!

(Mentally :) Gottta wait the required 5 weeks before I can safely exercise. Doctors orders)