Hullo everybody! I'm back! Again...

Well it's been quite a while since I sat at my keyboard with any intention other than updating my Facebook status, reading the news or indulging in the odd bit of online shopping and by online shopping I mean putting hundreds of dollars worth of goods to the cart and then never actually progressing to payment.  It's pretty much the new window shopping really isn't it?

A word on 'before & after' progress pics...

Usually when we think of taking progress pics of our weight loss journey, there are two types of pictures we think of.

There's the full face - from the most flattering angle possible, and the full body shots  my personal favourite,  which often contain a shot from each side. The full body shots are sometimes done in underwear, sometimes in tight clothes - which is probably all we have to wear, except for the over sized tunic that we think are so very flattering...

Left: Feb 2013                  Right: June 2015

Hero-ing and winning awards...

Last Sunday night, the same day as my non-event-Winery-Run-and-elevation-to-heroic-Florence-Nightingale-type, I thought it could be an idea to check my emails.  They had been languishing in cloudland for about a week...

So I was deleting all the junk ones, the spam, the scams etc when I came a cross a new scam email that I hadn't seen before.  It was supposedly from 12WBT  yeah right!  congratulating me and asking me to respond to the email because I had won a free round of 12WBT.

3rd Anniversary Winery Wander...

Well it's that time of year again, when I celebrate the anniversary of my first ever fun run, and last weekend was it.

I don't know if anyone else has an event that they use as a milestone event, but I use this one for a few reasons.

My new normal...

I was chatting with Madam Lash recently about how much things have changed for me, and she talked about how the choices I'm making, and she said "making these (better) choices is becoming your new normal".

My new normal.

It's only 3 little words, but words have power, and these words say so much about where I was and where I am today.

Sometimes it really IS all about the scales...

I'm a great proponent of the 'non-scale' victory.

You know the ones, like when your undies begin to fall down, or your pants are too big, or my personal favourite - needing to pull the drivers seat forward another notch, that sort of thing.

Non-scale victories are great for the confidence because you know you've been working out hard, and staying on track with your eating, but the blasted scales just aren't showing the results of all that effort.

How I stay accountable...

When I signed up for the May Round of 12WBT I was determined to do the whole 'food thing' right this time.  So I made a commitment to be accountable for what I chose to put in my mouth - the good, the bad, and the ugly... I was was gonna show you all every single thing I ate!

The result of that commitment has been what amounts to a daily food log via Instagram & personal FB with pictures of my day in food.

100 posts and a movie!

This blog began as a direct result of a 12WBT challenge a couple of years ago, during my very first round, and with this being my 100th post, it seems fitting that it's for a challenge/competition run by 12WBT.

For whom the Belle tolls...

I'm a little bit angry right now.

Most of you have probably heard by now of a young woman named Belle Gibson, who had built a very successful business on a web of lies.

If you haven't heard of her - where have you been hiding?

Why did the chicken refuse to cross the road...?

Because crossing over to Wordpress was just too damn hard and scary!

Even though staying with Blogger has become a right royal pain in said chicken's arse!

Temporary insanity...

#crackofarse looks like this

So in a new 12WBT FB group which has several legendary 12WBTers as members, and who have recently signed up for the February Round after not having done a 12WBT for a while - think Cathy Sheargold and Bella Fountain, fun challenges have been thrown out left, right, and centre.

Breaking bad habits...

How do you break a bad habit with a tennis ball?  Well, I'll tell you.

Today at training Madam Lash and I were talking about what my new goals are for myself this year.

Because, as you know, I am just so fan-fricking-tastic that I had smashed the ones I had long ago.

Now these goals aren't the usual sort - they're not weight based, or even really fitness related, and not even tightening the belt an extra notch sort, they're more like changing how I do things in my everyday life, finding new ways of doing things with a constantly changing body.

4 Must Have - but completely random - products...

You know when you're just idly flipping through a magazine, waiting for a script at the chemist, scrolling through Facebook, or opening messages, and you see the most random things that make you go WTF!?

Well, the following four products are what I saw while doing just those things.

And so it begins...

Here I am back at the start of yet another 12WBT round, and it's rapidly turning into a round of firsts.

It's the first one for 2015, the first one where both BM & I are eating the 12WBT way, the first one since the first one where I'll be making a conscious effort to mindfully add more movement to my days, the first one where I'll be a runner, the first one where I'll be using the tracker etc to keep accountable, the first one in a long time that I've done all the preseason tasks, well all but one, and I'll show you that one in a minute.

Thanks for visiting...

*NB:  This isn't a new post, but a repair that I had to do when several of my posts lot all their pictures. 
Somehow it's ended up as a new post...

I've had some pretty amazing numbers on this little blog lately.

Let me run 'em down for ya...

It's weird to me...

I went shopping today, and I realised how weird some things have become for me.

Not bad weird, good weird.

And not the fun sort of shopping, grocery shopping - which I don't usually mind, but today was pay day for everyone with a pulse, and they were all at the shops.

Okay, there was a little bit of the fun sort thrown in.

Salmon & Avocado Stack

aaaand I may have treated myself to a late breakfast at Coffee Club - loving the Salmon & Avo Stack! At around 370cal it's a bit on the high side of the calorie count, but most of that is in the avocado, so I guess it's a trade off - calories for healthy fats.

Crunching the numbers...

This is the fourth week of 12WBT pre-season and today's task is called Munch Crunch.

The pre-season tasks and challenges have evolved over the few years I've been doing 12WBT, new ones have appeared, others have been dropped...

It was inevitable that as the program continued to grow, things would have to change somewhere, and I suppose the pre-season tasks and challenges was a great place to begin.

Did I reach my 2014 goals...?

At the beginning of last year - 2014 - I shared my goals for the year, ones that were related to weight loss & fitness, and ones that weren't.

So how did I do?

Lets have a look shall we, and cross some off the list...

What is this 'pre-season' thing...?

If you've signed up for Michelle Bridges 12WBT for the first time, or the thirty-first time, you'll be hearing and seeing the term 'pre-season' over and over.

If it's your first time doing 12WBT, you may have found yourself asking 'what is it exactly?' or 'I signed up to a weight loss program and this ain't it!' or even 'why am I paying for something I'm not getting?!'.

Sound familiar?

A change is as good as a holiday...

Otherwise entitled Why My Blog Looks Different...

As you're aware I've been MIA from Blogland for the last several months.

Mostly because I was busy hog-tying myself with procrastination,

which is one of my best skills second only to Paralysis by Analysis.