It was unlike anything I had ever experienced it all, and was so intense that I worried that when my second beautiful angel was born, that I wouldn’t love her as much.

But the moment I laid eyes on her, I experienced that same intense love all over again.

Even though I’ve had my challenges over the years, and although I have a lot of my focus on my career, business and relationships, being a mother to me has been (and probably always will be) the most important aspect of my life.  My children come first above all else.  But I still make time for me!

Being a mother is hard work, and it’s important you have time for yourself sometimes.  We often get caught up in all of the other aspects of our life, and forget that we need looking after too.

So if you’re on a mission to lose some weight for example, but you rarely have time to exercise, then today is the day that you schedule half an hour, three times a week to exercise – just as you would an appointment at the doctor.  If you made that appointment you’d show up right?  So treat your exercise regime the same way.  Book it in!

If your relationship with your significant other needs some work, book him in for a “date”.  Spend some time alone together.  Once you have children, this aspect of relationships often stops happening and things get dull.  Spice things up a little!

If there’s something you’ve always wanted to do, such as attend a Zumba class, hike up a local mountain, write your first novel or even jump out of a plane, choose today as the day in which you start planning this activity.  Set a date, find out the costs, work out how you’ll pay for it (if needed) or what you’ll need to get started.  And START!

If you’ve been wanting to return to work, change your career, or improve your skills, start looking at the job ads, update your resume, look into courses, see if your employer will pay for some additional study for you.

Choose today as the day in which you make at least one small improvement to your life!  That’s the first step towards living a life worth living!  :)

Why was it so hard for me to get out of bed to exercise?  Why was I constantly making excuses to sleep in for an extra half an hour when I knew what I wanted to achieve?

And then I worked it out!  “Looking good” just wasn’t high enough on my list of values!  Instead I had things like “achievement”, “success”, and other such values.

So how did this help?

Well, I realised that I needed to do something that would not only be congruent with my list of values, but one that would give me a sense of achievement or success.

So I signed up to compete in a triathlon!  Eeeek!

In 72 days I will compete in my first ever triathlon!  I’m not in it to win it (although that would be nice), but to just complete it will bring me a great sense of achievement!

Finally I have found something that gives me reason to get out of bed and exercise!  I don’t feel like it’s a chore because I’m working towards something that I want to achieve.

So what can you do to help you acheive your goals?  What can you work towards so that it no longer seems like a chore?

On the other hand, if you want to lose weight because you really want to improve quality of your life, then you have a much higher chance of success!

Many people are initially motivated by fear or they feel they are being pressured to lose weight and unfortunately this isn’t a very inspiring way to stay focused and on track!

Being motivated this way really focuses on the negatives – what you hope to lose if you don’t lose weight, rather than the positives – what you will gain through weight loss.

So if you’re one of those people who has decided they want to lose weight, start to look at the real reasons why you want to.

If you’re initially driven by fear of what you could lose, try to look at what you will get out of losing weight. List down all of the benefits, and keep your focus on these as you get closer to your goal.

Even better, find a weight loss buddy to go through your weight loss journey with you and make it someone who will encourage you and support you and challenge you to succeed.

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Lose weight and improve your self esteem

Someone with a weight problem might say that they’re overweight because there are too many fast food outlets around that tempt them, or someone in a bad relationship might say that they pick bad relationships because they were abused as a child and they just end up in the same situation over and over again.

It is kind of confronting when someone says that your current situation is 100% your fault, and it took me a long time to really believe this to be true.

No, you don’t choose to have fast food outlets everywhere and you don’t choose to be treated badly, but what you do choose to do is react in the way you do.

For example, there are plenty of thin people who live near the same fast food outlets. The difference between you and them is that they choose not go eat there as often as you do. You can choose to limit your fast food consumption to one day a week.

There are millions of other people who have been abused as children, but they don’t all find themselves in bad relationships.

On the other hand, I was never abused as a child but I found myself in a bad relationship – so what caused my situation? It certainly wasn’t abuse as a child!

If you find yourself in a bad relationship, you can choose to leave that relationship, you can choose to stay or you can choose to work on fixing it (if possible). You can also choose to avoid people who are likely to treat you badly, or you can choose to love yourself so that you can find someone who can love you even more!

Here is another example: I work with people who are constantly whining about where we work, how bad their job is, how terrible management are – but they still continue to work there and they’re not looking for employment elsewhere!

They have three choices. They can continue to put up with a job they hate, they can learn to see the positives of working there and be grateful they even have a job, or they can find a job elsewhere!

Until one starts taking responsibility for their situation they will have a lot of trouble making the changes required to improve their life.

The latest 12 Week Transformation Challenge has recently finished, with some amazing results!

If you have ever struggled to lose weight and you’re in need of some weight loss now, then visit http://www.fityummymummy.com/contest/09/challenge and see the top finalists in this challenge and what they have achieved.

They all made the decision to lose weight, committed to doing so, and WOW! Look at them now!!!

Losing weight is never easy. It takes time and of course it requires a strong commitment if you have any hope of achieving your goal, and now for many it seems so much harder.

There is however, an alternative. No, you won’t be paying monthly gym memberships and you won’t be paying out hundreds and hundreds of dollars to a personal trainer.

All you need is a simple to follow ebook that takes you through the various exercises you need to do, the food you should eat and of course you MUST get results and fast!

Carrying a little extra fat myself, I plan on getting back into my fat loss routine in the next couple of weeks when my extremely busy schedule finally eases up somewhat.

While I don’t need to lose “weight” as such, I do need to lose fat and I know I will feel better (both physically and mentally) when I do!

For information on the program I follow, click HERE.

I have this habit of thinking I want to change something about myself, but I don’t often do anything about it.

For example, over the Christmas break I probably indulged more than I should have (I am positive I am not alone!) and I really do need to do something about the fact that I have put on some weight. I’ve not put on a lot but enough to drive me batty!

I injured my back just after Christmas and I know it is because I have not maintained my core muscle strength which I needed to do to help stabilise my already injured back.

This was the point when I decided that enough was enough. I was going to finally get off my butt and do something about it – but this time I am committed!!!

So today I joined a Transformation Challenge where I will follow a weight loss program for 12 weeks. I have taken some before photos and taken my measurements and at the end of 12 weeks, I will take some after photos and take my measurements again.

It is at this point that I plan to congratulate myself on my cleverness at sticking with it and making a difference to my health and fitness!

To enter the challenge, you need to purchase the Fit Yummy Mummy program HERE. I promise you, this program is worth a look.

Don’t be like I can be and wait until you suffer a painful injury before you take action – get out there and just do it now!!

They were on the treadmills when I arrived, and were still on the treadmill when I left, half an hour later. Both were walking quite slowly, not varying their pace at all.  In fact, neither of them looked as though they were working very hard at all.  There was no huffing and puffing, they definitely weren’t sweating.

 I just felt like grabbing my copy of Fit Yummy Mummy and giving it to them to read!  If only they knew that if they just changed the way they were exercising, that the pounds would just start to fall off so much quicker like they have for so many others!  They would no longer be left walking on a treadmill for hours on end.  They’d be in and out of the gym within half an hour – and they’d only have to go three times a week!  ARGH!  I feel so frustrated!

I’m in week 4 (I think?) of the Fit Yummy Mummy 12 Week Transformation Challenge right now and I have definitely noticed a huge improvement to how I feel.  I am stronger, I am fitter and I am even starting to look better!

I’m not the salesy type, but soon enough I’ll be looking fantastic and when people ask me how I got to look so good, I’ll tell them it was the Fit Yummy Mummy that did it!

What is this challenge all about? Well, it’s all about becoming the best person you can be on the inside, so you look great on the outside.

If you want to lose weight but you’re lacking motivation to stick to any program you’ve followed in the past, then the Fit Yummy Mummy 12 Week Transformation Challenge is exactly what you need.

To be eligible to register for the challenge you must have purchased the Fit Yummy Mummy program (only $39.95!).

Registrations start in July, so make sure you get your copy of the Fit Yummy Mummy program so you can get started! I’ll be there!

If you do suffer from low self esteem and you’re overweight, then you can quite easily fix one part of your problem – your weight. Yes, it takes a firm commitment to yourself, but if you really really want to do it, then you will.

Many overweight people avoid gyms because they’re too embarrassed, and others just don’t like exercising.

As I’ve mentioned previously, I have a weight loss website set up and during my research I came across a really fun exercise game.

Yep, fun and exercise really CAN go together! The game is a card game where each player (you can even play this by yourself if you want to) draws a card and performs an exercise based on the card they drew. The instructions, which can be downloaded free, tell you what exercise each card signifies.

So get your friends or family together and make a commitment to play this game at least once a week together! Try for three times if you’re really keen to lose weight!

Visit http://overweightandunhappy.com/weight-loss-tips/lose-weight-the-fun-way/ to find out more.