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Well this post today wasn’t originally meant to be about this but will leave that post till tommorrow now, but I thought I would blog about something that happened on tuesday afternoon. I was at work and having a pretty good day to, lots of bookings and not to many problems for a public holiday (just the usual). But my vision started to go funny. Its really hard to describe what was going on but suffice it to say, it wasn’t normal.

Originally i had thought that I was having problems with my eyes and that something was up. So when my break rolled around I went and washed my face and checked my eyes in the hope it was just something in the corner of my eye. No luck, no change there. By the time i was back at my desk after heating up my lunch (break is only 10 mins) I was starting to get some pounding in my head right behind my right eye.

O dear. this was not good. I grabbed the last of the panadol out of my desk drawer (yeah i keep random stuff in my desk at work) and shoved them down my gob. Unfortunately this didn’t do much, the pain grew and grew. I had never had a headache that hurt so bad. I quickly googled migraines wondering if this is what was going on and wikipedia gave me a quick over view for what was to come. Looks like i was undergoing my first ever migraine. O dear!

I tried to push through it and stick around at work, we were getting hammered and I just didn’t want to leave, but the pain got to much to bare. So I had to leave, I got out of there quick as I could and tried to get home before I threw up my lunch (nausea was kicking in). As soon as I was at home, I pretty much just blacked out my room as much as I could and my dad went in search of something for me to get rid of the pain (eventually he returned with some stuff from the chemist) but I pretty much just hid in my room, under the covers for the next few hours.

About 3 hours & 2 panadeine later the pain had pretty much subsided back to what I would classify as a tolerable headache. I managed to drag myself out of bed, clear some stuff up and then pretty much went straight back to watch tv in the dark to let it fully subside.

I had lasted threw my first ever migraine. I had hoped that I would never get them, but i guess that just was not going to happen in my life. Now at least i know what I need to do when they happen again but I just wish i knew what caused it!

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With the Festive season in full swing, it becomes a time to reflect on the past year and look to the year ahead.

This time of year is usually full of eating, drinking and being merry. This year will be a bit of a challenge for me. Last year was a little different. I was in weightloss mode so couldnt really indulge at all, this year. Bit different. I knew i could indulge to some extent but whatever i intaked i would have to work off later. Well i didn’t do to bad really. I did gain a bit of weight but im sure thats a mixture of both christmas and muscle build. So will just be good over the next few days and make sure I get my brain back out of christmas mode and back into work mode.

Enough about that, looking into the new year (i will post about 2010 in a few days) I am going to try and make a few changes to the blog.

First thing i want to do with the blog is I am going to change the “New Mal” Category. From now on that is going to be called Adventures. Because thats exactly what the last year has been and this way i have somewhere to put all the posts about all the crazy adventures I am sure there will be over the coming years. I am also going to try and start blogging a bit more often and try to put some purpose to some of the categories I have. I get a lot of questions about how to lose weight and what i have been doing so I am going to try and share some of those tips, tricks and recipes! Now I am not going to turn this into a food blog or anything like that. It will still be about me but more about sharing some stuff that worked with me for you.

With a new year comes a new set of “resolutions.” I don’t really like the world resolution. I prefer Goals. So we all knew my goals for 2010 were pretty big, 2011 wont be as big, just more of them. So here they are!

1. Learn to Ride a Bike before I turn 30
2. Try to get over some of my fears (boats & rollercoasters/thrill rides).
3. Try to overthink things less
4. Do a pull up. Thats right just 1 pull up!
5. Finish 2011 around 90kg
6. Get back into my photography
7. Go for a hike at least 4 times during the year
8. Be the #1 Consultant at work (also a bucket list item)

These are all really achievable goals this year and I am going to try and get them all done over the next year!

Now you all know I have a bucket list. These are the things im looking at wiping off in 2011:

1. Travel Around the World in First Class
2. Fly a Plane
3. Try to get over my fear of boats
4. Try something I don’t really want to do

In the next few weeks I am going to post my Travel Bucket List for 2011. This will cover pretty much all the extra little bits and pieces that i wish to do with my travels in 2011. All those things you plan to do while you travel.

What are your goals for 2011?

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Well as most of you know I was approached by ACA back in September about my story etc. I did all the taping about 2 weeks after coming back from Kokoda and it was just after getting over a massive stomach bug that had me off work for about a week.

Well it went to Air last night and here is the link for those that havent seen it yet.

A Current Affair Website – Bigmal’s Triumph

I hope you all enjoy!

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So Life has been pretty good lately. Start of the month went really well, managed to keep myself nice and happy with the way i ate at the christmas party. It was a good night to, everyone all dressed up, I was wearing my nice suit (which i really do thank Vanessa @ Always Habit for helping me out there) and got heaps of compliments on it!

Been managing my food pretty well but unfortunately went down 3kg over the last week and that was probably due to not thinking properly over the last few weeks with snacks etc and working out to much so im still juggling all of that each and every day, but thats the new goal for the new year, maintain the weight loss and keep it off. I can tell that I am slowly putting on some muscle as I can feel myself getting stronger. Managed to do some good heavy weights this morning and could definately see my performance increasing (mind you my arms are killing right now).

I had also been planning for a while to get a new Crumpler bag for work. As most of you know, I love crumpler. But i wanted a new bag that was custom made so that it would be about the whole transition of my life etc over the last year. Unfortunately to order a Custom Bag I would need to fly down to Melbourne or Sydney before the new year to get one etc and couldn’t justify the costs etc on top of the normal bag. However yesterday i was in the Crumpler store picking up a small piece for my laptop and checking out their new range of bags (for shits and giggles) when i saw this amazing looking bag in the window. I asked them about it and he told me that it was a custom made Complete Seed and they were selling off some of the random custom designs they had before the Custom Bag Stores close. I was ecstatic, i loved the design and I had to have it! So i bought it!

As for trip planning, things are pretty much done. Only france left to go with all of asia organised now and booked. France will probably be planned in the new year as I am going to hopefully be accompanied by my friend Yena. Who is going to join me in Normandy for some history!

Hopefully!

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I get asked a lot how i lost all the weight and what are some good tips to be able to help be healthy or lose weight.

So I thought I would put some of those tips up on the blog. For everyone to see.

1. Being healthy is a mix of both eating and exercise. you can’t have one without the other. No point.
2. Exercise is worth the effort. It may hurt, it may feel like crap but after a while it will become fun. Choose something you enjoy doing. If you like walking, go for walks, if you like riding a bike, ride a bike. But if your trying to lose weight, twice a day was my best tip for how often to exercise (at least 30-45 mins each session).
3. Cut out the alcohol. It is just not worth it. I made that decision early on that there is no point in drinking back on my hard work. So its gone (apart from the occasional drink).
4. Eat plenty of vegies. Non Starchy vegetables. Nothing beats a salad made of Roasted Pumpkin, Eggplant, Zucchini and Capsicum with a bit of Rocket dressed with Lemon Juice and Chilli. Simple, low fat and absolutely delicious.
5. Use your head when you cook. Do you really need all that oil on things? Do you really need that extra portion of carbs or that double amount of protein.
6. Eat wholegrains instead of those crappy processed foods. If your wanting some rice, eat brown or basmatti. Some noodles, use Soba Noodles (buckwheat, absolutely yum cold in a salad). Wanting to use pasta, wholemeal or durham wheat pasta. But just remember to use a small amount of carbs. 1/2 cup of rice or 1 cup of pasta is enough. If your having breads, what about wholemeal, rye or multi grain (i prefer rye). With cereals stick to Bran or Wholegrain Cereal (i like all bran, sultana bran, just right or uncle tobys plus).
7. Its ok to treat yourself, but be smart. A deep fried mars bar is not a treat, thats just dumb.
8. Don’t skip meals. Skipping doesn’t allow your body to process everything properly, your metabolism wont function and you will feel worse. Eat 3 x meals a day and several snacks. This allows your body to keep working. While I was losing weight it was 3 meals a day with 2 or 3 snacks. Now its 3 meals a day with 5 or 6 snacks.
9. Diet Jelly is AWESOME. It is on my eat as much as you like list. Aeroplane Diet Jelly has flavour, tastes great and it makes for a fantastic guilt free sweet snack.
10. Cut out the full sugar soft drinks. Diet Soft drinks are fine but i dont like drinking lots of them. Aspartamine is fine, dont believe the whole “you will get cancer” myth. I have read lots of articles which state it is ok. If you want something fizzy to drink, go for a Mineral Water. Its just water, has loads of fizz and tastes great imo. I prefer that when i go out at night with friends. Squeeze of lemon and its awesome.
11. Seek some help. There is no harm in going and seeing a professional. I had help with a trainer and a nutritionist. Without them I wouldnt of been able to do any of what i have accomplished.
12. Most of all. Don’t give up. It’s not easy. But if you stick with it, gut out the tough times you will be rewarded.

Remember, The Only Easy Day was Yesterday.

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A year ago today I walked into the gym at Adventure 1000 and I was a very different person. I was scared of what was to come and worried about what others would think of me.

I have spent what feels like most of the last hear in that gym, working hard and burning endless calories.  I no longer walk in there worried what others think, frankly I couldn’t care less what other people think of me now.

Over the last 12 months I have walked enough kilometres to take me to Sydney and probably rowed the same (maybe a bit further on thule bike). According to my heart rate monitor ive burned over 300,000 calories which I’m sure is a low range number considering it doesn’t work all the time and at the start I hated wearing it.

The improvements have been noticeable.  I’ve gone from a 7xl down to a large in some brands.  I’ve gone down in shoe sizes as well which is freaky.  I can’t really remember what life was like a year ago.

I have a lit of people to thank but mainly I have a few people.
1. Andrew Burnes you probably won’t ever read this but thank you wo much for making the offer that would change my life.
2. Andy, mate, what more can I say that I haven’t said before. Without you there every day pushing me along I wouldnt be where I am now
3. My family has been there every step of the way. By my side knowing exactly what to say and when
4. My friends each and every one of you have been able to support me in your own way. I try my hardest to see you all we much as I can but I know that you understand.

Thanks to eveyones kind words of encouragement over the last year.  You all can’t comprehend how much it has meant.