Extreme dieting is not the only ‘quick way’ to see results

It’s a common misconception that ‘extreme dieting’ such as a juice diet, soup diet or other form of near enough starvation in a bid to lose fat is the only way to see results quickly. Everyone knows to lose weight in a healthy way, you should eat lots of fresh foods and exercise, but that takes time and most people don’t have the patience.

While I can’t speak for everybody (because Lord knows, all our bodies are completely different), I want to dispel that myth with my own experience.

Today is day 4 of well and truly getting back on the fitness wagon for me. And by ‘fitness wagon’, I don’t mean I was a total slob before. I actually love to exercise, I normally play sport regularly (although I haven’t this season) and I do like healthy food – just not as much as pizza.

So my diet has been atrocious for about 6 months to a year now and it was well and truly time to make a change.

One day in, I also decided to up my exercise regime by taking on some 30-day challenges. So I’m on day 3 of a 30-day squat challenge, 30-day push up challenge, a 30-day abs challenge and Blogilates’ 30-day thigh slimming challenge. Go big or go home, right?!

But after just 3 days of drinking lots of water and green tea and eating healthy meals and snacks, I am already feeling really good and feel like my stomach is looking flatter. So I decided to test this out and get on the scales and get the measuring tape out.

I was shocked at the results! In just 3 days (and by the way two of which I had an unhealthy snack), I’ve lost 2.2lb or 1kg. Better yet, I’ve lost a whole inch from my stomach/hips (which is mostly because I was bloated before and now my body is sighing with relief!). I’ve also lost three quarters of an inch from my waist and thighs, half an inch off the circumference of my bum and a quarter-inch off my chest.

Honestly, all that in only 3 days. Even if I didn’t see any of those results yet – I feel amazing. Seriously, I urge anyone who wants to ditch their unhealthy ways or simply wants to slim down for an impending holiday to do it the right way. Because the great thing about this is that it’s sustainable.

Hot hot hot!

  

Happy summer fitness lovers! Summer has well and truly arrived, with temperatures reaching 34 degrees in London this week!! When you work in an office with no air con, I only have one word for you: STICKY. 

While everyone else is frolicking in the sun, heading to their local lido or frequenting a rooftop bar, me and my housemates made the now regrettable decision to enrol in hot Yoga and Pilates classes! Yes, that’s right. We’re the fools that book into classes in 40 degree heat during a heatwave. 

So last night was our first hot class. I’d done a Bikram Yoga class once before and decided not to go back… I didn’t hate it, just didn’t love it. I think maybe that’s because the class was too big and it all felt a bit pose-y. The classes that I’ve enrolled in this time are much smaller (around 8 people in a class) so the instructor is able to monitor what you’re doing better. 

And let me tell you, as someone who does a lot of sport and exercise (although admittedly not as much as usual lately), I found it to be gruelling! It actually reminded me of what my PT used to tell me when doing weight training or body weight exercises – it’s not about lifting heavy weights, it’s about really squeezing the muscles you want to work. That way you can do very small movements (or pulses) and your muscles can be on fire! 

There is one move that gets me every time – it’s called the dolphin. You go from downward-facing dog and then drop to your elbows, keeping your feet on the floor. You then bring your body weight forwards so that your chin is in front on your hands for 3 seconds, then rock back again. It’s so tough because there isn’t time to rest, you’re having to support your entire body throughout the move. 

  
So it’s safe to say that I’m starting to become a convert! We booked a Groupon deal for 6 classes, we have four left. I’ll post a final verdict! In the meantime – has anyone else tried hot yoga recently? What do you think? Or do you have any moves I should try?

Up yours, Protein World.

I hate anything that suggests you should be ashamed of the body you have. I’m all about being a HEALTHY version of you, but that is not a uniform size, shape or colour. By now, you may have seen the advertising campaign by Protein World – the weight loss collection, which has struck a chord with many women. It depicts a gorgeous girl in a bikini, with the simple tagline: ‘Are you beach body ready?’

I’m sorry but there are some among us who can never and will never look like this model. And why should we have to? To be ‘beach ready’ you just need to go to a beach. You don’t have to be a certain size or weight. Lord knows there are enough problems to worry about in the world without the stress of everybody judging your body. We are not robots and everyone looks different – the world would be so boring if that wasn’t the case! And it infuriates me and probably so many others when there is constant fat shaming and thin shaming by the media, companies such as Protein World, and even our peers.

We need to all just take a step back and STOP THE HATE. We are hard enough on ourselves and have a constant struggle against our own demons (myself included), so we don’t need anyone else to stick their oar in. There is just so much pressure nowadays to be perfect – you see celebrities crumbling under the pressure all the time. No one deserves a life like that and we shouldn’t just sit back and accept it.

That’s why I’m so happy to see that there has been a public outcry at this campaign. While we can’t change the way society works in a day, we can contribute towards getting hateful campaigns such as this one removed from our streets. If you feel as I do, you can sign the petition to remove the ‘are you beach body ready?’ advertisements here.

Why I think faddy diets are a load of crap.

I’ve posted on this before (see: diets make you fat) and I will post on it again, because it’s a subject that gets a lot of people riled. By now, you will probably have all seen at least one person on social media, selling a product such as Herbalife, Juice Plus, Weightwatchers etc.  The majority of people just get annoyed that they post all the time, are shoving their lifestyle in other people’s faces and are actively selling products through Facebook statuses. I mean, come on, that’s what Facebook PAGES were invented for. But I dislike them for another reason – this post is explaining why I think these diet plans are all a bunch of crap.

Calorie counting

If people don’t know a lot about nutrition (and I used to be one of these people, so no judgement here!), they think that they need to count calories. Women are supposed to have 2000 calories a day and men are supposed to have 2500, so if I only intake 1200, that means I should lose weight, right?! WRONG. Yes, a calorie controlled diet can work, but you have to look at the nutritional value of the foods you’re putting into your body. Something like an avocado is high in calories and is 8 WeightWatchers points, but that’s because it’s naturally high in GOOD FATS (yes, they’re a thing). Plus, ya know, they’re a natural, healthy fruit. So I find it so wrong when someone will cut it out of their diet due to the calories.

Nutrients, vitamins & minerals

Another thing that really annoys me are all the artificial food supplements that have surfaced in the last 10 years or so. There are different categories of this… The people who get a Weightwatchers ready meal and think that’s healthy… excuse me, that’s not real food. That’s artificial food, manufactured to contain a certain amount of calories, fat, carb, protein and salt. Forgive me for being old fashioned, but I really think that the food you put into your body shouldn’t be chemically engineered.

Then there are the people who take on a faddy diet, such as Juice Plus (*shivers*) or Slimfast or similar. I’m sorry but if you can’t see that taking tablet substitutes for your fruit and vegetables is wrong, then there’s something wrong with you. Your body needs food to survive and when you deny it, it only holds onto your fat tighter because it doesn’t know where the next meal is coming from.

The simple truth

We all know deep down how to lose weight. You eat healthy food (and not too much) and you do exercise. And when I say healthy, I mean salads, soup, fresh meat, fish, fruit & vegetables.

Summer is fast approaching

I can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve written a post.

I completed the 50 day challenge and felt like I was in tremendous shape! You never realise how sluggish you feel on a day-to-day basis until you nourish your body properly. All my bloating had gone. I didn’t particularly lose any weight but I felt so great in myself and I had endless amounts of energy.

Then it all went downhill.

As winter set in, it became too dark to train with my PT – so we decided to wait until the evenings got lighter again and I would just keep up with the gym and volleyball in the meantime. As I wasn’t doing a food diary anymore, my diet began to slip. And then Christmas happened. Uh-oh.

Suddenly I wasn’t the person that I have been for the past year – I became this junk food-crazed sloth that snuggled in warm blankets, hid her growing midriff under baggy clothes and pretended to herself that everything was ok.

But now, it’s March. I’ve had a crazy busy 3 months at work, and had quite a bit of travelling. It’s amazing that I get to see different parts of the world as part of my work and I love the excitement that travel brings, but it plays havoc with your eating habits. I’m sat here wishing that I hadn’t overdone it at Christmas – and I bet I’m not alone in this!

Never fear. The road back to fitness is tough and won’t happen overnight but if you really want it, it will be yours in next to no time. I’ve had a taste of what my body feels like when it’s working at optimum capacity and I want it back!

Different people work in different ways, and by now I hope that you will have a rough sense of how best to approach your journey to fitness. For me, I just have to force myself straight into the deep end. I need to just immerse myself in exercise straight away – lots of cardio and a plan surrounding the body weight/strength exercises that I’m going to do. I particularly like to follow Blogilates – for example, she sent out a 30-day thigh slimming challenge that I’m sticking to. I’m definitely a visual, work-to-a-list kind of person and it really helps that I can cross off a day at a time and see how far I’ve come. I recommend signing up to Blogilates (it’s free!) and receiving Cassie’s newsletters. She has some great videos (Call Me Maybe squat challenge, plus all the POP Pilates videos are epic!) and she does a workout calendar that you can do at home.

With that in mind, I’ve set myself a small goal. I’m going to a colleague’s wedding on April 10, so I’m doing a countdown until then. It’s my inspiration to make smart food choices and continue my exercise so that I can feel better about myself at the wedding than I do right now. I need to get back to my happy place!

Stay tuned for more posts on my journey, and please let me know if you’re in the same boat… Let’s do it together!! Shout out to my friend Chrissie, who got me a “I’m a big deal on my blog” t-shirt – I love it! 🙂

The 50 Day Challenge – past the half way point!

When I first started this challenge, that number on the post-it seemed like an impossible task. Every day I took a post-it off to reveal a smaller number, but it still seemed so large and I didn’t know if I’d be able to stay on track. Now, that number is a lot more manageable:

 

The end is in sight! 

By no means have I found this challenge easy so far. I have been out for a couple of meals or after-work drinks with friends, and had to stick to cranberry juice or just water. Now is also the time when people from work go on holiday and bring back chocolates and biscuits for the rest of the office, all of these I have been unable to have! And the main time I have struggled with cravings is when boredom strikes… When I have a lazy weekend/evening with nothing planned and I’d love nothing more than to tuck into some Ben & Jerry’s icecream or a big packet of crisps.

I have resisted (so far) and it feels great. On those odd times of weakness, I have just distracted myself by painting my nails, having a bath, or having a glass of water or cup of tea, and those cravings have passed. Although it has not been easy, it hasn’t been as difficult as I thought it would be either.

So now I only have 3 weeks left. Have a noticed a difference in my body? Well, my stomach does appear flatter. And when I feel incredibly bloated, you can barely see a bump on my stomach at all, which is definitely nice. I seem to have gone through stages, one week I will feel incredibly lean and energised, whereas the next week I may feel slightly sluggish and as if the diet isn’t working. I have lost a couple of inches off areas such as my bum, thighs, waist and hips, which is great. And anyone who’s read my previous posts will know that I don’t ever really lose weight – that is also true in this case. 

But I know that my body must be getting incredibly healthy, and that is driving me to keep going just as much as changes in my physical appearance. By this point, if on my normal eating habits, I would probably have had the equivalent of 10 chocolate bars, 3 pizzas and a few other naughty snacks. That’s a lot of saturated fat and sugar that I haven’t put into my body over the last 4 weeks or so.

That being said, I can’t wait to have an epic binge day when I’ve reached my goal, followed by a trip to Twickenham for some rugby and lots of drinks! But I can see myself doing this again, possibly in the New Year, to help detox my system every now and then. 

The 50 Day Challenge – 10 days in

 

The Queen has spoken.

Hey guys,

So I’m on Day 10 of my 50 Day Challenge and so far so good. There have been a couple of times where I have reeaaally wanted a Starbucks Frappuccino or something carby to snack on, but I have resisted!

I have continued working out… did a great PT session on Saturday and had an awesome work out last night at the gym. I normally make a beeline straight for the treadmill but I’m making a conscious effort to change up my routine, so last night I did 15 mins on the cross trainer/elliptical on the fat burn program and then did some cardio on the mats like burpees and mountain climbers, before my usual sit ups, press ups, Russian twists etc!

Did a total body workout and although it absolutely knocked me for six and it was a real struggle to get out of bed this morning, I can definitely feel the benefits it’s giving my body.

While I don’t feel like I’ve particularly changed my figure just yet, I’m definitely having a ‘slim day’ – you know, you just get days where you’ve eaten well for a couple of days and exercised and you just feel a bit slimmer than usual? So if I can keep going without a cheat meal or any kind of sugary snacks to derail me, I hope I will start to notice some positive changes and some fat loss!

Btw I have also lost 1lb so far 🙂 Every little helps!

50 day challenge

Hello readers,

If you’ve been following my progress you will have seen that I have got much fitter and stronger in the last few months, but haven’t particularly noticed a physical change in my body. This is something I would actually like to see, so rather than moaning about it (!) I know what I need to do to see this change – it’s all about diet!

So I’m setting myself a 50 Day Challenge. 50 days of being strict with myself and ignoring those little cravings when they come knocking.

Things I need to cut out:

1. Starbucks. This is my nemesis, and sometimes I feel like I can’t get through the day without one. But they are full of sugar. So no Starbucks for me for 50 days.
2. Sugary afternoon snack. At around 3pm in an average working day (although not every working day), I will get a bit of a slump and feel like I need a sugary pick-me-up. This can be achieved through a piece of fruit or yoghurt coated raisins, but chocolate is out!
3. Pizza. I don’t have pizza massively often but it’s become a bit more frequent over the last few months. Pizza is a very heavy food, so it’s not great to have it regularly. I’m allowing myself to have one, shop-bought pizza in the 50 days and will be saving it for when I feel like I need a proper kickstart to get me back on track.
4. Alcohol. Again, I don’t go out drinking very much but I’ve been a bit of a social butterfly recently and ended up drinking 3 times last week! Rather than going along with the work crowd and having a couple of glasses of wine after meetings, I will be sticking to water until my 50 days is up.

That’s it. So on a daily basis, all I need to cut out is Starbucks and sugary snacks, and then just abstain from pizza and alcohol for 50 days! It will be a challenge and I’m sure there will be times when it will drive me a little crazy, but I’m really determined to stick to it. I have my little pad of post-it notes that can count me down…

 

 

I started yesterday (obviously, everything starts on a Monday!), so have 49 days to go! Watch this space.

P.s. if you haven’t seen my piccies from sunny Greece yet, check out my Instalife! >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Long term goal

Hi readers, just checking in. I won’t be posting on this blog every week with amazing results and more pounds lost. Because the route I’m taking is a slow one but one that will lead me right to the top and let me stay there. I’m still making my steady progress 🙂

My food is really on point now. My PT actually uses my food diary as an example for his other clients! Dooon’t worry though, Dominos still frequent my address every now and then – I’m only human! I’ve been researching some new recipes to try some new meals, before I get bored of the ones I rotate at the moment. I discovered the BBC Good Food’s ‘Healthy’ section and think it’s great! They even have an “eat like an athlete section” – definitely worth checking out. For dinner this evening, I tried Baked Eggs with Spinach & Tomato – was delicious and so quick and easy to make.

I’m also progressing pretty well on the training. While I haven’t really noticed a difference in my fitness, my PT told me he has seriously stepped up my training in the last month and I have risen to the challenge. My muscle definition is much better and at the end of my last session, he even said: “I’m seriously impressed Kelly, I’m training you like an athlete!” To which I replied that I AM an athlete. Obvs.

I don’t tell you about my progress to brag, and I hope it isn’t coming across like that. I just really want people to know how good it feels to fuel your body right and do regular exercise! If you read some of my earlier posts, you can see that it only took a week for me to feel a huge difference in energy levels and bloating, and from then on I’ve been completely hooked. Six months later and I’m still on the path. Sure you have a week off here and there but that doesn’t matter, because you’re working towards a long-term, sustainable goal. 

So if you’re umm-ing and ahh-ing about getting into shape this summer – DO IT. Start now. You won’t believe how good you’ll feel. And it might take you a year to get to the size you want, which is a lot longer than a juice diet or similar would take, but the difference is that you’ll be able to STAY THERE. You’ll be able to look back and old pictures of yourself and know you’ll never be like that again. And in the grand scheme of things – is a year really that long? Would you rather spend the entirety of your life yo-yo dieting and having a love-hate relationship with your body?

Diets make you fat.

 

I’ve just read a great article from a journalist called Zoe Harcombe for The Guardian. While I never want people to think that I’m preaching, or that I have my diet and exercise regime sorted (because I’m still definitely a working progress), I try to regurgitate what I learn from my personal trainer about nutrition and workouts as much as possible.

He always tells me to buy fresh meat, fruits and vegetables, not to take supplements, and not to eat ready meals. EVER. We already knew most of that – right? But actually, the majority of women I know are constantly looking for low-calorie low-fat meals to consume and end up eating things like Weightwatchers ready meals and Slim-a-soups. Or they’re on something like the Cambridge Diet or a Juice diet. Meanwhile, they look disapprovingly at the complex carbs I’m eating for my lunch and ask me how many calories is in it.

My response is always: “I don’t care. Calories are stupid.” 

Each serving of my quinoa & wholegrain rice is 216 calories – whereas a two-finger KitKat is only 107 calories. Does that mean the KitKat is better for me?

And a diet coke or coke zero has no calories in it whatsoever, so I can drink them all day long, can’t I? 

I don’t look at food in the same way any more… I look at it as fuel for my body. I try to ensure that I always have protein and lots of nutrients on my plate, plus complex carbs to fuel my evening workouts. It frustrates me so much, when I hear the women in my office congratulating each other on how little they’ve eaten that day. “I haven’t eaten since lunch yesterday” says one. “Oh, well done you!” says another. Honestly ladies, can you hear yourselves??? Your body needs food and water to SURVIVE.

If we take a long hard look at ourselves, we all know deep down how to get the body we want. We eat natural, healthy foods like meat, fish, fruit and vegetables, and we do a little exercise. That is all that’s required to maintain a good shape. So why do we all find it so difficult?

 

The NHS ‘eatwell plate’

News headlines this week revealed that British women under 20 are the most overweight in the whole of Western Europe. And it’s because of what they’re taught is a ‘healthy, balanced diet’ – part of which is to ‘eat plenty of starchy foods like bread and pasta’.

And the body conscious among them are taught that calories are bad things that you need to work off. To pre-empt this, many of them choose not to eat the calories in the first place, but many end up eating hardly anything at all.

“We have known for almost a century that calorie deficits lead to short-term weight loss, followed by rapid regain…You probably weren’t that overweight when you started the first calorie-controlled diet. You lost weight; gained it back and a bit more; tried again; lost a bit less; gained a bit more… In the UK females are starting to eat less from a younger age and, ironically, that’s why they’ll end up weighing more from a younger age.” (Zoe Harcombe, The Guardian)

Also something to bear in mind – when you lose weight, your fat cells shrink. But if you put weight back on, those same fat cells do not simply expand again. Your body creates new fat cells to put on top of the shrunken ones! So each time you put weight on and then try to lose it again, it gets harder and harder, because your body has more fat cells.

Please ladies (and gents). If you’re trying to lose weight, don’t do it through a ready-meal plan or faddy diet where you aren’t allowed solid foods and you’re left feeling miserable. Do it the RIGHT WAY by eating fresh, natural foods. There are too many people counting calories and not enough people counting chemicals.