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.

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?

The journey is worth it…

It takes 4 weeks for you to notice that your body is changing. It takes 8 weeks for your friends and family. It takes 12 weeks for the rest of the world.

I am now around the 8 week mark and can prove this theory! The people you see day to day may not notice so much, because you’ve been changing gradually before their eyes. But if you bump into someone you haven’t seen in a while, they will instantly notice. 

On Thursday last week, I saw both my boss and the CEO of our company for the first time in 4 weeks. They both commented straight away on how slim I looked! Then again last night at the gym, I bumped into my old housemate for the first time in 6 months, and the first thing she said was “you’ve lost weight!”

I want to re-affirm though – I HAVE NOT LOST WEIGHT in this 8 week period. I am exactly the same weight, but I am smaller. This is because I’ve been doing a lot of fat-burning exercises (getting my heart rate up) and then have done strength training to tone my muscles. So I’ve lost the fat, but toned the muscle, which is denser than the fat that once was there. If I weighed 18 stone but looked the way I wanted, I wouldn’t care. And I doubt you would either, so please don’t put so much pressure on losing the pounds!!! Just stick to the high protein diet and regular exercise and I promise you, you will see a difference.

I have tried many times on my own to get to the size and shape that I want and have never been able to do it. I always felt cheated because I’m a very active person and my diet was not horrendous but I was bigger than I thought I should have been and toning up for a holiday was a battle I constantly lost. But now that my nutrition has clicked, I’m seeing better results than I ever have before. 

Alongside everyone else noticing, I have the amazing before and after photos I shared with you last week, and the fact that I can now fit into a pair of jeans I bought a size too small last year.

So stick with it! Remember, you won’t notice a difference in yourself for 4 weeks, and others won’t notice for 8 weeks. But once they do, you will find it is SO worth it.

Starting to see results!!!

So I have always found it quite difficult to lose weight. My body shape may change due to increased exercise and better diet, but the weight never really comes off.

So imagine my surprise when I stood on the scales this morning and I’ve lost 1.5kg!!!! 

This is based on the weight I was at the start of December 2013, not a post-Christmas weight. Over Christmas I ate lots of crap (as we all do) and didn’t do ANY exercise for 3 whole weeks. So this 1.5kg weight loss is ON TOP of the weight I will have gained and then lost again over the Christmas period.

The ONLY thing I can put this down to is eating a proper diet – I never knew just how important protein was until I hired my personal trainer, and it has made such a difference to my lifestyle! My stomach feels flatter than it ever has before, I have lots of energy and generally feel lighter on my feet. My fitness is noticably improving, and my clothes are starting to feel loose. 

It is so great to see results to motivate you to keep going. If I’m seeing these results after just one month of clean eating and exercise, I’m excited to see what I can achieve by summer.