6 Week body Transformation

6 weeks.

42 days of training.

6 tins of mackerel. 

30 salads. 
10 blog posts

And a whole barrel of fun later…

I have lost 24lbs in 6 weeks. I’m so proud of myself for not giving up! The changes I have made physically are noticeable, but the changes I’ve made mentally are astounding.

Here are the pics, the blue ones were taken on 7th Jan, the pink ones on 17th Feb.

I’m sleeping better, my skin is less disgusting, I’m calmer. I’m selling a pile of clothes on Ebay which are too big for me, and I’ve bought dresses, jeans, a top and a skirt in a size 16. I’m the lightest & smallest I’ve been in 6 years, at least. I would say that in total, since last March 2013, I’ve lost about 4 stone (25kg).

But the fun doesn’t stop now! My attitude to live has changed. I want to be healthier, I want to be thinner, and best of all, I’m prepared to work for it. I don’t want to reward myself with piles of disgusting food for getting this far. I know that I still have around 4.5 stone to lose. I’m not going to hop off the scales tonight and jump for a Dominos Pizza, but I am going to dive into a grilled steak & salad. And there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s healthy. 

A good friend of mine (who is also the fittest person I know, and knows a lot about sports & nutrition) told me that I will never be happy with my body, because I now know that there’s always room for improvement. I think I agree with him. But for now, that mild disgust at myself is driving me to keep going. 

I need to mention the wonderful people at Elite Physique Fitness. The trainers are inspirational, I have loved working with them. The support they provide is just enough, and they make you aware that it is YOU that has to put the hard work in to get the results you want. The training sessions were so varied and fun, I wish I could do the whole lot again. Here’s links to their Facebook and Website, so if you want to have a peek, or even join them, I would very much recommend it. 

The people I have met while being there have been supportive, friendly and a great bunch. I have had an amazing time, and seen some amazing results from the people around me, too. Thank you to Paul and Chris, and the whole team there. Your motivation and positive attitude is so beneficial. You've literally changed my outlook on life!

Here’s some pics of our training, and my lovely little group. 

Press ups!

Squats!

I would like to point out the steamy mirror- yes this was post-workout. MMMMMM Sweat!

Knee-dle in a haystack

Good news! I lost 2.5lbs this week. Whooooop! I also had to go and buy 2 new pairs of (size 16 ahem) jogging pants, because my normal ones fall down when I jump! 

It's great that these things are happening, I'm planning to sell a few of my bigger dresses just to get them out of the way, so I'm not tempted to ever fit into them again! I can't believe I only got to wear this once: 

I bought this dress from Wallis in 2 sizes, L and XL, and I sent the L back! Wish I hadn't now.  

Can't wait to buy a whole new wardrobe! I'm trying to hold off on spending, until I know I'm at a size I'll be happy with. The day my boobs fit into a 14 will be a happy one :) 

1 Week to go until my first target of 2014, which was to lose 20lbs in 6 weeks, I've got 0.5lbs to go. I'm already planning my next target (and my first glass of red wine of 2014- ha!) and how I'm going to achieve it. 

My bad knee is feeling better, but my good knee is now in agony. I am gutted at how painful it is. I'm going to go easy on the running this week, and now both my knees are srapped up every time I exercise. The advice I've been given is to take Glucosamine to help my joints. 

The eating plan is still going to plan, although I am craving a bit of variety. It's wonderful knowing what you are going to eat every day, but I'm missing my free will a little, even something super healthy like a home made veggie soup would be nice. But no one said it would be easy! 1 more week to go, I can do it! 

Check out this little treat I got for myself! Cookies and Cream flavoured protein, can't wait to finish my shitty strawberry one! 

As a final little remark, I stole this from Facebook the other night... A little bit of runner's pride/ shame:

Thinspiration

This week I was faced with something I hadn't realised before... It was a massive shock to me. 

I'm huge. 

I have known I've been obese for years now, but I have had 'phases' where I've lost weight (at the most, about 3stone) and people told me I looked good. I didn't. I was still obese. I was still huge. How had I not seen this before?  

I went looking through old pictures on Facebook to see if I could find some times in my life when I was a little thinner, but all I found was lots of horrid pictures of me, demonstrating my years of struggling with weight. This blog post is a sort of funeral for my horrible thoughts and my plus size clothing.

March 2013- Probably my heaviest. I had given up and bought plus size clothes and was willing to deal with it.

My year abroad saw lots of drinking, and very little McFit (that was my gym's name)! 

Karneval in Cologne- trying to find costumes was tricky because of my size. Didn't stop me eating Döner and drinking Kölsch & cocktails the entire week :)

June 2011- My 21st Birthday. Just freshly back from my year abroad, I had piled on the weight from eating delicious German food.

June 2012- my 22nd birthday. 6 months into my Slimming World plan, I had lost 3 stone, but I didn't feel healthy. Soon enough I gave up and regained the weight super quickly. 

Graduation. Lighter, slightly thinner than my fattest, but not great. 

November 2012- 6 months into my 9-5 sitting at my desk job was clearly taking it's toll on me. 

Both above and below are March 2013, when I decided I would start running, and stop giving up on life and eating rubbish 

I had very much given up at this point, and this dress was probably the most hideously fat thing I owned. It depressed me so much. 

This photo is just funny. I thought you might like to see it.

Having realised that now is very much the time to move on from all this, I am waving goodbye to this chapter in my life. I've lost 5lbs (!!!!) this week, which means I'm 3lbs from my 1st target of 2014 (which is my 6 week target- 20lbs).

I thought I'd share one last picture with you. This is one I took on Saturday for my cousin's wedding. Goodbye fat pics, hello healthy progress pics. 

I know it's not much, but I'm going in the right direction. I am fully aware of how far I have to go. I think most of the size loss is down to the amazing trainers I have from Elite Physique Fitness and the amazing training/ transformation programme I have been on. 

Onwards and upwards. 

I'm nowhere near done. 

 

Happy times!!!

So I'm a little late in updating my blog this week, sorry about that! 

Turns out this week has been crazy busy, but also full of great things.

• Lost 3.5lbs this week at weigh-in. If I lose 8lbs in 3 weeks and I get a refund (whoop)
  
• Decided if I get the refund, I'm probably going to spend the money on a weekend in Germany, just go off on my own :)
  
• I ran my first 5k since my knee injury on Monday, then again on Wednesday.
  
• I bought 2 dresses this week from ASOS. The same dress, one was bright red and one was navy. Anyone that knows me, knows I own a lot of navy dresses (ha) One was a size 16 (wishful thinking) and one was a size 18. Bearing in mind, I have been size 18+ for a couple of years now, occasionally fitting in 18s, but more often than not going for the loser size up. I sent the red one back (surprise surprise) without even trying it on, because the blue one fit nicely. I thought the navy one was the 18, which I was fine with (ASOS are always tight around the boob when I buy 18s, so I got over it). Read the return email today, and the red was the 18, and I KEPT THE NAVY ONE. SIZE 16. This is a big moment for me.
  
• Also bought a ladies skinny fit tee that fits. It's XXL, but I don't care, it fits!  

Life is getting pretty stressful at the min, but I'm not doing what I usually do (Turn to booze and takeaways and cry into a giant chocolate cake) but instead I'm trying my hardest to cope, and using exercise and being in control as my motivation for staying strong.

I have planned out what will happen after these 6 weeks. I know I'm not going to stop losing weight. I need to keep going, and I need to show myself that being healthy is going to improve so many aspects of my life. 

Thanks for reading.

I promise my next blog will be full of nice pictures and fun things. 

(tricep) dips & (kettle bell) swings

Tuesday is here once again! And my weigh in was... okayish. 

So This week I lost 3lbs, half of the 6 I lost last week. I'm a little surprised by this, because I did stick to the eating plan and exercise as much as I did in the first week, although I did a little less running and more walking, because of my knee. I found this amazing ibuprofen gel in Tesco for £1.99 or something and it really took the swelling down, so I'm looking forward to pushing myself again with the jogging this week.

Last week was very much a high, full of motivation, excited at all the fun I was having, and this week has very much been...Dippy. I'm still loving it, don't get me wrong, but at times I'm losing focus as to why I'm doing it.I'm not just 'losing weight' as my blog title would suggest, I'm getting healthy.

In the past, when doing Slimming world, calorie counting etc, I'd drop weight like BAM! But as soon as I stop I pile it back on (and eat more than I did in the first place) This time I'm not doing that at all. I'm learning all the time, I'm eating more protein than you can shake a stick at, and I feel better: In myself, my mind, and my pot belly (ha).

I'm going to set myself some goals for the next week. Last weeks goals were stop weighing myself (done) force feed myself cottage cheese (done- blurgh) and go easy on my knee (done-ish)

1. Stop eating late- eat before training, not at 9 o'clock. 

2. Increase my distance when jogging. 

3. Stop stressing out. 

This week I also had a lovely little boxercise training session- I loved it. Gave it my all, my lats still hurt 2 days later. 

Also pretty glad the January gym-goers are dwindling already:

Just how I like it!

1 Week in

Hi everyone! 

So I've now done a whole week of my '6 week transformation' and I'm loving it. I've stuck to the eating plan 100% (which means no sugar, no sweeteners, no crisps no fast fast food etc) and done a butt tonne of exercise. 

The results are in....

I lost..... 6lbs!!! :) 

Super happy with the weight loss, everyone in my group did really well. Even had a little go at Tabata in class today which was amazing, so much fun and soooooo hard. 

This next week I plan to do the same, stick to the eating plan, keep jogging, but mostly I'm going to keep an eye on my knee. I don't want to be the obesity case complaining all the time, but my knee is swelling up again, and instead of just post-exercise swelling, I have general-all-the-time swelling going on.

2 people told me I look good today. Obviously I don't look good-good, but I guess even 6lbs can make a difference. I'm also sleeping better, feeling healthier, and concentrating more.

PM Coffee

On Tues night I started my fitness classes for my ‘6 week transformation’. I really enjoyed it.

After getting weighed (I weighed the same as before Christmas, which is good) and after being told I had a whopping 48% body fat, we got down to it.

Exercises included:

Kettle bell squats
Mountain Climbers
Jumping Jacks
Push Ups
Sit Ups
Body weight pulls.

Every day I'm not training, I need to do 50 mins cardio, too. Lots of visits to the gym (still too scared to go running outside after falling on a cracked pavement back in December)

Before the session I had to drink unsweetened black coffee with no sugar, this is what I was most terrified about. Turns out black coffee is fine! And as it’s my only cup of the day I didn’t mind. I fell asleep pretty easily, so I’m hoping to keep going with it.

The food is going surprisingly well. It's so nice to not have to think at all about food! It's a loss less distracting, not having such conversations with myself while daydreaming:

"Hmm.. What should I have for tea?"

"Something healthy"

"But what do I fancy?"

"Screw it, let's get a Dominos"

Sticking to a list is great, I have the food in I need, I can make it in advance. I don't feel hungry, in fact I sometimes feel like I'm eating too much.

Will update next Tuesday when I have my week 1 weigh in. Eeeeep!