and just like that, I'm Back!

I haven't had time to write in a few weeks! I was worried that if anyone had been reading my posts they might have taken that as a sign of my giving up, but rest assured I haven't lost sight of my plight.

The last time I posted, I was on Celebrity Slim and bouncing up and down between 68 and 71 kgs, if you're just tuning in Celebrity Slim is a meal replacement diet plan, and it worked quite well, but unfortunately whenever I got to the 68 kg mark I always lost it and would go back up. 

Since then I've given up on Celebrity Slim, it was great while it lasted, but it seems like I was spending a lot of money on something that I wasn't taking all the way. I've wondered why this is, I always feel a bit physically small when I go below 70, but isn't that the point? I think in my case CS made it too easy (Crazy? I know!), and therefore it was all too simple to say yeah, eat the cookie, you'll lose it again easy enough, but when you think about it, doing that means you never actually get anywhere, you just go up and down!

So what am I doing instead you ask?

Well, I know CS was effective so I'm taking some tips from there. 

Diversity, its tempting to say I'll just eat these 3 or 4 foods each day and thats it!.. You can't do it, I can't do it, you gained weight because you like food remember? One, eating the same thing day in, day out, is boring, and two you'll miss out on all those vitamins and minerals which actually help you feel like your not depriving yourself. Obviously I need to keep it reasonable with my grocery bill and everything, but a few options doesn't. and from this I've devised these basic guidelines.

Breakfast: I personally love breakfast and when you eat a substantial one, morning being the only time you really can with gaining weight, it helps you feel full for the rest of the day! My breakfast of choice is a nutty, seed and grain filled cereal, as I don't tend to get much of these healthy carbs from my other meals. When trying to come up with meals, think about what's healthy and missing. 

Lunch: I split lunch up into 2 meals, morning and afternoon tea, in between these I drink Green Tea to help control my appetite and keep me all energised and buzzing. If you've read any of my previous posts (which I would certainly advocate lol) you'd know I act like this stuff is a gift from god, but it does have its merits, its not too heavy on caffeine, just enough to help curb the cravings and keep you awake, but the flavonoids (only the ones found in green tea) assist with fat oxidation, basically controlling the amount of fat you can absorb. My morning and afternoon tea options are usually any of these: Low-fat low-sugar yoghurt (flavoured not natural, taste is a factor here lol), Low fat cottage cheese with 2-3 vita weats (seedy grainy wholemeal crackers), an apple, a banana, cornthins with peanut butter (if I'm seriously hungry). 

Dinner: Now this is the important one, I always go light on dinner, regardless of what you've eaten during the day, dinner is the meal that really determines how much you'll lose or maintain. My dinner options are: a low fat fish fillet with a side of brocolli, carrot, cucumber (or whatever you like so long as its of the veggie family), a ceaser salad (I'd never liked salad before but then I tried some of the ceaser dressing and fell in love, you can't hate it if you've never tried it), and ofcourse soup! Any soup, I prefer instant, so long as its below 100 calories, a few vita weats and a small can of flavoured tuna, and then thats it! I don't eat anything after dinner, which does take a few days to get used to, but once you have, you'll wonder why you weren't doing it before! 

Snacks: Noone's perfect, so if you get hungry: blueberries, strawberries, a few pieces of ham, a few slices of cheese. 

This is the diet thats been working for me for over 2 weeks now! and when I say working, I mean it took me down from 73 to 69 kg!

Exercise ofcourse is important, for me I find it more important than dieting, everyone is different. I've been experimenting with weight training lately since I had always avoided this due to a fear of bulking up. Along with my usual hour and a half of cardio (either Zumba, other dance workouts or elliptical), Ive been doing half an hour of deep stretching plus half an hour of Ab work, leg lifts in all directions and jazz style arm work, all against the resistance of my own body, no weights required, and the results really blew me away!  After a week I was noticeably more toned, everywhere! The internet is filled with example of these types of exercise so start searching, Diet.com has some really great video tutorials which I've become quite fond of. 

As always, moisturise your whole body, cocoa butter is my favourite, it really does make a difference, eat clean where you can and make exercise worthwhile, never put less than 100% into it! 

* Devise a diet that works for you. 

* Exercise the way you like, but always exercise. 

* Moisturise to help tone your skin. If your losing weight loose skin can become an issue, so moisturise!

* Research! look up new exercises, diets, recipes, mantras and tips. You never know what you'll find!

I wouldn't suggest it if I didn't know it worked!

Good Luck, 

Rosie.x

Taking my own advice!

If you've read any of my previous posts you'll know that when it comes to weight loss, the exercise side of things is where I excel while dieting I don't just fall off of the wagon.. I fly off, roll down a hill and land in a volcano.. But as I always say, there is hope! I've decided rather than moaning about how I can never diet for more than a few weeks, I'll persevere and do it anyway.. you never know!

But where does an uncontrollable eater start? In the past my diets, although successful were short lived, they were incredibly hard and truth be told I was constantly hungry, but what is hunger exactly? Our body telling us eat now or you'll die before you make it to the fridge? or is it just our bodies response to running on its own fuel? Regardless, health is my main focus, we know what kinds of foods we need and how much is too much, when it comes to dieting I am all about balance, not starvation.

Funny Story.. Alright so not "haha" funny, but I find it a little interesting. So for about 6 months last year I hovered on 80 kgs, I was working out as always, and had even cut my calories down further (to around 800 per day, very hard!), but there was no weight loss, not even a gram, this led to me giving up and over eating again because it seemed like there was no point, but then I decided no, I'd already lost 20 kgs, I could do that again, I just had to do something different, completely different. From my bouts of lone dieting I had a reasonable understanding of portion sizes for snacks, which ones were filling, which ones were light, etc. Remember: Trial and Error, we're all unique and what works for me might not work for you, so we all have to do our own experiments.

Celebrity Slim was the answer for me. This is a meal replacement Program whereby you replace two meals per day with a Shake, Soup or Bar from the Celebrity Slim product range, then eat 2-3 allowable snacks per day and one balanced meal. The product range is very extensive as well, there are lot of convenient pre-packaged snacks you can purchase as well as other little things to help you along the way.

I did this for around 2 months and lost about 8 kgs, but as I said before, I was hungry, incredibly hungry, and not cheating was insanely difficult as well, but what diet isn't? By the time I'd gotten down to 72 kgs I started thinking, wow this is hard, and I'm pretty close so maybe I can go it alone now...

Well that was 3 months ago, and I only just lost those last 2 kgs, so clearly going it alone doesn't work out so well, especially for me, in my brain this always ends up meaning your technically free to eat anything.. a la the cookie disaster (see previous posts). Reward systems work for some people, the idea is that you diet exceptionally well all week then reward yourself with a treat, but that can't be the answer for everyone, especially not impulsive eaters like me who once they have the treat, they can't stop, for me it has to be all or nothing!

Celebrity Slim has served me well in the past, and I believe it will again. I know I'm capable of maintaining my weight, I've been doing it for weeks! So I just need a little help losing it.

According to The Maltz Principal, it takes 21 days to make a certain behavior a habit. This could be applied to making regular trips to the gym, remembering to take medications, and even dieting! The idea is that basically by Day 21, only eating what is allowed on the program will become a natural fallback rather than something that must be consciously enforced.  So this is what I will do, afterall dreaming and hoping is only a small part of the journey, planning and taking action makes up the rest! 
And Day 1, starts today! I'll tell all about it tomorrow so don't forget to tune in!!