Hi! Ok so as you will know I am back to blogging but am now in a whole different place to where I was when I first started, I am better informed, better controlled, better health, better thinking, better fitness and most of all enjoy a healthy lifestyle alot more...
In 2013 I lost a stone but most of this was done by the Summer and then I seemed to plateau for quite awhile, maybe going up 2-3lbs but never going below 182lbs (13stone) I decided to try and shake things up a bit and actually stopped counting calories... this resulted in a 7lbs gain and put me up to 189lbs... so I annoyingly start the year higher than I wanted.. however lesson learnt...food enjoyed... and now back to it...
I want to loose a further 28lbs having lost 42lbs from my heaviest weight (231lbs) and 33lbs from my average weight (222lbs) ... I have a real aim at the moment and a completion date due to the fact that I am getting married in June.. I want to lose the weight by April which is when my dress will arrive and I actually HAVE to lose the weight as my dress is 5inches to small for me around the hips... so it's not just a case of wanting to lose weight...its the case of HAVING to lose the weight otherwise my dress won't fit.
Through all the things I have learnt over the past year and my new found love of exercise I have come up with a realistic plan for me that I feel I can stick to and be happy on. I am using a number of different things that I have looked into and had experience of. I need to loose 1.5lbs a week to hit my target of 28lbs lost by end of April. I am using a mix of counting calories, 5:2Diet and exercise to achieve this...
.....THE PLAN....
2 Fast Days a Week - 500cals Gross (Tues & Thurs)
1280Net Cals a day on Normal Eating Days
3 sessions of Cardio a week (Running and Weights)
2 sessions of Toning a week (Callanetics and Yoga)
No alcohol during the week
High Protein Breakfasts
Veg with every meal
....DETAILS...
Fast Days:
I have read alot about the 5:2 diet and all the positive changes it makes to your body as well as the weight loss that goes with it. I have tried to do it in the past but didn't stick it out. I do now feel that I am in the right place to do it and know that if I can get through the first few fast days I will be able to incorporate into my lifestyle for the long term. Doing the 5:2 also allows me SOME degree of flexibility with counting calories on normal days to ensure I do hit the negative cals needed to hit 1.5lbs loss a week. I will not be eating a until the evening but will be having a protein shake if needed at 5pm before my exercise class. With the restricted cals I will can have the shake and then a large tub of soup in the evening.
Counting Cals:
I have counted calories from the very start of this journey and if done properly really works for me, there are so many easy ways to do it and can work with any lifestyle you have. I have used MyFitnessPal to calculate my daily calories allowed with a predicted loss of 1.5lbs a week, it works out at a limit of 1280net a day, MFP is linked to my Fitbit so will calculate any positive or negative cals earned from exercise. On average my Gross cals are around 1500per day once I have exercised. My main aim is to really stick to this, in the past I have counted calories but have often gone over my limit and only managed 2 or 3 days a week on track. Due to the fast days however I will allow myself SOME freedom and won't panic if I go over by 100cals or so however I do not expect to do this often. With the 5:2 plan and counting cals it will allow me to hit the 5250 negative for 1.5lbs loss.
Exercise:
I am so happy to say that I now love the gym, in the past I was going running every day and have progressed so much with my time and distance. I go to the gym in the mornings before work as this fits in with my lifestyle and it's then out of the way. I will go to the gym in the mornings for a run on my non-fast days and work on increasing my speed and endurance. At the moment I am averaging 30mins running at a speed of 5.3mph...which is working out at just under 3miles... I am confident that I will hit the 3mile mark soon. I have also started doing HiiT runs and plan on doing one a week which will be on a Wednesday. Currently when doing HiiT I am doing 3 mins on at 6mph and 2 mins off.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays I will be doing a Callanetics class and a Yoga class in the evening (1 each day). These are quite low impact but still so good for you and really tone your body, I will be having dinner directly after so am not worried about doing them on a Fast Day.
Alcohol:
I drink alot..not Vodka or hard spirits but am one of those people that come home from work and open a bottle of wine, by the end of the night a bottle and half or sometimes 2 will have been drunk between the 2 of us and this happens most nights. I want to really cut this down as wine is just empty calories and obviously not so good for you in high quantities. I will allow myself wine on Friday nights up to Sunday lunch (no wine on Sunday evening) but even then will try and stop myself from having too much and hope to get it down to 2 glasses when I do drink.
Protein:
I am a huge fan of protein and since I started having high protein at breakfast I have found that I am able to reduce my over all eating and am not so hungry during the day. I have things like egg, turkey, chicken, hummus, cottage cheese etc all for breakfast. For me it works, especially as I exercise before Breakfast. I have a big breakfast, followed by a light lunch and then a medium sized dinner.
Veg:
This is obvious, veg is good for you.. I should eat more!
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So that's the plan, I feel really good, I feel in the right place for this partly because I don't have the choice of failing and also because I am really succeeding with exercise it's driving me to sort out my food.
This the journey... from semi-fittie to fully fledged fittie....
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