I’ve blogged before about being overweight and how I managed to get myself in shape, shed the lbs and finally squeeze into Size 12 clothes. Well after a bit of a break and the weight creeping back on, I’m getting my arse back in gear to shift it all again. Actually, that’s not true – I haven’t put it all back on, just some of it.
I was so focussed after losing the weight (it was about 4.5 stone when I stopped weighing myself) and knew that was the easy bit and the hard bit would be keeping it off. For 6 years I stayed the same, went to the gym, had a personal trainer and ate well. I wasn’t one of those who starved myself, if I fancied a take away I’d just work harder in the gym to justify it. On the run up to my Wedding in 2014 I was so determined to be in tip top shape so that I didn’t look back at my wedding pics and cringe. I upped my PT sessions to 3 per week and was really strict with my eating. I was really pleased – my wedding dress was a size 12 and when I look at the photos I just smile. After the wedding/honeymoon it was December and only 2 weeks until Christmas. I decided that I was going to take a break and enjoy it, I’d worked hard for years and deserved it. Come the new year I was back on track with my eating but sadly had to get rid of my gym membership and my PT as we’d moved out of the area. However, we had a home gym including treadmill, so I used it as much as I could….and I did.
Then in June 2015 I found out I was pregnant. Obviously I was happy but I was also worried as I’d worked so hard to lose weight and was really paranoid about piling it all back on. The first trimester was a breeze food wise as I had no appetite at all. From about 16 weeks onwards I was able to eat normally again and actually enjoyed my pregnancy. When my Daughter was born in March 2016 I was quite pleased that I’d hardly put any weight on – only 5lbs! I can only put this down to the fact that on the run up to the birth I’d been in a fairly active job. I’d walk around between 3-5k per day and was on my feet a lot. I also didn’t really overeat at all. However, once my Daughter was born and my husband went back to work I was on my own. I spent days in PJ’s as I didn’t seem to have the time to do anything. Breakfast was usually missed and lunch was at about 2:30 and consisted of whatever I could make quickly – usually toast or a sandwich and crisps. My Daughter wasn’t an easy baby and when I tried to go out on walks with her in the pushchair she’d just scream. So I stopped that as I’m sure people thought I was abducting her. I didn’t have the time to workout and had to breastfeed until she was 7 months old (the diva wouldn’t take a bottle) so I couldn’t leave her for long periods of time with anyone else. I knew I’d put weight on. My clothes felt tight and I felt uncomfortable but it was Christmas again and therefore mentally I just couldn’t even think about it until the new year.
So, here I am, January 2017 and the start of me getting back into shape. But how to do it??? I don’t like meal replacement diets, I’ve done Lighterlife and Herbalife and they work in the short term but then you pile it all back on as they’re not sustainable (well they’re not for me anyway). I don’t like doing Weightwatchers or Slimming World because counting points etc is something my brain can’t handle post baby and I also didn’t want my new regime to be a pain when it comes to cooking. My husband does the cooking and I don’t want him to be making two different meals. When I lost weight the first time I just tracked everything on My Fitness Pal and kept to a certain calorie intake and did more exercise so I decided I’d start doing this again. I also decided to give the 90 Day SSS (shift, shape & sustain) Plan by The Body Coach a go. His plan looks great – eating really nice meals (with normal person portions) and doing HIIT (high impact interval training) exercise, which at a minimum would only take up 25 mins in my day!! The plan is simple – you do 25-40 mins of HIIT 4-5 times a week and your menu for the day is 2 low carb and one carb meal on a training day and 3 low carb meals on a non training day – simples! You also get 2 snacks per day and they can vary from certain fruit, a protein shake, nuts, avocado dip or perhaps even some salmon pate!
I haven’t officially started the plan yet as I need to find my tape measure to measure myself and submit those to my support team member. Once you submit your stats you have 30 days to complete cycle 1 – shift. Once that’s completed you send in your new weight and measurements and you start cycle 2 – shape.Then you do the same before going on to cycle 3 – sustain! You get a new set of menus each time, so you don’t get bored and hopefully by the end of the 90 days you should be a shadow of your former self. I know I can do it, I’ve done it before and I do have very good will power when I set my mind to it!
So fingers crossed and watch this space……
nicolehelenarose 