MY health kick

So today marks the day I have officially lost 25kg and over a 1/4 of my body! I have had several friends, work colleagues, strangers ask me how I did it. So this is MY story. Of course everyone is different and we all choose our own ways to make things work, but after a lifetime of yo yo diets I've finally found my groove.

I had to stop saying it was baby weight as my babies were were 4.5yrs old!! So I signed up to Michelle Bridges 12WBT but to be honest I didn't use it at all. I had a quick look and didn't really like it so went on my own. Saying that several of my friends have done it religiously and have had amazing results, but I guess I needed to find something for me that was going to be doable for the rest of my life not just 12 weeks.

I decided to calorie count and start moving more. I downloaded the app "myfitnesspal" to my iphone and started adding up everything i ate each day. I put myself on a 1200 cal restriction for the first 6 weeks and then changed it to 1200-1400 as I wanted to be able to do this forever. I also started to move every day. 30 min walks to start with but increasing to an hour 6 days a week. I bought a heart rate monitor and aimed to burn 400-500 cals per day 6 days a week. I did this strictly for 6 weeks to to get going. Several of my friends and work colleagues have used this app and as long as you stick to it they have lost weight. Saying that a few of them use most of their calories on unhealthy foods which in the long run will come back to bite them. It does go to show though that you can lose weight while still being unhealthy.

I then downloaded the app C25K which is the couch to 5km running program and started doing that. I couldn't do week one for several weeks and that was only running 30secs at a time. But I persisted and did each week as many times as i had to and made sure I ran all the sections they asked before going up to the next week. Eventually I ran my first 5km and now am running 10km. I also joined the gym and started doing body pump classes as I knew I had to increase my muscle mass. 

Now I do walking/running/swimming or something cardiovascular twice a week, weights twice a week and yoga or body balance once. So I don't do anything 2 days a week. Some weeks I do more and some I do less, but I stick to my caloric intake most of the time.

I have lost 25kg and have 5 more to go. When I get to that goal I will try and keep the exercise going and increase my calories slowly til I find a balance

So that's it in a nutshell. This has not been easy but it has been doable. I cannot described to you how awesome i feel and how much better life is now. My little girls notice it too and their attitude towards healthy foods and exercise has changed dramatically already. 

Shan x