So, in delightfully tacky tradition, I made a New Year’s resolution to lose weight and get fit and healthy at the same time – in turn making myself feel happier with my over all appearance. But how to do it? We all know that it’s harder to lose weight the less you weigh and those last few pounds are the hardest to get off, so how was I going to make a real difference?
Well firstly HIIT!! No – I wasn’t hitting myself – HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training. I chose Jillian Michaels’ punishing 30 Day Shred to push myself through every morning for 20 minutes and while hating it most of the time, loved the results on my body afterwards and the overall feeling of well being that it gave me. In fact, I went past the 30 days and am still doing it now! And Pilates once a week - lovely, lovely Pilates - now my favourite way to get a lovely stretch, relax and six pack of an evening!
But, what about food? I knew that my love affair with chocolate and sugary cakes and sweets had to come to an end, but would this be enough to lose some serious weight? Probably not. So, having found out about The Fast Diet I thought I’d give it a go. The Fast Diet or 5:2 Diet involves eating fairly healthily, but pretty much what you like for five days a week and fasting for two by having no more than 500 calories on your fast day. By harking back to many centuries ago, when food wasn't in regular supply, the body is conned into thinking it's in a potential famine situation and gets leaner and tougher as a result. Sounds easy enough, but it’s really actually quite hard getting three meals a day in that total 500 calories!
So someone told me about The Fast Diet Kitchen, which provides you with a series of healthy ready meals to assist you on the fast days. Every calorie is counted and the meals – a soup at lunchtime and an evening meal - contain some really healthy ingredients so you know you’re getting the right stuff into you on your fast days as well. To be honest though, diet food? I thought it would taste vile, but I was actually quite pleasantly surprised.
Yes, some of the meals weren’t to my taste, but the majority of them were lovely. I particularly liked the aromatic chicken curry and the beef and ale casserole – they were really yummy and I couldn’t believe that each meal was loads less than 300 calories! So basically, for a few weeks I had a breakfast of around 100 calories on my fast days, then chose a soup and evening meal to add up to a total of 500 calories.
Yes, fasting took some getting used to the first few times and to start with I was quite miserable on my fast days, but gradually my body got used to it and I actually felt healthier on the fast days than the other days!
I also found that exercising and keeping busy on the fast days helped with the hunger pangs too. As the weeks moved on I really started to notice the difference with a combination of HIIT and fasting and guess what? I have actually lost 10kg in two months!! That’s a flipping stone and a half in old money!!
The Mummy tummy (or so I called it, even though my oldest is now two) is no more and I feel so much better for it! Even the jeans that never used to fit me and sat in my wardrobe for years are now too big!
I don’t know how long I’ll be able to make it last for – hopefully I’ve made a fitter and healthier change for life now, but all I can say is it most definitely worked and I’m mega impressed! So thank you Jillian Michaels and the Fast Diet Kitchen – I love you both!
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