New ME in the works…

It’s been two months since I’ve changed my lifestyle and eating habits in the hope of a better looking and healthier me. I’ve been very hesitant in blogging about my journey so far because I was (and still am) scared I wouldn’t see it through. Let’s be honest, how many times have we made the decision to eat healthy and/or get fitter but it didn’t last very long? Story of my life!

See, I’m the most unfit person you’ll ever come across and working out is just too much of an effort and too painful for me. That wasn’t always the case, believe it or not. In my teen years, I used to be a swimmer, training with the National Team (Mauritian team) twice per day, Monday to Friday. And even at school, I was very much into sports. But after that, I’m not too sure what happened…let’s just leave it at that.

For those who don’t know me, I’m not fat. I mean, I don’t like to think of myself as fat. But I have extra fat in some places. Not pretty. Not pretty at all. Until about two months ago, I wasn’t happy with the way I looked, but nothing too alarming. I was okay, living my life, eating yummy food, feeling loved and accepted by my loved ones, nothing felt too wrong to prompt me to make a drastic change. Until Thailand.

As some of you might know, I went to Thailand for a short holiday a couple of months ago. Had the time of my life, it was an amazing trip! But while I was in Thailand one day, I was in my hotel room, flicking through the pictures my fiancé took on my digital camera. Before I go any further, it’s probably worth mentioning that I look at myself everyday, several times a day, in the mirror, with and without clothes. So I’m very conscious of what I look like. Anyway. As I was looking through the pictures, of me, in a bikini, I was horrified. HORRIFIED!!! I had a big meltdown. I’ve never felt that way before. I never knew what it was like to ‘hate’ my body so much. My fiancé was a sweetheart and dealt with my meltdown brilliantly saying “As soon as we get back to Sydney, you’ll turn that around and do something about it. But for now, we still have a few days left in Thailand, we’ll just make the most of it, and have fun! I love you and I promise we’ll work on it as soon as we get back to Sydney”. So, I wiped the tears off my cheeks, took a deep breath, and stuffed my face with naughty-yummy food!

Since I got back from Thailand, getting myself a new body has been my priority. I am lucky to have my sister (fitness freak and clean-eater) who is massively helping me out, and my fiance’s support is also priceless. I’m proud to say that I’ve lost almost 8kg in two months, a result I’m very happy with.

I changed my diet completely. I am now 90% clean-eater. One point I’d like to stress is that clean eating is NOT a diet. It’s a lifestyle choice. Put simply, eating clean is the practice of avoiding processed and refined foods and basing your diet on whole foods only. So I’ve eliminated all processed foods (processed meat, anything that comes out of a jar or packet, sauces) from my diet as well as bad carbs (pasta, rice, bread) and dramatically reduced my intake of salt (sodium) and sugar. So it means, no crisps, no chocolate, no ice cream, no biscuits, no sauces, no dressing, no seasoning etc.

What do I eat? Lots and lots of steamed veggies, leaves (salads) good carbs like cauliflower or sweet potato and protein (beef, chicken, turkey, white fish, prawn. As my snacks, I’ll have a piece of fruit, a slice of rye bread, or greek yoghurt. If I need a sugar fix, I’ll go for organic dark chocolate with a minimum of 70% cocoa solids. I also try to add some powerfoods like Quinoa, Chia seeds and LSA (Linseed, Sunflower & Almond meal) to my diet. In a nutshell, I try to limit my sodium and sugar intake to a minimum, cut out carbs and refined sugar and completely cut out any processed food! I also aim to drink 3 litres of water a day. Trust me that’s 756 trips to the loo per day.

Re upping my fitness level, all I’ve been doing are my FBW (Fat Burning Walks). It’s basically power walking for a minimum of 45 minutes on an empty stomach. What’s interesting is that your body doesn’t start to burn fat until 20 minutes into the FBW. So you can see why 30 minutes is not long enough. I’m not sure if it’s my FBW alone, or if combined with my clean diet, but I feel less lethargic and I feel more productive, as in, I get more stuff done. I realise that I need to take my fitness level up a notch but, baby steps…

I can go on and on about my lifestyle change but I don’t want to bore you any further. If you’d like to know more, by all means, leave a comment and I’ll be happy to go into more details.

One amazing thing I want to point out, is healthy weight loss is possible without hardcore exercises. But of course, the result is a lot better if you combine the two. I’m just not that ambitious I guess 🙂

~C
xxx

Posted by exoticaussiedweller on October 18, 2013

https://exoticaussiedweller.wordpress.com/2013/10/18/new-me-in-the-works/