Bleeeeeeeeergh

So I don't really like talking about weight because I think it shouldn't really matter to people, but I was unhappy and thought I'd document how I lost it, in case I ever need to do it again.. and so that you can have a nose :)

Bit of a backstory. I was at my heaviest when I worked in an office around 8 months ago; constant munching due to boredom and not moving meant I was nearly 15st at one point.

I thought I looked huge here

And here

But my weight always fluctuates

I started going to the gym for an hour after work every weekday but didn't really change my diet. I'd fast walk/run on the treadmill and use the crosstrainer so the weight came off slowly to begin. I started to make healthier choices with my food and started going to exercise classes with a good friend, and this is when I started to feel the difference. 
So no revelations here - just exercise more and eat less. The thing is, what you see as exercise and what you think is eating healthily is not necessarily the best for you. Exercise should make you sweat and knackered, but the food you eat should be to fuel your body, it's not just a case of picking the food with 'low fat' slapped on the label, because it'll have a tonne of other shit in it to enhance the taste. Which leads me to;

The detox- Eating CLEAN

People started to notice a difference in the 6lbs I lost in the first week of the detox. I joined my gym's weight loss programme which runs for 6 weeks, the first 2 are meant to cleanse your body. You can't eat;

• Gluten and wheat: pasta, bread, cakes, biscuits, and most sauces (sauces contain gluten to thicken them up)

• Caffeine: apart from green tea because it speeds up your metabolism (I now swear by flavoured green tea)

•  Sugar: in any form apart from fruit, though I sometimes used a bit of Candarel or honey.

• Processed foods- pretty much everything that comes in a packet. This and avoiding sugar is so important to eating clean. (Think Gwyneth Paltrow's diet). Pasta sauces can be made from tinned/fresh tomatoes and fresh herbs

• Dairy: Drink soy/almod/rice milk instead of milk. No cream, no butter/spread or hard cheese. Feta, goats cheese, natural yoghurt and eggs are allowed.

Avoiding gluten in sauces was probably the hardest; you'll probably find you need to prepare your lunches the night before because NOTHING from Tesco Express' lunch range is gluten or wheat free. ALWAYS cook with coconut oil as it's the healthiest- as soon as you heat up olive oil the fats become saturated.

I wasn't calorie counting, just viewing food as nutrition, a way to fuel the body. It did take the joy out of eating somewhat, but I had so much energy and I didnt have that constant bloated feeling. Avoiding those foods may seem like hassle but everyone started to comment on how I looked after this week, and I believe sticking to it made a huge difference in how much weight came off.

What you can eat is in the table below.

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A typical day at uni would consist of;

Green tea with a slice of lemon before breakfast
Breakfast- Porridge made with soy milk, sweetened with cinnamon and some honey
Snack- Almonds or walnuts which I coated in chili powder to make them taste nicer
Lunch- Quorn in a spinach salad, or a fruit (such as a pomegranate), or carrots and humous
Snack- Pumpkin and flax seeds
Dinner- Baked fish and vegetables
Dessert-Fruit with greek yoghurt
Green tea before bed

The snacks didnt usually taste great but were mainly to stave off the hunger. I ate little and often. 

After week 2, you can start to re-introduce the banned foods in small amounts, obviously continuing to eat healthily. I still try to eat as clean as possible; I avoid wheat, gluten and dairy because I feel better for it. I still cook with coconut oil and (largely) cook everything from fresh. Any treats I eat I try to make myself (like beetroot crisps or banana oat flapjacks) or I buy gluten free- Tesco's gluten free cookies are the bomb.

Exercise

I didn't go overkill with the exercise during the detox. I had enough energy to function, but found that I couldnt put my all in with the cardio. I would make sure I burned off 100-150 calories on the treadmill/crosstrainer/stepper and use a couple of the weights machines for toning.

After the detox, I tried interval training. This involves exercising for only a short period of time, but switiching between high intensity (sprinting) and low intensity (walking), aiming for a ratio of 2:1, for around 15 minutes. So I would sprint for 60 seconds, then walk for 30, and repeat. This burns less calories than jogging for an hour but because it works your aerobic and anaerobic system you continue to burn fat at a higher rate after you finish. It's also less boring.

Weights are an important part of burning fat and toning up; when your body has a higher percentage of muscle, you naturally burn more calories in body function. In my experience, using a weights machine is less effective than using free weights or using your own body weight to exercise. Doing squats with weights makes you ache, sitting at a machine repeating the same movement doesnt.

A lil after shot for you guys

Nearly 3st lighter after I made the decision to lose weight, my new goal is to use weights to change the make-up of my body, so that fitness is more self-sustaining; to tone up and try to sculpt my body into how I want it ready for the summer.. who's joining me?

Just a little note..

About lip scrubs. Don't bother buying one.

Don't get me wrong, my lips feel less dry and I'm less inclined to pick them until they bleed, but you could make one right now with stuff you have in your kitchen.

This sells in Lush for about a fiver, its supposed to taste like popcorn (no shit). It smells LUSH, haha geddit, but sugar and salt just tastes sick. If you look at the ingredients, it's all pretty basic;

Wouldn't focus..

Flattering pic demonstrating that it tastes sick. My hair is wet not greasy :p

  
Make one:

• Granulated sugar (caster/demerera sugar for a milder scrub)

• Extra virgin olive oil or honey instead of the jojoba oil, both provide just as much moisture.

• Flavouring if you really want to eat it afterwards...

• Mix so it looks like snow consistency.

• Use a lip balm (or aforementioned oil/honey) to moisturise afterwards.

Snow consistency?

The ingredients are self preserving, so you can either decant or just make it up when you need it.

I always have scabby lips in the winter and thought a scrub would just be abrasive.. But I feel a difference, I think it must be helping with the cell turnover so they never get in such a dry state. My lips look FAT after scrubbing too.. Gets the circulation going I suppose ;) definitely recommend giving it ago if you suffer with the same. 

No scabs

Ciao for now :)

(did I really just say that)

Ombre hair?

The ends of my hair were pretty dead (hairdresser-phobia) so I thought I'd do something jazzy to them before they get the chop.

I'd seen the Ombré home dye kit and seeing as I didn't fancy paying for the exact same method as they'd use at the salon I bought it for £6.99 in Boots.

This might be really stupid of me but I got really confused. It should have been obvious from the women on the box which one I'd need.. But the guides on the top said something like 'for dark brown to light brown hair' and 'for light brown to dark blonde'.. I couldn't understand if that meant the colour of my hair now, or the colour it would make it. Anyway spaz attack aside I got shade 1, seeing as my hair is v. v. dark. 

In stark daylight (by a window)

It comes with a little brush for you to put the dye on, which I think is responsible for the subtle gradient instead of there being a harsh line. If you have long hair like mine.. it is not as easy as it should be but definitely worth using.

It stank and you have to leave it on for 45 mins for max effect. Even after washing with the conditioning shampoo provided it definitely didn't feel like hair any more. It was crispy. It still is crispy.

After I washed it off, it looked a bit ginger, so I re-applied some of the leftovers to the very very ends of my hair and voila. To take out the gingeriness I've been using a 'Touch of Silver' purple shampoo, which you use every other wash and lightly distributes purple dye on the hair, counteracting the yellow tones and must say it looks more of a golden brown now. I imagine it would have a better effect if used as intended on blonde hair.. it's meant to make you look like a natural, ash blonde.

Bit out of focus.. But you can see how dead and ginger the ends are.

Obviously, the kit has peroxide in which will destroy your hair, so you definitely need a good conditioner or one with silicones in to make your new straw feel like hair again. Most hairdressers within my budget would be using peroxide too, so if I had the choice again I'd still buy this kit and would recommend it for it's ease of use. I think the difference in colour is more obvious in person, but I'm happy with how it turned out :)

In artificial light.. dunno what my arm's doing

 Soo what do you think? Do I look like I've had a bad dye job or couldn't be bothered to get my roots done for a few months? :p

Stuff!

I am really nosy and love reading about what other people got for Christmas. I just wanted to share some of the cool stuff I got and some goodies I'm looking forward to trying out. Obviously I had other awesome presents off the family which I am hugely grateful for, this is just the stuff I wanted to write about :)

Lush Popcorn Lip Scrub

I love the idea of Lush.. natural ingredients and all that. I am dying to try out some of their products because the shop smells, well, lush. I just hate going into the shop and being given the hard sell, and I'm not fond of their prices either. This came in a gift box along with some other products, I have really mangey dry lips this winter so I'll give this a good go and let you know if it works!

Slendertone Flex Unisex Abs Belt

An ab belt to help me in the battle against flab.. again I will let you know how it goes. It takes 8 weeks.. I've already started using it and have noticed some difference in size and wobble, but I dont think I will see definition until I burn away the fat layer on top of the muscle. I'm doing lots of cardio at the moment for that so fingers crossed. It is cheating but what's the point of doing sit ups when 20 minutes on this thing is like doing 120 sit ups without having to actually do them? 

RealTechniques Expert Face Brush

These brushes are really doing the rounds on the youtube beauty channels. So many of the creator's relatives make beauty videos that they might just be plugging them, so I've decided to try one out for myself. Expect a review!

WWF Snow Leopard Adoption Pack

An adopted snow leopard!! I love animals and am very stressed about the planet sooo yes I cried when I saw this. I had a bengal tiger last year, such a sweet gift :) Though I wish it could come live in my garden.

Krakow Guide Book/The White Queen

Love a bit of literature at Christmas. A very handy guide book for our hol in February.. I have vowed to learn some Polish before we go but it's too hard. I borrowed The White Queen from the library but now I own it I can put it next to my others and re-read the whole Cousin's War series in chronological order :) This has been my favourite book in the series though, the history of the Woodvilles is a fascinating and turbulent one! (Oo-err check me out). 

Mary Berry's Cakes and Bakes

Enough said! I'm going to make the flapjacks as soon as I get rid of the Christmas chocolate. I also had an AMAZING cupcake book which has every variety you can imagine and has given me so much inspiration.

Cath Kidston Satchel

I was not expecting this! Possibly the only posh thing I own, it's waterproof and perfect for my Uni stuff which always gets wet when it rains. It's really sturdy and just what I've been needing!!

Soo that's it guys, expect some future posts on the beauty stuff I received and the Slendertone. I hope you aren't all too depressed now all the celebrations are over!

Hello 2013 :)

Happy New Year everyone! :)

 

Man I've got some serious blogging to catch up on! I've been dying from a sinus infection (ok, exaggeration) and been so busy over the festive period I haven't had a chance.. This is the first year we made the vow to do things around Christmas which has been so lovely and festive but I can't believe it's all over now! Usually the new start of a year can be a bit depressing but I'm feeling pretty good (although I haven't started revising yet).

I know some people hate the idea of New Year's resolutions, it's like setting yourself up for failure. Well I can't even find the A4 page I wrote last year.. that says it all. One of them was to be a better person, which I failed and I'm more like Victor Meldrew than ever.

I have stuck to one important one though, to be healthier and lose weight. This is on everyone's list I'm sure, and though I've fallen off the wagon many a time, I am 2st lighter than I was this time last year. So I guess this has given me some positivity to take into the New Year. My goals are:

1. Lose another stone. Only to get to a healthy BMI for my height, I like having a bit of chub because it keeps me warm and seeing my own skeleton kind of freaks me out, being able to see my collar bone is scary enough. I'm at the stage where I can run without needing an oxygen mask afterwards so I'm going to try the Cardiff Half Marathon with the mum-in-law :)

2. Say YES more often/make the effort. I am a very lazy person and insecurities stop me from doing things I really want to. I am only 21 but this is also scary, and I think you never know when your time on this earth is going to be up so I want to make as many memories as I can. Sometimes I'm so caught up in my own little routine I turn down oppotunities because I like my comfort zone too much.

3. Make better choices. Last year I made bad decisions, I know everyone makes mistakes but I want to consciously do what's right. Last year I was told to 'choose my battles' and it's stayed in my mind as something I really should learn instead of jumping to conclusions/speaking my mind instantly.

What are your New Years Resolutions? FINGERS CROSSED it all goes to plan. But what the hey, if we fail it's really not the end of the world, we're alive and that's a blessing in itself :)