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?