So wow, I have well and truly started this year off with a bang. If you have been following my blogs you will be well aware that I have started new lifestyle changes, one of them being the Body Coach 90 Day SSS plan. So could I really take 90 days of a diet and fitness plan and actually stick to it. Il be completely honest I have NEVER dieted before. Personally I don't believe in them, i'v never been one to deprive myself of the foods that I want. If I want something I will generally eat it. My mum was a diabetic so I was someone that grew up In home full of fairly healthy food, no sugary sweets, low sugar drinks, no salt on the table, so I generally got taught the basics about eating healthily since I was a child. So I would naturally choose fresh food and healthier options. I think as I grew up this made a contribution to me never being massively over weight and I have always been within my BMI range, but I will admit I have gone near the higher end on some occasions. So I never really felt that I have had to Diet other than sometimes i'v cut back on some choices from time to time. I have always been one for exercise so its never really been a hassle for me. After Heart surgery I started to gain the pounds quicker and started to find it a little bit harder to burn it off, I then found I was starting to crave the sugars and bad foods like white chocolate chip cookies I was addicted, god they were amazing, but I wouldn't just stop at one, I would finish the pack in one sitting.I was hungry and I mean really hungry, so much so that a friend picked up on it during a weekend away that I hadn't stopped eating, the pounds started to pile on. I was then diagnosed with graves disease, which had caused an over active thyroid, These two illnesses make you eat, a lot.
So this year I decided I needed help to get those additional calories off, and start feeling better. What I was doing in the gym wasn't working. In later years I had been wanting to learn a little more about nutrition, and the foods that really help feed and nurture my body. With My graves Disease at the level it is I had no choice but to change something to make me feel better. Diet and exercise was all I had left that could possibly effect the outcome of this disease. So I joined the 90 day SSS plan with the Body coach in order to see If I could improve my health and maybe, just maybe, put this Graves disease into remission. I had to try because it was my last resort. A little nervous as I filled out my questionnaire and took my Starting stats and photos. I really hadn't taken a proper good look at myself, either that or I saw something completely different in the mirror. I was shocked to see what I really look like naked. Its so easy to get comfortable and only take a quick glimpse of your body with clothes on before you head out the door. Im not sure why it has taken me to sending off my underwear shots to The Body Coach to realise what I actually look like, but i'm glad I did. I desperately waited to get my plan through. A few emails came in and I joined the 90 Day community on Facebook. I would say its a little group but there are more than 10,000 people on there, that have signed up from the end of December. So if all these people are doing it and participating surely people are getting the results they want. In this "little" community we can share tips, advice and there is always somebody there if we fall off the wagon. We are all going through his fitness plan together. We don't judge and just offer that little bit of support that our housemate or partner might not understand. So it really is a great idea. The plan arrived in my mail box on the Saturday I sat down looked at it, I wrote out my spread sheet for the week, ( that was what every one else was doing in the FB group) can't say I really knew what I was doing at this point. Once I then had my plan in place I went shopping, on a Sunday which was hell. Iv actually 'V logged' this bit, and it will be over on my Youtube on Wednesday so you can check it out.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzg5NCu4KtZ8I0THSaIRKsA
So that weekend I totally binged I was out for Brunch with the girls, Pizza with friends and family, and then a roast and some serious red wines on the Sunday all ready to start my plan on the Monday morning. I think this was my last bid for freedom, I was consuming as many calories as I possibly could. One thing I will say for certain, this is not something that that you should ever start with a hangover. I had no food prepped I felt rough, and I mean rough. I obviously had eaten enough to feed the five thousand and drunk enough red wine to keep merlot in business. So I struggled out of bed, started to consume my water intake for the day and switched on a hiit with Joe. That was it I was done for the day. Joe killed me, but I somehow felt a little better. I did learn a valuable lesson that binging isn't always the answer. And a hangover definitely isn't the cure.
Ok so week one was hell. Im not going to lie it wasn't easy. I was so unprepared with my food and hadn't really thought about my my food meals properly, I was rushing around to make my meals around work, I mean its not like I could grab a sandwich I had to cook, and even putting together a smoothie took time with weighing all the ingredients, I had never weighed anything i'm my life so this was a new hurdle I wasn't used to. I was struggling. No coffee, No alcohol, low sugar, low carbs, high protein....This sucked. My body was really struggling, I felt rough. But I wasn't sure what was wrong, it wasn't a cold it wasn't a headache, I just felt horrible. I had felt like that twice before. Once when I had done a 3 day detox and the other time when my body got so toxic with my blood levels. I knew this had to be the detox stage, all the alcohol, caffeine, and sugars leaving my body. Feeling this rough and struggling with the amount of calories I was having to consume every day I was feeling low. On more than one occasion I wanted to give up. I started to talk to my self, “I cant do this. Its so hard”. I think I was more delirious from the detox to be fair. But Im not a quitter i'm never one to give up. I looked on the fb page and a lot of us were suffering the same, we were tired exhausted felt ill. It was Keto flu. My body was being fuelled differently and started to burn fat instead of the the sugars I was so used to consuming. I wasn't alone and others in the group convinced me it would pass. I persevered. I carried on. I struggled through that week in a blur. Then all of a sudden week 2 arrived. I felt so much better,more alert, they days were getting easier. After the first week of being so unorganized I had started prepping like a boss on the weekends. Yes it did take up best part of the day, but once you have done your food for the week your done. Begin organised has given me more time, who would have thought it. I have no shopping or cooking to do in the week. All my food is cooked and ready to be heated up. Its great. My days are too busy and long, so having to not have to think about food, cooking or shopping has freed up my days a little bit more. And the food itself is pretty good, i'm enjoying it, its healthy its tasty and most of all its fuelling my body in the best way it can. By the end of week two I could honestly say in my 32 years of life I had never ever felt better. My energy levels are through the roof, I sometimes do a late night visit to the super market for a snack just to burn off some energy, as additional workouts are not advised. I work out 5 times a week for 25mins. That is all. Its hard its fast then its over. So i'm loving these sessions with Joe. Someone that has previously done a lot of sport in the past, its similar training to kick-boxing sessions. I thrive of this type of exercise. It gets you pumped for the day. So now that I have really got in to it you can really see the difference from my fitness levels from one week to the next. The hiits don't get any easier at all but my form and technique get better, therefore I am working harder.
So lets get down to the measurements. While on the plan we are advised to stay off the “Sad Step” the scales, we only weigh ourselves before we start and at the end of each cycle. I was eager, I knew I had lost, my clothes were looser I felt better, I was more comfortable in my skin. I just couldn't wait to see the results. I must have consumed just shy of 100 eggs, over 1kg of protein powder, truck loads of full fat yoghurt, fields of spinach, and just over 70 litres of water . I was definitely not hungry and interested to see how this plan could work. Every measurement was a loss totalling 3.5kg in weight and inches throughout my body. Wow I knew I had lost but I wasn't expecting such epic results so quickly. It has taken me a really long time to lose that amount of weight before.
Am I happy with results. Definitely. I feel better than ever. I have my health as my main goal so there is no way I can fail I have been trolled on my Instagram and have had a few messages from girls saying that I shouldn't be so concerned about my looks, and that I should be more focussed on my health then losing weight. Im not doing this fitness plan for weight loss, but if I lose weight then thats a bonus. Don't ever judge on what you really don't understand. I am doing it to get my health to the top of its game. Im loving how much exercise and this diet is working for me, my new energy levels and new lease for life. I have never felt better. This really is going to be a new lifestyle for me. I feel amazing already and its only 30 days in. Why would I change that. People have asked me if I have cheat days or if I'v had a drink. But I can honestly say I have not had one sip of alcohol and only two coffees in the whole month, coming from a social drinker and a coffee addict that is more than impressive. I am not missing it. I found that the coffee I could actually taste so much more I really enjoyed it. I loved it but it didn't agree with me. My stomach has obviously got used to new fuel; and now doesn't like coffee, well thats not a bad thing. Im not going to say that i'm never going to drink alcohol ever again, its just that right now i'm enjoying being sober. Im probably having better conversations and i'm probably actually listening to people. Im enjoying peoples company without a drink to help the night flow, and i'm loving waking up in the mornings and being healthy and happy. Not hungover and rough. Im learning so much about graves disease triggers and I think this diet really is solving my problems, Joe has definitely cured my hunger, the low caffeine and no alcohol, cannot feed my graves disease, the low carb and high protein is strengthening my body. Could joe have just found a cure for this illness. Time will tell, I have another 2 months to overturn the doctors decision to start the next stage of treatment. They have advised that it is the best type of diet for me. My March blood results will reveal if I have started to beat this disease. I feel so much better so it really could quite possibly be working. I wish I started this diet years ago. Then I might not have lost so many years of my life. When health gives you no choice, you will be prepared to work as hard and do anything you can to protect that. I don't have that choice. Health has never been on my side, and when you want something so bad, you will try dam hard to achieve it. I cannot wait to see what Cycle 2 is going to bring, because right now, I finally feel like i'm winning at life.
Written with Love
Hay
