End of day 5 update

I went to the pub for dinner and drinks with friends last night. Except I didn't because at this very moment I am utterly committed to my 90 day Shift, Shape and Sustain plan. As the girls were sitting down for their food and booze, I was at home getting ready to tuck into Italian sausage and beef casserole. It wasnt all doom and gloom, I finished my food and headed over to the pub to drink lime and soda and a diet coke. It was a lovely evening and I was very much looking forward to waking up without a hangover - except I feel awful. I think i'm coming down with a cold. boo.

SO. How has my first working week on the 90 day plan been? It's been ok actually! The preparation and cooking I did last weekend definitely put me on the front foot food wise. I had purchased little plastic pots to put the cooked food in and although there was a little repetition over meals it meant that it was pretty easy to stick to the plan. On Sunday i had cooked enough meals to last Monday - Wednesday and on Wednesday night I cooked enough food to cover until Saturday lunchtime.

My work colleagues think that i'm pretty weird for choosing to eat cold, spicy mined turkey for breakfast - and I have to admit it was a little bit odd to start with - but i'm seeing food as fuel to give my body what it needs to get through the day.

There have been a number of other mental (and physical!) challenges too. My boss returning from the Haribo Museum with a sackful off sweets (my favourite!!) and leaving them on my desk has been interesting. I find myself gravitating towards them without thinking and catching myself! I've done that quite a few times  - I've not caved - and realise that it's quite the habit.

When I was cooking I also found that I wanted to nibble at the stuff - but had to remind myself that I wasn't actually hungry  and that I would have been 'borrowing' food from the next day! Also I have to resist licking the spoons and chucking in a bit more. Accuracy has never really been appealing to me!

I've eaten more than enough food this week - it isn't a plan that will leave  you hungry. In fact one day I went to the gym and upon return had chosen a 'build up bagel' for my carb refuel meal. I had to go straight to a meeting and to conform to the 'eat within an hour after workout' methodology needed to eat in the meeting. I pulled out my bagel - and the meeting instantly stopped so the group could examine just how much food I was to eat on my 'diet' - I was a little bit embarrassed, so ate 3/4 then finished the rest after the meeting had ended over an hour later.

I've enjoyed working out at home - the first day I did the beginners hiit YouTube work out I worried that I wouldn't be able to sustain it. I'm not new to exercise and it was TOUGH. I think though on reflection if you put in effort it should be tough, However fit, you put in the same effort as someone less fit - it's all relative.

On day 2 I didn't finish work until 7.30pm and have an hour commute. at 8.30 when i got home I was tired, but had decided on a hiit and had cooked food to support a hiit - so had to do a hiit!! I felt better for it and I think that I would have not bothered if I hadn't already preppped the food!

The physical challenges have been fewer - unless you count headaches on day 3 and 4. My head was pounding by the time I went to bed. I dont know if it was the heat, work stress or sugar withdrawal. By day 5 it was easing off. Unfortunately on day 6 as i'm sat here now I think I'm going down with a stinking cold. Again I dont know if that is coincidental, but I do seem to get sick when I change my eating patterns - even though I've also been ensuring i'm taking in all the recommended vitamins.

I received an email yesterday from Joe reminding me that I have a support hero called Elliot as part of the plan - I have heard nothing from him and if i'm honest i'm not sure what he's meant to do. In fact apart from that email I've not heard anything from the center. it's disappointing. I think I will email Elliot and ask him what he;s meant to do for me! I've needed a bit of support this week - and i'm very lucky that I've a friend who understands the plan and does hiit (Hi Jo and thank you!! xx) who has been at the end of a message or 200! It's really helped get me though to share stuff.

I really really know i'm not meant to weigh myself - however I of course have. And on day 6 I seem to have lost 11lbs...... let's see how that stacks up on day 90. At the moment i'm utterly determined to get to day 90 :)

The Lean in 15 journey so far - i'm knackered and I've yet to really begin......!!

I've been following the body coach methodology very loosely on and off for a couple of months. Before going on our holidays I'd been doing alright (even winning two dietbets - more on that another time!) and had said that as long as it was working I'd continue to follow the plan.

Then we went away and so somehow for the past 4 weeks I've returned to being an idiot (on reading my past blog posts, i can see this isn't a new phenomenon!) eating without appreciating and mindlessly mainlining sugar.  

 For the past month or so, my eating has gotten way out of hand. I've been massively craving sugar and this summer I've eaten more ice cream and drunk more booze than is good for me. Whist I don't really want to stop the partying (or festivalling in my case!) it's time to regain a bit of balance - before i can no longer get into clothes sold in most clothes shops!!

So, the decision was made and almost as soon as we got back home I signed up for the body coach SSS 90 day plan. It was a Sunday night and I was ready so ready for it. I'd made myself ill overeating and being the impatient little madam I am - I wanted to have the plan in hand and start it already.

So then came the first blow - after you have completed a short-ish questionnaire and sent off some body shots (note to self cut off your head first!!) you have to wait 5 days for your individual plan to arrive. 5 days doesn't sound very long - but I'm an impatient sort. When i decide something, it's decided, time for dithering has ended and the cracking on should begin immediately.

I complained of its absence on an at least daily basis to my lovely friend and Joe Wicks uber-fan, Jo M who reminded me that I should make the most of the time remaining as when it does arrive the real hard work begins!!

At 4am on Thursday morning, 4 days after signing upto the SSS 90 day plan, my personalised Shift plan arrived. I have to be honest - as the owner of 2 of the body coaches books I was really disappointed. What I was sent was pretty substantial - 84 pages of information to be precise - but the bit i found difficult was menu planning and working the different meal types around your HIIT exercise sessions - and quite honestly this didn't do that. In fact it pretty much gave you what the books do - but I guess the quantities are for me and my expanding frame!!

It took me a couple of days to read the book - work is manic and i know from past experience that the menu planning part of the diet always takes me ages. I set aside Saturday night (because I'm so rock and roll) to meal plan......... and meal plan I did - for an hour and a half.

Roll onto Sunday - and I realise that some of the meals wont work so after a quick (hour!) reshuffle, I head off to the supermarket to get the (£101!!!!!!!! gulp) worth of ingredients for the first week. This so far isn't a diet for the less well off.................................

Not only was this shop loads more expensive than usual but shopping for new types of stuff (hot sauce?!!) also took an hour and 40 minutes - twice as long as a standard shop.

So onto the cooking. Mr Wicks recommends batch cooking and prepping 'like a boss' so at 3pm i began the epic prepping that resulted in 3 portions of chicken stir fry, 6 turkey wrapped muffin snacks, 6 portions of spicy lean minced turkey and 4 portions of honey spiced chicken and paprika potatoes. That's enough food until Wednesday apparently!!! #leanin15 (where 15 is the hours I've spent getting ready to start.......) it blooming better be because at 6pm I was asked by 2 hungry boys what was for dinner. So off I got cooking again!!!!!!!

Ah well, hopefully I've gone through the negative elements of the plan and its all downhill (weight!) from here on in. 

Will keep you posted.... :)

It's been how long?!

Three years or there about. Blimey that's gone quickly!

 I think about blogging a lot - usually in the car on the way to work or at the gym or whilst doing the food shopping - y'know, all of those times when you can't really do productive thing about it. I even wrote an entry the old fashioned way recently, whilst sitting by a pool on holiday using a pen and paper.....it's still in my notebook!

So this time, I've a reason to return.

Things have changed enormously in the past 3 years - I've a lovely new job after leaving the organisation I had worked for for almost 18 years, I completed my 40 for 40 challenges, my hair's different, my commute and so daily routine is different, I've joined a second gym, the weirdos i'm proud to call my friends have changed and their personal situations (getting married and divorced, some even passing away) is also different. Reassuringly though, many things remain the same!

The thing that really bugs me is that I've put on weight. I went through a period of time where I was very unhappy at some of the things going on and gradually over time I've put on a couple of stone.

There. I've said it. I sorta let myself go.

I say 'sorta' because through it all I've not stopped exercising - in fact now i probably do as much if not more than I've ever done as my shiny 'new' job commute allows me to walk for an hour everyday. It's my eating, or more specifically my love of sweets combined with a love of booze that has become unbalanced. So, enough is enough. Time to stop whinging about it and how fat I feel and embrace something new.

For the past couple of months I have been loosely following The Body Coach's methodology as shown in his books and YouTube workouts and decided before we went on holiday in August that as soon as we came back I'd bite the bullet and sign up to his tailored plan. So I did - and I'm going to update my progress and experience through my blog.

You never know, I might even get back into 'normal' (pfft - who am I kidding? I don't do normal!) blogging whilst I'm at it.

Watch this space!!