I hate this

I ATE THE CRISPS AND THEY TASTED SO GOOD. I HAVE NO REGRETS!!!!!!!!!

Yeah... um.. so this whole plan is horrible and I hate it. I have been so grumpy the last few days!!! I feel so annoyed that I can't have the food I like, and constantly craving stuff. I am struggling during the day, as I am working constantly and do not have the time to go to the shop, buy then prepare food - so this makes it really hard to keep up this bastarding plan! I get to Iain's ravaged and feel barely satisfied, leave a lot of food because I just can't be arsed to eat any more beansprouts!!!!! Please no more stir frys!!!!!

I don't feel bad for eating it, if anything I feel better!! I am letting myself eat more carbs now, purely because I don't like the change in my attitude and I don't want to put diet and fitness over my general wellbeing, plus I think Iain would likely replace me with a very large dumbbell!

So, yay for me for having more carbs, unlucky Iain haha. Fitness is going really well though, really feeling the benefits at the gym and now starting to stick to the exercises that work best for me!

Stil 115lbs, will update if it changes!

Adios amigos!

Rosie xxx

DAY 8 & 9

Super excited for another week of ham/chicken salad, however to make the lunches a little more bearable I have bought guacamole to comfort the sweet taste of leaves! Having said that, the meals are working and I have lost weight.

On this program you start off by losing weight and slowly building up the muscle throughout the 12 weeks and toning the body. The diet is not working out for Rosie, she is craving all the foods the diet slates and beginning to see a mood swing to grumpyville! So to act more normally we have decided to have one meal a week of our choice which we both crave! (we wont be having Mac D's or Dominoes, I'm talking about adding potatoes to a meal, aren't we lucky)

When I bought Whey Protein before we started the course, the guy at the counter gave me a free sachet, which apparently improved your gym work out enormously. Your meant to take the sachet 30 minutes before the gym, which I did on Friday. I was pre-warned that you feel a tingling sensation when sachet starts working and suddenly your like Hercules lifting double you used to.........

Well that's the impression the guy at the nutrition shop gave me, instead it didn't improve my ability to lift heavier weights or reps. What I really felt:  a tingling session started 1 hour after taking the sachet and it felt like pins and needles which became annoying after a while but I thought it would subside. It didn't subside, so I had the image of Hercules in my head and thinking about lifting this ridiculous weight until I was very disappointed to find out that I was lifting worse. Then I started feeling dizzy and everyone in the gym looked like a blurr. I don't have bad eye sight but it felt like looking through my Grans 3.5 strong glasses. Then I went into a psychedelic trance trying to work out if Rosie was Rosie or a BIG dumb bell! I couldn't see anything and Rosie had to sit me down for 5 mins before I came around.

Stay away unless it works for you  and become the Hercules I never did.

On Day 8 I did the same work out as day 1 and today I did the same work out as day 2. Next week the cycle changes and becomes intense. 

Don't feel too jealous of my lunch below.........

Day 7! Our Week of Meat - Rosie

I hate meat. I honestly cannot look at another sausage without feeling a sense of dread! :P Okay, so our week has been okay, meat isn't that bad, but oh my goodness how I forgot how much fun got sucked out of life when you start avoiding certain foods.

I feel like all my old dieting demons have come back and said hello this week - there's the rush of pride you get when you climb into bed having completed a full day without "breaking the rules" and the guilt when you do. It has been important for me to fight this - I don't want to feel like having bread or chips makes the day a failure. It makes me remember how easy it is to give up and slip into a binge, and that's ground I really don't want to walk on again.

We're easing up on the rules a bit - we think that although it seemed easy at first to just avoid carbs and cut about 85% of them out, it's actually pretty hard. I think sometimes it's not a good idea to just cut out the foods you think are "bad", because damn it makes you crave it! I'd loooove a happy meal, or crispy beef with salt and pepper chips, or fish and chips..... sigh! So we're easing up a bit.

So, here is the staple of our diet this week.

Hitting the gym four times a week, with a lovely spot of swimming afterwards! I can already see a difference in both Iain & my own physique - pics to post soon of our one week progress!! Woohoo! Iain has lost weight too, which apparently is the idea of the plan - to lose fat first, then build the muscle?!

Off to bed now for a good kip, today I have been drained to the max!!!

Night guys xxx

Day 5 - Rosie & Iain

Soooooo it looks like I will be posting on both of our behalves today since this is iain's current state:

Today I am shattterrred! I cleaned my flat all day ready for the upcoming inspection and after the gym I am wiped out - we did a mix of upper body/lower body weights today, no cardio at all. It hurts my arms to even type this and it feels like im doing a set of situps when I sneeze or cough!!!!

HOWEVER I weighed myself this morning - 115lbs! So 3lbs down, huzzah!

Today I ate chicken slices and we had a stir fry with steak, sausage and chorizo! yum. We've been drinking sparkly elderflower water instead of cola, too - LOVE the taste, even tastes better!!!

In other news we are moving in together in September!!! :D How fun!! Very exciting for me anyway, and the cat is looking forward to having a male role model! I am too shattered to write any more, am gonna go pass out on iain

niggghtt! xxx

Day 5 Rosie - My attitude on eating

Heyyy guys!!

So the last post I did provoked a bit of alternative opinion, well written and tactfully put so I appreciate anyone who did comment for not being an internet troll :P

I just wanted to clarify today why I choose to eat the way I do - it's something that has taken me many many years to achieve, and I'm really proud of it!! Throughout my teens, I had a TERRIBLE relationship with food - it was good food or bad food, guilt and sacrifice, and binging then starving.

My attitude for the last two years has been revolutionary for me - I do not have any current issues with food, myself or my weight. I don't think I'm fat and I don't think I need to lose weight - it's merely an issue of feeling comfortable and healthy.

Now - the main thing people wrote on my last post, was that 900 calories in a day isn't enough and isn't healthy. I just wanted to point out that I am totally aware of my health info - I know all about recommended calories, about nutrition and about how your body deals with fat and storing it in certain conditions - trust me, I spend 5 years of my life working out how to lose weight and starving myself then binging, I have read a lot on it ;) 

The only way I have found that works for me is this - 

I eat when I'm hungry, I stop when I am full.

This sentence here, has helped me SO much. I read a book, which told me that I needed to take all the emotion out of food - pizza was no longer "bad" food, salad was no longer "good" food. By purely just listening to my body, listening to when it is hungry and eating what I feel like (ice cream, pizza, veg, whatever) when I am hungry, I take away all my cravings and my body trusts me. I know that if I want a tuna and cheese baguette, I will have one. I had one on Wednesday! It was great. 

The only change I am making right now, is I am swapping out the majority of stuff low in nutritional value for stuff which is better for my body. Last month, I may have had 900 calories a day - but in a pizza. One pizza. Because I had two slices at lunch, and felt full. I had the rest in the evening, and felt full. But now, those 900 calories are for food that's better for me, which is ace! And actually more filling! 

I should also point out that being a total midget means that overall, my intake should be lower anyway. I don't need to eat the same amount as a 5ft11 woman, as there's less of me overall.

So yes - eat when I'm hungry, stop when I'm full. Simple as. There's no "I'm so fat, need to be thinner and not eat" behind this - just stop when I'm full. There's no need to eat more than your body feels like it needs, and only you know when you are done and when you are hungry. There are no world rules for everyone - just finding what works for you. I find, that eating a big lunch works a lot better for me than eating a big dinner. It leaves me feeling full right over the day, and at dinner if I do get peckish, I can snack to make that back to normal.

Please don't think I am trying to starve myself or get into bad habits again. That's the last thing I want - and I doubt Iain would let me :P I am just listening to my body when I eat, and taking my own approach - that feels right to me. I wouldn't go to bed on a growling stomach. I have experienced first hand how dangerous it can be down that path, and I don't particularly want to go and raid a McDonalds next week!

Hope this clears up any misconceptions - also, I should probably note that my calorie intake over the last two days has been much higher, but still with the attitude of "eat when I'm hungry, stop when I'm full."

I welcome all comments and critiques - after all, a mind is like an umbrella - close it and it doesn't do you much good. :)

Rosie xxx

Day 2... Cravings!!

Put down the squares Rosie!!! Today was HARD. Due to my massive tax bill, today was a pretty glum day - saying goodbye to a substantial amount of my savings and dreading how on earth I am going to earn enough to cover next year and actually save, too. The squares were calling my name... Alas, somehow I did resist, but it's officially harder than yesterday.

Trying to find low carb meals is proving especially hard - for me, it doesn't feel like a meal unless you've had something lovely and carby! Walking through the supermarket, EVERYTHING IS A DAMN CARB!!!!!!! I managed to settle on a beef, sausage and chorizo stirfry (yum) and had a banana and sultanas and some angel delight (only the yum topping bit though, who wants the gross part underneath?!) but maaaaaan those crisps looked appealing!!!!

Total calories: 900 ish?!

The gym is good fun though, I can't stress enough how much nicer it is going with Iain than going alone. Not only do you not feel like you are trying to "fit something else in" to your schedule (still quality time together!) but I also feel like it's a fun place to goof around too.

I did 10mins high resistance cycling, 5 mins on the elliptical trainer and then the rest weights etc. Still doesn't feel right to be doing so little cardio, so we're doing classes once a week and i will do an extra 30mins cardio whilst iain does swimming some days.

Tomorrow is our day off, we're off to watch Les Mis and eating out, which should be interesting!!!!!!

Currently craving a mcdonalds and hoping to start seeing some progress this week. And at least this plan is a nice distraction to having to worry about my financial woes!! :'( That's one thing this week has taught me - no matter what, Iain is always here for a hug and he'll love me whether I'm rich or poor or sweaty or craving squares. There's a lot more important things in life than money and houses and holidays, and one of those things is being happy in yourself and being healthy and having a supportive partner!!!!!!

Thanks guys for reading if you made it this far :D

Rosie xxx

Day 1 - Rosie

So, Day 1 here we go.

Got home this morning and realized I had a packet of squares in my bag, torturous but managed to resist! High five to me. So far the intake today looks like this

- chicken slices, 100cal
- a handful of yummy sultanas, 100cal
- 1litre of elderflower flavoured sparkling water 20cal
- 1/3 chicken, roasted 300 cals
- 1 cup roasted veg 200 cals
-  corn on cob - 60 cals
- 1 banana 80 cals

total calories: 860

My main meal is currently roastin' in the oven.

As I'm short, I weigh less than most normal sized people but look the same. So I tend not to eat as many calories either. I usually have either one main meal + snacks per day or two main meals. Currently I also try to not eat too late (post 7.30pm) because I feel more bloated in the mornings when I do that - and that's one things I'm going to keep the same.

I'm swapping out my snacks for meat slices (mmm? :S) and fruit, swapping out coca cola for flavoured sparkly water and sticking to one main evening meal pre 7.30pm. I'll be eating a lot fewer carbs and a lot more protein. I'm interested to see how this affects me.

The gym was good, it's strange following Iain's routine and doing about 20mins of cardio and the rest weights though!! So far I can only lift 5-10kgs, haha. Feeling good today, excited to see what changes there are but I tend to be impatient with slowness so I might be eating those squares next week!! :P

Rosie xxx