On my old blog I used to do food diary posts and talk a little bit about my workout routine. The reason that I haven't done it here yet is that in the past year or so my life has been so crazy and hectic that I very much fell off my routine and created a terrible cycle of dieting and bingeing. It was my decision that as soon as I'd get to France and start a quieter life I'd start training properly again and sort out my diet.
Before having children I never exercised properly. I'd go to the gym regularly for a month and then not go at all for two. And even when I went I fell into the category of women who read a paper whilst lazily pedalling away on a cross trainer, year after year, never seeing any changes in their body or fitness levels. I now know that it's impossible to read whilst working out! IF you're actually working out that is!
After having my first baby I quite quickly got into the best shape of my life. I was determined to shed the baby weight and I did that in a very well planned, healthy way rather than by starving myself. I also started training with a Personal Trainer and learned what it actually meant to work out. Most of my training was high intensity. I saw results quicker than I had ever expected and maintained my routine until I got pregnant again.
After my second baby I again lost most of the weight I had gained and was back in my old clothes in a matter of weeks. However I didn't get into the same workout routine and for some reason started having really bad sugar binges, which meant that I never lost the last few kilos. I can't remember when exactly they started but every week I was on a diet, eating clean for four days and bingeing for three. I worked out but due to one reason or another kept on changing gyms and routines and ended up not really training that hard or regularly. And even if I had it's impossible to out-train a bad diet!
Not being happy with your body is one thing but feeling terrible guilt over your eating is another. It makes you feel very low. This cycle continued on and off until now. Or I should say until a couple of weeks ago. In fact I can even tell you the date of my latest binge... it was exactly two weeks ago. Now you can laugh but this is the longest I have managed not to do it in two years. It's a start.
(Can you spot George the dog??)
I don't know what I weigh right now but I have a pair of trousers that I haven't been able to fit into since having my second child. I haven't been anywhere near able to do them up. After ten days of managing to stay off sugar and bingeing (I've started following James Duigan's clean eating principles and recipes again) plus training regularly in high intensity style (I've found an amazing Personal Trainer at a nearby gym) I decided to see how far I had to go to fit into them again and was so surprised when they slipped on comfortably! That's how bad sugar is for you!! Only ten days without it and my hips were a couple of centimetres smaller. And I do eat. I eat a breakfast, a snack, a lunch, a snack and a dinner every day. I cook everything in plenty of coconut oil, I pour olive oil in my salads and have avocado, nuts and full fat natural yogurt every single day. I just don't eat sugar and processed foods (they're all full of sugar anyway). Good fat doesn't make you fat, sugar does. I've known that for a long time and absolutely believed it but the past couple of weeks have been a great reminder of it.
My goal for this summer is to get back into that shape of my life that I was in three years ago. I don't have scales and I'm not going to get them. I'm going to keep on using the mirror and those trousers as an indication of where I'm at. Dieting and bingeing really makes you feel awful. Eating clean and working out regularly makes you feel strong, healthy, energetic, happy and positive about life. I hope I never loose sight of that again. Of course I will have my moments and I will go through some failures but I'm hoping that telling you guys all this will help me not to stray so easily :-) Apart from that one cheat meal that I've been told to have every week! Last week it came in a format of a dinner out in a restaurant where you just couldn't say no to the numerous courses of delicious food not to mention the different types of bread between the dishes and the to-die-for dessert. I'll tell you more about that meal in another post. I'll also keep you up-to-date on my progress over the summer and start doing posts about my workout routine. Maybe I'll even include a food diary post or two.
I want to wish the best of luck to all the lovely ladies out there wanting to change their lifestyle. It's hard at times but definitely worth it. Why to feel bad forever when you can change it? That's what I'm telling myself when I get tempted by the highly addictive drug called sugar.
Now I'm off to cook myself some yummy dinner. I'd like to say that I'm going to enjoy a peaceful and relaxing evening eating outside listening to the birds sing but that's not going to happen... Our neighbours have been partying non-stop for two days and it doesn't sound like they're about to finish anytime soon. Well at least the music they are playing is pretty good! :-)
Minna x
