{Weight Loss Inspiration}

I've reached my target weight, and my personal trainer has now featured me on her list of success stories on her website! Here are the before and after pics:

3 July 2011

3 July 2011

11 Oct 2011

I have achieved the following results:

• lost 6 inches from my waist
• lost 5.75 inches from my hips
• my body fat % has dropped 11%
• lost 33lbs (however I've lost in total 3 stone since having had baby 5.5 months ago)
• dropped from a size 16 to a size 10

All in just 3.5 months!!

The key has been to eat healthily, no crazy diets, and to do a bit of exercise.

A number of people have asked how I've done it, so I want to share with you some of the tips I've learned from Maria.

• Keep a food & exercise diary, and be honest with yourself
• Eat little and often
• Watch portion sizes
• Have something to eat as soon as you wake up in the morning to get your metabolism going
• Choose the healthy option where possible
• Limit bread, pasta & potato intake (I had no bread or pasta to start with)
• Choose wholemeal where possible (brown rice, wholewheat pasta, wholewheat noodles, seeded brown bread)
• Avoid or limit bananas (as far as I'm aware they slow metabolism - not sure if this is true or not. This is the only fruit that I've been told to avoid)
• Avoid or limit red meat 
• Eat lots of fresh fruit & vegetables
• Eat lots of fish
• Drink at least 8 glasses of water a day (I struggle with this one!)
• Avoid Coke & Diet Coke
• Avoid alcohol (I'll have a soda & lime when out)

Here's what I would eat in a typical day:

7am - couple of spoons of low fat natural yoghurt

8.30/9am - museli (one with nuts and seeds rather than dried fruit e.g. Jordans Nut & Seed) with skimmed milk & lots of blueberries & raspberries or porridge

10.30am - snack (handful almonds; crudites & hummus; oatcake, fruit salad, yoghurt & berries; sugar snap peas or handful popcorn)

12 noon - vegetable soup; chicken, tuna or prawn salad (with salad leaves, beetroot, pine nuts, peppers, tomatoes, cucumber, onion, olives and drizzle of dressing); ryvita & cottage cheese or Food Doctor pitta bread with chicken and salad

3pm - another snack

5pm - fish with lots of vegetables; chicken stir fry with brown rice/noodles or homemade chicken curry (tomato based sauce) with brown rice

8pm - another snack

If I'm feeling hungry at any point I'll grab a handful of Food Doctor seeds or Munchy Seeds or a handful of cherry tomatoes or sugar snap peas.

I still have the occasional cake (there is no point trying to cut out everything 'bad' - it's got to be a realistic diet so that you can stick to it), I'll also still eat chocolate occasionally (80% cocoa dark chocolate and I'll only have 2 squares) and if I do have a take away then I will have a chicken kebab (salad, no sauce!).

In addition to the healthy eating I've been exercising approximately 5 times a week. I've joined Maria's running club which meet on a Sunday morning and I've started a Pilates class too which is a Monday night. In addition to this I do a Davina workout DVD at the house (Davina's are the only DVDs that my personal trainer recommends by the way). I've also been trying to do a run when I can, but at the moment it's becoming difficult as the nights are getting really dark, as are the mornings! To start with I went out for brisk walks with the kids in the buggy and I'm now able to run (I did 5.37 miles this morning at running club, and before August I had never really run before).

Davina Fit DVD

Hope this is helpful? Any questions, do let me know.