Over the last month I’ve been experimenting with ways to improve my lifestyle choices and in turn, lose weight.

For a long time I’ve been unhappy with how I look and haven’t felt confident. I would wear yard clothes, work uniform or baggy jumpers yet have lots of Summer dresses sat in my wardrobe gathering dust.

On the 21^st June, I sought advice from my closest friend who had personal training experience and my new lifestyle began. Now I’m not going to exaggerate anything in this post. I want it to be an honest article to help NORMAL people lose weight in a NORMAL way around work and a social life. No fancy diets or magic here I’m afraid and you won’t be shifting 10lb in a week. These are steps I have taken to kickstart my frumpy to fabulous journey and I’m living proof they’re working.

So here we go. I’d love to hear your thoughts at the end!  

An open attitude

Honestly, the best thing to adopt before any kind of weight loss journey is an open attitude. If you’re stuck in your ways with food or exercise you need to accept that to lose weight you will have to make changes. I did and it was difficult but so far I don’t think I could go back to my lifestyle before. Having an open attitude and looking at the journey positively will help you progress; remember, the start of the journey is you at your heaviest so try to not get bogged down about your starting figure. Mine was my heaviest weight by far but 4 weeks in, I feel less frumpy and more energetic, even if I don’t look much different on the outside!

Spices

The more spice you throw on food, the tastier it is. The tastier it is the more you enjoy it. The more you enjoy it the less you feel like you’re dieting. This is how I’m looking at food now! I was stuck in a rut making the same dinners so to experiment with herbs and spices was one step towards making new meals. I headed straight to Aldi to stock up as they’re super cheap and have a wide variety of spices and flavourings, as well as fresh herbs and herb plants for your kitchen windowsill.

Portion sizes

Looking back, I think my worst enemy was always portion sizes. I was never one for weighing food and once the food was on my plate I wouldn’t like to leave it or “waste it”. I started off by weighing my cereal and it was so upsetting that my usual portion size was literally double the recommended serving. Another example was when I would make a recipe from a cookbook and weighed out pasta to use, again it was half the amount I would have pre-lifestyle change. Getting this under control was difficult the first couple of days but after that my body seemed to adjust.

Water intake

Following on nicely from the point above, I’d always have water with my meal. I’d been told that quite often when you’re stomach feels empty it is often due to dehydration and to take a big drink of water. Well, I’m now drinking approximately 3 litres of water a day and can just about curb the snack cravings!

Alcohol-free zone

One of the most difficult decisions was to give up alcohol whilst I was trying to lose weight. Now, I come from a family of alcohol appreciators and not having wine, prosecco, gin or cider in the house was considered a dire emergency. I also recently purchased a crate of wine of Laithwaites that I hadn’t quite finished, so I had to hide the last bottles at the back of the cupboard. Alcohol is empty calories and as my body only needed about 1600 calories a day to maintain weight, let alone lose any, I didn’t have ANY calories to spare. So, since the 21^st June I have only drank water or tea but a positive is that my skin has cleared up nicely. However, I did break this rule for my birthday but didn’t go too crazy!

Balsamic vinegar

I never knew how delicious this stuff was until I started using it to cook with. Throwing it over a steak whilst it is cooking adds so much flavour or it’s great to jazz up a salad. Farm shops have some fantastic selections and I’ve currently got a balsamic and orange vinegar to try from the brand new Elliott’s Farm Shop near Weedon.

Low fat spreadable cheese

I’m a cheese lover and between Dan and I we used to go through 2 blocks a week. Not great for the waistline! However, low fat spreadable cheese is great on crackers or Ryvitas and I still feel like I’m getting my cheese ‘hit’. I also fell in love with Parmesan, an equally cheesy substitute that you don’t need much of for flavour.

The Body Coach’s cookbooks

I’ve had these books for a few years now but never really paid much attention to them until I decided to start my new healthier way of living. However, once I opened them and saw how easy the recipes were, I never looked back! I’ve had cookbooks before where you have to buy lots of hard-to-find ingredients that could be expensive. They also only included recipes that take a while to prepare – something I found tedious fitting in around work and sorting the horse. Yet, the Shift, Shape and Sustain cookbooks from Joe Wicks are SO easy. As explained above, I stocked up on spices and coconut oil and now adapt the recipes so both Dan and I will eat them (he is much fussier than I am). We’ve had steak, meatballs, paella, sausages, pasta dishes and all of them are made with a healthier lifestyle in mind. I often share my own attempts of these dishes on my Instagram stories and highlights so have a look for some dinner inspiration.

Low calorie ice cream!

I LOVE ice cream. I knew this was one thing I couldn’t give up so had to research (as in taste test) quite a lot of the low-calorie ice creams on offer. The protein ice creams I didn’t particularly like as the texture of them wasn’t quite the same as normal ice cream. However, the Moophoria range from Ben & Jerry’s and also the Graham’s Goodness range found in Aldi are both delicious! The tubs are between 300-500 calories each and each will last me 3-4 days. The salted caramel Grahams Goodness flavour is particularly delicious.

At the point of writing this blog I had lost 4.2kg in weight just from these changes. I endeavour to lose more and will be sharing the progress over on my Instagram feed. I’d love to hear your thoughts so either comment below, on my Instagram post of feel free to DM me.