Tinder and Blind

19th-25th March

No carbs takes a while to get used to. The first two days of training were tough, especially the cardio workouts, I struggled to push myself due to lack of energy. My trainer told me to have a coffee before the next workout- which I thought was banned throughout the challenge, apparently not, it was only banned for the detox phase of the challenge! So this week I’ll ensure I have an espresso before my workouts to give me an extra boost.

The weekend saw me buying in M&Ms and mixed nuts..for my friends- before you judge. I hosted movie night at my apartment so I stocked up on things I couldn’t eat in order to make my friends happy. They ordered pizza’s while I heated up my chicken, pumpkin and kale dinner. I had a few nuts which meant I skipped the following day’s snack of cottage cheese & celery, because I probably got my fats worth out of those nuts.

I did however lose more weight, in total now I’ve lost 6.1kg, or 13 pounds. I’m 1lb off a stone and so happy.

I started day one of week 8- the final week, today, and typically my meals are coconut yoghurt with blueberries and almonds for breakfast, an almond milk protein shake and smoked salmon with cream cheese as snacks, with minced stuffed aubergine for lunch and lamb skewers for dinner (which I’m substituting for beef).

I have a wedding on Friday which means I’ll be finishing the challenge a day early, there’s no way I can forgo wedding food and drink for the sake of a day, so I’m going to train twice a day twice this week in order to balance out Friday for the weigh in and body scan.

I shall update this time next week with my results. One thing I’ve learnt in this seven weeks is that food prep is the absolute key to losing weight. Forget the exercise, I was working out six days a week long before this challenge, but this has educated me on what I need to put into my body to burn fat and most importantly, satisfy my hunger and realise HOW important portion control is. One more week to go!

13th-18th March

I started my week on Monday instead of Sunday as said in my previous post, so I’ve done six days as opposed to seven so that I have a head start on my fat burning phase for this last two weeks.

The hardest part of my week was sitting in Five Guys with four of my friends, while they feasted on cheeseburgers and cajun spiced fries I had my tupperwear of Snapper and asparagus tucked in my bag. That was a low point of my life. Krispy Kreme next door was giving away free donuts, so they all grabbed one of those for dessert, but I abstained, for a change.

I started seeing results when I woke up on Saturday, the scales showed I was even lighter and the mirror showed muscles I hadn’t noticed before. I went to the mall to change something, and ended up taking butt selfies because I couldn’t believe how much of a toned glute(s) I’d built!

So now is the final phase of the challenge, it’s come around so quickly and it just shows that time passes anyway; make the right choices for a few weeks and you’ll reap the rewards.

This phase concentrates on Keto which is a high fat and low carb diet. This morning’s breakfast was 100g of ham (which I had to run to the supermarket for when I got out of bed  because I had forgotten to get it yesterday), with two eggs and spinach, cooked in butter. Hell yes to high fat.

Snacks today are an almond protein shake and veg sticks with cheese. That’s right- cheddar cheese. I’m intolerant to cows milk so the real test will be if I last during my training tonight, or keep running to the loo. Soz.

Lunch is meant to be lamb with chopped cauliflower, tomato, parsley and shallots with olive oil, lemon and garlic. But I don’t like lamb so I’ve substituted it with beef instead. Dinner is salmon with bok choy and soy sauce. Not too shabby.

I’ve also noticed a rise of men sliding into my DM’s (direct messages) on social media. It’s actually hilarious. It is sad really that aesthetics make such a difference, but I guess that’s society these days. We just need to stay true to our personalities and not turn into an egotistical preacher once we’re actually happy within ourselves. I am happy to see my body changing, not just because I wasn’t happy with putting on the Dubai Stone, but because it’s proved that if I put my mind to it, I can actually work at something without failing. I’ve seen many ‘weight loss transformations’ who have changed people for the worse, because they’re suddenly getting attention and know they look good, they become arrogant and intimidating. When really a few months ago they’d have favoured a film and a pizza over the gym and a protein shake and now they’re turning their nose up to anyone who chooses fries instead of salad at Nandos.  Balance is key, and once I’m done with this challenge I will maintain it, but I’ll not say no to a Five Guys and a donut.

I slipped this last week. I went for a spa evening after work last Sunday, turns out the package included a chocolate brownie, post-massage. When the lady brought out two plates of the amazing chocolatey squareyness, my friend said my face dropped like a child’s who knew they weren’t allowed something.

It was 8.30pm and I hadn’t eaten since 3.30pm, so I caved. I ate the whole god damn thing and I savoured every bite. It was bliss. Having gone 21 days with zero sugar and sticking to the plan 100%, I didn’t feel guilty. I did however, skip my dinner of chicken with brown rice in order to justify my slip up and calorie intake.

I got straight back on the wagon the following day and stayed on it..till Friday, the much anticipated hen do. I ate a bit of salmon and a bit of beef then..a shit load of dessert. I had a crepe with Nutella and strawberries, topped with ice cream and chocolate. Then I had another crepe about two hours later, with a side of brownie. I had two shots of cafe patron and one gin with soda, and a pineapple vodka thing. So alcohol wise, not too bad for the duration of 11 hours, but I fully committed carbicide on the dessert front, and didn’t regret a second of it..until the next day. My stomach was in pieces and I had a migraine the entire day, staying in bed with a blindfold on for about six hours. It’s true, sugar is the devil, but it tastes so damn good. They say you taste everything more intensely and sweeter when you have sugar after a long time; I didn’t notice, I did notice however that life was amazing for the five minutes of dessert consumption. It was glorious.

The next day I got back on the plan and have worked out every day since. I’m at an event all week, hence my delay in posting my weeks progress, but so far I’ve been bringing my tupperwear and protein shakes with me to the event, and avoiding all the free buffet food. Tomorrow I have an awards dinner so I’ll skip my morning and afternoon snacks in order to make room for a calorific evening. I then have friends over for the weekend, so I’ll have to balance out my weekend by being an absolute saint for the three weeks that follow to the end of the challenge.

I’ve lost over a dress size, all my clothes are baggy and I got a lot of compliments over the weekend saying I looked great, which is always nice to hear. Even if it did make me realise what a heffer I was turning into before!

Three and a half weeks to go people and I’m determined to look an absolute babe by 1st April. Even if I do dream of dessert every. single. day.