So I've officially been on my own fat loss programme for 3 weeks and man, it feels like 3 months!
Why is dieting so hard?!!
I'm not ever going to pretend that counting calories is easy and it's definitely not the 'simplest' way to diet, but, as I always say, it is the best way to understand your body and how to lose fat.
Eventually, when you understand your body and what you can eat to maintain/ lose or gain body weight, navigating food is fairly simple.
It's just not always fun, especially when you have to say no to something you really want!
Nothing kills me more than saying no to a hot chocolate... but I opted for a pot of tea this week instead!
I've been plagued with health issues these last two weeks, as well as the kids, which has really annoyed me and put the brakes on the exercise part of my plan.
I've now missed 3 training days at the gym over the last 8 days and am likely to miss a few more as I have a busy week ahead!
It's frustrating when these things happen but, the most important thing is to keep all the other plates spinning!
I've kept my steps high (despite having a stinking cold) and I've counted my calories meticulously all week.
An easy win as a Mum that benefits me and them, is taking the kids to the park after school. They burn off some much needed energy and I get my steps in!
On Saturday I had a mammoth hike planned with my Mamau Ffit ladies as we took on the Twmbarlum trek again.
This time, thanks to our fabulous guide and fellow client, Leanne, we went along the 'basin' of Twmbarlum and increased the distance from our last walk in August and went around 17km.
27,000 steps walked, 5 hours of movement, over 150 floors climbed and lots of calories burned!
It was a fantastic day, weather was perfect and I even tried not to overeat despite burning lots of extra calories. I packed high protein snacks to eat throughout and then enjoyed a lovely ham & cheese toastie at the cafe afterwards!
The view from the top wasn't the best however it did clear up as we continued on!
Unfortunately I woke up Sunday with a pain in my left hamstring after the walk which has hindered me yesterday and today and now I'm walking with a limp... Of course I had to go and injure myself didn't I...
Anyway, despite another hard week I managed to persevere as best I could and navigate around all the issues.
I kept my calories on point and my protein high and kept on moving all week, even with my limp which seems to be a bit better after a walk so hopefully it's just a bit of muscle ache/ tenderness from the big hill walk.
Here's my week 3 results...
I ask all my clients to fill in an online spreadsheet weekly so I can see what they've done over the last week, and see their progress!
After staying the same weight last week despite doing everything right, I was super annoyed. Isn't it demotivating when that happens?!
I was a bit naughty and did what I tell everyone not to do, I weighed the day after as well!
I was convinced that it was water retention as I'd ate out on the weekend and low and behold I was absolutely right. On Monday morning I weighed 62.1 kgs and on Tuesday morning I weighed 61.1 kgs!
I definitely hadn't lost 2.2 pounds over night, it just goes to show how much our body weight fluctuates even in 24 hours.
This doesn't mean by the way, that you should be weighing yourself daily... It just means that if you've truly done everything you need to do that week and the scales reflect something different - it DOESN'T mean you've done anything wrong!
This is my issue with slimming clubs that base everything solely around your weight on the scales at one moment in time during the week.
You can lose fat and gain water.
You can make progress without it showing up on the scales.
You can be on your period.
You can be holding onto waste products.
You can do everything right and lose inches and not pounds on the scales.
Trust in the process, and your coach.
I always say pictures speak a thousand words and sometimes we can see a difference even if we don't see much on the scales. This is me at the start of programme, Vs 3 weeks in!
So officially a 1.5kg drop this week, but based on my weight on Tues, a 0.5kg drop since then.
I'm not going to lie, I was really hoping that due to my increase in steps (I did 32k steps alone on Saturday) that I'd lose more than 'just 0.5kg' (equivalent of about a pound).
Then I remind myself that to lose 'just one pound of fat' we have to create a deficit of 3,500 calories!
That's 500 calories a day for a whole week that you have to cut from your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) by either moving more or eating less or a combination of both.
I won't show you how many calories I'm eating daily as it's irrelevant to anyone else apart from me, so I'll take a generic amount for apparently an average woman.
Let's say the average woman burns 2,000 calories a day.
This is relative to everything - her height, weight, muscle mass, activity level and so on...
If she wanted to lose fat, she needs to create a deficit, so she needs to eat less than 2,000 calories or increase her energy output (with activity, movement, exercise etc) to burn more calories than she's eating.
Most people should do a bit of both to see the best results.
If she went for an extra 30 minute walk a day, she will burn around 2,200 calories a day now, an extra 200 calories burned.
If she counted her calories and stuck to a calorie allowance of 1700 calories, she's creating a deficit of 500 calories, which now over the course of a week, should see her drop around 1 pound of fat.
People try to 'cheat' the system a lot, by lowering their calories to a stupid number or over-training but remember it's a fine line as we need energy to get us through the day.
The more exercise you do, the more hungry you're going to get as you're burning more in the process, so having someone oversee your training and activity alongside your calories is great support to keep you consistent and not burning out!
Even with an aching hamstring, I made sure I at least made it to the gym to do an upper body workout!
So yeh, even as a fat loss coach, I was disappointed with 'only' losing a small amount of weight again this week.
Then I look at my 3 weeks combined and realise I've lost half a stone already!!!
And I can see it in my pics, I am absolutely going in the right direction!
Honestly, we are so guilty of wanting immediate results and I genuinely believe this is because we have always been misled by marketers over the generations telling us 'how to lose a stone in a week' and other such nonsense!
Let's forget all that and focus on the basics.
On the progress we are continually making and all the non-scale victories too.
As always, consistency for the win!
I've loved hearing your comments about how you've been following my journey so far and how you've enjoyed my honesty around my own weight loss.
It's really the only way I work!
I'm not here to give you false promises, overestimating what you're going to achieve or telling you that you'll lose 'X amount of pounds in X amount of time'.
I'm here to guide, support and educate and hopefully break you free of bad habits and moral attachments to food.
I've already had lots of interest in joining my next programme and it's booking up fast.
I only take on 8 ladies per round, so if you want to start with me in a few weeks time, you'll need to book up fast!
It's just a £95 investment to begin the programme.
If you want to continue after this time, as many do, it's just £60 per 6 weeks.
I look forward to helping even more ladies gain back the control and feeling more positive about their bodies than ever before!
