What a palava life has been lately. Laurence and I recently had to move apartments due to water damage - a.k.a the hot water tank in the airing cupboard leaking all over our apartment. Fun times. As they say, though, every cloud has a silver lining; think of all the calories I burned from lugging all of our crap up and down 4 flights of stairs!
Anyway, on that note (and seeing as today is World Health Day) I thought I'd do a quick post about developing healthy habits and my goals for this summer. I've gained quite a bit of weight since going to college and moving out, and after trying - and failing - multiple times to adjust my diet and exercise habits, I decided to quiz my mum about it seeing as she's successfully lost weight recently, and kept it off, whilst still enjoying herself.
I've mentioned in a previous blog that I tried Slimming World, which worked for a week and then culminated in a massive binge. So it's bye bye Slimming World and hello a proper healthy lifestyle. My mum lives by the 80/20 ethos: eat real, healthy foods 80% of the time, and the other 20% of the time you can loosen the reigns a bit more and have something you enjoy. This sounds great for me due to the fact I'm in college and nights out/takeaways inevitably will happen - life stops for no diet!
It's week 1 of a new me, and it's a learning curve. There have been times this week where I haven't eaten as healthy as I'd have liked to. The big move inevitably put a spanner in the works - it's hard to eat healthy when you can't find any of your food! That being said, we made our own meals from whatever we could find, and didn't bow to getting a takeaway. I also had a night out but this time, I didn't go mental with drinks and unhealthy food, and that's a good enough starting point for me.
Previously I tried to do too much too soon and ended up just binge eating because what I was doing wasn't sustainable. Now I'm fuelling my body with good wholesome foods, and listening to what my body needs. If I'm hungry, I eat. If I'm full, I stop eating. If I just really really want a bit of chocolate or a dirty pizza, I'll have it, but not as much as I used to, and not as often.
I thought I'd share a few tips that I've learned - and I'm still continuing to learn, seeing as it's a whole new world for me (I sound like I'm in Aladdin). If you have any tips please do tell me them!
Snack, don't starve
Shock, horror: snacks are OK to have. Unless you're having a sharing bag of crisps, or ice cream, or pizza as a snack, snacking can be good. I prefer having 3 slightly smaller main meals and 3 snacks rather than 3 massive meals and no snacks. Some of my favourite snacks include Googly Fruits (organic freeze dried strawberries, like you'd get in the Red Berries Special K - amazing - you can get them from Molloys Pharmacies), oatcakes - my mum is a huge advocate for oatcakes - some fruit with peanut butter (Pip & Nut squeezy packs are my fave), or veggies with hummus.
Just a few healthy meals I've made lately: Goat's cheese and red pepper hummus tartlet, Quorn chicken and Halloumi salad.
Don't let a 'bad' meal/day ruin your life
This took me so long to get a grasp on. Before, if I had one 'bad' food/meal, the whole day would then turn into a junk-fest, and I'd promise to 'start again tomorrow'. This doesn't work. I do advocate having a 'cheat' meal of some sorts if you're exercising too, but hoovering up every food in sight just because you had one slip up is not a healthy habit and it just leads to a vicious cycle. Now, if I have something unhealthy, I draw a line under it, realise I'm human and it happens, and carry on as normal. I don't binge, I don't feel bad about it, because why should I? My body is a temple *clicks fingers sassily*
By the way, I've put the word bad in quotation marks because I don't think calling foods good or bad is a healthy mindset, and you shouldn't feel guilty about eating something that's 'bad' or 'off-limits'. You do you.
Plan, plan, plan
I'm a planner - I've practically started planning my own funeral already - so this kind of came naturally to me. There's nothing I love more than lying in bed planning my meals/meal prep for the next day, and yes, I'm boring like that. Saying that, I need to get better at converting my plans to actions, because I rarely actually use the plans I've written. I find a lot of the times I'll eat unhealthy foods is when I haven't planned, so I aim to change that.
Get your walking shoes on
I know, I hate exercise too, but I've realised I only really hate the thought of it. I got up at 8 a.m. this morning and did a 5.3km walk with my mum, and I actually really enjoyed it. The hardest bit for me is getting up and committing to doing it, but as soon as I'm walking I get into the swing of it. I even ran for a bit! I ended up burning about 500 calories and felt great for doing it. Our walk took us an hour and 20 minutes because we had the dogs with us, but even 30 or 45 minutes a day would suffice.
Little changes give big results
You don't need to be running a marathon every day, or eating nothing but kale and avocado, or buying expensive supplements and gym memberships. All you need is a pair of walking shoes, access to Aldi or Lidl for cheap fruit and veg, and some willpower. Try some health challenges each day/week and see how small changes really do make a big difference! Here are a few examples of challenges to try:
So there we go! I'll be posting updates every so often, and hopefully this is the start of losing some pounds and feeling healthier. Hope you enjoyed this post.
Anyway, on that note (and seeing as today is World Health Day) I thought I'd do a quick post about developing healthy habits and my goals for this summer. I've gained quite a bit of weight since going to college and moving out, and after trying - and failing - multiple times to adjust my diet and exercise habits, I decided to quiz my mum about it seeing as she's successfully lost weight recently, and kept it off, whilst still enjoying herself.
I've mentioned in a previous blog that I tried Slimming World, which worked for a week and then culminated in a massive binge. So it's bye bye Slimming World and hello a proper healthy lifestyle. My mum lives by the 80/20 ethos: eat real, healthy foods 80% of the time, and the other 20% of the time you can loosen the reigns a bit more and have something you enjoy. This sounds great for me due to the fact I'm in college and nights out/takeaways inevitably will happen - life stops for no diet!
It's week 1 of a new me, and it's a learning curve. There have been times this week where I haven't eaten as healthy as I'd have liked to. The big move inevitably put a spanner in the works - it's hard to eat healthy when you can't find any of your food! That being said, we made our own meals from whatever we could find, and didn't bow to getting a takeaway. I also had a night out but this time, I didn't go mental with drinks and unhealthy food, and that's a good enough starting point for me.
Previously I tried to do too much too soon and ended up just binge eating because what I was doing wasn't sustainable. Now I'm fuelling my body with good wholesome foods, and listening to what my body needs. If I'm hungry, I eat. If I'm full, I stop eating. If I just really really want a bit of chocolate or a dirty pizza, I'll have it, but not as much as I used to, and not as often.
I thought I'd share a few tips that I've learned - and I'm still continuing to learn, seeing as it's a whole new world for me (I sound like I'm in Aladdin). If you have any tips please do tell me them!
Snack, don't starve
Shock, horror: snacks are OK to have. Unless you're having a sharing bag of crisps, or ice cream, or pizza as a snack, snacking can be good. I prefer having 3 slightly smaller main meals and 3 snacks rather than 3 massive meals and no snacks. Some of my favourite snacks include Googly Fruits (organic freeze dried strawberries, like you'd get in the Red Berries Special K - amazing - you can get them from Molloys Pharmacies), oatcakes - my mum is a huge advocate for oatcakes - some fruit with peanut butter (Pip & Nut squeezy packs are my fave), or veggies with hummus.
Don't let a 'bad' meal/day ruin your life
This took me so long to get a grasp on. Before, if I had one 'bad' food/meal, the whole day would then turn into a junk-fest, and I'd promise to 'start again tomorrow'. This doesn't work. I do advocate having a 'cheat' meal of some sorts if you're exercising too, but hoovering up every food in sight just because you had one slip up is not a healthy habit and it just leads to a vicious cycle. Now, if I have something unhealthy, I draw a line under it, realise I'm human and it happens, and carry on as normal. I don't binge, I don't feel bad about it, because why should I? My body is a temple *clicks fingers sassily*
By the way, I've put the word bad in quotation marks because I don't think calling foods good or bad is a healthy mindset, and you shouldn't feel guilty about eating something that's 'bad' or 'off-limits'. You do you.
Plan, plan, plan
I'm a planner - I've practically started planning my own funeral already - so this kind of came naturally to me. There's nothing I love more than lying in bed planning my meals/meal prep for the next day, and yes, I'm boring like that. Saying that, I need to get better at converting my plans to actions, because I rarely actually use the plans I've written. I find a lot of the times I'll eat unhealthy foods is when I haven't planned, so I aim to change that.
Get your walking shoes on
I know, I hate exercise too, but I've realised I only really hate the thought of it. I got up at 8 a.m. this morning and did a 5.3km walk with my mum, and I actually really enjoyed it. The hardest bit for me is getting up and committing to doing it, but as soon as I'm walking I get into the swing of it. I even ran for a bit! I ended up burning about 500 calories and felt great for doing it. Our walk took us an hour and 20 minutes because we had the dogs with us, but even 30 or 45 minutes a day would suffice.
Little changes give big results
You don't need to be running a marathon every day, or eating nothing but kale and avocado, or buying expensive supplements and gym memberships. All you need is a pair of walking shoes, access to Aldi or Lidl for cheap fruit and veg, and some willpower. Try some health challenges each day/week and see how small changes really do make a big difference! Here are a few examples of challenges to try:
- Aim to drink 2L of water
- Make a healthy meal you've never made before
- Make a food journal
- Take a 'before' photo
- Eat 3 portions of greens in a day
- Try a new exercise
- Make a workout playlist
- Write down your goals
- Cut down on sugary food and drink
Trying a few different challenges can switch things up and make things a bit more fun, rather than repetitive and boring.
Just before I end this post, I'm going to list a few of my health goals so that I can revisit this post and do an update.
1. Lose 18 pounds
2. Get fitter so I'm not making dying whale noises by the time I reach the top of the stairs
3. Aim for at least 30 minutes of exercise a day
4. Try and do a strength workout 3 times a week
5. Drink more water
6. Aim to eat fruit and veg at every meal
So there we go! I'll be posting updates every so often, and hopefully this is the start of losing some pounds and feeling healthier. Hope you enjoyed this post.
No comments:
Post a Comment