New Approach

This year, so far, hasn't been the year for me, my weight loss has halted, as my previous posts have suggested. I have been under a lot of stress with my job, and my body cannot cope with stress. I'm learning more about my body day after day. It's no wonder I was over weight for a lot of my life, being in a stressful job and not listening to what my body was trying to tell me. 

After a couple of months of trying different things with my macro-nutrients, my PT has decided to put me on a Ketogenic Diet. Wikipedia describes this as; a high fat, adequate protein and low carbohydrate diet. The diet forces the body to burn fats rather than carbohydrates. 

Now before you run out and decide you are not going to eat carbs again, please DON'T!!! I can't stress that enough. You have to make sure that your calorie intake is still sufficient to be able to cope with your daily activities. I am taking my advise from Tom, who will be keeping an eye on me and I won't be on low carb all the time, having a higher carb day once a week to sustain my metabolic rate.

I started this on Thursday last week. It is Sunday now. We are gradually bringing my carbs down, rather than all of a sudden bringing them down, this is to prevent my body from going into melt down. However, I have been away this week to see a friend and go to see Derren Brown (FYI he will blow your mind live!!,). I found staying low carb extremely difficult and did mess up on one day. But I'm back on it today and feeling very strong, I really want to kick my body into start losing weight again.

I'm having flash backs to previous posts, saying this before.... You have to keep going, I haven't had a good time this year, but that doesn't mean I will give up and just stay where I am, or go back to where I was! I'm pushing forward, trying new things and striving to achieve what I want.

On this diet you may be thinking that I'm gong to run out of energy, without carbs. Actually I don't think that this will be the case, the fats in my diet have been brought up, therefore I will have an energy source being put into my body. 

FATS, sounds like a dirty word for most dieters, I learnt a long time ago what a lack of fats will do to you. For me, I felt like my brain stopped working!! I'm not exaggerating, I literally felt like it wasn't functioning. Your body needs fats, 'good' fats are essential for your body and brain to function. Low fat foods are all well and good, but not if you don't have a sustainable 'good' fats source!!!!!

I've said it before and I'll say it again,  the best fat source in my eyes is..........  COCONUT OIL 

Cook with it, eat it off the spoon, or my personal favourite, put it in your first black coffee of the day (please do not put it in coffee with milk - yuck! Good thing is, it also works wonders as moisturiser, hair conditioner, etc, Google coconut oil uses. You can buy it from most supermarkets, around £7.99 a pot, mine lasts month or so.

I will keep you posted on what the results of this diet is and how I feel, everyone fingers crossed, I really want this to work 

H x

I haven't got a fitness picture for you today, so here is my gorgeous dog Betsy 

Bodypower Expo

A week or so ago I went to Bodypower Expo at the Birmingham NEC, not many people in the Non fitness world know about this expo, but basically it is a massive room full of fitness/health experts, fitness enthusiast, bodybuilders, fitness models, etc. This is the second year I have attended the event and it didn't fail to get me motivated.

I find with most things you need to find the thing that motivates you, I'm lucky in that I have several in my endeavour to push my body to its optimal performance. My personal trainer Tom, never fails to motivate me when I need it. I follow people on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, that when I'm feeling particularly low pick me up or make me think. Bodypower instils within me a sense of wanting to achieve, it makes me want to train and inspires me.

You need to feed your brain with new information, keeping your brain healthy, not just your body. You never know, what you read, learn next from someone, might be the one thing, the key for you, that spurs you on, that makes you turn to healthy food. Makes you look at going to the gym, or simply feeds your curiosity. 

I've learnt a lot in the almost two years I've been training at the gym, but that doesn't mean I won't stop learning. Yes I could help you lose weight and get into training/healthy options to eat. But I'm not going to stop learning and reading up on new things, everyone is different and need different things.

The older I get the more I realise that no one is the expert, you can always do better, you can always learn new things. An expert is only the expert and remains the expert, if they continue to learn and develop, otherwise someone else will become the expert. I'm in no way saying I'm an expert, I'm not at all, but just wanted to explain the need to continue to learn new things. 

Anyway back to Bodypower, I came away from Bodypower with lots of freebies, mainly whey protein pre-workout samples. 

Pre-workout: is a powder which you make into a drink, to take obviously before you train at the gym. It aids in giving you extra energy to push yourself, to achieve better results in the gym. It is not for everyone, the results are different for different people and I would only suggest using it, if you train at the gym more than 5 times a week and are lacking in energy. If you lacking in energy I would suggest making sure your intake of food is enough, for what you are doing before resorting for pre-workout.

I've never tried it before, didn't think I needed it, I tried it last Sat and was amazed by my results. I was sceptical, I'm one of these people that coffee doesn't really effect me, I drink a fair amount and don't feel the buzz that others get. If you do get that buzz from coffee, just use that as your pre-workout if you need one.

I could almost feel the caffeine surging through my body and giving it a push, I felt a real sudden urge to train, to lift and lift heavy!! I couldn't keep still, talking lots and hands were shaking a tad. I had a good session, hit some personal bests, but before I'd finished my session, I did start to feel the affects wear off, which was a very odd feeling indeed.

I don't want to rely on pre-workout, I feel like although I did achieve amazing results after having it, I would rather achieve those results without the pre-workout. The problem is that I don't know how much of it was the me or the pre-workout. How am I to know if I would have got those results without the pre-workout??? I don't........

However, I think I will be purchasing some, so that when I'm low on energy or drive, I can take some. I've learnt that results are mine, regardless of whether pre-workout helped or not. Whey protein helps me in the same way, it helps my body to rebuild my muscle after I have torn them at the gym (that sounds awful, but that is the process of what you do at the gym, tear the muscle and then repair it, making the muscle leaner for women (bigger for men)).

One thing I am learning, is I tend to write these blogs posts when I'm on the train, clearly my best thinking is when I'm on the train, how odd ha ha! Sorry I haven't written one in a while, lack of subject I think, but I have ideas for my next three or four, so keep an eye out for them coming out in the next week or two.

Thanks for reading, please comment, like and share with family and friends.

H x

Taking Time for ME

I was told this week that I needed to lose weight from my GP, needless to say my opinion on GPs at the moment is on the floor. I went to the doctor for fear that my PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) was getting worse and my symptoms (including struggling to lose weight), were pointing towards this. 

He proceeded to tell me that he was not going to help me with my weight loss and that a magic pill did not exist. I actually don't know what I did to offend this doctor to get this response. But I proceeded to tell him that I have managed to loss over 5 stone in the last 2 years and needed help understanding why this had halted. Despite my increasing/adjusting training and adjusting my macros.

After discussing my training programme and how I control my eating, he told me that there wasn't any way that my training would invoke weight loss - that's is bizarre and when I asked him HOW was I able to loss 5 stone in the last two years doing this. His response was that it isn't working now and I needed to address it, as it would help my condition if I lost weight (suggesting I try prolonged cardio to achieve the appropriate fat burning stage). That my BMI was in obese and I needed to address this...

I think it is safe to say I was horrified at being spoken to in the way I was and how grossly incompetent my doctor was. I understand that everyone has their opinions on what works to lose weight, but when I'm sat there 5 stone lighter than I was 2 years ago, surely something worked!!

I left the doctors feeling downtrodden, as if despite how hard you try, you will be knocked down by others. I'm trying to be healthy, make myself fitter and in turn, saving the NHS money, however my treatment has now left me thinking, maybe I need to just go privately from now on?!

Luckily after my doctors appointment, I went to see my kinesiologist who was wonderful! Now, I'm still not sure how it works or why, but when I was depressed for the second time in my like, Kim was able to help me and made me feel better. I saw her on Friday to help me feel balanced. I have been feeling unbalanced since the beginning of the year. I came away feeling positive, like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders, as if actually I could do what I want, but have to give myself time to be me and not the Holly who constantly strives for things. I need to give myself a rest.

Now this is something my PT Tom has been telling me for ages, but for some reason didn't sink in. Apparently I need time to 'play' like I was a kid, stop constantly being serious and live my life. Not everything is about your goals 100% of the time.

In OTHER news I have passed my Personal Training assessment - yay!! Very chuffed with myself and looking forward to taking on clients. Just have a couple more things to do and then I can take on some clients at the gym, however I am writing programmes for people and really looking forward to seeing their results!

Thanks for reading, get in touch if you are looking for a programme, interesting in personal training or have a question.

Favourite Healthy Foods

Hello Everyone,

Sorry I didn't post anything last weekend, it was a busy time with Easter, working and beer festival fun. Difficult to stick to things at the weekend, due to the food and enjoying time with my family and friends. But we all need to find that balance between healthy and living life.

I think it is about time for me to talk things I like to do, to make healthy food palatable all the time, to make it doable on a longer term basis. I'm not going to pretend that I eat whatever I want as long as it fits in my macro's, that is not the case! I work on a 95% good basis.

How to pimp your vegetables, so I'm a huge fan of bags of veg (pre-prepped for you, lazy I know, but it's what I do). Pop them in a microwave to cook (as per the packet), when done pop 50g of light Dairylea, stir in with salt and pepper, pop back in microwave for 30 seconds. Lovely, creamy cheesy vegetables.

Being a vegetarian trying to get my protein intake is tricky. Not many people try to train like I do and eat a vegetarian diet. It requires a high level of protein and from a purest source possible. I do struggle with this, I do boost my protein with protein shake after training, but rarely at other times of the day (I try to only have one shake a day). My main diet consists mostly of Quorn Bacon, Quorn Sausages and Linda McCartney sausages (original and rosemary & red Onion).

Do NOT under-estimate the protein and fibre that can be found in vegetables. I have a steady stream of vegetables in my diet, from 1 to 2 bags of broccoli and cauliflower (300g a bag from Tesco). This is to push my fibre up and always to my surprise (despite how many times I look at the figures), my protein, you wouldn't have thought it, but it is true!

Sweet potato is the best carb you can have. It is slow release, meaning it slowly releases energy to your body. It can be used in so many ways, my favourite is just chop it up and roast as wedges for 15-20 mins in fry light. Put on salt & pepper or garlic salt and they are delicious.

I prefer to cook using full fat butter if I can, Yeo Valley is really good. However, sometimes the fat levels we set for me, are low and I can't afford to spend these on cooking aids. Therefore fry light is my saviour. Down side to vegetarian products, they are laden with carbs and fats (not always, but they can be).

Coconut oil, is one of the best things out there, it improves your skin, your hair, your energy levels, etc, etc. Google it there will be lists and lists of the benefits, but also the uses of Coconut Oil. I never fail to have this every morning in my coffee. Yes I know that sounds bizarre and at first it was, I am now used to it and wouldn't be without it. First thing in the morning to start my day off, I have one mug of coffee with a teaspoon of coconut oil. Along with as much water as I can stomach and I'm set up for the day :)

My Typical Food Day

Breakfast: Coffee with teaspoon of coconut oil. Yeo Valley Green yogurt, with blueberries.
Lunch: One bag of vegetables, with light Dairylea and Quorn bacon slices
Dinner: One bag of vegetables, with 4-6 Linda McCartney original sausages
Snacks: 1 protein shake post training session

The quantities are varied from day to day, depending on the macro nutrients I am set (which are worked out each week, with my Personal Trainer) and what I fancy. Some days I can't stomach two bags of veg, sometimes I add in a Tilda bag of brown rice. Actually Tilda Brown Pilau rice is a must try!!

With protein shake, I think that this should only be used if you are training hard at the gym and frequently. It is not supplement for meals, as I really do not agree with those sorts of diets, despite doing them in the past myself, that is why actually I don't agree with them.

Trying to be good when eating with family and friends, is when I struggle the most. I always feel like I'm missing out, the truth is I don't have to miss out, I don't have to stay at home and let them have dinner without me. Just stick to my measuring out, work out how much vegetables I can have, how much protein and carbs - fitting it all in to my macros so that I don't miss out. Sounds like a lot of work, but I would rather that and be included, than miss out and become a recluse. I would rather measure out all my food all the time, not miss out on family and friend occasions and still get results.

The last 4 months have been tricky for me and haven't been getting the results I want, however I can only do what my body can do and sometimes you have set backs. I'm hoping to be back on track very sooner and can share my results.

Thank you for reading

Holly x

I'm Back Baby!

It is a great feeling when you start to be your old self again.  Over the last month or so I have been struggling, with a number of things;

- illness 

- lots of work 

- coursework

- training at the gym

Doesn't actually look like much when I write it down like that 😄 but trust me, it was tough. We had to bring my calories up, so my body could cope with everything going on, which in turn lead to me gaining weight.

I had to do this, to bring my metabolism up, to give me enough energy to get better and feel better. The worst thing I could have done is keep going and burn out, which would have happened, it was inevitable!!

I'M BACK BABY

But I'm back now, feeling super focused and determined. I've started to lose weight again and my energy is back. Yeah I still get tired, but I'm doing a lot.

This made me think (while on the train to Bristol for work), that a transformation journey is not a straight line on a graph. It isn't all easy going and the weight drops off, definition appears and life gets good.

It's more like a child's squiggle drawing, ups downs, round circles, all sorts!! Yes it's like liquorice all sorts ha ha!

The analyst in me is going to put my journey in some graphs for you, on my next blog.

As you will see, not a straight journey at all, the biggest thing you have to get over is what goes on in your head. When you have a low patch, a gaining weight stage, a holiday, etc, you have to allow this to happen, we are all human! 

Trust in yourself and those around you helping you. Don't listen to all the diet hypes and fashions that come around. They do not work long term! If you want a quick fix and gain it all back, plus more go for it, otherwise trust in me, I've been there and done it. 

I used to think these sorts of sayings were corney, but you do only have one life and you have to live it. You should live it feeling great about yourself! It's not about what's on the scales, it's about how you feel inside and being happy with yourself.

You aren't too old, you aren't too unfit, you can do something about how you feel and look now, not tomorrow, not after the weekend, not just till your next holiday. 

Summer is coming, do something now and trust me, you'll thank me when it gets warmer and you don't have to wear a jumper (like I used to)!

Thank you for reading, any questions or thoughts, please comment.

Holly 💪😊

Time to get FOCUSED

Hey Everyone,

To anyone that has seen me over the last few weeks, will have witnessed that I haven't been at my best. I have been rather run down and I have been extremely tired. This is mostly down to work, I will admit, I have had to work away from home for a few weeks. Staying in a hotel, working long hours, not being able to eat what I normally do, not training as much as normal and not sleeping well - all of this combined has not had a good effect on my body.

I have felt very deflated and warn down, I haven't been able to train as effectively as possible. So I have scaled back the amount of training sessions, which I was trying to do in the week. This has helped a lot and made me able to cope with everything else (sleep, eating, etc).

There is light at the end of the tunnel!!

I have helped launch the team I was working so hard to put in place. It has been live for 2 weeks, which means I don't need to be away from home, can scale back my hours to normal levels and focus on my actual day to day job (which I haven't actually been able to do, since I started it in January!).

Needs must, the above happens sometimes, yes maybe I over did it, maybe I should have said I can't work away from home, to focus on myself. BUT....it doesn't happen every day and I don't have to do that again for a while.

I haven't felt like me in the last few weeks, I have struggled with energy levels and being able to hit the gym. Which isn't like me. I push myself all the time and I started to feel like I wasn't me, by the fluffiness in my gut and feel like I'm further away from my goal.

I need to re-focus, get my drive and determination back!!

Thankfully for me.......yesterday that happened! On the train on the way back from Halifax, I was sitting there, trying to snooze and not succeeding. So I started to think 'what can I do, to get back to how I was?' and I started to make notes. Why I do, what I do? How have I done it before? How am I going to do it this time? I then started to watch some vlogs from my favourite fitness guru 'Nikki Blackketter', she really inspires me. I'm not sure exactly why or how, but whenever I watch her videos, it makes me want to train, eat well and achieve a similar physique to her.

Link to Nikki's youtube (vlog) page: https://www.youtube.com/user/nikkiblackketter

So I'm starting small, next week I will do the follow:

1. I will drink 4 litres of water a day (I will struggle with this!!)
2. I will eat at least one bag of broccoli, carrot and cauliflower mix a day, to get my veg in and my fibre.
3. I will get my carbs from veg, not wraps or bread
4. I will train 5 times this week, 4 training and 1 conditional
5. I will get at least 7 hours good quality sleep a night

I think I'll leave it there.... I'm only focusing on one week at a time, for now. I have my longer terms goals, but at the moment, I only want to think about the above.

I want to go back to regularly losing weight and my body fat percentage reducing, I want to get to the leanest I've ever been and really push my body to it's maximum. You must never forget where you have come from, but equally you should push yourself to the next thing, whether that be learning, fitness or health.

Wish me luck for this week.

Thanks for reading
Holly :) x

Set Back

Hello,

This post is about set backs, those things in life that come along and stop you being able to achieve what you want.

In the last week or two I have been under a lot of stress, through work, through training, through part time course, through diet, through pushing myself. This has resulted in a number of things not going to plan.

Work:

I have been very stressed this week with work, we are coming close to the live date for a project and this means that my workstream has a lot to deliver in the next 2 weeks. I am not an outwardly stressed person (most don't realise that I am stressed, sometimes not even me), I tend to filter this and it comes through in my skin (spots / eczema), not being able to sleep and generally just looking tired.

Water:

Because work has been busy, I haven't ben able to drink as much water. Yes this is an excuse for me and I hate excuses, but this is the case. I have been travelling a lot, which makes it difficult to drink, you don't want to be stuck in a traffic jam for 15 miles and no toilet, when you are drinking a lot. At work with meetings and training, this leaves little time for me to get up and go to the toilet, so I subconsciously stop drinking.

Getting to 7pm and realising you haven't drunk enough is horrible and I tend to gorge on water at this point and make myself feel awful.

Training:

I found a gym across the road from my hotel, ideal I hear you cry - no not exactly. It was an extremely busy gym and machines were rarely free, meaning waiting longer than I should between training sets. This also meant that any exercises, which I should have done straight after the other (super sets), were broken up, therefore meaning I wasn't training as I should have been.

I made the most of it and trained hard, but wasn't quite the effective programme I have set.

Also, the gym was very warm and when I was de-hydrated anyway, this didn't bode well. To the point, where I was feeling very dizzy and sick.

Sleeping:

I'm struggling to sleep big time, with all of the above in my head, it isn't surprising to be honest. But on some days I've been getting between 3-4 hours - this is not enough for everything I'm doing at the moment.

Overview:

I have (above), 4 stresses on my body, on top of that I have course work, dieting and generally trying to stay awake.

6 (at least) stresses, my body is trying to work through and deal with. My brain doesn't help matters sometimes and this can make me feel worse. Suffice to say the 2kg I have put on this week (that is right, put on), was a massive shock to me. I have trained, I have ate well and my body has changed, for the better. I am leaner than I was last week, so this is a mystery.

Explained by my PT, that I am in a deficit with my eating at the moment (as part of my diet to get leaner), but this has taken into account the eating, the training and the extra cycle sprints I have been doing. This has not taken into account the work stress, the no sleeping or the course work - therefore, my body is in a bigger deficit that we would have liked. Therefore my body holds on to everything it is given.

This is no ones fault, but it is a combination of not sleeping and stress that can majorly effect your body and your mind. When I'm stress (like many others), I put on weight, my cortisol levels are higher than they should and this results in no weight lose or even a gain.

I am only human and we all go through difficult times, for very different reasons.

I have to remember to relax, chill out and have some me time. I have to remember to drink my water, it is so important (I'm going to push this week, from 3 litres average a day to 4 litres). I'm going to commit to training 4 days, instead of 5-6, with an additional 1 day for stretching, flexibility and using the foam roller - to help me relax.

I wanted to show in this post, that I am human, I am on a journey and sometimes you hit a stumbling block. I won't pretend that right now I'm feeling very positive, I'm not at my happiest. I'm trying my hardest to put it behind me and look forward. It is and will be tough, but the next two weeks will show me what I'm capable of........

Thanks for reading

Holly