Call me Yo-Yo

Hi all,

I cannot believe it has taken me so long to update, during November, if I was writing, I was doing to for NaNoWriMo so my blogging kind of got lost. Sorry!

I'd love to come on here and say that in the four weeks since I last posted, I've managed to reach my weight goal, which was only 7lbs away. This isn't the case, because I've hit a rough patch of yo-yo dieting that's driving me crazy.

My health has been rough again, I came down with another virus, so that is definitely affecting my ability to workout, but my eating has been crazy bad recently too.

Ever since getting into the 8st's, I've been yo-yoing between 8st12 and 8st13, with my last weigh in putting me at the higher number again. I need to step it up and get myself motivated again, because I am so close to reaching my goal, but I just keep on wasting time bouncing between a pound gain and a pound loss.

I've been trying to do as much exercise as I can, but being unwell has really made this harder, so I'm barely doing anything. The worst thing, though, is that I've gone off the rails with my eating.

I'm talking, going over my calories most days. Eating chocolate cake, ice cream, pies, chips, and basically nothing that could be considered a wholefood, which is what I'm trying to stick too!

There's one month left of the year, and I need to lose 2lbs a week in order to reach my goal by the end of 2015. I'm not all that confident (hence my more realistic goal of getting there by mid Feb when I go on holiday with my family), however, I am going to try really hard to get back into exercising and eating right.

I haven't come this far, to give up now that I'm so close. I just need to remind myself that more often.

I'm going to try and be much better at keeping this site updated. I've been bad recently, and I want that to stop. So I'm throwing that into my goals for December list.

Please comment below if you want to share your weight loss/fitness journey, and share this post if you like it.

Quick Little Update

Hi all,

It has been a while since I wrote anything on here, and I am so sorry for that. I honestly don't have much of an excuse, I just haven't been blogging even though I have a bunch of posts to do, not just here but on all of my sites.

Anyway, I wanted to post a quick update, because things have moved along since my last post. I was sort of in a bad place when I last wrote. I was feeling unwell with my health condition, and it wound up with me having a virus for almost two weeks, which made my POTS symptoms so much worse.

I'm all over that now, though, and I'm back to having a good mix of good and bad days with my health. I am still collapsing a lot, but some days, like today, I make it through the whole day without a collapse. Yay.

I've been stepping up the exercise more. Specifically, I've been doing a lot of blogilates on YouTube. I love these videos because they provide great toning, they're really challenging, and I can pick the areas to target. They're also great, because most of the exercises are done on a mat, and it's always best for my health when I can workout in a sitting or lying position.

I've also been doing cardio with my treadmill whenever I'm up to it, and using the bike machine too.

I'm getting a lot stronger, which I love. Exercises I couldn't even do one of a few months ago (lower leg lifts, cheerleader L's, push ups, etc...) I can now manage to get through the whole section of them in the videos. 

Last week, I lost 4lbs, which was incredible. I was aiming for 3, because that was what I needed to lose to get into the 8st's, and getting 4 was just so unexpected and exciting. So I'm currently sitting at 8st12lbs, just 7lbs left to go to hit goal, and my aim is to reach that by the end of November.

As far as November is concerned. I'm going to be keeping up with the pilates, by following the Blogilates workout calendar for the month (arm days are tough!), and I'm also going to keep up with the cardio, and to the Journey to Splits Challenge by Blogilates, which gives you stretches to do each day, to work your way towards being able to do the splits at the end of the challenge. I'm pretty excited to increase my flexibility.

So, that's where I'm at right now. In a pretty good place, even if my diet could be better. I'm sticking to calories, but not always with the best kinds of foods. My health, is as always up and down and unpredictable, but it's good to be back to just dealing with POTS, and not having a virus on top of it.

Hopefully I'll have another positive update for you after my weigh in on Saturday. Until then, I hope whatever fitness goals you have, are going well. I'd love to hear about your weight loss/fitness journeys, so please leave a comment, and don't forget to subscribe to my site for updates on my journey, and if you like what you're reading, please share. 

Bad Health Days

Hi guys,

I'm kind of having a bad day today with my health. I've had a pretty good run recently, a few days in a row where I had no collapses, or only collapsed late in the evening after a full day of doing stuff. After a run like this, it's easy to trick yourself into thinking you're healthier than you really are. Then it all sort of hits you again.

Last night, I had a bad fall while cooking dinner. I hit the ground hard and hurt my shoulder. Then this morning, it's not a good day.

I haven't had a collapse yet today, but I wouldn't be surprised if I did. What I'm dealing with this morning, is some of my other symptoms I get with my Postural Orthistatic Tachycardia Syndrome. 

I woke up feeling tired, and as the day has progressed, I'm getting more and more exhausted. It's not just a normal tired, it's kind of hard to explain. It just feels like every muscle in your body is tired, you can hardly keep your head up and your eyes open. You feel completely wiped out, and if you try and do anything, even small things like walking to the front door to get the post, you feel exhausted.

On top of this, I've been getting chest pain all morning, the kind that doesn't go away with my inhaler. I've had a bad headache that's increasingly getting worse, and my shoulder still hurts from the fall yesterday.

I think with my condition, it's easy on good days, to want to push yourself to do more because you know that you may not be able to do anything the next day. This comes at a price though, because maybe doing more yesterday, has resulted in me feeling so much worse today.

All I can say, is that today I am truly feeling the limitations of my illness. There's so much that I'd like to get done, but I can't get up and do anything, and even sitting down and writing is hard. I've been trying to write the novel I'm working on, but I can't concentrate because I'm just so tired.

I'm hoping that I'll feel more energetic tomorrow. For now, I think I need to go back to bed.

Recipe | Pumpkin Spiced Latte (Skinny Fit Style)

Hi all,

Autumn is here, and with it comes the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte, which I am a little bit obsessed with. At Starbucks, a Tall Skinny Pumpkin Spice Latte with no whipped cream is 200 calories. This isn't too, and I'll admit that when I'm near a Starbucks, I'll most likely go inside and grab myself one. However, my closest Starbucks is around twenty five minutes away by car and I don't drive. I, also, don't always have the money to splash out on a latte when I want one.

So I thought I'd try my hand at making my own latte. This recipe is one which I figured out simply by putting the ingredients I thought would work together, and mixing them in the best way I could think of, and I was pleased with the results. It doesn't taste exactly like the Starbucks drink, but it's really tasty, and less calories too!

If you track your food on MyFitnessPal, you can find this under Pumpkin Spice Latte (Skinny Fit).

It's quick and easy to make, and the perfect drink for autumn. So here's how to make one in your own kitchen.

Ingredients

Serves 1 | 139 Calories

150ml Skimmed Milk (You can use other milks, dairy free milks etc, but it may adjust the calories per serving)

2 tsp coffee granules

1 tbsp Pumpkin Puree (canned)

2 tsp Coconut Sugar (You can use other sugars if you prefer, however you may need to adjust calories)

1 tsp Cinnamon

1tsp Nutmeg

Method

Mix together the milk, pumpkin puree, coconut sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Blend together in either a blender or whisk it until all the ingredients are combined.

Put this mixture in the microwave to heat it for around 45 seconds.

While the milk mixture is heating, make up your coffee, you'll want to fill your mug about a third of the way with coffee. Mix it well to dissolve all the granules.

Once the milk mixture is heated, pour it into your coffee and stir.

If you want to add a little extra spice to your latte, then go ahead and sprinkle some nutmeg and cinnamon over the top.

Also, at this stage, if you want to add a little extra treat, and some extra calories! You can add whipped cream before dusting with the spices.

Enjoy!

Catching Up With Me

Hi all,

It's not been a great week, or at least, it hasn't been a great weigh in this morning. All of the pie, chocolate, and coming way off healthy eating, has caught up to me. I gained two pounds this week, and I was so unhappy.

It wasn't entirely unexpected. Towards the start of the week, I'd been overeating a lot, with all the wrong things. So even though towards the end, I was within calories, and tackling some pilates and cardio, I sort of knew it wasn't going to be enough.

Having said this, I was hoping to stay the same, and expecting to gain a pound. Gaining two has really disappointed me. I hate being bet back on my journey, especially when I'm so close to goal, and by now I should know better, than to eat pie and chocolate, and go over my calories.

The only positive out of gaining weight, is that it's refocused me, and given me the kick I need to realize, I cannot get away with bad eating for long.

I'm still unable to eat a lot of foods because of my tooth, so I'm sticking to ultraslim for now, but instead of then going over my calories with soft snacks and unhealthy dinners. I'm determined to keep things healthier this week, step up the exercise, and hopefully undo the damage I did this past week.

Shakes, Headaches, and Too Much Pie!

Hi all,

I'm still on my mostly liquid diet at the moment. I have a dentist appointment of the 24th, and I'm hoping soon after that, I'll be back onto solids.

As of right now, I can manage shakes, soups and soft foods. Which is where I've hit into a problem. One of the foods, soft enough for me to handle, is pie, and if you've read previous posts of mine, you'll know that pie is one of my biggest weaknesses. I can't say no.

I love pastry, and fruit pies are one of my favorite things to eat. However, following the diet plan I'm meant to be following, I'm not supposed to eat pie. So it's bad enough that I'm eating it, worse still that I'm eating so much of it. I have a slice of pie pretty much every day, some days more than one slice.

So far, last weigh in I lost another pound, leaving just ten to go. However, since then, I've spent the weekend going way over my calories, and yesterday eating an alarming three slices of pie! This is the major issue I need to deal with.

As far as other food goes. Mostly I've been having Tesco UltraSlim meal replacement shakes, which are tasty and actually do keep me feeling full. So that's a positive. I've been having these mostly for my breakfast and lunch, and then having a soup, mashed potato or some other soft food for my dinner.

Another negative, is that I've been getting a lot of really bad headaches recently. I don't know if this is because my diet is just a little weird at the moment, or because I'm coming down with something, but my usual everyday headaches, have been getting more painful, and while on my proper diet I had some days without headaches, now I'm not getting those days.

So a few ups and downs recently. I need to get my head more focussed, get rid of the pie, and lose those last ten pounds.

A Strange Diet

Hi all,

It's been a while since I last posted anything here, and this is in part due to the fact that despite my best intentions, I have not got back onto my diet properly.

In fact, for the past week or so, I've been on a very odd diet. One born out of necessity. The necessity being a really bad toothache. I haven't been able to eat solid food in a little over a week, and I'm still in the process of having multiple dentist appointments, and antibiotics to fix this problem.

As a result, my eating habits have been a little odd. I've mostly been sticking to soups, smoothies and very soft foods like scrambled eggs for the past week, and in terms of weight loss, it's been going good. This past week I lost two pounds, taking me to just eleven pounds left to go to reach my goal weight.

My course of antibiotics runs out tomorrow, so I'll need to head back to the dentist to get some x-rays done, and then finally get the treatment I need. So it's still going to be a while before I can eat solid food.

In light of this, I've decided to try out Tesco's Ultra Slim Shakes. I figured since I'm drinking most of my meals anyway, I may as well try out these shakes, and see if it'll help me shift the last eleven pounds.

The downside of this, is that although my weight loss has been ok, I haven't been able to exercise at all because the pills I'm taking for the infection, make me feel really unwell.

So, I'm hoping that by this time next week, I'll be back onto solid foods, and back on the treadmill.

Less than 100%

Hi all,

I wanted to write a little update about how it's been going following the principals of Deliciously Ella, which I started a little over a month ago now. You can see my post about starting it, and what it involves here.

For almost a month, I stuck to it entirely. There were a couple of slips, when I didn't realize a certain ingredient was in something, like the cranberries I bought, and my brother noticed had been sugar coated!

As with any diet, though, I think it's really tough to just jump right in, and not have any slips. Especially when you're going into something that requires such a huge change, and cutting so many different items.

My slip came this past week. I had a really busy weekend the first week of August, and for the first a while I stuck completely to plan, but then on one day I decided I just couldn't come home and cook something, so I allowed myself to have one cheat day. This involved KFC, which is probably one of the worst things I could have gone for, but it tasted good, so I told myself, just one day and I'll get back to it tomorrow.

Unfortunately, this one lapse, led to several more over the next week. I was eating chocolate mini rolls, pizza, burgers. I just couldn't say no. Now, I was only eating badly for one meal a day, and a couple snacks, my breakfast and lunch remained good. The problem I was having, is that while I am feeling more energized since being on this diet, my health still isn't good. I get really tired, and often ill by late afternoon/evening time, and some days I'm still bad all day. So it's a lot harder for me, to cook something in the evening.

What I need to get into, is being more organized, and having some meals prepped that can be cooked easily, or frozen and can be heated up.

My weight loss hasn't been affected too badly by my slips. I lost a pound this past week, and a pound the week before. So now I'm down to having just one stone left to go, which is exciting.

From today, I am determined to get back on track fully, and I plan on stocking up on some good choices tomorrow, so I'm not reaching for the cake and pizza.

So, that's where I am currently. I'm still learning, but I'm hoping it'll stick soon.

As for fitness, I did 15k on the exercise bike yesterday, which was the first proper exercise I've done in a while. I need to get back into eating fully healthy and running on the treadmill! I also want to get more into pilates.

I'll update again soon on how it's going.

Recipe | Harrisa Spiced Sweet Potato Salad

I love warm salads, and the other day I was rummaging around in the kitchen, trying to find something that would be warm, comforting, and yet still healthy. This harissa spiced sweet potato salad is what I came up with, and it was delicious, and only 236 calories.

It's really quick and easy to make, and really tasty too.

Cut the sweet potato into cubes, place on a baking tray with a little oil (I used coconut butter), and add half a tablespoon of harissa spices. Mix together and place in the over at Gas Mark 5, for 20 minutes or until soft.

While that cooks, chop up 1 cup of raw spinach and place in a dish. Add half a can of drained chickpeas, season with half a tablespoon of harissa spices, salt, and pepper.

Once the sweet potato is soft, remove from the oven and add to the salad.

Enjoy!

Let's Try Something Whole

Hi all,

Today I wanted to talk a little bit about getting healthy. For me, when I started this weight loss journey, it was primarily about that. Weight loss. I knew I wanted to be healthier as well, fitted, more toned etc, only I never truly believed that I could be healthy. Not fully.

When I was sixteen, I was diagnosed with an illness called POTS and it completely changed my life. You can read more about how it affected me, by clicking here. But in short, I lost my good health, and that's been really hard. 

So while I've been dieting, I've hoped that if I exercise more, I'll feel a little better, but I was slim when I was diagnosed, so I never truly believed I could be healthy. Over the past few days, my outlook on this has absolutely changed. I now hope that I can be healthy, and I mean, off my medications, able to go out on my own, and get a job kind of healthy.

This has all become possible, because of a blogger that my mum found while looking into different diets. She came across the blog and book Deliciously Ella, and started to read a little about her. She's a woman, who also had POTS, and started following a wholefoods, plant based diet, in order to feel better. It worked. Two years on, she was off her medications and living a normal life.

So that's what I'm going to be trying from here on out. Gone are the processed foods, the sugar, gluten and dairy that's been in my diet for so long. I'm going back to basics, and while I will be eating a little fish and chicken along with it, primarily my diet will be plant based.

I'll be sticking to wholefoods, organic as much as I can. Eating more fruit, veggies, and things like chia seeds, almond butters, and wonderful smoothies.

I'm going to be having food in it's purest form, in the hopes that it might do for me, what it's done for Ella, and somewhere in the next couple of years, I could be healthy.

Along the way, I'll be sharing my progress, and some recipes I try. Both ones I find from other blogs and books, and some I create out of whatever I have in the kitchen.

I have no doubts that it's going to be really hard. I'm a sugar junkie at heart, but I'm also determined. I've been struggling to find diet inspiration for a while now, and what better inspiration, than getting my health back.

Smoothies and an Update

Hi all,

So it's been a while since I wrote something on here, and it's not because I've given up on the diet. I just had no internet for a little over two weeks! It's back up and running now, so I thought I'd do a quick update.

I'm currently sitting at 9st10lbs, and I'm really excited to get my weight into the double digits, hopefully this week.

I'm trying something new for July. My sister decided to do a 30 day smoothie challenge, drinking one smoothie a day, along with regular healthy meals. She asked me if I wanted to join in, and so that's what I'm doing.

Yesterday I had a grape, apple and spinach smoothie which was delicious. Today I opted for a mango and kale one, which again was really good. 

I'm hoping this will be a good way to get more fruit and vegetables in my diet, and make me stop reaching for sweet treats like chocolate and cakes.

It's no secret that I have a very big sweet tooth, and I need to quit this habit and swap it for healthier snacks.

I need to exercise more, though, because this week I've barely done anything.

So, here's hoping that this last 19lbs will go soon.

I'll Have ALL the Calories. Thanks!

Hi guys,

I'm writing this after two really bad days of calories. I'm seriously mad at myself, because this past week, I was so focused. I did a lot of workouts. I was better with what I was eating, and even though I had a day or two where I overate a little, I made sure to make up with it by exercising. 

I had a goal in mind, to lose two pounds this week, and then Thursday and Friday happened. Things went... Badly.

Part of the reason it's been bad, is that I'm in charge of cooking in my house, so when I'm having bad health days and can't do it, my brother takes over. However, recently we've both been unwell, and the rest of my family hasn't been feeling great either. So nobody really felt up to cooking, especially since in my house, it's usually three different dinners because of people's food preferences.

So the natural conclusion, was let's get a takeaway. 

My daily goal for calories is 1,200

Thursday.

I was good all day. I woke up with my mind set on having fruit, veggies, and protein. Breakfast and lunch, I was doing great. Here's a little look at what I had.

Breakfast - Kiwi, Scrambled Eggs (small portion). (153 Calories)

Morning Snack - Omega Booster Seeds, Coffee with coconut sugar. (205 Calories)

Lunch - Homemade Tuna Burgers, Homemade Cauliflower and Feta Frittas (roasted not fried) 455 Calories)

Then dinner happened.

Dinner - KFC Wicked Zinger Box Meal (Corn cob and Diet Pepsi) (1,010 Calories)

Total Calories (1,823) 

Friday

I woke up with good intentions, but since when do they get me anywhere.

Breakfast - Alpro smooth chocolate soya pudding (115 Calories)

Morning Snack - Jelly Babies (5 sweets), Wheat Free Apple Pie. (320 Calories)

Lunch - Ramen (94 Calories)

Dinner - McDonalds Taste of America New York Classic Burger Meal Large. Mocha Frappe with whipped cream. (1,240 Calories) 

Total Calories (1,769) 

So it's safe to say that I'm not happy with myself for continuing to go over my calories. Especially since this morning at weigh in. I gained three pounds! I'm so mad at myself.

I wanted, in relation to this, to talk a little about choices. I made some really bad choices the past couple of days, and I've paid for it on the scales. So now I'm regretting everything I did. Here's the thing. We were eating out, but that didn't mean I had to eat badly. Both KFC and McDonalds offer more than one salad option, and I even considered getting them, but suddenly as I was giving my order to my dad, I was asking for things really far away from a salad and diet drink. It was like I gave up on my diet and just said, I'll have all the calories, thanks!

If I'd opted to have a salad and diet drink, I could have had a meal that was under 300 calories and still tasty. If I'd felt like being a little bad, I could even have gone for a sugary drink with the salad, and still I would have saved myself so many calories.

The McDonalds burger I had, alone was almost 700 calories, and then adding on a drink with whipped cream, and fries. Insane.

I'm not saying not to treat yourself, because sometimes you just want a treat, but I need to learn to be wiser. If I've had something higher in calories during the day, don't eat a high calorie dinner. If you have extra calories for dinner, then have something like McDonalds if you want, but don't use all or more than all of your daily allowance on one meal.

Next time someone suggests eating out, I'll have to remember the number on the scale this morning, and ask for a salad!

Turning Things Around

Hi all,

I'm going to be cautiously optimistic right now, and say that I think I'm finally starting to turn things around. Last week I had a three pound weight loss, and this morning I weighed in again, and I've lost another two.

I'm now have under twenty pounds left to lose, and I could not be more excited about it. Having a good number on the scale this week, has motivated me even more to keep going, and get to my end target.

I'm a fan of the small goals along the way, and at the moment I'm aiming to get into the eight stones, by the end of July. This means losing another eleven pounds between now and then, and I have nine weigh ins to do it in. With this in mind, I knew that just because I got a good number this week, I couldn't let myself slack off.

So this morning, I did a fifteen minute core workout (Davina Fit in 15 DVD), Then hopped on the treadmill for ten minutes, and finished up with five minutes on the bike. I'm resting up now, and if I'm feeling up to it, I'm hoping to go out with my parents this afternoon, and enjoy the sunshine which has finally decided to show up!

All in all, I'm feeling pretty positive this week. 

Positive Progress: Finally!

Hi all,

As you know from my previous posts, I've kind of been losing motivation, slipping with my weight loss, and generally not feeling great. So, as of my last post, I decided I needed to refocus. I had just gained two pounds, and I wasn't happy with that at all. So I promised I would cut the junk food, stop going over calories, and be better in general.

I didn't actually manage to kick all the bad habits. Turns out, apple pie is hard to say no to. However, I was more concious of what I was eating, and went over calories maybe once. I did step up the exercise, though not as much as I could have. 

My goal was simple, lose the two pounds I'd put on. So I was thrilled, when after a semi-good week of diet and exercise, I got on the scale and I'd lost three pounds. It was truly a great feeling, that not only had I undone the bad week, but also forged ahead with my weight loss.

So, this helped my motivation a tonne, and I'm back to eating healthier foods, staying within my calorie allowance, and exercising.

One thing which has really been helping, is that my mum and I joined together and bought a treadmill for our living room. It's so great having that and the exercise bike to use, along with our small supply of weights, resistance bands and a few other bits and pieces.

I don't get to use it as much as I would like, because of my health restrictions, but on my good days, I can normally get in a good thirty minutes, So that's helping with my cardio.

I'm hoping to see about two pounds loss next week, but with just twenty one pounds left to go, I'll be happy with any loss I can get.

Kicking the Habit...I Mean It This Time

Hi guys,
As you may remember from my last post, I've not been doing fantastically recently. However I have some good news, I managed to kick the habit of eating KFC and Belgium Buns all the time. Bad news, I've swapped it for McDonald's and Apple Pie.
Oi! I don't know what has happened to my motivation, but today marks the start of a new week, and I fully intend to kick the bad habits.
No more eating over my calories. Restrict the amount of junk I eat. Maybe even try to eliminate it.
I want to get back into working out, because I've been sick for the past two weeks, but I finally feel healthy enough to tackle a workout.
Today, the sun is shining. I'm feeling motivated, and I want to get back on track with my weight loss. Today is the day to do it. It's salads, water and workouts this week.

Losing Motivation

Hi guys,

It's not been going well recently. This past week I lost a pound, but for the two weeks prior to that, I stayed the same. It's not awful, I'm at least not gaining the weight back, but I've completely lost focus.

While some family were visiting, I broke my detox and ate cake. Not a huge deal. I planned on getting right back into the diet, and sticking to it strictly for a while longer. That didn't work.

For a few weeks now, I've not only been off of detox, but I've also lost complete focus with my diet. I've been going over calories a lot. I've been eating the wrong kinds of food, including KFC Burrito's, Belgium Buns, and Chocolate. I've been sick, so I haven't been able to exercise at all. 

Honestly, I'm shocked that I haven't gained weight recently.

From today, I'm hoping to refocus and get myself back on track. I have a goal in place, that by the end of June, I'd like to be in the 8 stones again, which means losing 1 stone between now and then. 

I need to work out a way to kick the habit of overeating again, and to do that I need to stop going after the high calorie treats.

How do you deal with lack of focus? 

Reward Cake?

Hi all,
Weigh in day today, and after a couple of 1lb losses, I finally got a number I was happier with. I managed to lose 3lbs! I was so excited when I saw the number on the scales.
Then this afternoon I was out with my family and we woumd up in a cafe. This cafe had cake, and everyone was getting some. So, I decided to break my diet for one day and have a slice.
I picked out a piece of Victoria Sponge, which was huge. I could actually only manage half of it, which made me realise how far I've come on my diet. Just a few months ago, I could habe easily finished that slice of cake.
I didn't feel too bad about breaking my detox diet today, because I still kept to my calorie allowance.
I do wonder though, if it's a good idea to reward a good weight loss with cake. Perhaps next time I'll find a better way of rewarding myself.

Weight Lost : 45lbs
Left to Lose : 23lbs

Cardio!

Hi all,
This week I wanted to step up the exercise, which for me can be hard because of my P.O.T.S. However on my good days I can manage a decent workout. It's all about finding what works best for me.
Cardio where I can sit down always works better for me, and this week I've been working on stepping up my time and distance on the exercise bike.
I'm actually wtiting this on my phone while pedalling away.
The exercise bike is great for me. I get a good cardio workout, I can adjust the speed and resistance to make the workout suit my current level. It's also great because being able to sit down, keeps my heart rate from climbing too high and making me collapse.
So, the exercise bike is definitely my favourite piece of cardio equipment.
What's your favourite cardio machine? Or if you don't use machines, what do you do for your cardio workout?

Please comment, share and subscribe if you like what you see.

Detox Diet | First Weigh In

Hi all,

Today was my first weigh in day, since I started detoxing. I began the detox last Monday, and only started properly following it on Tuesday, so I haven't done a full week yet, and as such I wasn't expecting a huge result on the scales.

I weighed in this morning, and I lost a pound. I was hoping to get two, but I'll take any loss I can get.

I'm excited now to see what happens after a full week of detox, and I'll admit that I am hoping to get more than a pound next week.

Things I need to work on going forwards, is getting more exercise, because I have been slacking off a little bit recently. I also need to get better at planning out meals ahead of time, which is why I've spent a very large amount of time on Yummly today, searching for recipes that I can have on detox.

I'll say this, detox is probably one of the hardest diets I've ever tried, simply because there are so many foods restricted, and that can make things tricky.

I do know, though, from previous experience, that I always do feel better once I've been on detox for a week or so.

This past week, I've been fighting the detox headaches. Mostly I'm suffering from giving up sugar, because I used to have a fairly large amount of sugar. Now it's the fifth full day on detox, and I no longer have a migraine headache, I do have a headache, but because of my health condition, I normally always do, and this one is nowhere near as bad.

Loss so Far: 41 lbs

Left to Go: 27 lbs

Detox

Hi all,
I decided it's time to try something new. At my last weigh in, I stayed the same and I wasn't happy about that. I knew I needed to refocus, and try something new.
Counting calories has been working really well for me, but now it's just not enough. I thought about doing low carbs again, because that went really well last time. However, then my mum said something, that what she'd really like to do is detox again. I thought, well why not?
I've followed a detox plan before and not only did I lose weight, but I also felt healthier.

So, what do it involve?
The detox plan we follow involves cutting out certain foods. Which is tough and can cause some headaches the first couple of days, but ultimately it's worth it.

What to cut out?

-Meat & Poultry
-Dairy
-Fish
-Eggs
-Sugar
-Gluten
-Caffeine

My personal variations

I'm keeping a small amount of fish and eggs in my diet, and I will be keeping caffeine. These are just some alterations that make the diet easier to follow, and make it less likely I'll go off plan.

So, today is my first day on detox. I'll let you know how it affects my weigh in on Saturday.

Danger Foods

Hi all,

Do you have those certain foods that you just can't say no to? I know I do, and it's not just an issue with not saying no, but not staying stop either.

Portion control was one of the first things I tackled, when I started counting calories and losing weight. I got into a habit of weighing things before eating them, and making sure I counted accurately. 

There are just a few problems. I have certain foods that I can't seem to stop myself eating, and in quantities that are not diet friendly.

There are really three main ones I have.

• Chocolate

A dieters nightmare! It tastes so amazing, and yet it really isn't a great use of my calories. Currently I'm on 1200 calories a day, and using 200-300 of those on one small bar, that isn't going to fill me up and doesn't offer much in the way of nutrition. That's not a great idea.

Still, I can't cut it out of my diet. Did I mention how amazing it tastes? So I do still eat it, more than once a week, and for the most part I make sure I count it in my calories and choose bars that have the lowest amount of calories in them.

The problem comes on those days when a bar of chocolate, will end up taking me over my calories. I have the mindset of thinking I can just eat it, go over my calories and work it off another day. If there's a bar of chocolate offered to me, I don't even think about calories, I just eat it. 

This is something I really need to work on.

• Roast Potatoes

It doesn't matter if they're homemade, or frozen ones. When I have a roast dinner, roast potatoes are always a part of it, and I love them. 

When I'm in charge of cooking, I've managed to become pretty good at limiting how many go onto my plate. Two is my limit and I'm strict about it.

The problem comes when it's someone else's night to cook. The other night, my sister cooked and when my plate came to me, there were FIVE potatoes on my plate. This was on a night when I hadn't counted for any on my tracker, because I've been going on and off low carb for a while. So I didn't have the calories for any of them, so I should have left them. If I couldn't leave them, I should have limited myself to one, two tops. I didn't. I ate all five, went over my calories and felt stuffed afterwards.

From now on, what I know I need to do is to stay in control of my portions. If it's not my night to cook, I need to either be in the kitchen when it's being dished up, or I need to make sure the person cooking knows how much I can have. If I don't, then whatever is on my plate, will end up being eaten.

• Pasta

I discovered while doing low carb, that cars are pretty much my favorite thing to eat as you may have guessed from the three foods I've listed as my danger foods.

Pasta is definitely one of my danger foods. It's very similar to the potatoes. I will eat whatever portion is dished up, because it's one of my favorite foods.

The solution is very much the same as with the potatoes. I need to make a plan of how much I can have within my daily allowance, and then make sure that's what ends up on my plate.

Do you have any danger foods that you can't control yourself around? What are your tips for quelling that urge to splurge?

Welcome to A Skinny Fit

Hi all,

Welcome to my brand new health and fitness blog, A Skinny Fit.

I decided to create this blog, because over on one of my other blogs Messy Little Moments, I'd started to write about my weight loss and fitness journey quite a lot. I really love writing about fitness, and I've been doing a lot of dieting, exercise and fitness stuff recently, and I'd like to share things with people. I didn't, however, want Messy Little Moments, to turn into a purely fitness blog, because that isn't what I started it for. So the natural next step, was for me to create a dedicated fitness blog. Hence, A Skinny Fit.

Here I'll be talking about my weight loss journey. Sharing my progress and goals. Writing about different exercise programs I try. Diets I follow. Share inspirational fitness things I come across and some healthy food ideas as well.

So, a little about me.

My name is Hannah. I'm 23 years old, and I'm a self published author. You can find out all about my general interests over at Messy Little Moments and all about my love of books and writing over at The Book Tower.

Back in 2008 I was a UK size 6-8. I was happy with my weight, but that wasn't going to last. In late 2008 I was diagnosed with P.O.T.S, an illness that severely limited the amount of activity I could do. For a long time I was struggling with my health, and I still don't have it under control, though it has improved over the years. Being at home, unable to do very much without fainting, made the weight start piling on. 

I was eating too much, not moving enough and before I knew it, my waistline was creeping up and it got to the point where I was weighing over 9st. I wasn't happy. So I decided to join Weight Watchers in 2009. I went with my mum, and for a while I was doing well. I never got down to goal, but I did lose some. Then I decided to leave Weight Watchers, and for a long time I yo-yo dieted but bad habits soon crept in.

By September 2014, I was weighing in at 13st 3lbs. I was wearing a size 16 and I was really unhappy with my weight and the way I looked in general.

So, I decided to start on a 30 days of fitness challenge. In those 30 days, I lost 11.5lbs. My mum and younger sister had joined weight watchers a couple of weeks after I started my fitness challenge, so I decided to join with them. I consistently lost weight with Weight Watchers, but in January this year, despite sticking to plan, my weight started staying the same, and then going up a bit. I needed a change, so I left Weight Watchers, and started trying it at home. 

In total so far, I've lost 40lbs, I have 28lbs left to go and I want to share my journey.

Current Weight

10st 5lbs

Goal Weight

8st 5lbs

Lost So Far

40lbs