Drop 2 dress sizes in 6 weeks

Towards the end of 2016 I went on a huge health kick and dropped 2 dress sizes in 6 weeks. I started at a size 12/14 and I am now a 8/10. I can assure you it can be achieved and i'm not talking about fad diets or juicing. All it took was exercise and healthy eating. 

I've struggled with my weight since having children. I've always been up and down. I guess it's a combination of eating more and a lack of energy and enthusiasm to exercise. Whilst weaning my second baby I would sit and finish any leftovers. I'm sure if you're a parent you've probably done that to. I also found it a bit of a drag to try and prepare lots of different meals. With a baby, a toddler and working, the last thing I wanted to do was prepare myself and hubby one meal and the kids something else. Time is precious and I certainly felt too busy to be doing things like that.

I've also suffered with PND. This combined with the tiredness of being a parent, really hadn't helped in providing any motivation to exercise or eat healthily. There were days when I couldn't even leave the house due to my PND so the the thought of leaving to do some exercise was completely alien. However, my attitude to life was completely wrong (more on that in a later blog post).

It was whilst I was looking back on photos from our holiday to Turkey during the summer that I realised I didn't even recognise myself. I had gained a lot of weight and I was very unhealthy. I was ashamed and gutted. This is not the example I wanted to set my girls. I wanted them to look at their mum and see a strong, confident, happy, healthy woman. It was time for a change.

I can't believe I've put this picture up for you all to see! I hate it.

I decided to get myself a personal trainer. This was the boost I needed to:
A - Get myself to the gym
B - Be able to do the right exercise for me
C - Provide me with nutritional advice
and D - Get me results.

I met with my trainer once to twice a week in a 6 week period. This combined with exercising 3 times a week and a healthy balanced diet enabled me to drop 2 dress sizes in 6 weeks. I lost a massive 5 inches from my waist, 0.5 from my hip, 1 from my thigh, 1 from my arm and gained 0.5 on my chest. I also lost 12 pounds in weight.

So what were we doing?
Exercise consisted mainly of weights, resistance and hiit (high intensity interval training). This worked perfectly for me as I am not a fan of cardio especially running. Think everything from burpees, jumps, squats, sandbags, kettle-bells, planking and much more. We would focus on one muscle group per training session but when we did hiit it would be an all over killer session.

What was I eating?
I reduced my portion sizes for a start. This didn't bother me as I was eating a more balanced diet which kept me fuller for longer. I was eating breakfast, a mid morning snack, lunch, mid afternoon snack, dinner and then a final snack before bed. This was more than what I would normally eat but as I said the portions were smaller and more targeted for weight loss and toning. The diet consisted of lots of protein, superfoods and no alcohol. 
I'll be going into more detail about my diet in a separate blog post but here's what a typical day looked like:
Breakfast - Banana, Porridge Oats, Skimmed Milk
Snack - Fat Free Yogurt
Lunch - Chicken Salad
Snack - Carrot Sticks and Humous
Dinner - Prawn Stir Fry
Snack - Rice Cake
I also drank a lot more water during the day. 

I'll be sharing my journey with you in a lot more detail from now on but I feel like it is only the beginning. I want to tone a lot more and I now know it is achievable after how quickly I have managed to change my body and mind set already.  I've certainly eaten and drunk way too much over Christmas so as soon as my family head back to Australia in a few days it's back to my normal routine.

I have fallen in love with clean eating and exercising again as I have seen all the benefits it has given me such as more energy and motivation in every aspect of my life, not just with exercise. Keep your eyes peeled for my meal planning posts, exercise posts and recipes.