The Body Confidence Program - Week 6 & 7!

Apologies for missing a week - what can I say? My organisational skills are below par! I have had two good weeks though and this post is all about positivity to balance out last weeks miserableness; I reduced by 3 inches in week 5 and 4.25 inches in week 6 which gives me a total reduction so far of 29.5 inches!!! This is absolutely incredible and here are the good things I have noticed and positive changes I have made while on the program:

• Clothes that were previously tight and uncomfortable are now looser and much more comfortable.
• I have voluntarily exercised at last once a week, sometimes two, for the last few weeks. I aim to increase to three sessions a week but this is already such an improvement on before and highlights the increase in my energy levels.
• I rarely crave sweet things and often pick nuts and fruit as a snack even on treat days!
• I am now happy to eat the last meal of the day and then not eat again until the morning - I had got in the habit of always having something sweet after dinner and then picking at snack food until bedtime.

I have two weeks left on the program so I need to stay focused and keep going all the way to the end. I plan to get back to using the meal planner as I have been making up my own meals from the food list, My main goal now though is to actually be nice to myself and be proud of what I have achieved without letting my negative internal dialogue win and set me on my usual self destructive dieting cycle!

The Body Confidence Program - Week 5.

I had a much better week than I expected and lost 5.25 inches, giving me a total reduction of 22.25 inches at the halfway point. I am obviously delighted by this but I am also feeling a bit low this week for these reasons:

1. I have lost more inches than the program promises but I certainly haven't lost any dress sizes. My clothes feel like they fit better but I am not going to fit in a smaller size any time soon.
2. I don't feel any different,no one has said that I look any different and I can't see much difference in the pics I took to compare with the start. I guess I just set unrealistic expectations for how I would look by the time I had lost 16 inches.
3. The number on the scales hasn't changed at all. I know that Ru-Tee doesn't like you to weigh yourself until the end of the 8 weeks but it is a hard habit to break for me - I have managed to limit myself to one weigh a week though which is a great improvement. I was just hoping to have lost actual weight by now, especially as I have 8 stone to lose, there is no way that I will drop dress sizes without losing weight.

So all in all I am going into week 5 feeling very unmotivated - I will need to sort my head out, and quickly if I am to avoid throwing away my good work up to this point.

(Apologies for no pics - technical issues I'm afraid!)

The Body Confidence Program - Week 4

Week 3 has been my most difficult on the program so far. I have returned to work and got a dental abscess which has greatly reduced the types of food I could eat- anything cold was too much for my already sensitive teeth. I picked at off plan foods on everyday because I wasn't sticking to the eating every 4 hours rule so my blood sugars were fluctuating and I was drawn to easy, sugary foods. But, after saying all that I still reduced by 3 inches! My total after 3 weeks is 17 inches so I am looking at week 4 as a new week, no more rubbish excuses.

I am becoming a little disheartened that even though I have reduced by the 16 inches the program promises I am not feeling any different. I am definitely not 2 dress sizes smaller, I suspect this is because I am much bigger than the average program user so have much more to lose. I think I will do an interim before and after picture at the end of week 4 to try and spot the differences.

I have purchased a treadmill - or a run-miller as Casper calls it! I have started the couch to 5k program using an app on my phone and it hasn't been too awful so far...so it is all positive and I must have more energy because I wouldn't have managed to motivate myself to even try a few weeks ago.

The Body Confidence Program- Week 3

So, this post is rather late because of night shifts and dental abscesses! But at the end of week 2 I have reduced by 10 inches!!! TEN FREAKING INCHES! Understandably I am very pleased, but I am getting impatient that my clothes don't really feel any different yet, but as The Man keeps telling me - just keep going, it's all going in the right direction.

I have been enjoying the food and am even eating tomatoes - I have hated tomatoes my whole life! I have struggled more to be really strict with the rules which is an ongoing pattern with me and diets, so I need to try really hard to keep my head in the game going in to week 3.

My other goal this week was to get more exercise in to my life. So Casper and I have been on some lovely walks when it has been sunny and I have purchased a treadmill for rainy days. I have noticed that my energy levels have been improving but I am unsure if this is because I have been on annual leave so haven't worked a night shift for two weeks....

I am back to work this week so I will have to up my organisation game to ensure I stick to the meal plan and don't slip back into bad habits. Wish me luck!