First of all thank you so much everyone for the overwhelming support when I made my blog public! In over 2 hours I already had 200+ views which is amazing! I've had views from all over the world so thank you guys!! 제 블로그를 읽어 주셔서 감사합니다!
Now onto my second blog post which is a very touchy subject and something everyone can relate to no matter what size you are. Its about losing weight and maintaining your diet.
Back in 2012 I started dieting around October/November of that year. I weighed myself during the summer that year and was 13 stone 9 pounds. I never thought I had needed to diet or had any body issues before. It genuinely never entered my mind until one day I woke up and did my usual routine which consists of youtubing videos of my favourite Korean girl group Girls' Generation (haha! don't judge me). Its no secret these girls are extremely skinny which is due to being in such an image based industry but I had never looked at them like that but that day was different. As I looked at the comments on the video which consists of 'omg they are so skinny', 'They look good in anything cause they are skinny' Thoughts came into my head and wondered what I would look like if I was skinny too.
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| I'm on the right. Taken in April 2011. |
The year 2012 did change me in many ways as I began to look back on my eating habits and when you wake up in the morning and the first thing you think about it is a nice cold glass of coca cola is not cute nor healthy! So I began my diet. My mum at the time was doing the Weight Watchers diet and was successful and lost a lot of weight so I asked her for some advice on where I should start and what foods I should eat. She told me it was best to downsize your portions and exercise more. I started having 60g of breakfast in the morning which is around 200+ calories, at the time I use to have special K and if you're like me who likes sugar on their cereal (yum!) Instead of normal sugar I used Canderel calorie sweetener which takes a while to get used to but its 2 calories per teaspoon! What more can you ask for? You still get that sugary taste but in way less calories! As I was in college at the time I used to take the bus and sometimes walk but I decided to walk the whole way there and back no matter what the weather was like in order to start exercising more. It was a 30 minute walk as I live in Ardwick and I had to travel to my college in Longsight. While I was at college and for my lunch I used to buy lots of fruit from Asda which comes in packs like sliced pineapple, watermelon and a mixed fruit cup of apples, kiwi and other fruits. It was £1 so extremely cheap and the fruit was always sweet. College finished and it was time to start exercising again so I walked home and it was time for dinner! For dinner I decided to eat as I usually did so whatever my mum cooked I would eat but not as big of a portion and cutting down on things like bread with my meal and adding in salad to speed up your metabolism and drinking water with your meal. For snacks in the evening I would have weight watchers bars or cereal bars which are like 80~100 calories max compared to a chocolate bar which is around 250~300 calories for the same size and nowhere near as fat. Also fat free yogurts that come in many flavours like Vanilla, Strawberry and Banana and Custard (my favourite)!
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| Christmas 2011. #mess |
I did that diet from November onwards and at times It was hard and I had cravings for food such as my beloved chocolate bars, biscuits and full fat coke but I was extremely determined to lose weight. By Christmas 2012 I could already see a difference in myself and other people could as well. I did let my hair down (as they say) during Christmas and I did enjoy all the food that does usually come with Christmas but I didn't let it completely affect my diet.
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| Taken Christmas Day 2012. |
Around this time I was losing around 2~3 pounds a week and after Christmas and New Years passed I was back to being 100% focused on my diet. No more distractions and no more biscuits! By February/March I was seeing amazing results in myself, I had gone down from being a large in t-shirts to small. 36 inch waist size down to 32 inch waist. New wardrobe was in need!
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| March 2013. |
March 2013.
At this point I was very happy with my weight loss and had already lost way over 2 stone and felt great. But It got to a point where I was missing the foods I loved so much and use to eat regularly so to stop myself from going crazy and becoming a yo-yo dieter, I started having 'fat days'. This was on Sunday after I weighed myself in the morning so if there was anything I was craving during the week I would have it that day. I think this is great for your diet because you're not depriving yourself of those calorific foods we love so much. I wouldn't recommend this though unless you've got to a point in your diet where you have lost a lot of weight or at your 'goal weight'.
So summer of 2013 came and my diet was still going great, still losing weight following the same diet but because the weather was perfect I was exercising out doors more often and drinking more water. Very popular food items to eat and drink during the summer is fruits such as watermelon, diet Lemonade with ice (very refreshing) and sugar free jelly! I had gone from 13 stone 9 pounds down to 10 stone 5 pounds.
Dieting tips for the summer:
Dieting tips for the summer:
- Drink loads of water (think first. Are you hungry or just thirsty?)
- Eat lots of fruit (fruit tastes the best during the summer in my opinion)
- Eat your veggies!
- Plan your meals!
- Show some skin! (it will prevent you from indulging)
- Go for a nice walk when the weather is nice
- Spend more time outside than inside! It's good to be active!
- Get a good nights sleep
2 years later~
2 years later and I'm still in the 10 stone range (give or take a few pounds ha!) as you can see it hasn't had a yo-yo effect and I haven't gained my weight back so I can honestly say my diet was successful. I'm still eating breakfast, lunch and dinner with snacks and on weekends letting my hair down and having those cravings and enjoying them while exercising the whole week by walking and being active. I am still a small in t-shirts and jumpers and I've even gone down to a 30 inch waist. I hope everyone reading this can be inspired by my post. I hope I haven't offended or upset anyone by what I've said and good luck dieting!
Thanks for reading,
Alex :-)
