Day Six #Clean9detox

Hey so I'll keep this post ready short because it's pretty late and I'm off to bed!

Today I weighed and measured myself again as recommended in the plan and was chuffed with the results. In total so far I've lost 7lbs and a big 3.5 inches around my waist! I've also lost in other areas such as arms, thighs and hips! So pleased with how the plan is achieving great results and really feeling healthy and good!

If you want to know what the plan states for breakfast, lunch and dinner please see yesterday's for a full account of what you have. (In fact days 3-9 of the plan is the same diet). 

However today I had my 600 calorie meal for lunch instead of dinner as it fitted in better with my busy schedule. The plan does say you can switch this around so I wasn't breaking any rules or anything! I had a fairly large amount of brown pasta with tuna, cucumber and tomato. I finished my meal with a banana for pudding. 

Felt very full today and not at all hungry. The plan seems to be getting easier every day! :)

X

Day Five #Clean9detox

Ok so I've had the busiest day ever today but I've managed the plan fine. In fact I think the set meals actually helped me time-wise, so in a weird way I was glad to be on Clean9! :)

I started my day at an earlier time of 7:30am and let me tell you it was a shock to the system! God help me when my work alarm returns next week! I got ready and had my breakfast:

2x Forever Garcinia Plus capsules (20 mins before the aloe). 

120ml of Aloe Vera Gel + min 240ml of water. 

1 scoop or Forever Lite Ultra with 300ml of soya milk (again definitely prefer soya over skimmed). 

I then set off for school. Although it's still the holidays, today I backed 9 of my classroom walls (you wouldn't believe the effort and sweat that goes into making a 5-year olds classroom look like one!) I did have the help of my lovely TA though thank god! Around 11ish I took my snack of 2x Bee Pollen tablets + min 240ml of water. 

After spending 4 hours sorting out my classroom I left to have lunch (1:30pm) before setting off for show rehearsals for the musical I'm in in September! I had:

2x Garcinia Plus capsules (20 mins before the shake). 

1 scoop or Forever Lite Ultra with 300ml of soya milk. I actually had this in my car at a petrol station on my way to rehearsals as my fuel light was on red and I was in a rush!

2x Bee Pollen tablets + min 240ml of water. 

I did a bit of dancing, singing and acting before heading home for dinner:

120ml of Aloe Vera Gel + min 240ml of water. 

2x Forever Garcinia Plus capsules (20 mins before the meal)

600 calorie meal. 

2x Bee Pollen tablets 

However as Tuesdays are always particulary energetic for me ( I do back-to-back exercise classes in the evening) I decided I would partially split my 600 calorie meal. Therefore I had the chicken, veg and potatoes around 5ish before I did spin class and Zumba. Later when I got home I had the mini fruit salad made up of banana, strawberries and apricot. 

Now, strictly speaking I don't suppose you're meant to split up the meal into two. And strictly speaking you're only supposed to do about 20 minutes of exercise a day also. However being the gym junkie I am, this was never going to happen. I love exercise and I wanted to stick to my routine as best as possible (to be fair I have done less workouts this week due to bank holiday anyway!) So nevertheless, I decided to do Day 5 this way as I wanted to ensure I wasn't being unsafe and making myself poorly. I burnt a hell of a lot of calories tonight and I'm aware probably more than my meals worth!

It's about 10:15pm and I'm very full and content. Bring on Day 6 and also the next weigh-in/results! 

X

A chocolate alternative...

Hey again. Can't keep away of late can I! But I've stumbled across something that might be of interest to those of you with a bit of a sweet tooth.

Previous to doing Weight Watcher's, I wasn't someone who was overly mad on chocolate or the likes. I was more of a savory gal. However after enrolling on the plan I somehow started craving sugar, A LOT. I guess I wasn't getting my usual greasy fixes of chips and what not, so sugar became more of a priority?!

I perhaps still can't identify with the major chocoholics of this world, but I am partial to the odd bar or two :)

Weight Watcher's taught me to eat smaller meals but then to treat myself with low cal sweet snacks afterwards...like their mini chocolate cake bites! So, in turn I grew a bit of a sweet tooth and recently I've found it hard to resist buying a chocolate bar after my Uni lunch or snacking on sweet fixes! 

Anyway... the other night, after coming home for half-term, I got given one of these...

Introducing the Sharon fruit!

I don't know about you, but I've never heard of these before! My dad and sister are doing this thing at the moment where each week they are trying a new fruit/vegetable. A good idea actually. Healthy and exciting all in one :)

I've come to love fruit and veg...you can teach yourself, honest! So I was looking forward to giving this a try.

To be honest I wasn't all that sure what to expect. It kind of looks like a cross between a tomato and an orange, but it's skin has a fairly waxy feel about it. 

Following the instructions, you eat it like I would do a kiwi...slice the top off and use a spoon to scoop out the contents. Apparently my sister thought that you ate it like an apple so has been eating skin and all!...She's still here to tell the tale but I personally wouldn't eat the outer shell :P

It's a weird taste to describe but the thing that hit me first was how sweet it was! Literally sweeter than sugar if that is at all possible?! The insides were similar to that of a passion fruit minus the seeds and the texture reminded me of a plum.

Quite an odd but rather enjoyable experience all the same. 

The good thing about this fruit is that it's SO sweet that it literally takes away any chocolate/sweet cravings that you might have had before! Prior to eating this I was considering a bar of Cadbury's, but a couple of spoonfuls into the Sharon fruit and there was no way I wanted chocolate or any dessert whatsoever. You could have put my favourite sponge pudding and custard in front of me and I wouldn't have eaten it! Says a lot, trust me! 

So my advice...if you're struggling to keep your sweet tooth at bay, give a Sharon fruit a try!

Ellie x

Twitter: @ellie1989

Feeling hungry?...Graze box!

Hello! Hope you are all well.

So, you may have seen Graze boxes being advertised on the TV (they are plugging it a lot lately!) but I thought I'd share with you my experience of them.

How does it work? Well you basically sign up online at graze.com with the idea that a box full of yummy delights arrive at your door each week. You can select what day you'd like to receive your box but it doesn't require a signature, it is letterbox sized and comes along with your royal mail post so there is no inconvenience there.

How much does it cost? This can apparently depend on the time of when you started ordering the boxes but mine should be £3.89 each week so I'll go with that. However, as I've been a graze customer before (I stopped my orders last time as I didn't really have the money), they've given me 3 half price boxes which is one of the reasons I started the orders back up.

Food? I really like the kinds of food the boxes contain as they are often nutrition in some way and provide a great healthier snack option, rather than grabbing that chocolate bar! Seeds, dried fruit, nuts, cake, dips, popcorn and bread are just some of the things that may appear in your box. You aren't 100% sure what will be in your box but you do have a certain amount of control over what you don't want to be sent. There's a rating option where you can choose to bin items whereby they'll never send it you. Then there's the options of try, like and love and a send soon. Perhaps self-explanatory but they'll try to send you the things in send soon first!

You can cancel at any time, providing it's not on the day you have a scheduled box! There's also an option to postpone boxes, say you were going on holiday or just wanted a break or something.

Here's my box that arrived this morning. I already knew what to expect as Graze email you the night before to tell you what you have in your box, if you want to peek. I personally can never resist!

Inside...

I've had this one before and really enjoyed the chopped dates, yum! I'm a pretty big fan of seeds and nuts too so this is a nice treat for me.

Really excited to try this...tea and cake are a new addition to the graze boxes. I love carrot cake but usually avoid it because of the fat content. However this is only a tiny piece and at 88 calories, I'm sure I'll be fine! :)

Another new addition to the graze boxes. I love microwave popcorn!

And finally...yum yum yum. I love the graze dips and I couldn't resist these breadsticks and dip for long. I really enjoyed this as a little lunchtime snack! The dip was delicious.

If you want to try Graze but you're unsure about whether it would be your thing or put-off by the cost, why not try one for free?! Just enter this code, 3CTZKFGT and receive a free box. Just remember to cancel after you receive it to avoid a weekly charge if you don't want to continue it!

Let me know what you think if you try it, or you've tried it! Comment here or Tweet me: @ellie1989

Tips for classic New Year resolutions!

Hey again! :)

So, I touched a little on this in my last post, 'Happy New Year', but... "this year I'm going to lose weight" or "this year I'm going to get fit" are common things that people always say at the start of a new year. And, whilst New Year resolutions are often made with great intentions...sadly more often than not they are broken within the first few months.

What I would say is...don't set yourself up for a fall. Don't go for the unrealistic goals that ultimately you can't stick to. So, you want to lose weight? Ask yourself why? There might be many reasons...Health problems? Self-esteem? Body confidence? Whatever it is, place this at the forefront of your mind. This is your motivation. Picture the end result...what does it look like? How does it feel?

So... you've definitely convinced yourself that you want to lose some weight/ tone up/ get fitter etc...You know the reasons why, so now it's a case of how? First of all...DO NOT immediately think..."I can only eat salad from now on!!! No more chocolate, no more chips, no more meals out..Sigh." You are trying to make a change for the better, not transform into a rabbit! It's simply not realistic to go completely cold turkey and deprive yourself of the "naughtier" foods. Believe me, if you try YOU WILL CRACK sooner or later and possibly go on a little binge!

It's funny because, why is it that when those four little words "I'm on a diet" enter your head or leave your mouth your stomach immediately rumbles and your mind is one tracked on FOOD?!

Scrap the word diet and go with simple and achievable changes. For example, if you know your weakness is chocolate and you usually have a couple of bars a day, start off slowly and cut your intake down to e.g. 2 instead of 3, perhaps swapping that third choc fix for a piece of fruit or a glass of juice? If you tend to raid the crisps cupboard (or chips if you're American) perhaps think about switching your e.g. Walker's 'full of fat' packets, to slighter healthier alternatives e.g. French Fries, Skips, Snack'o'Jacks, Quavers- they are all lower in calories and lighter choices. Turn that big breakfast butty into a less calorific option like cereal, toast, yogurt, fruit? And if you can't cut it out completely limit the amount of days you have it for breakie? Small and steady changes will win the race!

Making changes to your diet is a crucial step in losing weight. After all, whatever you have been doing so far isn't working out because you feel unhappy with your body. And speaking of working out...regular exercise is another important aspect. And by this...I'm not talking about running marathons or becoming Mr or Mrs Macho! I again would suggest to start off small.

Don't worry I know that the word exercise is enough to make you want to cry! I can relate to this. I can. I wasn't always so 'pro-exercise' believe me. However the key is to find something that you enjoy. So now you're probably asking yourself...do I enjoy ANY exercise?! Well, rack your brains...there must be something that you can at least tolerate...something that you think you can muster up the motivation to do perhaps a couple of times a week? And it's got to be something that can fit into your lifestyle. Maybe you always give the role of walking your dog to someone else (if you have one)...perhaps you could tag along or take on the job?! It could be that you have a bike collecting dust in the garage that you could dig out? Or maybe you could stick on that fitness DVD you got for Christmas, a few nights a week?

Whatever you do, don't go and sign up to a pricey gym membership if you aren't actually a 'fan' of the gym. This is possibly the worst thing you can do! Not only are you going to have to battle with yourself to find the  motivation to go, but you may as well just throw your money away because you certainly will end up wasting the hard-earned stuff when you eventually quit.

I would imagine that gym owners pretty much look like the guy above when New Year hits...Ca Ching! Yep, I've already seen so many new members in aid of these ambitious New Year resolutions...Taking up the bikes... clogging up the treadmills... I mean I wouldn't mind if they showed that they were serious but when you have people playing on their phones whilst half-heartedly cycling...It's just not going to happen really is it!

My advice, if you are contemplating the gym, is to ask for a membership trial. Most gyms offer a package whereby you can try out the gym for a little while for a small fee. This way you can gain a sense of whether it is going to be suitable for you and whether it's wise to invest in it. Personally, if you really hate it and you always try and put it off, I wouldn't bother signing...There's plenty of other activities, the gym isn't for everyone.

For me, I particularly enjoy exercise classes or group activities like Spinning, Zumba, Aerobics etc because I like having an instructor telling you what to do and the pressure of others around you. But I can see how again that might not be everyone's cup of tea...I know some might feel self-conscious with others being around and watching (although from experience, generally everyone is so busy doing the class themselves that there really isn't time to look at anyone else!)

Exercising is usually easier with a buddy. If you have a friend(s) who wants to get fit too then it's much more motivating to do it together. It can make group exercise less intimidating and can take the dullness out of the gym. You just have to be careful with who you select...You do not want someone who isn't serious about exercising and ends up chatting the whole time, because that will mean you too get less done and ultimately this makes achievement less likely!

Running or jogging is a popular FREE option. And yes, wouldn't we all like a body like that girl in the photo?!(unless of course you're a guy that is)... but call it inspiration if you will! The good thing about this exercise is that it provides a full body workout and is a pretty effective burner of those pesky calories. Additionally you can go for a run or a jog anytime you wish, so it's a good one for those of you with busy schedules.

Why not make a list of some of your planned changes. Perhaps not as long as that guys though! Do you have a weight goal? A dress size goal? What small changes do you plan to make to your diet? What exercise, however small, are you going to fit into your weekly schedule?

As always, I'd be interested to hear from you as to what you plan on doing. Tweet me! : @ellie1989 or leave a comment on this post!

I hope you found some of what I said useful or helpful in some way? I mean I'm not a professional or anything, just a girl that decided to get fit half way through 2012. But, I do have a little experience with how it all works now and I hope to motivate and inspire others with their goals...

Good luck everyone!!! I'm wishing you well. I have faith in you.

(I'll let you know my New Year resolutions when I've ironed them out a little...)