#OpBabyWeight began again in earnest on the 5th January and had its ups and downs…

Guided by my mentor Alex Smallman (High on Health) The main theme for the week was clean and healthy food. I was to drink a minimum of 3 litres of water, and cut out all gluten, diary and excess sugar from my diet. This meant ditching my daily sausage roll and lunchtime sarnie, and coming up with something radically less palatable. Having never been a big breakfast eater, having food so early in the morning also felt a little unnatural.

I owe a massive thanks to Alex for sending me a healthy shopping list and recipe ideas before we did our supermarket shop. She suggested we shop online to keep focused on the plan ahead, so we did. The problem was, I seriously underestimated the quantities I’d need to keep on top of it. A single bag of bananas, 1 cucumber and a dozen eggs doesn’t go far when you factor in the kids, blending them into smoothies, and snacking throughout the day.

I ended up grazing the fridge rather than being clever. If I needed a snack, I’d reach for cucumber and hummus rather than look to ease the hunger pangs. In retrospect, I needed something filling.

Alex Smallman to the rescue!

Having given me a quick phone call to see how I was, Alex was concerned enough to travel down to my house. We had spoken at 11am on the Wednesday and I hadn’t managed to eat anything up until this point. We all know how tough can parenting can be, and it was one of those days where nappy changes, tantrums and feeds seem to run after each other in a never-ending cycle. Rather than fall back on something naughty, I just starved myself.

Alex came over to show me that good food doesn’t have to take long to prepare. She whizzed this Quinoa mixed salad & nut (with a side of coconut fried egg) concoction in seconds.

Watching her just chuck things in and mix by hand was a bit of a wake-up call. In my head, I was looking for zero-prep dishes and it’s clear I have little imagination when it comes to food. I don’t understand the synergy between ingredients, and I’m scared of cooking, boiling or frying anything lest Fireman Sam leap from my telly and into my kitchen. I’d be far more likely to cut up a bunch of cucumber and tomato, eat it all raw with nothing to bulk it out, then complain 5 minutes later that I’m still ravenous.

Some of her other tips were also really welcome:

1. Make water less boring by infusing it with cucumber or lemon - not only amazing for your metabolism, it also lightly flavours the water. Prepare a litre jug in the morning, and two more throughout the day so you can accurately document your water intake.
2. Add in bursts of HIIT exercise when the children nap - there are dozens of YouTube vids of 7, 10, 30 minute or more exercises so there’s no excuses. They’ll make you sweat, they’ll tire you out but they’ll target specific areas of your body and you will see results.
3. Avoid low-fat labelled foods - These are all loaded with sugar. If you simply can’t cut out butter, get full fat butter rather than margarine. For frying, opt for raw coconut oil rather than sunflower oil, olive oil at a push.
4. Make healthy twists on traditional favourite meals to keep you engaged - there’s no point undertaking a diet if it’s not sustainable. If spaghetti bolognaise is your thing, make it with turkey mince and switch out pasta for quinoa, if you like cottage pie, make it with turkey mince and top with sweet potato.

So… how much did it cost?

I naively thought the shopping bill wouldn’t be affected. However I seem to have overestimated just how much I actually eat anyway! I assumed cutting the pastry, carbs and dairy items from our shop, and subbing these with fresh fruit and vegetables would even itself out. But we still had to buy many of these things for the kids and Craig.

In total, this little lot will set us back an additional £30 to our usual bill every week, maxing it out to £95 (including nappies and baby formula).

Spot the baby!

My fridge now looks scarily inedible. This might be food porn to some of you, but it looks like Davina McCall has moved in to me!

Did I lose any weight?

Sadly, I only lost 1lb. I have to put this down to the fact my body is transitioning, I didn’t manage much in the way of exercise, and it turns out I was starving myself. My little body went into shock and tried to conserve the little I put into it.

Somehow however, inch-wise, I lost a staggering 5″ from my bum and midriff. I’m putting this down to my Sculptlite treatment and cannot wait to see more fall off over the next few weeks. I also look slimmer. My face has thinned out, and I’m less bloated around my tummy, thighs and arms. I’m thinking much of this was water retention that is now finding a route out of my body.

There’s still plenty of time to win Sculptlite treatment for yourself by checking out our comp!

For those tracking #OpBabyWeight - this means I’m now 13st 8lbs.

But how do I feel?

Bloody amazing. I’m very conscious that the Juice Plus+ supplements Alex has given me are providing my body with everything it needs to fuel every complex system in my body (more on these later). I’m up earlier in the mornings, flagging only when hunger pains set in about 3pm / 4pm (my own fault), and my hair, skin and nails are looking much healthier.

Although I’m a real whinger, I haven’t struggled as much as I thought. I’ve now finally accepted that my weight is too heavy, my clothes look terrible on me, and I don’t like myself like this. There’s no point adopting diet after diet and losing a scant number of pounds by the end of the month. If this is going to work, I’m going to have to follow a far stricter routine and be more aware of what is going into my body, and what it needs, rather than what I think it wants.

The week ahead…

Now we’ll be adding in Juice Plus+ plant-based protein shakes every morning and afternoon for the next 30 days. These will be packed out with almond milk, leafy greens, super-berries and other fruit to get even more nutrition out of them. The idea is to get creative and discover combinations that sound absurd, but taste great. If they don’t taste great, no matter - I’ll pinch my nose and down them anyway (it’s all about the greater cause!). I’ll be zooming in on the shakes soon and explaining what sets these apart from hundreds of others on the market.

Helping me blitz these extra ingredients into something resembling a smootie, is my trusty Nutribullet. Thanks to Alex, I’m no longer frightened of it and it’s made its way out of the box and onto my worktop. I won’t tell you too much about Alan (The Nutribullet) yet, as he’ll feature in lots of upcoming posts over the next few weeks. Needless to say this is a smart and essential bit of kit for my fat loss plans.

For more on Alex Smallman (my mentor and Juice Plus+ distributer) and her business High on Health, whilst her website is being built you can catch her on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

If you want to undertake a similar diet yourself, I can’t recommend the Nutribullet enough. You NEED this machine so buy one here.

This post is also bought to you with thanks from Decathlon. I’ll be donning the Lycra and embarrassing myself with some ugly-looking squats in some of their great value clothes next week.

 

Speak soon, wish me luck! Gem xx