Map My Walk | But I Smile Anyway...

Ritu’s Healthy Living #icandothis – Week 1

I don’t profess to be any sort of lifestyle expert, but last week, when I got the ‘Shock of my life!’ (slight exaggeration!) I decided I had to do something.

I was fed up with looking in the mirror, depressed by what I saw, that double-chinned face looking back at me, that stomach that could pass for 6 months pregnant. I hated the fact that so many of my clothes weren’t fitting well. I didn’t like that I was feeling so low in energy all the time.

Something had to give.

So I looked back on an old eating plan I had when I was following the Juiceplus+ diet a couple of years ago. No, I wasn’t going to fork out lots of money on the shakes and vitamins etc, but they had a great detox plan, which really helped me strip back unnecessary food, and encouraged clean eating.

Some of my breakfasts

Lunch examples

Some dinners I made

Water. I have been drinking lots of water, and herbal teas too, at least 3 litres every day! (Yes, you do wee a lot, but hey, if it helps!)

Another thing I have tried to do is not eat after 8pm either. And I have managed that every night, except tonight. It is 10.30pm and I am eating now! But there is a long story behind that one! At least it’s healthy!!

I downloaded the My Fitness Pal App, and set it up on my phone It is a calorie counter, but if you input your details, and tell it what you want to do, be it lose weight maintain, or put on weight, it will give you a calorie goal. You can tailor your nutritional requirements if you want to aim for more protein, or carbs, or fat, or lower the percentages too. You can then enter the food you eat, either manually, or by scanning a barcode. It is even possible to make your own recipes which are then ready for you to enter whenever you make them!

Then, I decided I needed some form of exercise. Again, I have tried lots of things over the years, but simply walking was not something I had concentrated on. So I found an app called Map My Walk, which you can set to record your walks. It tells you speed, distance, steps and calorie burn.

We have the playing field moments from the house, so every morning, during the holiday, I get up and I go with Lil Man, or with him, and Lil Princess. They play football while I do my circuits, listening to music as I go around. It’s even better as the family are getting involved too! Yesterday we even went to a local country park, and hiked around for an hour, and I built up another 3km on my walking app!

The best thing? It links to the My Fitness Pal app so any exercise you do, creates extra calories that you can eat, if you want, without jeopardising your weight goal!

The analysis reports of my walks. It’s amazing that in a week, I have managed to increase my pace per KM by over a minute!

I will weigh in, in the morning, but to be honest, I am not going to cry if I don’t lose lots of weight straight away. I am already feeling so much better, and the weight loss will be a great boost!

I must give a little mention here to someone, who has been extra supportive… All of you who commented on my original post last week are amazing. You really spurred me on to make sure I try my best and do this!

But I have been following a blog for a while now, Amanda at The Keen Peach. She is amazing! Despite being pregnant for, as she describes, 3 years, she has been eating well, keeping her fitness up, and is trying various healthy diets, to be in as best form as she can be. Every day she posts about what she eats, as well as any exercise she may have done, and encourages others who follow to do the same, giving commenters a really motivating reply!

Oh, and I started ~~flooding my Instagram~~ posting some foodie pics on my Instagram account (@phantom_giggler) which have been liked by a few (possibly self-professed!) healthy eating experts out there! A few extra likes are always a plus!

My hashtags for me personal life revolution? #icandothis and #lose2stone

I guess what I want to say really is, if you want things to change in your life, you need to be that change! Several of you mentioned that my thoughts and determination had motivated you to think about your lifestyle. I’d love to know if any of you were really spurred on to do something like I did!

Have a wonderful night/day Peeps! Love my Blogily 💗

Weight Crisis!

About 18 months ago, I made peace with myself. I decided that I wasn’t going to chase that elusive 9 1/2 stone, and that toned tummy. I had reached my happy weight.

Happy!

And that was great! I was hitting 10 stone, and fitting into all the clothes I wanted, I felt good.

I’d tried extreme dieting, done various exercise regimes, like the 30 Day Shred… but it wasn’t possible to keep it up. I had even done daily weighted Hula Hooping!

This was fun actually, I should try it again!

Then teaching happened, and along with an extra 3 hours a day at work, my pressure levels rose, my stress levels were higher, there was no time for exercise, and my eating pattern went haywire.

I still ate three meals a day, I didn’t have time to snack at work, but I was drinking more tea. Instead of one cup, with one sugar, in the morning, and herbal teas during the day, I started saying yes whenever I was asked by my colleagues, and one cup turned into around 4. My evening meal got later and later, and sometimes I wasn’t eating until 9.3o or even 10pm! And the worst thing, we had resorted to more takeaways than I wanted.

Ritu sure loves her food!

I knew I was putting on weight. My clothes started to feel really tight, I was uncomfortable in whatever I usually wore. My lethargy was getting worse again, despite taking my Vitamin D supplements.

It was the straw that broke the camel’s back when we had the photo shoot in Finland. The pictures were beautiful, it’s just I had acquired a double chin! And my face was looking decidedly plump.

See! Case in question!

I was still in the middle of term, there were reports to be written, new children to visit, and all sorts so I made a decision that, come the summer holidays I would make a conscious effort to try and improve my lifestyle. On purpose, I didn’t weigh myself. I didn’t want to know!

Today I went for a routine check-up at the Dr’s surgery. BP was fine. Then he asked me to step on the scales… Had he taken my BP then, it would have been through the roof! I knew there would be bad news on that set of scales, I just didn’t want to have it confirmed.

And it was BAD! I am 72kg, which is over 11 stone! That is the heaviest I have ever been!

In fact, the Dr was concerned, as the last time I was officially weighed, I was 2 stone lighter! When the scales hit near that weight last time, I had literally just given birth to Lil Princess, so there was a good excuse.

Officially overweight!

I was ashamed! How could this have happened? Speaking to my Pops today, even he said that he didn’t want to mention it to me, but that I had looked more ‘cuddly’ last week…

So I made that decision. I had to do something.

I invested in some detox tea last week, and had started drinking it, causing a few headaches, and a day of dodgy tummies, but that was settled.

Bootea

I had made a conscious effort to eat better and was cutting out excess carbs like white bread, chapattis and pasta. Eating lots of fruit, and healthier alternative snacks…Sorry Malteasers, I cannot look at you at the moment!

So, when I got back from the Dr’s I downloaded the My Fitness Pal app so I could log my food and (any!) exercise. Then I found the Map My Walk app too.

Right. According to the Fitness app, I should be aiming to consume 1200 calories daily to aid a steady 2lb a week weight loss. And after logging my food today, I was already over by 200 calories!

So, when I got home from my in-laws, I promptly took the kids to the Gurdwara playing fields and did this!

I went for a brisk (well, brisk for unfit me!) walk for half an hour, and nearly walked 3KM! Go Me!!!!

Hot and sticky, I showered, then got the kids ready for bed.

It felt pretty good, having that walk. I need to do that regularly.

Pops even gave me another one of his ayurvedic tips. When walking hold your ring finger down with your thumb on both hands. It activates various functions, like the liver and kidney, and helps promote the weight loss too!

Now I am fighting cravings… it’s the pull of the late night snacking that I have got into the bad habit of recently. Tomorrow I am having a fasting blood test first thing in the morning, so I can’t eat or drink anything other than water for 12 hours!

But I CAN DO IT!

I know I won’t get the toned tummy again, that would take a lot of work, but if I can get myself feeling slightly like myself again, that would be perfect.

Here’s to a healthier Ritu, and I hope to update you with good news in the near future!

Have a good week all!