Cardio and cake…battling the Becky bulge!

So it’s been a longggggggg since my last blog, and I really want to get it started up again this year. It will NOT be about baby loss, I need to leave that behind, even though it’s still with me a lot of the time. My first one of 2022, therefore, is going to be about working towards a healthy body. 

As some of you know, I have been on a health kick for the last nine months – I am deliberately not using the word “diet”, as it’s so much more than that. I was inspired to start by my amazing sister Sarah King. She absolutely smashed weight loss in 2021 and seeing how well she was doing, I decided enough was enough and in May started my own journey. Since getting pregnant with Dylan (who I can’t believe is soon to be six!), I had put on FOUR stone. A lot of that was pregnancy weight I never lost, weight added through emotionally eating after grief, and lockdown pile on! I knew I could do it, as in 2013 I lost 4.5 stone, going from a size 20 to a size 12/14 – for a giggle here is an article for that Match.Com paid for when they found out Matt and I were now married (having met on there in 2010), but the article was more written as a weight loss story. Some of the comments are hilarious, but I got a heap of Amazon vouchers from Match for it so was worth it! 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2749416/amp/I-fell-love-ballooned-size-20-Woman-piled-weight-meeting-dream-man-online-sheds-FOUR-STONE-time-wedding-day.html

I started using an app for tracking calories, called Lose It, that Sarah recommended. It’s really simple to track what you eat during the day, set yourself a calorie limit and it links to Apple Watch – so the more exercise I did the more calories I was allowed during the day. I did have to keep reminding myself that the calorie amount was a LIMIT NOT A TARGET! So in the beginning, I tried to keep well below it. In theory, the more weight you lose the app would lower the calorie amount you are allocated per day, however, I haven’t changed mine, just prefer to keep to a certain amount of food and gradually try to up the intensity of my exercise. If I used the app’s suggestion I just know I would have ended up miserable, as still really like and NEED the occasional treats. 

I have never been a big drinker so it wasn’t like I would lose a lot of weight by cutting out alcohol. My problem was anything beginning with C – chocolate, cake, crisps, crumpets, and worst of all cheese! So had to swap things out, now having cereal bars as snacks, baked crisps that were lower in calories for a treat, cereal every morning instead of thick white delicious toast, and low-fat cheese – and a LOT less of it and less often too! Don’t get me wrong you will still see me munching on cheese, chips, cake, and chocolate, but I reward myself with those if I have seen a loss at the scales OR if I have eaten a low-calorie lunch and exercised that day. 

It wasn’t all about calorie intake though. I needed to improve my fitness, Dylan is a VERY active child and I felt like I was really struggling to keep up with him (I can’t still now as he can run 2K in just over 10.5 minutes!). I had always trained with Jane Booth, and we spoke about my goals and she came up with a weekly plan for me to do in the gym, which as my fitness levels rose, got more intense – no slacking with Jane!! Jane is fantastic, as she appreciates sometimes when I was super tired or had period pain that meant I wasn’t up for certain things, but at the same time always pushed me to be fitter and stronger. As well as these sessions Jane convinced me to sign up for a walk climbing fitness class at the sports center – think 60 seconds climbing a wall the 60 seconds of squats, etc – it’s awesome and I really hope after reading this blog someone signs up to the next term!!

My first target was losing 2 stone by a wedding we were attending in October, which actually I worked really hard for and managed to lose 2.5, so then changed target to 3.5 by end of the year – which again I achieved. Then ultimate was four stone, which I hit this morning! Actually, it was 56.5lbs/25.8KG in 9 months. There’s an old saying about pregnancy “nine months to bake, nine months to shake”… technically I did it in 9 months, there was just a five-ish-year gap before I started trying!!

Here are my before and after shots! (thanks to Jane again for the photoshoot in the gym today!)

I am super super pleased that the hard work has paid off. I am no way near as toned as I was for the wedding, that will take more time, but I am now at a weight I feel I can maintain through exercising well, making smart food choices BUT (at this is the most important part) – I can still have a takeaway or meal out with friends and not feel guilty about it! 

That’s it for now, I hope this blog wasn’t preachy or came across as smug in any way. I often share posts about how proud I am of my children, but just this once, I wanted to share how proud I am of myself 🙂

I hope some of you will join me climbing or bouncing soon!!

Xoxo