I'm Back Baby!

It is a great feeling when you start to be your old self again.  Over the last month or so I have been struggling, with a number of things;

- illness 

- lots of work 

- coursework

- training at the gym

Doesn't actually look like much when I write it down like that 😄 but trust me, it was tough. We had to bring my calories up, so my body could cope with everything going on, which in turn lead to me gaining weight.

I had to do this, to bring my metabolism up, to give me enough energy to get better and feel better. The worst thing I could have done is keep going and burn out, which would have happened, it was inevitable!!

I'M BACK BABY

But I'm back now, feeling super focused and determined. I've started to lose weight again and my energy is back. Yeah I still get tired, but I'm doing a lot.

This made me think (while on the train to Bristol for work), that a transformation journey is not a straight line on a graph. It isn't all easy going and the weight drops off, definition appears and life gets good.

It's more like a child's squiggle drawing, ups downs, round circles, all sorts!! Yes it's like liquorice all sorts ha ha!

The analyst in me is going to put my journey in some graphs for you, on my next blog.

As you will see, not a straight journey at all, the biggest thing you have to get over is what goes on in your head. When you have a low patch, a gaining weight stage, a holiday, etc, you have to allow this to happen, we are all human! 

Trust in yourself and those around you helping you. Don't listen to all the diet hypes and fashions that come around. They do not work long term! If you want a quick fix and gain it all back, plus more go for it, otherwise trust in me, I've been there and done it. 

I used to think these sorts of sayings were corney, but you do only have one life and you have to live it. You should live it feeling great about yourself! It's not about what's on the scales, it's about how you feel inside and being happy with yourself.

You aren't too old, you aren't too unfit, you can do something about how you feel and look now, not tomorrow, not after the weekend, not just till your next holiday. 

Summer is coming, do something now and trust me, you'll thank me when it gets warmer and you don't have to wear a jumper (like I used to)!

Thank you for reading, any questions or thoughts, please comment.

Holly 💪😊

Time to get FOCUSED

Hey Everyone,

To anyone that has seen me over the last few weeks, will have witnessed that I haven't been at my best. I have been rather run down and I have been extremely tired. This is mostly down to work, I will admit, I have had to work away from home for a few weeks. Staying in a hotel, working long hours, not being able to eat what I normally do, not training as much as normal and not sleeping well - all of this combined has not had a good effect on my body.

I have felt very deflated and warn down, I haven't been able to train as effectively as possible. So I have scaled back the amount of training sessions, which I was trying to do in the week. This has helped a lot and made me able to cope with everything else (sleep, eating, etc).

There is light at the end of the tunnel!!

I have helped launch the team I was working so hard to put in place. It has been live for 2 weeks, which means I don't need to be away from home, can scale back my hours to normal levels and focus on my actual day to day job (which I haven't actually been able to do, since I started it in January!).

Needs must, the above happens sometimes, yes maybe I over did it, maybe I should have said I can't work away from home, to focus on myself. BUT....it doesn't happen every day and I don't have to do that again for a while.

I haven't felt like me in the last few weeks, I have struggled with energy levels and being able to hit the gym. Which isn't like me. I push myself all the time and I started to feel like I wasn't me, by the fluffiness in my gut and feel like I'm further away from my goal.

I need to re-focus, get my drive and determination back!!

Thankfully for me.......yesterday that happened! On the train on the way back from Halifax, I was sitting there, trying to snooze and not succeeding. So I started to think 'what can I do, to get back to how I was?' and I started to make notes. Why I do, what I do? How have I done it before? How am I going to do it this time? I then started to watch some vlogs from my favourite fitness guru 'Nikki Blackketter', she really inspires me. I'm not sure exactly why or how, but whenever I watch her videos, it makes me want to train, eat well and achieve a similar physique to her.

Link to Nikki's youtube (vlog) page: https://www.youtube.com/user/nikkiblackketter

So I'm starting small, next week I will do the follow:

1. I will drink 4 litres of water a day (I will struggle with this!!)
2. I will eat at least one bag of broccoli, carrot and cauliflower mix a day, to get my veg in and my fibre.
3. I will get my carbs from veg, not wraps or bread
4. I will train 5 times this week, 4 training and 1 conditional
5. I will get at least 7 hours good quality sleep a night

I think I'll leave it there.... I'm only focusing on one week at a time, for now. I have my longer terms goals, but at the moment, I only want to think about the above.

I want to go back to regularly losing weight and my body fat percentage reducing, I want to get to the leanest I've ever been and really push my body to it's maximum. You must never forget where you have come from, but equally you should push yourself to the next thing, whether that be learning, fitness or health.

Wish me luck for this week.

Thanks for reading
Holly :) x