Baby steps

After damaging my hip further in January, I ended up putting on quite a bit of weight – around about a stone. Now, this may not be a lot to some, but I am naturally small and, more to the point, this happened in an 8 week period.

I don’t think I realised how bad I had become until I saw the images I took of myself (left) and was somewhat shocked. I know I am by no means large or overweight, but it was a big shock to me and I instantly began to wonder how to remedy my issue.

My first overhaul was to replace snacks for water, and lots of it. I used to snack a lot in work out of what I thought was hunger, but after reading an article about dehydration I decided to give drinking water a go instead. Before this point, I was lucky if I drank a litre of juice/tea a day – oh and definitely no plain water. Now, I have ditched the juices and cups of tea at work and replaced them with at least 1.5/2 litres of water in this time period. As if by magic, my hunger cravings were gone, for the most part.

I also took a long hard look at what I was eating and my portion sizes. I had a sudden realisation one evening that I didn’t have to eat everything on my plate if I was full, especially unhealthy food. It sounds silly, as I’m 22, but I always told myself that I must finish my meal, regardless of how full I felt.

Next, I overhauled my exercise regime, namely with the BBG Guide by Kayla Itsines, compromising of 4 x 7 minutes workouts. When I first started, I didn’t expect it to be hard, but coming from only ever doing cardio I definitely struggled. I do these exercises 3 times a week, cardio twice a week and one day of either Pilates or swimming.

I still have a long way to go before I'm 'happy' with how I look but for now, any progress is good progress.