The last day of 2013 is finally here! The day I've been dreading and looking forward to. Start of a new year will meaning jumping back on the bandwagon of healthy eating.
This time last year I tipped the scales at 16 and a half stone. I was extremely unhealthy, I did no exercise and I smoked. A few days after New Year's Eve a picture was loaded onto Facebook that made me go "oh my god what have I done to myself" I then decided that I want to get healthy, not just lose weight to look good, which has been the main reason for dieting in the past, but to actually be healthy.
The dreaded picture :-
I've tried numerous diets over the years, weight watchers, slimmers world, Atkins, cabbage soup, slim fast and the hardcore lipotrim. None of these diets I felt you could continue to maintain a weight and always seemed like temporary solution to a problem. I had always been either gaining or losing.
A few months prior I'd watched the hairy bikers programme "the hairy dieters" where they cooked low calorie alternatives to there super delicious meals. So I bought the book and decided to try it.
I think keeping things fresh by planning out what you eat and researching new recipes has been the route of my success so far.
I downloaded a fantastic app called "My Fitness App". You input your information into the app your weight, your height, how much you want to lose each week and it calculates how many calories you should eat each day!!! By imputing into your daily diary the app removes the amount of calories in each item of food letting you know how many calories are remaining for the day.
Another feature of the app is tracking your exercise, you choose your exercise and the app calculates how many calories you have burnt and adds this into your daily calorie amount.
An example of my fitness pal diary :-
Another thing I wanted to focus on was increasing my fitness levels. Again I found a brilliant app called "Map My Walk". This enables you to track your walks and the speed you travel at. When I started using the app my average speed was 2mph or less, by walking daily I've increased my average speed to 3-4mph. Another feature is that it keeps a memory of the walks you have done and when you beat the time it informs you of our progress. I definitely believe that these apps have greatly assisted in my progress and would highly recommend them to anyone consider a diet.
An example of map my walk :-
My biggest fitness achievement was climbing "Catbells" in the lake district which is 451 metres high. I found it difficult and I never really understood the appeal of hiking until I reached the top. Now I'm hooked!! This year I want to re climb "Catbells", then "The old man of Coniston" and then "Snowdon".
Me and my fiancé and our dog Tilly at the top of Catbells :-
So now for 2014 I will contine my journey and push myself again. I will be sharing my progress through this blog. Sharing recipes and exercise starting from tomorrow.
But for the last few hours of 2013 I'm going to have one last binge 🍕🍝🍰🍪🍫🍹🍷🍸
Happy New Year everyone!
Love Steph
Xxx
