Well, the bad news is blatantly obvious, I didn’t stick with the bloody blog. But here I go again with another attempt so yay! And I’m hoping to keep at it too because the good news is I’ve been making progress. Finally I think I’m actually OFFICIALLY on the road to somewhere, instead of tinkering around with the car in preparation for the journey.
It all started with something really simple. I decided to give up drinking tea. I was totally addicted to the stuff, I had a massive 1 pint capacity mug and drank tea pretty much all day every day. I guess I’d been in denial about how unhealthy my habit was, but really, now that I’ve given up, I realise I had no clue at all.
You see, I wasn’t just drinking tea in hugely unhealthy amounts, rather it was a barrier to my making progress. I realised that my tea habit, and my aversion to eating cold food with hot drinks, was discouraging me from eating as much fruit as I should, and worse still, it was a sort of “gateway drug” for all sorts of forbidden foods and junk.
Last but not least, giving up tea drew a virtual line under my old ways, it signified the beginning of a new me, the most vital psychological battle has been fought.
So, my new lifestyle involves no caffeine whatsoever – just copious amounts of water. I eat as much fruit and veg as I can and try as much as possible to eat small meals every 2-3 hours or so – I’m told that it’s good for the metabolism. I also hear that the best time to eat fruit is first thing in the morning, so while I eat fruit all through the day, I have fruit for breakfast every morning.
Just a note for anyone giving up caffeine, I did have headaches for the first couple of days and felt absolutely awful (it really made me think about what this stuff must do to our systems if it’s like that getting off it), but then it passed. I’d suggest to anyone giving up caffeine that they do so when they have some time off work and responsibilities as I was able to do very little during those first couple of days.
Thankfully I can report that this new lifestyle is paying off big time. For the past two weeks, since I gave up tea, I’ve lost 3.6lbs each week, and that’s without exercise! Speaking of which, exercise is the next mission to get going – I made a start the other day, but need to build on it.
To keep me motivated I’m watching as much weight loss telly as I can and despite huge reservations, I’ve become addicted to The Biggest Loser. I think the contestants lose weight way too quickly, but Jaysus seeing the results don’t half motivate me!! Two separate seasons (one UK, one US) have just come to a close on telly this week so I’ll be suffering withdrawal big time!!! I’ve even ordered a Jillian Michaels beginners workout DVD – never thought I’d see the day! In the meantime I’ll be putting up with X-Weighted and How Long Will You Live and other similar shows.
For the first time ever, I feel like I’m in the zone, I mean really and truly feel it – not just “oh holy fuck I need to lose weight I’d better do something about it!!!!!” – this is lifestyle stuff, this is psychological change for the better – no more messing around – the only way is up!! (or down…on the scale that is!)
