I think the picture has given the game away but yes success at last… hitting the nuclear button, spending a fortune and creating an atmosphere that, to be honest, I can only recreate once every year has worked…hurrah.. and the beauty is I have managed to sustain the success…What? How? Where? Why? Too many questions unanswered …. let me rewind and start from the beginning….
I left you last month at a dizzying 161.3lbs…. Tipping over the 11 stone mark I don’t think so .. a fully fledged 11.5 stoner!! My face felt fat, I had love handles in all sorts of places, front, back and sides.. my legs felt like sausages with cellulite on the front let alone the back..I didn’t dare glance… and my arms began to sag under the armpit towards the tricep.. all in all not a good look…
The Detox spa did its magic and in 7 days of pretty gruelling and all consuming effort I managed to lose 10lbs and as well as a total shift in my body shape I managed to reset my mind, my behaviour and my palate.
I had 7 tactics to employ when I got home that I identified in Switzerland and told you about last time… Portion size, Snacking, Alcohol, Gluten, Diarising, Fasting, Home tools… and I have managed to implement 6 of the 7… I haven’t got round to unearthing my home tools yet, like my slender tone belts, my airfryer or my infra red sauna sleeping bag.. (yes I did buy one of those at one stage and still haven’t used it!) But let’s talk about what I have implemented..
I have stopped loading my plate and really concentrated on portion size, I have stopped caring about what people think when I do this.. for example I have been to the pub twice and both times ordered fish and chips….. “what???” I hear you exclaim, how can you claim to be in control if you are having fish and chips and red wine… well the secret is I pick out the fish from 95% of the batter and only have about 5 chips…my plate goes back to the kitchen with quite a lot of food on it but I don’t care…. so I have scratched the itch.. eaten something I fancied but actually hardly had any of it but I feel full enough as I have realised you really don’t need to eat that much to feel properly full…. At home also I have stopped piling the plate up .. I start with a bit and see how I go and 19 times out of 20 I don’t go back for more… I don’t order pudding at restaurants any more and tend to order a salad for a starter if I have to and then fish…so obvious but I never did it. Now it’s the norm. At the detox spa all the food was vegan but it was so cleverly cooked and so delicious that I didn’t notice and didn’t miss meat and fish at all, I have always declared previously that I couldn’t cope without meat and fish.. but I can!
Snacking.. Alcohol.. Gluten.. I am going to tackle all these together as they are inextricably linked for me… if I don’t eat Gluten I don’t tend to snack as most of my snacks are gluten based (toast, biscuits, crackers etc) then if I don’t drink alcohol (to excess) I don’t have crisps or have the desire the next day to overload on carbs… avoiding gluten takes out so many food groups that really don’t ever satiate my hunger but just add calories for me.. I don’t believe in cutting out carbs though and am happy to eat gluten free bread occasionally now but not the loaf of toast that would be demolished for breakfast …I am not being fanatical about this and believe in everything in moderation. For example I went to France last week to stay with my 94 year old Aunt… I wasn’t going to start annoying her with my pickiness, although why I feel the need to accommodate other people’s views with what I put in my mouth is beyond me, but I do. So I ate a Croissant every morning and ate baguette with cheese and many many tarts and puddings that contained gluten.. however the key was portion size here .. I kept it to a sensible amount and came back no heavier than I left… no snacking, minimal alcohol and portion control meant I could eat and drink the variety on offer but not ruin the diet. At home my intake of salad and vegetables has been increased. These elements fill my plate and trick my mind into thinking I am having a great feast when really there are less than 300 calories on the plate. So much of this is in the mind it is insane… at the detox spa where calories were limited to 850 a day there would still be three meals a day and at lunch and supper 3 courses so you can imagine how little there was on the plate but it was all cleverly and beautifully presented as well as being insanely delicious so your mind told your stomach it was full and you honestly didn’t feel that hungry that often and if you did you knew you just had to stick it out a couple of hours until the next delicious treat was served up.
Food and Exercise diaries just keep you honest, and give you a bit of a stick as when you have used your calories for the day you have a reason to stop eating which within minutes you realise was the right time as you are satiated and it was just your mind that had to catch up with your stomach… I am sticking to my old favourite of allowing myself 1350 calories a day plus any calories that I earn through exercise… I am not allowed to have any alcohol calories from the 1350 so if I don’t exercise I am not allowed even a sniff of Merlot! This works for me despite it being a little tiresome to either weigh or guesstimate the portion size… MyFitnessPal really does make it easier though with a new feature where you can scan the packet and it automatically uploads the calories… similarly it is linked to MayMyRun so if I log any runs, with my marathon training buddy elf, on that they automatically feed through..it also logs from my phone how many steps I have taken so if I have a particularly active day this is added on… simples!
The fasting has just become a bit of a routine for me… I am naturally an all or nothing person and find it easier to skip early meals than later ones.. so missing breakfast and pushing through for a late lunch does not kill me four or five times a week.. what I am trying to continue from Switzerland is the once a fortnight 24 hour fast.. this involves eating lunch one day, having less than 100 calories (a bowl of clear soup or the like) for supper and then pushing through the following morning with black coffee or tea until lunchtime .. the Autophaga (very basically your body starts to eat all the slightly deformed or bad cells after about 17 hours) benefits are well documented but it also reminds your mind that you can be a bit hungry but still carry on and it is fine.. obviously it really helps with the calorie count for two days… exercise is harder but not impossible…
I have told you it was a success, I have told you How? I have managed to sustain the success over the rest of the month… I have told you Where? And When? I haven’t told you the What?though! Drum roll please… the target was 151lbs which really was a ridiculous target given the previous ten months of failure…but…. I have only gone and done it!! Yes today I weighed in at 150.9 and not only is the number fabulous but most importantly I feel fabulous!
I feel in control, I feel energised, I look younger, I feel younger, I feel fit, I feel happy… oh so many positive emotions and achieved in such a short space of time….I have no pain in my body for the first time for over a year… I can’t discount that this hasn’t helped enormously as obviously pain totally saps the mind and body from any rational thought or willpower at times.. but this in itself motivates me to stay slimmer and more healthy.
Where do I go from here… well in true E.L.F. fashion.. onwards and inwards of course … so by 9th December (and just before the crazy season starts for real!) I intend to be -3 148lbs…. I was supposed to be 142lbs by this date if I had stuck to my original plan but things have gotten in the way, as you have read over the months, and as with all the best laid plans …. Let’s just celebrate the small gains and wins along the path and hope that by going on this journey and learning what I have learnt that I can continue this work and achieve my goals in time…just a bit more time than originally anticipated..
We’d love to hear about your own experiences of Expanding Late Forties – your successes and failures of shrinking your waist and expanding your mind. Use the form below to get in touch and we might even post it on the site.
