Keeping with the traditional from 8+ years ago, here I am with another dieting journey. Kinda same but so much better this time!
So over the years I've been struggling with my weight. It seems like no matter what I do I just need to watch myself all the damn time. I cannot let myself go at all because I'll just gain weight. Sometimes it makes it seem like if I'll gain weight from drinking water. It's ridiculous (hello, body dysmorphia). Throughout these 8 years of me being away from blogging I've tried so many diets and workouts and I think I came to the conclusion that my genetics are basically crap. I'm currently biggest I've ever been and I cannot stand myself (did I mention body dysmorphia?). It seems like I'll never be able to just chill and I pretty much need to watch what I eat 24/7 and do workouts every single day. So that's what I'll be doing now and I'll be sharing my progress with you.
Something to note is that within last 3 years I was also diagnosed with endometriosis. To really simplify it, it's a chronic illness that messes up your hormones, causes pain and can mess your body up massively. I don't have a proper confirmation because of how under-researched this illness is, but I'm pretty certain it is also making my weight control much more difficult.
Also to note, I won't be going on any super crazy diets. I had a look at my last diet post on here from 2015 and I was a little bit scared how some days I was eating as little as ~700kcal. No wonder I was complaining about fatigue. Wtf... 🙃
Sooo...this time I'll try doing something a bit more sustainable. I'll try doing a more drastic calorie cut on some days and having more normal meals on others. This will depend on my activity levels - if I'm just working on the computer I'll probably eat less, but if I'm moving around a lot, I'll eat more. The idea is to get into a habit of being mindful and making it into a long term thing.
If you think about doing a calorie deficit diet, pls pls pls make sure that you're not overdoing it. Especially if you're doing it for more than 2 days. It can really hurt you so please be careful and look after yourself. A great way to get a guideline on your calorie cut is finding out your BMR - basal metabolic rate. It's basically how many calories you'll burn even if you did absolutely nothing. You can calculate it yourself using a formula but it's much easier to just use one of the many calculators online. I found out that my BMR is ~1800kcal a day. Once you do that you can easily just take away 100-300kcal for a safe weight loss. Try not to go below 1200kcal as it can really affect your body. I am not a dietician. I have got a nutrition certification but I'm not confident on actually doing the nutrition work professionally on others lol. Most of the knowledge I have is through the many years of research and testing the theories on myself.
So after getting all of this off my chest, follow my first week journey below!
Week 1 Day 1
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| Week 1 Day 1 Breakfast |
Breakfast: 2 boiled eggs, 0.75 cup of egg fried rice, 5 cherry tomatoes, 1 nori sheet, 1 spring onion.
Snack : 2 mini scones with butter, 2 digestive biscuits.
So I skipped lunch today because I sort of got busy during the day and when I finally started getting hungry it was a little bit too close to dinner so I just decided to skip it and have only dinner so I don't overdo with calories. I did have 2 mini scones and 2 biscuits in-between so I wasn't completely starving myself lol.
Dinner: Egg noodles with beef and mushrooms in soy, hoisin and oyster sauce; mini scone.
Total calories: ~1239 kcal
Workout: 18 minutes of Kiat Jud Tai Chinese workout ~126 kcal burned.
Week 1 Day 2
Weight: -0.1kg
As much as I would love to see an instant change (especially after quite a low calorie amount yesterday), it's not gonna happen overnight so I'm just keeping positive. Also don't forget to drink enough water! I definitely haven't yesterday. When you're dehydrated your body can actually start storing water in your body which will make you weigh more and look bloated!
Feeling pretty good today but also my biceps are dead sore lol. The exercise that I've done yesterday involved a lot of arm action. Not sure why my biceps in particular would feel sore but then again, I'm not too knowledgable about workouts lol. I just follow the instructions haha.
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| Week 1 Day 2 Breakfast |
Breakfast: 1/2 banana, 125g soya yogurt, 45g high protein granola, 2 tsp sunflower seeds.
Lunch: 2 white bread toasts with kimchi, pumpkin seeds, sunflowers seeds and 2 eggs.
Dinner: Ramen noodles with beef and mushrooms in soy, hoisin and oyster sauce, 330ml can Brewdog Elvis Juice.
Total calories: ~1410 kcal
Workout: 16 minutes of Kiat Jud Tai workout and 8 minutes of ab workout ~105 kcal burned.
Any of the home workouts I've done are simply Youtube workouts. They work great!
Week 1 Day 3
Weight: no change.
So normally when I start a restrictive calorie diet I get really upset when I don't lose any weight but this time it's actually different because before I started this diet I've been doing these Chinese workouts (they're on YouTube) and even though I can't see any difference on scales I can definitely feel it! I feel more energetic and stronger and can definitely feel the effects the next day (my biceps are on fire lol). It's a win for me so I'll definitely take it!
Breakfast: a very small (probably only 1/4) leftover portion of last night's noodles.
I had things to do this morning so had a quick bite of leftovers and left the house. Just over 200 kcal. After running errands hubs and I popped to the gym. There's no need to go to the gym to lose weight. You can easily do that using Youtube workout videos and phone apps. I do like weight lifting and building strength so enjoy a trip to the gym a few times a week.
Lunch: 2 eggs, 2 sausages, tomato, 1/3 cup sautéed mushrooms, a few chips with a small amount of ketchup and mayo.
Dinner: roasted beef with jollof rice.
Total calories: ~1823 kcal
So today I went to the pub with hubs, which is why the calorie count is higher than my goal. This is not something I recommend and you should definitely watch what you eat and reduce/eliminate alcohol from your diet but I believe that being realistic is important and I wouldn't want to lie to people who are possibly trying to achieve the same thing as me. 😉 I think being realistic about different lifestyles is more important, especially when trying to create a sustainable, long term diet.
Workout: 50 minute session at the gym (a mixture of cardio on the elliptical machine, pull ups machine, seated row machine and curls) ~300 kcal burned.
Week 1 Day 4
Weight: -0.6 kg (-0.7 kg total)
Surprisingly enough I did lose weight even though I had a pub session lol yay!
Breakfast: 1/2 banana, a few black grapes, sunflower seeds, high protein granola and soya yoghurt.
Lunch: 2 eggs, 2 sausages, tomato, 1/3 cup sautéed mushrooms, a few chips with a small amount of ketchup and mayo.
Snack: 1 Royal Gala apple.
Dinner: roasted beef with jollof rice.
Total calories: ~1512 kcal
Workouts: 50 minute session at the gym (a mixture of cardio on the elliptical machine, deadlifts, RDLs, grip training and lunges) ~209 kcal burned.
The day went pretty well apart from the headache due to last night's drinks lol.
Week 1 Day 5
Weight: no change (-0.7 kg total)
Breakfast: 2 eggs, 2 sausages, tomato, 1/3 cup sautéed mushrooms, a few chips with a small amount of ketchup and mayo.
Snack: mini scone with butter.
Lunch: roasted beef with jollof rice, 1 digestive biscuit.
Dinner: homemade flatbread with Sriracha mayo, roasted beef and spinach.
Total calories: ~1754 kcal
Workouts: no workout today.
Week 1 Day 6
Weight: +0.6 kg (-0.1 kg total)
Not too worried about this one. I've seen this happen in the past. Weight often goes up and down, it's just the matter of staying on track and being resilient.
Breakfast: Oat porridge with peanut butter, sunflower and pumpkin seeds.
Lunch: 2 eggs, 2 sausages, tomato, 1/2 avocado, 1/3 cup sautéed mushrooms and spinach, a few chips with a small amount of ketchup and mayo.
Dinner: bulgogi beef with white rice.
Total calories: ~1248 kcal
Workouts: 50 minute session at the gym (a mixture of cardio on the elliptical machine, shoulder press and dips) ~203 kcal burned.
Week 1 Day 7
Weight: -0.9 kg (1 kg total)
See? Told you lol.
So yesterday I had some health issues and due to nausea I'm taking it slow today. I won't be eating much but because I want to make sure I'm getting a decent amount of nutrients I've made a nice vegetable soup. 2 ladles worth of soup is only 75 calories but 3.6 g of protein since I've added bunch of different beans and peas. I do need to eat more soup so that sorts it lol.
Breakfast: Jollof rice with spinach and 2 boiled eggs.
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| Week 1 Day 7 lunch |
Lunch: homemade veggie soup with a spoonful of soya yoghurt.
Dinner: egg fried rice (or more like bin rice since I just used whatever leftovers and veg I had in the fridge lol).
Total calories: 1287 kcal
Workouts: no workout today because I'm not feeling well. ☹️
Aaaaand week 1 is over! I think I've done really well. It was pretty effortless and I think it's a very sustainable way to lose weight. I'll be continuing this and documenting my progress. It's a great way to track your success and keep your accountability in place. This is what I've missed when I was looking at people's weight loss stories. A lot of the stories I've read had very minimal documentation or unsustainable methods. I hope you enjoy this, let me know if you have any questions in the comments below and I'll update you all on my progress in a week's time!
My Podcast: A Pint Of Rice | My IG: Lina B 🦭
Byeee~
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