Fitness + Food = Fabulous!

For those of you who know me well – you will know that the Fitness element of this equation doesn’t really resonate with me.

I am not a natural athlete and have always had the fortune of not having to worry about it. Hence the teenage sleepovers where chocolate gateau featured in every meal and I could get away with ice cream for breakfast every now and then.

As I approach the impending W-Day and my 28^th birthday, I have come to realise that , without even noticing, that I do not have this luxury anymore.

I know that some people reading this will be surprised, so I shall enlighten you with a few fast facts:

-          Although I am not large, I put on 7 kilos in a few months without noticing.

-          At my heaviest I was 65kg.

-          I only noticed when I saw a photo of myself.

So, in a bid to overturn my life and create a long-term, sustainable healthy lifestyle – I joined a bootcamp.

Now I was always one of those people who would walk past a bootcamp (obviously in the evening as I am also not a natural morning person) and laugh at how silly everyone looked, how some of the girls were all dressed up in their best pink gear and why everyone there wasn’t fat?

Now I know. Bootcamp is not what you think it might be. It is not all full of fat people as I once mistakenly thought. It is not also full of pink gym gear (cue moi in a Primarni green tank top and $5 Big W shorts). But most importantly, it is not about paying someone to shout at you.

Whilst there is a market for these bootcamps, mine is about support. Everyone there – of various shapes, sizes, ages and backgrounds, are there for their own personal reasons. Reasons that are not shared, because essentially it doesn’t matter.

There is a mutual understanding and support for the tasks completed and the effort input. Everyone is at a very different fitness level, and everyone has very different motivations.

Motivation is important when you are waking up at 5am twice a week, in the dark, to walk 30 minutes to the bootcamp, an hour of intense working out, a half hour walk back and then get into the routine for work.

My motivation? A photo of myself on a beach in the Perhinthans in Malaysia – a moment in time when I felt my most free and beautiful. A moment I would love to feel again.

However 6 weeks in, I have noticed the dramatic changes.

-          I have become a morning person and started exercising a little most days a week

-          I have already lost 1.5kilos and maintaining a healthy weight

-          I have already lost cms around the middle

-          I have started the nutirion overhaul program to keep track of my food intake

Which leads me nicely onto my next topic – Food.

I live in Melbourne and I love food. It almost sounds like an AA confession!

Melbourne has some of the most fantastic food – from a real range of cultures and for all budgets. This is in addition to the amazing coffee that sustains the city and fuels the creativity.

So it is a tough challenge for me to be on the nutritional overhaul with my bootcamp. Essentially, it is keeping a food and exercise diary to establish healthy eating patterns, to gain nutritional advice and to assess how much and what you are eating.

It is fascinating as although I have always been extremely healthy in my adult life (the cake and ice cream for breakfast episodes were in my younger days) and I enjoy making healthy choices – it does help reign in any unnecessary snacking and unhealthy habits.

For example – all those work birthdays where there is always some kind of cake/biscuit/sugary treat – where I would always say yes and take a slice and inhale it before we have even began the celebratory signing. The unforeseen situations where food is offered and to have the will power to say no thank you.

It is actually making me rethink and have the strength to do so (full well knowing that come W-Day I am going to tuck into our glorious chocolate cake!) so I can transition into the Fabulous phase.

I am starting to feel much more fabulous than flabulous now that the wibbly bits have been wobbled away in strength and cardio training. The vision I have in my mind of myself being slim, toned and tanned in my hens and honeymoon pics are well on their way.

The trick is to keep it up in the cold winter Melbourne months which are shortly on their way. No big hidey flabby jumper for me this year! (That’s how a winters trip to Prague, New York and Christmas got out of hand before coming to Australia).

So I guess this is the positive impact that Australia is having on me. Whilst I coul do this anywhere, being in a country that is much more outdoor and fitness focused, it does makes you feel less silly and more inclusive. Plus I really wouldn’t get up on a winters day in London to go outside and crawl around on the ground doing push ups and burpees at 6am. Oh no siree.

Whilst all of this is a goal towards the wedding, they are also training for life-after-wedding as well. Shock, horror! A fitness plan for a newly wed! Usually its all about the wedding day and afterwards its all about the red wine and cheese on the sofa.

The wedding is a goal and the start of my new life as a wife. I will definitely relax more after the wedding and enjoy those wine and cheese nights, but maybe low-fat cheese and just a glass of wine will do the trick. 

Muchos love as ever xoxo

Ps - I couldn't upload my plant pics for the update but the chilli is going rather well!