CYCLE ONE: How I lost weight quickly - first month

Why it started:

I knew I was getting a bit chubby but only when a friend's five year old child asked me if I was growing a baby that I felt motivated to start an exercise regime. Children always say the right things. I have Stage One Hypertension and High Cholesterol which was diagnosed and tested just before summer, so in June 2016.
BP = averaging 140/90 (Stage One Hypertension)
Cholesterol = 5.3 (only slightly high. Should be 5.2 and under)

Just to put things in perspective

Legs look toned thanks to ballet

I was not that chubby all over, I just had a pot belly. I am a mum, after all. I just looked like a mum. These are the photos of me during summer, i.e. before the exercise and diet regime started.

Anybody who knows me knows that I have always been a size 8, with a big tummy. I am 5' 0". I am 49 to 50 kg. I have never exercised except for ballet and when I ran the marathon 25 years ago. Apart from that, all I do is eat and drink the best things in life. In fact I reveled in the fact that I did no exercise and mocked those who did. I could easily scoff 12 Krispy Kreme donuts at one go. I don't know how I did it, I just could do it.

Blood Pressure (BP)
has probably been triggered by a very stressful period work-wise for two years, plus poor eating habits. Fried food and alcohol were my best friends! They were my go-to in good times and bad. Now I have given up. Occasionally I still drink - once every two weeks is now fine. I drank alcohol just once in August. I went for a month without alcohol in September and it was also fine. It is caffeine that I cannot do without. I still have to have a strong double espresso latte in the morning. But alcohol I do not miss and do not mind not having any. You can see from the photo below there are more than one occasion where the readings are high.

Anyway the aim is to lower BP first, then if I lost weight or became slim, that would be a bonus.

Recording BP readings from Sept 7th

How it started:

I discovered diet and exercise by accident. I bought Joe Wick's book while waiting for a bus outside WH Smith in Putney. Joe Wick AKA the Body Coach is an expert on diet and exercise. The wait was so long that I ran into Smith's, bought the book, read an entire third before the bus came. I noticed that his recipes were very Asian oriented which appealed to me because that meant they were quick to make (15 minutes to be correct) and I had the ingredients already. On the No 39 itself, I opened my instagram and followed him. His hashtag is leanin15. From then on I started researching into Joe Wick's 90 day SSS cycle. Firstly because he is a very likeable friendly character who has already given tons of stuff away for free, his training videos, his recipes. Secondly, I liked his simple Asian style recipes. I wanted to follow his cycle but sadly I cannot give up toast in the morning so I could not follow his cycles or join his programme. But at least I cut down to one slice of toast in the morning rather than two. However, I still retained the essence of all his advice, lessons and tips, plus a few that I learnt along the way on my own. I have also bought his other book.

CYCLE ONE

I started diet and exercise on the inauspicious date of 911 (September 11th). These photos were taken on day one of the thirty days. Although they are very embarrassing and stupid, this is what a mum looks like in case no one realises the harsh reality of the real world. There ain't no photoshop here, though I am a whizz at it I am not going to waste my design or retouching skills here when you can see for yourself my life since giving birth 9 years ago.

Before - taken on Sept 11

Today I am at the end of the first thirty days. In the first 30 days, I exercised 4 times a week.

Can you 'work' it 'out'?
As an aside: I don't use the word 'workout'. It's very negative. It's work and it's out. Instead I will always use the word exercise. Apparently that was the word for exercise until the word 'workout' took over. As a musician I know that exercise means doing something repetitively until you are damn good at it.

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

Each time of exercise should be a HIIT session or a high intensity interval training session lasting 20 minutes. At first I found this training extremely hard especially the first couple of sessions but it was OK very quickly. This surprised me. After 4 sessions it became totally normal to be glazed like a donut (Krispy Kreme! Wherefore art thou?), panting, drenched, staggering like a dizzy drunk. Everything appeared pleasantly glittery and clear after exercise. I had more energy than I had before I started the exercise. I thought I was going to be exhausted all day but on the contrary I was alert and awake all the time.

What about ballet?

I still carried on with ballet once a week as that does not count as cardio or resistance training. In fact it is dance, it doesn't really count as exercise for me because it is more a mental gym. You have no idea how hard your brain has to work to do ballet. Yet it is so much fun and I was not going to stop doing that just because I was exercising 4 times a week.

What time did I exercise?

I found the best time to exercise is in the morning to get it out of the way. I wrote down in my diary what I was eating pre- and post-exercise. I did not want to buy any protein 'workout' stuff until I was sure I was going to stick at it. I was already taking vitamin and mineral supplements which Joe had listed.

Investments:

The things I invested in were:
- the best sports bra for my money (one that Olympic athletes bought on Amazon, ha ha). £28.00
-Vitamins and minerals such as Vitamin D, cod liver oil, Vitamin C, Osteocare, Glucosamine, multivits etc. You can do your own cocktail according to your own deficiencies. Various prices.
-Organic whey protein, chocolate flavor, 'Strippd' brand from Boots. £20.00
-Fitbit Alta activity tracker and sleep monitor £61.00 second hand from Ebay

Note: the most expensive thing on this list is my Fitbit Alta which I got from Ebay second hand and I purchased a new leather strap to go with it. This is very overrated. It is often wrong as well. When I have exercised like mad, it still records the active minutes as ZERO. Grrr. Because it can only record if the active minutes are 10 minutes in a row and not split up into intervals as per interval training. Let's not get side-tracked, to pardon the pun.

The second most expensive thing on this list, apart from the total cost of the vitamin supplements, is the Shock Absorber Olympic-standard sports bra model number S4490 but it is worth every penny. It is the best thing you can have apart from having no breasts. It is proper structural engineering with upholstery.

What you are allowed to eat:

On training days, which is four days a week, you are allowed carbs with your meal post-workout. The rest of the meals must be low carbs. There are three meals and two snacks a day to be consumed. All bad things like donuts (Krispy Kreme! Krispy Kreme! Hello?), sugary snacks, cereals, white pasta, white noodles, white rice, white bread, and of course not to mention cakes, chocolates and desserts are banned. Buzz words helped me to define what I am supposed to be eating. Since I am not a nutritionist, I was only looking crudely at food categories in the Orwellian sense. High protein good. Low Carb good. High fibre good. Low GI good. Low calorie good. Low sodium good. Everything else bad.

However, as I have Stage One Hypertension and High Cholesterol, I have to give these up anyway! Can you imagine a life without wine, cheese, ham, alcohol and chips? "These are a few of my favorite things!" I sang at the top of my lungs.

What about eating out?

Well technically you can't. Who is going to cook you a high protein, low carb, low calorie, low GI, low sodium, high fibre meal? You.

Eat and drink and be merry for tomorrow we shall diet.

If you do have to eat out, like I did for my anniversary, or if you have a birthday to attend to, like my son had a birthday in the middle of my cycle one, then there is nothing to be done, "have your cake and eat it too". So I did get back on track the next day quite loyally despite myself.

Additional purchases

After 20 days of this cycle, I bought iBCAA powder that Joe recommended, from the myprotein online shop. I also bought some protein strawberry snacks. Since I cannot have my usual junk food snacks, I need healthy snacks when I am on the go. I leave one packet in my bag. Then I won't be tempted to buy junk when I am out. Sure you can always have a piece of fruit. Not just any fruit but something like apple or pear or celery only. Something that is crunchy and chewy and dire and not even that sweet, that makes you crunch and chew like mad for a long time, to fool the salivary glands, jaws and tummy into being full.

Results:
I am very pleased with the results. Check out the photos. See latest BP readings too.

At end of 30 days' training

Middle of training

After - taken on Oct 11

Although I only lost a miserable, measly 1.0 kg from 11 September to 11 October, it is from my tummy area! So it is working. The best thing is the high BP has dropped to 131/79 in the day and a wonderfully normal 117/72 at night. This is such an improvement, I can't believe it happened over such a short time and WITHOUT drugs or medication. And here below I am wearing my ballet leotard. I am so glad that I have ballet because without it how ever am I going to show off my flat tummy?! It's winter, right?

#black #ballet #leotard #gapjeans #wiwt #ootd #plain #simple #dance #balletdancing #1990s #clothes

A photo posted by Satsuma World (@ivyngeow) on Oct 8, 2016 at 12:18am PDT

After today, I have a rest day, and then I move onto Cycle Two. More updates coming. I really love exercise and I cannot wait to carry on. I didn't know its power.