Living Lighter Living Fitter | Personal blog

Living Lighter Living Fitter

Phone: +61 8 9444 1644

Add/Update information

Reviews

Tags

• Other
• Brand
• Product/service
• Website
• Personal blog

25.01.2022 Finally a glimmer of light! Yesterday I saw the first little downward movement on the scales in the last 10 days since I started this challenge! And no doubt this was the result of two days of logging in my daily food intake into easy diet diary. I’m still eating too many calories though- I should be on 1200 cals/ day but still hitting around 1600. It just goes to show the power of food/ calorie awareness though, doesn’t it? The featured photo shows lunch which was chicken an...d vegetable stir fry and salad, afternoon snack ( mine is on the right, the left was my daughter’s) of waferthin crackers and cottage cheese, and dinner was salmon with stir fried veggies and a small portion of rice. I’m allowing myself one small portion of carbs per day, which is usually something like half a cup of cooked rice for dinner. So I’m keeping breakfast and lunch carb-free. My experience is definitely a revelation of what a powerful tool the diet diary can be in assisting with weight loss. It is certainly what I use with all my weight loss clients because not only does it make you accountable for every calorie that you put in your mouth, but it also educates you on the calorie and macro ( protein, carbs and fats) values of the foods you eat. I also did a BodyCombat class yesterday with the fabulous Kat Dennis but I am suffering for it today with an extremely sore stiff lower back I am blaming it on all those burpees she made us do... or was it all those Muay Thai kicks in every direction including backwards??

22.01.2022 The weekend of Week 2 of my challenge is half over. Yesterday (Saturday) pictured below saw me hit the gym ( Goodlife Floreat) my usual Saturday morning double of rpm followed by pump. I can definitely feel that my fitness has improved with the addition of the two extra combat and pump classes during the week. I wasn’t panting and sweating as much during difficult tracks in either class.... but I still felt that terrible burn in my legs with the lunge track ( back-handed than...ks to my pump instructor pictured on the right Chris Huddy!) It was also my rpm instructor Sue Smart’s 40th birthday... Sue did a special birthday mix of her favourite rpm tracks from the last decade which included a few oldies but goodies. Sue has two young kids and Chris has two school age kids and a husband who is away a lot for work... yet they both have the love, passion and commitment to be group fitness instructors and lead fantastic energetic classes every week! As for my weight.... still no significant change there. However there is a marginal downward trend .... I’m still living in hope. I did have both lunch and dinner out yesterday which is fairly typical for me on the weekend. Lunch was corn fritters with poached eggs and smashed avocado ( a reasonably healthy low carb choice), dinner was Moroccan beef tagine from the Scarborough fair markets- I didn’t eat the majority of the couscous and potatoes that it cam with, just the meat, carrots and chickpeas. However, I have to confess that I was unable to resist the temptation of the creme brûlée stall- the most difficult choice was what flavour- vanilla bean, salted caramel, matcha, Oreo....(I was unadventurous and settled for vanilla bean!) I’m not sure how many calories or carbs is in creme brûlée but I dare say a fair few! I shall just write it off as my cheat day and make sure I stay on track tomorrow.

20.01.2022 I am nearly at the end of Week 3 of my weight loss challenge and.... a marginal downward trend on my scales. As you can see from the photos below, my main problem is inconsistency of my diet due to eating out too much! I am generally doing well with my own lunches and dinners pictured on the right .... and then I counteract this with eating out!! As you can see from the photo on the left, dim sum at a Chinese restaurant for lunch is incompatible with a low- carb diet!! I ha...ve attempted to use adjustment for eating out- a strategy that I teach my weight loss patients, which is basically eating less or even skipping a meal on the day that you’re eating out, so that your total calorie intake/ budget for that day is still kept at what you intended. But at the end of the day, that old meme You can’t outrun a bad diet.... still holds true. However, I have definitely made improvements and reduced carbs and calories overall in my diet since I started the challenge. I just need to eat out less!

10.01.2022 Yesterday was Day 6 of my challenge and... still not one gram lighter! My interpretation of this is... I haven’t achieved a negative energy balance clearly. This is actually something that I hear all the time from patients who say I’m eating healthy and I’m exercising regularly... so why aren’t I losing any weight?. Using the cold hard facts of mathematics... you would need to eat 500 calories less every day in order to achieve a weight loss of 0.5 kg per week. This is on...ly a very rough guide for an average size person with moderate activity levels. Therefore I obviously haven’t been restricting my calories enough even though I’ve been eating significantly less carbs than normal. And even though I do six x 45 -60 minute high intensity gym fitness classes a week, you don’t lose weight by exercising. So back to the drawing board for Dr J. I am going to get serious this week and start logging my diet diary into an app like easy diet diary. Tracking your calories, carbs and food intake is a great form of accountability. And although exercise contributes only 10% to weight loss, it’s still worth upping the ante on it when you’re trying to lose weight because every little bit helps. Yesterday I added in a bit of incidental activity by walking around the city shopping ( pictured on the left) but unfortunately counteracted by dinner at a Thai restaurant Bangkok Brothers in Northbridge (pictures on the right). Today I will get serious about my weight loss challenge.... so watch this space!

07.01.2022 I kicked off Week 2 of my weight loss challenge with a more serious determined approach than last week. The fact that I barely managed to maintain my weight ( let alone lose weight!) was a sobering experience. So yesterday ( Monday) I logged my food into a calorie counting app for the first time. I’m using Noom at present but when my free two week trial is up soon I’m planning to transition to easy diet diary, which is an Australian app... unlike my fitness pal which is Amer...ican. Breakfast was Chobani plain Greek yoghurt with a handful of Coles Superfood Snacking Mix and a few blueberries ( approx 300 cals). Lunch was tuna, bean and avocado salad ( approx 400 cals) and dinner was some left over Thai Massaman curry, veggies and cauliflower rice. I have to confess that cauliflower rice is nothing like real rice in taste or texture but.... it does have a whole lot less calories and no carbs to speak of! I managed to make an extra BodyCombat class yesterday evening so I’m feeling proud of myself for at least achieving that small goal that I set myself last week. Today was my usual gym double day of BodyPump(pictured below) followed by rpm (cycle). My feet and ankles are feeling a little sore tonight... I don’t think they liked all the jumping in Combat last night followed by all the weights in pump this morning! I am saying my prayers tonight that finally tomorrow I might see even a small downward movement on the scales!

07.01.2022 Week 3 of my challenge has just ended... and I am still the same weight as when I started! I would have to say that I am living proof of You can’t outrun a bad diet! I have to say my fitness levels have improved substantially since I started the challenge, so that is a definite bonus. Pictured below on the left was Saturday morning BodyPump launch of the new release with instructors Sue Smart and Emma Neal.... I also managed to get in a walk around King’s Park on Thursday to check out the spring wildflowers... remember all that extra incidental activity does add up. However, it’s back to the drawing board on the diet side. This week I’m not anticipating any eating out during the weekdays, so this is my opportunity to hopefully make some downward progress on the scales ( for a change!)

06.01.2022 Here is my marketing video for The Living Lighter For Life Masterclass, my first or beta launch of my small group coaching weight loss programme. Thanks so much to Eric Paul Goldie, for his professional videography at such short notice. Please share this with your fb friends too! I am planning to do a series of Facebook Lives in the next week, the first will be on Saturday addressing the topic of Diet and Weight Loss Myths... so watch this space!#weight loss

05.01.2022 I am nearly at the end of Week 4 of my challenge and... the scales haven’t budged. However, I have certainly made a lot of improvements in terms of eating healthier, in particular lots more vegetables than I normally would; and improving my fitness level. This week I’ve certainly excelled on the veggies front... as you can see from the photos, I made two trays of roast veggies ( sweet potato, corn, Brussels sprouts, carrots, capsicum) so I could have leftovers for lunch. I ...was thinking that this would be great for vegetarians with perhaps the addition of feta, halloumi or other cheese for protein. I managed to make it to my two additional gym classes of BodyCombat and BodyPump this week, and I’ve been taking my dog Lola for walks down at City Beach every morning. I’m obviously not restricting my calories enough. I’m thinking about trying some pre- ordered calorie-controlled meals for next week to see if this makes any difference. See more