Lazy me

I haven't been writing a lot lately and there's not really a reason, i've just been a bit lazy. So today I left cape town and I am now on holiday in Plettenberg Bay. I love it here. One thing I love doing for exercise is hiking and there just so happens to be the best mountain hike in the world here. - in my opinion. It is called Robberg. It is so beautiful and really great exercise. it can be very tiring but the view is great and its worth the struggle in the end.

Quote of the day

motivation of the day

Eating clean

I love food. Well, just like everyone else on this planet but its my passion. Next year I will be doing a chefs course at Silwood kitchen. I am super excited because its the first step towards my dream of having my own restaurant. My plan is to open a restaurant with healthy but yummy food that leaves you feeling satisfied. Because I am living a healthy lifestyle its sometimes hard finding something good on a menu thats healthy but also filling and tasty. I want to make it easier.

Clean eating has always been a pleasure for me because I enjoy salads, veggies, fruit and protein. I also LOVE to cook so I always avoid fast food and quick fixes when the people around me constantly eat that way. Even though I rarely eat any carbs or sugars I do have cheat meals which in my opinion are good for you because it helps you stay on track and not overwhelmed by such a strict eating plan. My cheats would be a cup of tea with sugars or some chocolate here and there.  I also am obssessed with Sour sweets, they are my weak point.

Clean eating is key to being healthy and treatint your body right. It is the main reason why I have lost so much weight in such a short period of time.

some of my healthy meals

my cheat meals

Mike Sully - My inspiration and motivation

www.capecrossfit.com/mike-sullivan/

CrossFit

Today I tried out my second crossfit class ever. Crossfit is a high intensity constantly varied functional strength and conditioning programme. In other words its a wakeup call to your body no matter what work out you are doing. Today's workout was called 'Annie' . I had to do skipping and sit ups a number of times (50-40-30-20-10) as fast as I could. It took me 8.15 minutes and I was pretty tired after wards but left with a feeling of accomplishment.

This is how crossfit makes you feel and it is something I have learned to love.

I will be joining a crossfit gym soon called 'cape crossfit' and it is where my boyfriend mike sullivan works as a coach. He is the person who inspired me to be more fit and pushed me to try crossfit. At the beginning I thought that he was a crazy person because he was so obssessed with gyming and I could think of a dozen better things to rather do. When I tried it for the first time and watched him coach a few classes or do competitions I realised this is not just going to gym, it is fun and challenging. It also makes you push yourself to the limit and do things you never thought your body was capable of.

I go to 4-5 mornings a week and it is horrible getting out of my warm bed knowing i have to go run on the treadmill or work my ass off on the eliptical machine. I dont enjoy gym, I find it boring. I work hard and it does pay off but I will never be fully satisfied or ever be excited to go work out.

When I get the chance to do Crossfit I feel excited to challange myself and test my body. I feel stronger after every work out and in my opinion if you want to be fit and healthy, its only 100% healthy if you have love for what you are doing.

Progress

These are progress photos taken one month into my weight loss. My appearance is the smallest part of my growing succession as I am fitter and stronger than ever, and it continues to progress every day.

how did I get here?

So, about 2 months ago I decided to change my lifestyle. Why? I was unhappy with my body and this just lead to my confidence dropping and bad habits. I was going out 2 nights a week minimum which meant drinking,eating junk and bad sleeping patterns. Its started because I was bored and going out clubbing or drinking to socialise seemed to filled that gap. After several months of doing this I realised that was only doing harm to my body and when i looked in the mirror i did not like what i saw.

I thought buying clothes that were bigger or hid my body in a certain way would help, they did on the outside but how i felt about myself remained. I knew summer was approaching and clothes weren't going to help me during bikini season. So it started off with me wanting the perfect beach body for summer and that was my motivation to lose weight.

It was hard at first. I started by cutting out all alcohol, sugar and carbs from my diet. When i went out it was so difficult not to have a drink as there will always be people pushing you to have 'just one'. Maybe it is because they feel guilty or the fact that I have the self control when they don't. It was also hard because when i went out i had no confidence, i picked up that i was socially awkward and possibly the reason i always drank so much was to change that around completely. It wasn't as bad cutting the carbs and sugar out of my diet because i enjoy healthy food.

So my journey started and I got in the hang of things. I ate plenty of protein and veggies and 6-8 glasses of water a day. My family thought it would be just a phase but lets just say i was committed.
Apart from eating healthily i started up my contract at gym again (which had expired due to lack of attendance.. oops) and was going 4-5 times a week doing strength training and cardio. I also started taking fat burners and drinking loads of green tea. i begun to see a significant amount of progress from just 2 weeks and it just motivated me to work harder.

2 and a half months later - started 3 July 2013 and today is the 16th of september I have lost 7kgs. My starting weight was 62kg and i now weigh 55kg. Apart from losing a lot of body fat, i have also gained a noticeable amount of muscle. Instead of having a beach body for summer being my motivation, i have found myself addicted to being fit and the healthy lifestyle. this is why i have started a blog about it, because it has become part of my daily life and a hobby that i most enjoy! I have never felt better about myself and more confident about what my body is capable of doing.