My transformation

So i thought my first blog post would be one showing you all just how far i really have come.

As i have said, before 2013( my first year at university) my weight was never an issue, and i always had a petite physique regardless of my diet.

However, after staying in a university residence which fed me food with a very low nutritional profile, coupled with unhealthy eating habits- the picture on the left is what i looked like.

In the picture on the left i was doing absolutely no exercise while eating copious amounts of refined sugars, fats and carbs! I was not very health conscious and spent my days munching on chips, chocolates, pizza etc., while spending the day working at my desk. It was at this time that my thyroid also began to have problems and i was told that it was literally on the verge of being underactive. I had evidently gained a large amount of weight and my dad used to tell me that i need to start going to the gym and eat healthier. At the time i took offence, but the truth was that i was extremely unhappy with what i had become. For me it wasn’t about my weight or how i looked, it was more about how i FELT.

I was going through emotional turmoil and had a very low self-esteem at the time and felt extremely apathetic about life. It was in second year that i decided that i needed to make a change and get my physique back. I started attended classes at my local gym and absolutely loved it! Not only because of the weightloss but because of how i felt (post) workout. It gave me the energy and happiness that i had so long been needing! With regards to my eating, i was eating what i considered to be healthy but still consumed a large amount of refined foods.

The middle picture is roughly 8 months after the picture on the left. Here, i was regularly attending gym and started to make it somewhat of a routine. I found a passion for High intensity interval training which involves sprints on the treadmill and light weight training on the floor in-between. Much of my training routine involved cardio and i would engage in either interval training or long runs (10km-15km) 6 times a week! I had lost most if not all the weight that i had gained but i wasn’t fully happy with my physique. I remember feeling that although i wasn’t overweight i still didn’t feel fully confident -especially with regards to my stomach area! I craved body definition and was apathetic my lack of muscle tone. I felt a bit disheartened because i was spending hours on the treadmill and seeing little to no progress. I realised that i hit somewhat of a plateau and had to make a change….

I came across Kayla Itsines BBG and my first thought was “28 minute workouts 3 times a week?! surely that can’t give me the results that i want”.

After much research and seeing other progress pictures i realised that i had to give it a chance. I told myself i would do the first 4 weeks and see how i feel, if i felt that it was not enough i would stop. To my surprise i absolutely fell inlove with the workout routine. I learnt that my excessive cardio was not going to give me the tone and definition that i wanted and that i needed to incorporate resistance training. The picture on the right was the result, after completing 12 weeks of BBG. This transformation is not only physical, but had such an impact on my emotional happiness. I was spending less time in the gym than before ( 40 mins in total including 5 min warm up and stretch) and was seeing results like never before! Additionally the resistance training helped me gain a lot of physical strength ( in particular upper body) which helped so much with my confidence. I can’t truly say that for the first time in my life i actually FELT CONFIDENT in a bikini.

And now…..

I am currently repeating BBG1 and have replaced LISS with weight lifting. I will probably do BBG 2.0 next :)

*Blog post will be coming soon with exact details about my diet in the three pictures!