Healty eating and exercising right - at least trying to!

Hi everyone,

I don’t know about you but I find exercising and eating right so difficult! There is just too much temptation everywhere, like today when I went out for tea with some friends I was determined to pick a healthy option and resist having a dessert. However, my strength quickly vanished when everyone else was ordering pie and mash with chocolate cheesecake for after and I just couldn’t help myself. Before I knew it there was a huge plate of fish and chips in front of me swiftly followed by profiterole cheesecake and I devoured the lot. The guilt has now well and truly set in and although I know you're allowed a treat every now and then, this is too much of a re-occurance for me at the moment and I’m now sat here with my food baby feeling thoroughly sorry for myself.

Up until this weekend I had actually been very good after deciding a few weeks ago that I wanted to live a healthier lifestyle involving much more exercise and food that was good for me. I’m rubbish at going to the gym and when I do manage to drag myself there I don’t really know what I’m doing. So instead I opt for workout DVDs and my favourites are any by Jillian Michaels but especially the 30 Day Shred and Six Week Six Pack. I discovered these DVDs a few years ago and once I started doing them I noticed so much more of a difference in my body than I had when I was working out at the gym. After my holiday though they were quickly forgotten about until I dusted them off recently and decided to try them again. Each workout is only around 30 minutes long as well which is great as I find them much easier to fit into my day and to commit to.

 

Food wise I have been using the My Fitness Pal app to keep track of what I am eating. I think a lot of people use this one but if you haven’t heard of it then it is essentially a daily diary where you can input what you eat it and it will work out for you how many calories are in it as well as its nutritional value. Based on my current weight, age and how active I am on a day to day basis at work it has given me a target on 1200 calories a day to keep below. It can be quite challenging at first but I think it’s helped me to input all my meals in a morning before I have actually eaten them. I have been caught out in the past and eaten something I thought was relatively healthy only to find it contained about a billion calories and hidden ingredients so now I know if something is good or bad for you before it’s too late.

 

Controlling portion sizes has been another step I’ve made towards being healthier although I am still constantly having to remind my boyfriend that I don’t need to eat as much as him! As he does all the cooking in our house (I’m really terrible at it), he has got into a habit of making too much and piling it all on my plate. Then of course if it’s in front of me and it’s yummy, no matter how hard I try the temptation is too much and before I know it it’s all gone. Measuring out how much I want and making sure he doesn’t overload my plate with food has really made a difference and helped me feel much better too.

So basically I am trying to eat healthier and do more exercise but as you can tell from my experience today, it’s not always easy and I am far from the fitness guru I’d like to be. However, I think the fact that I am trying is an improvement and I am getting there with it, even if it is very slowly! As I’m very new to this if any of you have tips or tricks to staying fit and healthy or if you know of, or write a healthy eating or exercise blog then please let me know in the comments below! I’d love to hear how you do it and any ideas that might help me stay on track :)

Thanks for reading,

Hannah xx