A healthier outlook and a new me.

Since January I have been on a healthy eating journey.  I had over the years developed a poor relationship with food.  I constantly felt sluggish and tired.  I would wake up tired and literally fall into bed exhausted.  I'm convinced a lot of it stemmed back to my childhood, where we were forced to sit at the table until we had eaten everything. Subsequently I became a very fussy eater.  It was a hideous experience and one I vowed never to repeat with my own children.

Once I left home in my early twenties and started cooking for myself I discovered food could be an enjoyable experience.  The problem then became I couldn't stop eating - that combined with way too much alcohol on a far too regular basis meant I literally piled on the pounds.  I would regularly eat double my husbands portion having already polished off the kids remainders or not know what to cook and just plow my way through mountains of pasta.  Breakfast if I could be bothered would consist tonnes of toast with lashings of butter and lunch was a cheese and crisp sandwich.  In hindsight it's no wonder I felt rubbish.

Prior to having my girls I used to go to the gym which helped keep my weight in check however I really struggled to get rid of my baby weight.  I became depressed, none of my clothes fitted, I felt fat frumpy and horrid, but I was in a vicious cycle.  I attempted various diets.  Weight Watchers - where I constantly felt starved and became points obsessed, Slimming World - I just found confusing, red days green days, anything goes days, the GI diet, Calorie counting you name it I tried it and each time it failed I felt more and more like a frumpy failure.

This January I topped the scales at 11stone 9lb's (116lb) I was mortified.  Amelie who was five at the time had started picking up on comments about how chubby I was and it was then that I knew I needed to do something about it for good.

Armed with the my fittness pal app a fitness tracker and the 5:2 diet I embarked on developing a healthier way of living.  In the first week I was amazed at three things.

1. Just how many calories I was actually consuming through all the junk and rubbish I was eating. 
2. How distorted my view of what was "good" for you actually was.
3. How much if you are careful you can eat on 500 calories a day.  

Quite quickly I started to feel better, I had more energy.  Gradually since Christmas whilst no longer strictly following the 5:2 diet I have implemented a lot of techniques I learnt from it into my everyday life.  Then by chance one day at the start of February I discovered Deliciouslly Ella.  In the beginning I started making some of the recipes from her website and then I brought her book.

Gone is the toast with butter for breakfast.  Replaced with porridge made with water and almond milk, fruit and seeds.  I was a bit dubious to start with but it is simply amazing and now I wouldn't make it any other way.

Lunches now consist of homemade soups like this turmeric and lentil recipe from Deliciously Ella. 

or one of my homemade recipes such as this roast tomato, red pepper soup with lentils.

The bowls of pasta have been replaced with spiralized courgette pasta.

In addition to Deliciously Ella I have read Eat Nourish Glow by Amelia Freer and discovered the blog and cookbook of Oh She Glows.  I absolutely love it and have been raving about it to anyone who will listen.  It is jam packed full of amazing recipes.  I have literally turned my diet upside down.  

I now rarely eat bread any more (unless I have made it myself) and have pretty much cut out dairy although I am not yet ready to give up my tea and two cups of coffee a day.  In addition I have cut right back on the wine front and now rarely eat meat.  Gone are the biscuits, crisps and sugary snacks, the hiddeous amounts of butter has been replaced with almond butter.  Gradually I am developing a much more healthy relationship with food.  A realistic outlook, a diet which is sustainable and makes me feel so much better.  I cut myself some slack and never withhold anything.  However I am noticing that I no longer crave the sugary snacks, biscuits and the crisps like I used to and would much rather dig into a tub of home made hummus.  Slowly my husband is starting to come on board and even commented on how good the Oh She Glows Classic glo bar granola bars are.

Since January I have dropped from 11st 9lb to 10st 8.  Initially I lost a lot of weight quite quickly more recently it has slowed down but I can definitely see the difference.  I am loving my new healthier outlook and would definitely recommend it.