Hey guys and dolls!
It has been a while since I have blogged but I got a little push from a fellow blogger Natural Nigerian! You can check her blog out at http://www.naturalnigerian.com/ great tips for all you naturals out there!
It seems like the perfect time for me to start blogging again, as 27th June 2013 will mark my 1 year weight loss journey! It has been a wonderful year so far thanks to God and thanks to my support network. If it wasn't for that I would probably still be unhappy and overweight. Now I'm proud to say I am HEALTHY and my blood pressure is NORMAL!
A lot of people ask me HOW? There was no quick fix, I had to change my attitude towards food and exercise and I did this by carrying out a lot of research on google and YouTube! The Internet is a great tool, make it your best friend throughout your journey. By understanding the amount of calories my body needed to consume to function properly and lose weight at the same time I was able to discover the types of foods to eat and those to stay away from! I began to eat to fuel my body and not just because food was available.
Where it all started
DECIDE AND COMMIT
I looked myself in the mirror and felt unattractive, I had really let myself go in a way that I never had before, and it wasn't helping my condition so that fateful day on 27th June 2012 I decided to look through YouTube for inspiration. I came across a lot of transformation videos of normal people who had followed Shaun T's "Insanity" 60 day workout DVD. It seemed tough but I was convinced and purchased it straight away. It came with a diet plan which I followed for about 2 weeks. The weight wasn't falling off as I hoped so I decided to continue research about nutrition. You will note I did not give up, I had decided and committed to something and I was going to see it through!
I was convinced that I could achieve great results without having to prepare 6 small meals a day as it was actually making me feel more hungry than satisfied! Then I discovered Intermittent Fasting ( IF) WHAT fasting your asking? YES unfortunately I can't credit the first person whom I had discovered this lifestyle from as I can not remember his username on YouTube. However if you have heard of the Hodge Twins you will know that they used to preach 6 meals a day until they themselves discovered IF and they now swear by it. Check their channel out ( fasting twins).
What is IF?
I will only give a quick definition as I've already got a blog post on this:
It is a lifestyle NOT a diet, that is one thing you need to understand first, and basically I follow the lean gains form of intermittent fasting which is where I fast for a number of hours during the day and have a specific eating window with which I eat all my daily calories. I started with 20 hours fasted and a 4 hour eating window. Now I fast between 18/19 hours a day with a 5/6 hour eating window. During your fasted state you are only allowed to drink water.
The idea behind this is that your body spends more time burning fat than constantly digesting food therefore aiding weight loss. A lot of you are saying what about breakfast?! If you are a new reader PLEASE read the link above so you can understand more! Brad Pilon who is the creator of Eat Stop EAT another form of intermittent fasting did a lot of research and concludes that breakfast is a 'gimmick' which the food industry has got us all to buy into over the past few years, after all they can't sell fasting to us can they? Breakfast means breaking a fast whether in the morning afternoon or evening. Do read that post as I explain about some of the studies that has been carried out on this subject matter. Personally IF has worked wonders for me i credit it for a lot of the results i have achieved. IF is not for everyone but it is worth a try!
What do I eat during my feeding window?
Over the past year I have experimented a lot, I even went 30 days eating as a Vegan! It was great, I lost weight and I had great bursts of energy. Of course I went back to eating meat lol.
I found a lot of ways to eat the foods I used to enjoy prior to my journey, like i made home made turkey burgers YUMMY using turkey mince, I even found some healthy cupcake recipes which I enjoyed during Christmas!
I incorporated a lot of vegetables and fruits to my diet and stuck to white meat (breast/minced) nuts mainly Almonds, whole grains like whole wheat bread, whole wheat pasta etc, and LOTS of WATER!!
I am now a Pescetarian which means I only eat mean from the sea! There is nothing wrong with poultry, I just don't like the tough chicken available in Nigeria and didn't feel like spending all my salary on chicken breast in shoprite! I'm enjoying being a Pescetarian I love seafood so you really can't go wrong with that, it's opened me up to a wider range of fruits and veg, beans, lentils and things like Quinoa which is great alternative to rice.
I do have a treat day once a month to balance it all out, let's face it you can't eat clean 100% of the time! I would say this helped me stay on track! Just make sure your cheat day is not on your rest day!!
Exercise
I've done insanity twice now, well first time I stopped at day 40 as a went to Vegas and upon my return I joined the gym. I went to the gym twice a day doing some cardio and weights in the morning and spin class in the evening! Please if anyone knows where there is a spin class within Lekki PLEASE let me know! I moved to Lagos in December and I'm having withdrawal of spin right now lol.
Recently my workout pattern is not as rigorous, mainly because working and living in Lagos is workout on its own lol and I just haven't found a gym to join because of logistics I'd either have to wake up at a ridiculous time or go to gym in evening after work which is a NO NO for me.
So I am now going to start insanity all over again! And I would love you all to follow me! YES I have reached a weight which I have been maintaining for 6 months now so before I get any PINGS / messages telling me to "gain weight a little" my reason for starting over isn't because I want to lose weight, it is to continue to maintain what I started.
What a lot of people fail to understand whilst I have been on this journey is that once you reach your goal you don't just stop! YES you make adjustments so as to maybe not go overboard and lose too much weight but you don't just STOP which I have been told one too many times so I'm just setting the record straight now! When I first started losing weight I was eating 1200 calories per day, now that I'm maintaining I'm eating 2000 +calories per day, so if I stopped working out what do you think would happen? I'd gain right, and that's not the aim. I'm a healthy 57/58kgs and please understand aside from aesthetically I started this journey because I was on medication for high blood pressure, exercise is PROVEN to help reduce it (as i said above mine is normal now) so there is no way I will stop working out.
I will update weekly about insanity, tomorrow is my fit test lol I wonder what my results will be like! Will post that for you all if its not too embarrassing.
If you have any questions please leave your comments below! You can also follow me on @bunmilosingit or just click the tab to your right.
Below are some pictures from January 2012 to date.
Take care Xxx
The picture to the left was January 2012 on the right was January 2013. I went from size 16 to a size 8!
The picture on the left was taken on the day I started my journey. The picture on the right was a couple of months ago
This was taken about 3 weeks ago
I don't know why this picture made my arms look a little smaller than they are!
I really glad to read this informative post, thank u to share-inventhistory
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Oh my! You look so good now, like 2 different people. I've been unconsciously doing IF, I only realised when I read your post. Lol. I'm trying to move from size 10 to 8.don't laught at me. I can't imagine how hard it must be from 18/16 to 8! www.sisiyemmie.com
ReplyDeleteHello! Thank you for the compliment I really appreciate it. I think a lot of people do IF without really knowing lol. But it's best lifestyle I've discovered and I preach it to anyone who wants to listen lol. Yes going form 16 to 8 was tough, it got easier when I reached size 12 to lose though manly because of the master cleanse! Checkout my post on workouts it will help you lose extra inches you want as you don't have a lot to lose.
DeleteP.s checked your blog the police story had me in stitches!
Bunmi Wow.....Im impressed and encouraged cause i'm on a mission to shed some weight too. I started eating healthy early this year and recently noticed i need to do more. I currently try not to eat carbs between Monday-Friday ...i pick and choose healthy food at my work canteen, its really tough so once ina while i eat the occasional slice of toasted brown bread. Weekends are my I DONT CARE DAYS when i eat anything at all...lol Now I'm gonna go back up and read all what you've written and take down notes. I kinda quickly read through the 1st time. Lolu
ReplyDeleteHey! Thanks so much, how r u? One thing I'll advice now is cut your 'I don't care days' to once a month lol don't defeat all the hard work in the weekend. Read my earlier posts and if you have any more questions feel free to contact me via fb
DeleteAnd don't be scared of carbs you have a good idea. Stick to whole grains and cycle your carbs. I have discussed that in one of the posts. Good luck!
DeleteWhat do you mean by circle your carbs?
DeleteCarb cycling is where you alternate your carb consumption depending on your workout over the week. Your body uses carbs for energy so on days which you have a hardcore workout at the gym you can consume carbs (whole wheat of course). On days where you do no workout your body does not need as much energy and therefore you should idly not consume much starchy carbs on your rest day as it will be stored as fat. You can have fibrous carbs on your rest day ie fruits and veg.
DeleteAfter weight loss you are looking stunning.
ReplyDeleteAbdominal Rejuvenation
Really wanna get on this Intermittent fasting thing but am on medication that I have to take twice daily. Does taking a pill during the 'fasting' periods negate the fast?
ReplyDeleteHey Ashley, never compromise your health for anything! Take your medication when you need to with water. You should be fine. Good luck and thanks for reading the blog!
DeleteHiii Bunmi, can I just say you're AMAZING and such an inspiration. Been reading your blog for over an hour now and I LOVEEE!!!! So I've been on this fitness journey for a while, my weight keeps fluctuating but I'm never satisfied cos I either get bored or tired. Before i discovered your awesomeness on twitter I was looking into the mastercleanse. I go to the gym about 3 times a week. But now I really want to get into it and maintain the lifestyle. I'm a size 12 weighing 152lbs height 5'4. I want to be a healthy 8/10 weigh btwn 136-140lbs i have a booty and I dont want to lose it completely lol! so the question is do I js go hard on cardio and incorporate weight training after a week or two or just start both off at the same time. I'm sorry i know my story is long. I've been on it for so long one time I lost 10lbs in a month and I was happy but I put it bk on real quick and getting back on has been painfully and awfully difficult :( Be my mentor lol I know you're busy but a little encouragement every now and then will go a long way. It's really just one dress size and a couple of pounds but its soooo difficult. Help this young girl out pretty pretty please I just need some direction, where and how to start. I can get my nutrition on lockdown. Ps I LOOVVEEEE thehodgetwins too lol! okay end of my story. I really want to do the 10day cleanse. Did I mention I work out about 3times a week. but I wana go HAM like u did, twice a day 6times a week
ReplyDeleteHey! Thank you so much for the kind words and I appreciate you reading the blog! I'm here to share my story and inspire who I can! Now I was working out twice a day because frankly I wasn't doing much and wasn't working lol. Once a day is fine. But up your workouts to 6 times a week. As long as you eat good you will reap results. You can start weight straight away no need to wait! Infact its recommended to do cardio 3-4 times a week and weight 4-5 times a week to help sculpt and tone body! Weight training is really important if you want definition. If you just want to be skinny (which I don't recommend) then more cardio! Squats will help you keep your butt lol so SQUAT! Check my TL and join us ladies on the squats challenge. As for Master cleanse I only did it because I wanted to be greedy over Christmas lol. It was a tough 10 days and I prob won't be doing it again. Check my previous posts on it if you are interested in doing it. But I just advise you stick to clean eating. Unless you have an extreme personality like me then its one of those cleanses I hear that a lot of people gain all the weight back/more. I did gain 2kgs over christmass but I weigh less now than my post cleanse all through clean eating and workouts. I think that's all! I'm replying from my phone so responding to you from memory as I can't see the full message! Thanks for reading and I'll continue to update the blog. Just a little busy at work. But I'm having a breather soon!
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ReplyDeleteHiii Again, Thank yooouuuu for the reply. Okay I just need to run this by you if you don't mind. So I'm starting IF tmrw (been watching hodgetwins and giggling away lol) the plan is 16hour fast from 8pm to 12pm and 8hour window. The question is, can I work out in the morning on an empty stomach i.e weights and cardio? cos I figured I'd be busy eating and doing other stuff during my eating window btwn 12pm and 8pm (is that too much, should I reduce the window to 6hrs?). Also normally I drink 3litres of liquid daily including green tea with honey, do I need to up this or is three litres just fine. One last thing, can I include maple syrup/cayenne pepper n lemons (only cos I really like the taste and water gets boring sometimes). Thanxx again :)
ReplyDeleteHello, I usually work out in the morning fasted so that's not a problem. Also the whole point of the fasted period is that you take in 0 Calories. So stick to water only during that period to achieve best results. You will feel tired for a few days but then energy levels will surge after good luck
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