So, let's get the exciting bit out of the way first - my first week of the FitFarm program ended with an insane result of -3,4kg! I actually bought two pairs of jeans a while ago (think they arrived a week before I started the program) and I could barely button them up. Tried them on yesterday morning and they fit almost perfectly! I've had to modify the program a little bit, I just simply don't have the time to do a workout four times a week so I've done half of that. So the biggest factor in all this is my diet! I've been taking my own lunches with me to work for a week instead of buying some ready meals from the shop, and oh my what a difference it makes. :) Only a few kilos away from where I left off now, feeling quite proud!

And tonight I've got the first big challenge I'm having to face during this six week program - team meal! We are going to this American diner, and as you can probably guess the menu is full of burgers and hot dogs. I did manage to have a look at the menu beforehand the other day, and thankfully they have a few salads that sound amazing. Hoping that they'll have steak on the menu as well, could do with a proper filling meal instead of a few leaves! A nice medium rare steak with a fresh side salad, oh yum.


Just a few of the snack bars I've bought this week to stop cravings, might need one of these tonight before I head out! ;)

The meal is paid for by my boss, so I know that people are going to go absolutely nuts with food and drinks. I know I will have a drink or two, but I just need to have enough discipline to go for the diet soda and spirit option instead of high sugar ciders. If I can get through this meal without a huge slip, I'm sure I can get through everything haha! Thankfully I've also told one of my friends from work about my worries and I'm sure he will tell me off if I order something bad! :D


The past week has been quite taxing in general, work has been quite hectic and I even managed to hurt my back when we were closing up on Friday. Our desk is really not designed well, we use heavy shutter type doors to cover up all our screens and they are simply far too heavy for us girls to pull up. Even with two of us trying we couldn't lift them and in the process I pulled quite a few muscles around my spine, resulting in a very sore back and a grumpy me (just because being tired after a long day at work wasn't enough!). The pain was actually far worse on Saturday, and had to give in and ask for a massage from my partner. On top of that he was so wonderful and ran me a hot bath and made the bathroom an absolute sanctuary by lighting candles. All I had to do was climb in, roll up a tea towel to use as a pillow and get my tablet to read Game of Thrones. Perfect.

Hope you're all having a great Monday!

Second day of the FitFarm program is nearly behind me! I'm just sipping on my evening smoothie as I'm writing this. It's been surprisingly easy to adapt to this new diet, overall it's pretty similar to what I'd normally eat but the portions are just a bit smaller and the amount of veg is insane!

Yesterday was definitely the trial and error day. Trying to figure out how to deal with all the igredient lists, how to combine them and so on. One of the biggest trials was trying to blend my smoothies in the food processor - faaar too much cleaning up to do afterwards!! I actually ended up marching over to Argos and bought an actual smoothie blender! This little baby is from James Martin, the easiest bit of kitchen kit I've ever used!



If you can't work this blender, you truly have not been given the brains to get through life. You simply screw the blender head on the cup, flip it all upside down, plant it on the motor bit and twist. And then you just watch everything get blended to a delicious smoothie. Yummy. Unfortunately I can't share the recipe of my meals and smoothies as it'd break the program terms, so all you guys get to do is look at the pretty pictures.


It really surprised me how much veg and berries actually goes into the meal plans. I had to go and stock up today as I was running low on pretty much everything I like to eat! :D There's a huge list of veg to choose from so I'm pretty confident that I won't get bored of my meals for the next six weeks. And there's no restrictions to what you make out of the ingredients you are given for each meal - as long as you follow the amounts, you can get pretty creative.

And the one thing I'm quite happy about with this program is that I'm allowed to drink calorie free juice and soda. This will come so handy especially at work, where I might not be able to eat for a very long time at a time. Having a bottle of Diet Coke by our desk is definitely going to help, as I find the fizzyness of Coke quite filling.

 
When I had a look at the diet plan for the first time last week, I really thought that it's going to be one of those diets where you have to starve to get results. The thought of very little carbs and lots of veg is not going to keep me filled up at all - but oh man how wrong I was! It's going to take me a while to get used to this massive amount of food, but I'm sure I'll manage. ;) At least I get to eat, and eating must be one of my favourite things to do haha!

I actually counted the calories I'm going to be consuming based on the diet plan, and it's only around the 1200 mark. It really surprised me based on the amount of food I'm eating, it feels like a lot more than that! I'm really looking forward to seeing the results of this, the workouts are quite brutal at this stage and me walking a lot at work is bound to give me a good boost to my weight loss!


Overall things haven't changed that much for me, apart from trying to include all the workouts somewhere in my day. I've already planned the next three weeks exercise wise, and I'm pretty confident I'll be able to stick to the new routine. The only tricky day is going to be Thursday, as I'm working really late (past 9pm) and will have to find the energy to do a workout after I get home. Luckily I've also found a nice gap to go swimming once a week! Really can't wait to get started with that.

I'm so determined to finish off my weight loss project by the end of the summer. So determined that I've actually signed up for a 6 week intensive exercise and diet plan made by a Finnish company called FitFarm.

I obviously can't share too much about this whole thing as it's a paid service and me dishing out the bits of it for free would violate the terms of the "contract". I will however talk about my general progress, how this plan is making me feel and so on. I placed myself in group 2, which is for people looking to lose 10-20kg. I mean I'm not going to be too disappointed if I don't lose all the weight I'm still looking to lose, but even half of it would be absolutely great. I just need that little push to get off this plateau I seem to be stuck at right now.


Taken from my Instagram, prepping the paperwork.

I'm a bit of an obsessive person about certain things, so I've written down the week 1 diet plan on a bit of paper so I can stick it on the fridge. I've also gone to Holland & Barrett to buy all the supplement goodies they recommend to use during the plan + a massive stack of little plastic containers for lunches.


The most difficult part of this whole thing is definitely going to be the eating part. I work really long hours and I don't get to come home during the day (apart from Monday and Friday), so I need to be able to have my lunch in a sealable container. Thankfully Poundland was able to supply me with those, and I am actually going to do a bit of meal prepping for the next six weeks! Thankfully the lunches are perfectly fine cold, so in that sense it won't be an issue at all. I just need to get into the habit of cooking a lot of meat in one batch and then just divide it into enough containers to last me for a week!

And just because the plan isn't a big enough challenge, we are having a team dinner a week into the whole thing! Our department is paying for it all and I'm worried that I'll end up eating and drinking far more than I think I should because I'll know it's free!

I'm actually really excited to get started with this, it'll be something completely new and fresh so I definitely won't be getting bored of it - and only lasting for six weeks and the plans changing every few weeks, how can I?