In an ideal world, come this summer, I will be THAT girl. The one that everyone is jealous of. “Wow doesn’t she look great” and “Gosh, she’s lost soo much weight” will the phrases that all my friends will say as I swan past looking downright gorgeous. Minor hurdle. Food. All types. Not just the ‘bad stuff’, though how anyone can attach the label of ‘bad’ to heavenly indulgences like chocolate, crisps and dips, and pastries, and well… you get the idea. So here is the challenge, to lose weight, tone up and look simply fabulous by summer, whilst not giving myself depression by banning all the foods that make my life actually worth-while. Cripes.
The plan is to make delicious but healthy and balanced food, and try and make exercise ‘fun’. My hearts has already sped up to an alarming rate and I’ve yet to move. When I told my mother of this ‘summer dream’, after letting out a loud snort of laughter, cheers for the support Mum, she turned round and suggested doing ‘food combining’. I’m embarrassed to say I just nodded and smiled pretending I knew exactly what this was. As soon as Mum went upstairs I quickly googled it and to be fair, it makes sense. The idea is you can’t combine carbs and protein in meals, you can only snack on fruit and vegetables and you have to up your exercise. You also can’t have ‘complex’ foods (cue another google moment) so au revoir bread, pasta and biscuits. Deep breaths. In, out. McVities have got me through many a hard time. Its also best to stick to poaching, boiling and steaming as cooking methods, surprise surprise roasting and frying are a no-no.
Right, I know this all sounds depressing but its all in the name of a good bod, and achievable goals. The problem with crash diets, which has recently been reported in the national press, is that though you may look great in the short term, the effects remain your body for moths, putting your metabolism in ‘starvation mode’. So basically in other words, every time you eat something naughty more of it will be stored as fat. Not great. So what one needs to do is change your lifestyle to be healthier in order to lose weight and maintain that weight loss.
Exercise. (enough said?!) No, in reality (/in the words of Elle Woods) ‘exercise gives you endorphins and endorphins make you happy’. Now I know I don’t need exercise as an allaby for accused murder, but the message is the same. By doing ‘physical activity’ we make our bodies work better, and what this means for us dieters, is not only are we burning calories whilst working out but we are increasing our metabolism.
SO the challenge is set. Each week with HerCampus you’ll get to follow my trials and tribulations as I aim to look like Elle Macphearson by June. I do hope someone can have a laugh at my struggle and maybe I might even inspire someone else if this works out well. Fingers crossed. Report back after week one. A healthier and skinnier foodie. Well, one can dream.