Nothing beats feeling good and having that healthy glow – it gives you so much confidence.
If there’s one thing that has come into sharp focus most since starting my 12-week body transformation at Ultimate Performance is that feeling good and looking good comes in large part from what you eat.
I know that whatever I eat and put in my body, reflects on how I look on the outside.
If you want to look your best, you have to fuel yourself with the best nutrition you can.
Having a diet plan to follow and knowing the right foods to eat for your body makes a big difference.
When I’m not on my A-game with my food plan or I have a cheat, I know how it affects me, how it affects my body and my energy levels.
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This week I had my first weigh-in at UP since I came back from my holiday.
I wasn’t dreading it, but I was apprehensive because I enjoyed my holiday – I did stick to my training as best as I could, but I also enjoyed my holiday too.
When I weighed in with my trainer, I had gone up by 2lbs…but my body fat had still dropped. I’m now under 12% body fat which is great – after a holiday as well! It’s amazing.
(It just shows how crazy the scales are and how you shouldn’t get too hung up on the number the scales are showing you).
But one thing that really struck me was I didn’t feel great; I felt lethargic and jet lagged.
I really didn’t feel my best; I felt a bit sluggish and my skin wasn’t at its best.
It’s because I wasn’t hydrated enough, I wasn’t eating well all the time and my skin went really bad.
I’m lucky – my mum has amazing skin, but I can’t stress enough to people, it’s your diet!
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People always ask me ‘what Do you use on your skin? Your skin’s always lovely’.
I don’t have expensive creams, potions and lotions; it’s literally: I eat well and my skin is good, I eat bad and my skin is bad.
Being on a training and nutrition plan with UP really makes you more intuitive with your food and how you react to certain things.
If I have a big meal sometimes, I don’t sleep well and then I feel ‘hungover’ the next morning.
Having a diet plan to follow and knowing which foods make you feel good and energised, and which ones don’t, is great.
But that doesn’t mean sometimes you’re not tempted to stray off track with your diet – there is so much temptation around with food.
But when I’m tempted by food, I always think what I want long term as opposed to what I want now.
I don’t want to get to the end of my 12 weeks, do my shoot and think ‘I could have looked better and felt a bit better had I just put in a bit more effort.’
I think, if you’re going to do something in life you have to give it 100% otherwise you’ll always look back and think ‘what if?’
It’s the same with your job, your relationship or with anything, you’ve got to be present when you’re in it and you’re doing it.
I also don’t want to let me trainers down either. Mark sent me a message and I said to him I’d had a bit of cheesecake when I went out but that I’d do some more cardio on to make up for it.
The great thing is with UP is they’re understanding; they’ve done training programmes themselves so they can relate to what it’s like to go through it.
Catch up with Gemma’s Week 1 blog and how she lost 5lbs in just seven days weight training at UP.
My trainer Mark said ‘You’ve got this! You can do it! You’re putting time and effort in at the gym, why mess it up now for a slab of cheesecake?’
And I thought ‘you know what? You’re right.’ Now and again you need a little slap on the wrist and a reality check – after all, it’s just 12 weeks.
One of the hard things for me is that I love a Starbucks coffee and whenever I have a coffee I always want some banana bread with it or some oat-bran muffins to go with it.
So I have to break those habits. Even though I train, the odd bit of banana bread won’t affect me, but while I’m on this programme it will – there’s a difference between looking good and looking great and this is it.
Of course, when this finishes I’m not going to abstain from chocolate and alcohol for the rest of my life.
But I’ve learned so much from this 12-week programme at UP and I have the tools and the knowledge now to stay in shape but have a balance too.
I know if I had a call for a photoshoot in two weeks, I know I could do it and get my body in the shape I needed to quickly again.
That for me is what’s important. I’ve learned so much about myself and how my body works on this programme, which is great.
I went out with my sister the other day and she got a sandwich and a packet of crisps but there was nothing I could eat there.
So I didn’t eat anything. I just drank loads of water and waited until I got home to have my chicken, veg and sweet potato.
I could have just got a sandwich, but it was pre-packaged, probably loaded with things like salt and I thought ‘I don’t want to put that in my body now’.
There will be times when I might in the future – I don’t want to be anti-fast food because, at the end of the day, pizza is life!
People should eat what they want, but at the minute I don’t want to eat that kind of food. Right now I’m feeling good and it’s because I’m fueling my body with the best nutrition I can.
If you’re inspired by Gemma’s journey and want to start your own body transformation, talk to us about our Personal Training Plans or BOOK A CONSULT NOW!
