My whole life, food has been my passion.
Growing up I had an appetite to match my father’s, and for the best part of 10 years my favourite place to be has been in a kitchen.
It has only been in the last five years that my love of food evolved into a passion for nutrition and learning how to eat a healthy, balanced diet that suits my body.
Over the last 10 weeks, this education has developed even more with the guidance of UP and that passion of mine has helped and hindered in equal measures.
My flair for all things tasty has meant that making a basic diet plan delicious hasn’t been too much of a challenge. I have eaten a wide variety of meals and can honestly say I’ve not once been bored. At other times, I have spent hours scouring Pinterest and Instagram looking at all of the delicious foods that I can’t wait to try and planning food trips and excursions for when my 12-week journey is over.
Nothing excites me more than trying new food and rather than feeling like I’m ‘missing out’, I have been compiling a list in the back of my diary with all of the places I’m going to head to post-12-weeks (please feel free to share any more great recommendations with me!)
The thing is, I won’t be going to over-indulge or ‘pig out’ because after all of this hard work and discipline, that kind of eating behaviour really doesn’t appeal to me at all.
I don’t feel the need to have some sort of massive blow-out because I don’t feel like I’ve been deprived of anything that I want or need. I’ve not eaten sugar or processed foods and in all honesty, I’ve not really missed them.
My palette has changed and adapted so that I could now happily munch through a bag of spinach and actually enjoy the flavour. Fresh lemon water is so deliciously zingy in the morning and charred broccoli with chilli and garlic is a new go-to garnish for most of my meals.
I will appreciate the experience of dining out that little bit more, now that I’ve been anticipating it for so long. As the weeks have gone by, it’s become much easier to know what and how to eat and it has been a pleasure to cook food not just for myself, but for friends, that tastes great and is on my plan.
I can eat out relatively easily, so long as I take 10 minutes beforehand to decide what I can eat, and if I’m ever unsure I know that my trainer will guide me.
The truth is, there have been times when this transformation has been difficult for so many different reasons. Whether I’ve been tired, injured, hungry or just a bit short-tempered (sorry!) this journey has definitely been very up and down, but I know that in a couple of weeks time it will all be worthwhile and I will be wondering where those 12 weeks have gone.
I’ve learnt so much from this experience, so much that I will take away with me after it’s all over.
So now it’s time to get my head down for the final stretch and share my results with you. Wish me luck!
