Newcastle Photographer and Content Creator, Mandy Charlton, Always on a quest for adventure, often seen on buses, trains and planes. On a quest to be happier and healthier. Lives in Newcastle with her 3 cats, Iris, Maggie and Arthur. Loves good vibes, musicals and cakes. Full time professional wedding photographer in the north east of england alongside content creator on Tiktok, Instagram and Facebook

Sunday, January 08, 2017

New Year, New Diet, New Me!



For the last week or so I've been feeling really tired and sluggish, the Christmas excess has truly hit me and last week when we went for our first 10k walk of the year I knew I had to get back to living much more healthily again.

Although I have no regrets about leaving Slimming World because I managed to maintain most of my 3.5 stone weight loss, I have now put on around a stone just basically because I love cake too much and the weather has been rubbish, at least I'm honest!

At my thinnest, I was still curvy and that's all I want to be so here and now it's time to get back to being healthy Mandy, it still irks me a little that I completed Couch to 5K and then promptly stopped but that's me, I like a challenge and when I've completed something I move on, plus if I'm honest I think I can burn just as many calories from a good dog walk.

Harriet also feels she wants to get back onto a healthy lifestyle program and I find that these things work better when you have support, she says Slimming World worked for her and so we're going to try a new group on a new day and I'll just adapt it by cutting down on sugar without replacing it with artificial sweeteners something I feel quite strongly about.

There's also the fact that the enzyme I lack which makes me alcohol intolerant is also affected by too much sugar so I'll be turning to books like Lean in 15, Davina's Smart Carbs and her new book, Sugar Free in a hurry which I've just ordered, when I was sugar free I can't tell you how well I felt, I could partake of the occasional glass of wine without worry, I had super skinny legs and I was ten levels above bouncy, yes it's probably time to go and break out the Agave Nectar, it's the only sugar substitute I actually love and it tastes great when you make a baked rice pudding with almond or coconut milk.

Look, I'm going, to be honest, I doubt I'll be giving up cake in all of its glory but if I can get it down to once a week and then maybe my own cake made with brown flour and honey or maple syrup then that can't be such a bad thing can it?!

What I won't be doing is swapping to skimmed milk and sunflower spread or Frylight, if you have ever looked at the ingredients in some of those things, well let's just say I believe you're far better having butter from grass fed cows, whole organic milk and cooking with olive oil if you can't dry fry.

With regards to exercise it's simply going to be a matter of getting out there for more 10k walks with Holly Bobbins and maybe the occasional 5k run a couple of times a month, I'm going to start again with the running and see when I find my boredom level, I think it's possibly somewhere around the 4k but if I can run from my house to Jesmond Dene, across Armstrong Bridge and back it's around 4-5k and with headphones in listening to bouncy music which makes your stride a little wider then that's not a bad thing.  If I can drag Harriet on some epic walkies with me too, well then that's half of the battle as you don't notice how far you are walking when you are with your best friend having a good chinwag!

And so, my plan to get back to happier, fitter, slinkier, bouncier me is underway and with a trip to London at the end of the month to visit Mr France, well that's just a little extra in the motivation station, if you are undertaking any kind of lifestyle changes then do comment and we can all supoort one another, lets all get fabulous in time for spring!
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