Changing perspectives – skinny to healthy
Happy Thursday everyone! Not long till the weekend now thank goodness. Seems that we all have a similar idea of what would be our perfect day!
Today has been a bit different as I’ve been able to work from home to get a few of pieces of work wrapped up. Of course, my day started with an awesome breakfast – toasted hazelnut rye bread with cashew butter and banana plus fresh strawberries.
Extremely yummy!
I worked away until the gym opened at 9 and then went and did my workout – 45 minutes of cardio intervals followed by abs and a few half push ups and tricep dips. I came home and made myself a tasty vanilla protein frappe with a scoop of vanilla whey, soy milk, ice cubes and a little decaf coffee. I also had an apple.
I always seem to work much more effectively from home for some reason, I managed to blast through my tasks for the day! Check out my little makeshift desk:
I love my inspirational desktop wallpaper!
Lunch was some turkey, hummus and lettuce wraps with some carrot and cucumber on the side. I do realise that this plate looks like something you would take out to give to your pet rabbit but turkey, hummus and lettuce wraps are great!
I followed that with this amazing bowl of 2 chopped peaches and some blueberries.
Mid afternoon I quickly snacked on another apple and a couple of babybel light to keep me going.
I also snacked on another apple and a few soya nuts, that’s the downside of working from home – too much food available for snacking!
For dinner I decided to get creative and make a big stir fry but with cauliflower rice and veggie noodles. This took a bit of prep but was good fun! To make cauliflower rice you just finely chop some cauliflower (or pop it in a food processor, but I didn’t want the extra dishes) then steam it for a few minutes and serve in the same way you would rice. My veggie noodles were made from carrot and courgette with my spiraliser – I also added some more quorn pieces, red pepper, spring onion and cauliflower leaves to the stir fry then topped it all with my favourite soy sauce and ginger.
Just so amazingly fresh and healthy tasting!
I must have been in a good ole fun loving mood this evening as I decided to get creative with my desert too. I made a layer up with some of my peachy tofu ‘yoghurt’ and blueberries then topped with some flaked almonds and a little of my honey comb.
I believe pretty food is good for the soul!
This week it is the launch of fellow blogger Caitlin's book – Operation Beautiful and to celebrate she has invited bloggers to write a post on the theme of ‘Change the way you see not the way you look’. I though it would nice for me to write a short piece on my big transformation – and that’s not what you might think!
Yes, I have lost a lot of weight, but I see my big transformation not in this weight loss, rather in the change from wanting to be ‘skinny’ to wanting to be healthy. This change in mindset happened after I had lost most of my weight and when I first started reading blogs.
Up until then I had been existing on lots of ‘fake’ foods – processed cereals bars, powdered cuppa soups (I shudder at the thought that I used to eat those!), frozen convenience foods and so on. Although I also exercised, the aim of the exercise was just to burn calories to lose the weight. I never really enjoyed my workouts when they were solely focused on weight loss. They were also always just cardio workouts with no resistance training at all.
When I started reading blogs, and blogging myself at the beginning of this year, it was like a light bulb had suddenly switched on in my head – here were other people – who were healthy, running marathons, eating real delicious food, keeping to a healthy weight, not comparing themselves to unrealistic standards. It was amazing. I had my eyes opened and decided that my quest to become skinny was pointless, I would never ever be satisfied or successfully maintain my weight loss while that was my focus.
Since I have changed my perspective from the pursuit of ‘skinny’ to that of healthy I can honestly say my life has been transformed. I have discovered a passion for eating and preparing delicious and nutritious food which satisfies me on a level that I never though possible. I have a new enthusiasm for exercise, I love my workouts and I see real results. Since starting on this new path I have lost even more weight and reached a truly healthy happy weight.
Although I still hit bumps in the road (such as excessive snacking, the associated guilt, and the occasional holiday related 5lb gain!) I feel for the first time ever that I won’t re gain the weight and that I will be able to maintain this healthy weight for the rest of my life.
Another added bonus of this change in perspective is that I’ve become more immune to the photo shopped images of women in magazines that used to make me feel so bad about myself. I now look at these images with a critical eye, and remind myself that being healthy is what is beautiful to me now.
Healthy isn’t a number on the scale.
Healthy isn’t a dress size.
Healthy is feeling great about yourself.
Healthy is filling your body with nutritious delicious food.
Being healthy is having energy and being able to use that energy.
I used to feel like my body didn’t belong to me. I had no connection to it because I felt uncomfortable in it, I abused it. Now I own my body, I feel connected to it and I value it.
Take a moment today to remind yourself that you are beautiful on the inside and out, just the way you are x
Today has been a bit different as I’ve been able to work from home to get a few of pieces of work wrapped up. Of course, my day started with an awesome breakfast – toasted hazelnut rye bread with cashew butter and banana plus fresh strawberries.
Extremely yummy!
I worked away until the gym opened at 9 and then went and did my workout – 45 minutes of cardio intervals followed by abs and a few half push ups and tricep dips. I came home and made myself a tasty vanilla protein frappe with a scoop of vanilla whey, soy milk, ice cubes and a little decaf coffee. I also had an apple.
I always seem to work much more effectively from home for some reason, I managed to blast through my tasks for the day! Check out my little makeshift desk:
I love my inspirational desktop wallpaper!
Lunch was some turkey, hummus and lettuce wraps with some carrot and cucumber on the side. I do realise that this plate looks like something you would take out to give to your pet rabbit but turkey, hummus and lettuce wraps are great!
I followed that with this amazing bowl of 2 chopped peaches and some blueberries.
Mid afternoon I quickly snacked on another apple and a couple of babybel light to keep me going.
I also snacked on another apple and a few soya nuts, that’s the downside of working from home – too much food available for snacking!
For dinner I decided to get creative and make a big stir fry but with cauliflower rice and veggie noodles. This took a bit of prep but was good fun! To make cauliflower rice you just finely chop some cauliflower (or pop it in a food processor, but I didn’t want the extra dishes) then steam it for a few minutes and serve in the same way you would rice. My veggie noodles were made from carrot and courgette with my spiraliser – I also added some more quorn pieces, red pepper, spring onion and cauliflower leaves to the stir fry then topped it all with my favourite soy sauce and ginger.
Just so amazingly fresh and healthy tasting!
I must have been in a good ole fun loving mood this evening as I decided to get creative with my desert too. I made a layer up with some of my peachy tofu ‘yoghurt’ and blueberries then topped with some flaked almonds and a little of my honey comb.
I believe pretty food is good for the soul!
This week it is the launch of fellow blogger Caitlin's book – Operation Beautiful and to celebrate she has invited bloggers to write a post on the theme of ‘Change the way you see not the way you look’. I though it would nice for me to write a short piece on my big transformation – and that’s not what you might think!
Yes, I have lost a lot of weight, but I see my big transformation not in this weight loss, rather in the change from wanting to be ‘skinny’ to wanting to be healthy. This change in mindset happened after I had lost most of my weight and when I first started reading blogs.
Up until then I had been existing on lots of ‘fake’ foods – processed cereals bars, powdered cuppa soups (I shudder at the thought that I used to eat those!), frozen convenience foods and so on. Although I also exercised, the aim of the exercise was just to burn calories to lose the weight. I never really enjoyed my workouts when they were solely focused on weight loss. They were also always just cardio workouts with no resistance training at all.
When I started reading blogs, and blogging myself at the beginning of this year, it was like a light bulb had suddenly switched on in my head – here were other people – who were healthy, running marathons, eating real delicious food, keeping to a healthy weight, not comparing themselves to unrealistic standards. It was amazing. I had my eyes opened and decided that my quest to become skinny was pointless, I would never ever be satisfied or successfully maintain my weight loss while that was my focus.
Since I have changed my perspective from the pursuit of ‘skinny’ to that of healthy I can honestly say my life has been transformed. I have discovered a passion for eating and preparing delicious and nutritious food which satisfies me on a level that I never though possible. I have a new enthusiasm for exercise, I love my workouts and I see real results. Since starting on this new path I have lost even more weight and reached a truly healthy happy weight.
Although I still hit bumps in the road (such as excessive snacking, the associated guilt, and the occasional holiday related 5lb gain!) I feel for the first time ever that I won’t re gain the weight and that I will be able to maintain this healthy weight for the rest of my life.
Another added bonus of this change in perspective is that I’ve become more immune to the photo shopped images of women in magazines that used to make me feel so bad about myself. I now look at these images with a critical eye, and remind myself that being healthy is what is beautiful to me now.
Healthy isn’t a number on the scale.
Healthy isn’t a dress size.
Healthy is feeling great about yourself.
Healthy is filling your body with nutritious delicious food.
Being healthy is having energy and being able to use that energy.
I used to feel like my body didn’t belong to me. I had no connection to it because I felt uncomfortable in it, I abused it. Now I own my body, I feel connected to it and I value it.
Take a moment today to remind yourself that you are beautiful on the inside and out, just the way you are x
Categories:
cauliflower rice,
operation beautiful,
turkey lettuce wraps
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