Hey!
I am back for the final time having reached the end of my 6 week challenge! If you have just joined us on this post, you can start from the beginning by clicking here.
I want to start by saying thank you so so much for all of the support that I have received over the last few weeks from friends, family and strangers who have followed my journey. You have really helped me get to the end without going crazily off plan for weeks at a time. Like I said at the beginning, usually I put on weight during the school holidays. This must be the first year where I have actually lost weight over the summer break. And, for the first time, I am looking forward to getting a new photograph for my school’s website!
I have had an unusually long summer holiday this year with 7 weeks off and had set the target of losing 1 stone. Jess and I decided to make it a 6 week challenge for a few reasons. Firstly, 6 weeks is a normal amount of time for this kind of thing. How many 7 week challenges do you see? Also, the blog post is published a week later than ‘real life’ as this gives me time to write it and Jess time to get it formatted and uploaded along with the pictures etc. This means that when this post is published, I will be going back to work tomorrow.
Secondly, and this may sound silly, but when I was making the tracker, 7 circles looked weird! 6 fit neatly in two rows. Finally, it meant that I can have the last week before I go back to school where I can go out with my friends and not worry about being on plan. That being said, I will try not to go wild!
So here it goes for the last time, I will review the week and also update you on my progress as a whole for the 6 weeks.
The shop
I find it truly baffling how little money I have spent on food recently considering how much I have actually eaten and this week was the craziest of them all. At the beginning, I was stressing about the initial cost of that first shop that was over £60 but each week since then, it seems to have gotten cheaper. This is mostly because I have a lot of things that come in multipacks and last a while. That being said, I am getting close to the end of a lot of things so I suspect a larger shop will be needed soon. The food shopping bill came in at just £16 this week! Unbelievable!
People who know me well, know that I like numbers so if you are a number person like me, here is a breakdown of what I have spent on food while following Jess’s meal plans.
Week 1 – £61
Week 2 – £33
Week 3 – £32
Week 4 – £30
Week 5 – £28
Week 6 – £16
Total – A nice round £200!
£200 for 6 weeks of food is really not bad. Before following Jess’s meal plans, I would generally spend £40 – £45 on food each week so I have actually saved money. I have also saved money because I have eaten out far less than I normally would. Also, I haven’t had any takeaways, so saved even more. It is not only my waist line that has seen progress but also my savings account!
Substitutions
I won’t bore you by telling you about the same substitutions that I make every week. And other than the usual, I haven’t made any other substitutions this week. I have pretty much stuck to the plan! I know, that is very unlike me!
The best bits
As this is the last week, I promised Jess that I would try my best to have a cheat free week. With that in mind, I knew I was going to a friend’s house on Thursday and that they would be ordering a takeaway. Knowing this, Jess scheduled a Chinese Fakeaway for dinner that night. I made it all before and boxed it up to take with me. When their food arrived, I put mine on the plate and popped it in the microwave to reheat. It was perfect. I really did not feel like I was missing out at all. There was tons of food and I happily ate all 9 syns knowing that I wasn’t even cheating!
Cheating
As you know by now, cheating is a something that I do far too much. But being the last week, I really wanted to finish on a high point and stuck quite rigorously to the plan. I knew that if I lost 1.5lb, I would have met my 1 stone target and if I lost 2.5lb, I would have lost 3 stone in total since I first started losing weight when I turned 30 in November. The only ‘cheating’ I did this week was something that I did not think of as cheating until Jess informed me of the synful consequences.
On Friday, I went for coffee with a friend. Normally, when I go for coffee with a friend that actually involves a large hot chocolate (as fussy me doesn’t drink tea or coffee) with whipped cream and marshmallows and some kind of cake or scone.
However, as it was the last week of the plan, I had a look at the shelves in Costa and selected an ‘Innocent’ apple juice. Let me just tell you there is nothing innocent about the apple juice. 7.5 syns in 300ml. I was horrified and gutted that I had been doing so well just be let down by one glass of apple juice. Luckily, the meal plan had me eating just 5 syns on Friday (2 extra for my sausages as I have meat sausages with a higher syn value than the Quorn ones on Jess’s site). So I was still under the 15 syns a day maximum.
Pics from the week
As always, I have been snapping pics of my food this week. My photography skills are still not up to Jess’s standards, but I think I take the odd half decent shot!
Exercise
Along the way, I have also been doing the couch to 5k running app. It is not something that I would usually do. I have always loved dancing however the classes I usually go to tend to stop over the summer and they are also not back to normal following covid closures. I have now completed week 6, which I never thought I would actually make it to. I only made it there because I have been running with Jess, our mum, auntie and cousin. They have held me accountable! We have 3 weeks left of the app to try and get up to running 5k which times perfectly with the Race for Life.
In 2003, our dad, who was in his early 40s and had never smoked, was unlucky enough to develop lung cancer. Fortunately, he was able to have surgery to remove it before it spread. He is one of the ‘lucky’ ones who has survived cancer and come out the other side however there is still a lot of work to be done into the causes and cures for cancer so if you would like to sponsor us completing the race for life, you can donate by clicking here.
The weigh in
The final weigh in. It was time to see what I had done over the last 6 weeks. I really had my fingers crossed for 2.5lb. However when the scales said that I had lost another 2lb this week, I was also happy. I have met my 1 stone target a week earlier than originally planned and also can’t be annoyed with another 2lb gone forever. This brought by 6 week total to 1 stone and 0.5lb. With only another half a lb until I have lost a total of 3 stone since first starting to lose weight.
I really do think I could maintain this if I was off work however, I am going to work with Jess to see how I can plan meals to include only quick breakfasts and packed lunches. I also don’t think I will have cauliflower rice again. I will be swapping that for real rice in the future!
Measurements
Knowing that it isn’t always about the on scale victories, I also took some measurements before starting the 6 weeks. Although I will not be letting you know the exact numbers, I will let you know the differences in each area.
Neck – No change
Shoulders – 1 inch (2.5cm)
Bust – 1 inch (2.5cm)
Under bust – 1 inch (2.5cm)
Arms – No change
Waist – 3 inches (7.5cm)
Stomach – 3.5 inches (8.9cm)
Bum – 1.5 inches (3.8cm)
Thighs – 2 inches off each (5cm)
Total – 15 inches lost (37.7cm)
When I was much younger, before I put weight on, I had a very definite hourglass figure. This is the shape that I lost when I got heavier. However, you can see from the measurements and also, I think the before and after photos, that this is where the weight loss is most noticeable.
Finally, I couldn’t have done this without my wonderful sister who has spent loads of time creating meal plans for me, food shopping with me to make sure I don’t sneak any bags of chocolate into the trolly, giving me tons of encouragement and also uploading my journey to her blog. There is no way I would have stuck to it without that kind of accountability. My next target is to try and lose another stone before my 31st birthday, which is about 10 weeks away.
