This my friends is the face and body of a goddess taking care of herself… Workout done… We’ve reduced in size in just 12 days by 4.4kg! Still a wee ways from out target, but we are getting there!

This journey began back around 2.5 months ago when I stopped eating after 8pm. I could still have my herbal teas but no food or honey etc…
Then a month later (start of June) I was inspired to try intermittent fasting… I had been seeing it popping up in my socials for a while, and so I investigated and tuned into my sweet body and asked her if she’d like to give this a try… She was excited and so we began!

For me, that meant not eating between 8pm and 12pm… But as most of my shifts at work finish around 1pm, I organically went to a 17/7 split…

And shockingly My body LOVED IT!!!

There were none of the high and lows that I thought would happen. None of the emotional outbursts that I thought may come. None of the exhaustion in the mornings I thought would surely stop me from continuing. None of the “I’m Starving!” at 10am that I used to get from a day that began with breakfast at 8am.

There have only been a couple of moments when 12pm hit and I was with my disability client and my tummy rumbled SUPER LOUD!!! I said, “ohhh sorry, that was embarrassing!” And then we all laughed 😂

I am still able to have my morning coffee, no sugar or milk, just the way my body loves it… Some days there are 2 coffees other days just 1 but unless I have gotten up late on the weekend and I end up with none till later, there is always at least one cuppa Joe in my belly!

The other thing that I have been doing for about 2 years now is having 1 litre of warm water as soon as I get out of bed. I used to have lemon in it too but lately, it’s just water and it’s now a habit I find difficult to skip!

I’m hydrating my body after a night of rest, snoring, talking, processing, interdimensional travel, and regeneration…

I go off to work for an hour, come home, pee, and then have my coffee while I do my tasks for the morning…

You know, journal, watch YouTube, do dishes, plan dinner, wash the car, have another coffee, plan things for my YouTube channel, read a bit, and those sorts of things…

Then off I go to work again for another couple of hours…

And then home again and finally I get to eat…
I found my body leaned toward salads with salmon or rainbow trout rather than porridge… Or was happy with a serve of last night’s dinner, or soups…

And for the next 2-3 weeks we did this, eating what ever we desired within the 7-8hour span…

And what I was again surprised to discover is that I naturally didn’t want to gorge myself with food… I ate, actually felt the difference between empty and full, and stopped eating for a while… Then ate again…

Had a bit of fruit… and a hot drink… Felt full again… And kept on going!

Did I eat snacks like chocolate, chips, and lollies???? Yup! But the quantity was a lot less! And I never made myself wrong for choosing them, I just really paid attention to exactly how much my body actually wished to have.

And she would tell me when she had enough by changing the flavour to super bland, or gritty, or off… That’s how she tells me, and I learned to listen closely.

The other thing I have been doing for at least a year is having a glass of water just before I go to bed. Pre-hydrating before my nightly adventures!! 😂

Now, this is a point I didn’t know, till I knew, was helping so much for the morning hungrys that I used to get…

There was this one night I was really tired and went to bed without the glass of water… This was after I started the intermittent fasting…
And I was in bed for all of 2 minutes when all of a sudden I was like “Fuck I’m HUNGRY!”
My stomach was tight and sore and I felt like my throat would die if I didn’t get food NOW!

I was like, oh wow that’s interesting! Hey body what’s all that about???

I then got the awareness that I had neglected to drink that glass of water… And so off I went and got that drink and hey presto! No longer “STARVING”… Just really happy and content.

And off to dreamy land, I went…

The next day I pondered over my morning coffee what on earth happened?? Why such a huge hunger response to wanting water?
Were there signs that my body wanted water and I completely ignored them?

Easy answer… Yes…

My throat was a little itchy and dry before I went to bed but I ignored it as I was sooooooo tired…

And so my body went into full-on light a bomb under my arse to get me moving! And it worked!

What I realised at that moment was there have been so many moments in my life where I connected the gut-wrenching hunger as being an ask for food, when in reality it was my clever body asking for fluid instead… Knowing that I would ignore the dry throat… She did the next best thing… She squeezed and twisted my stomach in the hopes that when I got to the kitchen I would realise I was thirsty and would drink instead of eat… Sadly for most of the last 20 years that was not the case…

I would eat. Not feel satisfied. And eat more.
Putting on 20-25kg since I was 20…

Back to today…

Today marks the 14th day of being guided by an app (BetterMe) to get the most out of my body.

Each day I log my food intake. It has options there that calculate the calories for me and each day I am given an allowance that will best create the space for me to achieve my goals.

That’s been really wonderful and has allowed me to really take control of what, how much, and how I eat… I could follow the food plan that I paid for, but I feel that the way I’m doing this is far more empowering. I log all of the water I drink, I have a requirement to drink 2.75L of water a day… And I have these workouts to follow, each one is about 15 minutes long but I tend to skip through the rest moments and so my sessions are shorter.

And wouldn’t you know it… In 2 weeks I’ve reduced in size by 4.4 kg!!!

Well on my way to my goals of reducing by about 18kg!

The numbers shouldn’t matter… But here’s the thing, that number is giving me the opppmf to keep going. It’s an acknowledgment of the magic my body and I are creating. And it’s also showing me in a measurable form what I can’t always see in the mirror as I look at myself every day.

I know this is a long story today… If you made it this far, thank you…

And what I can say is this…
My body journey has been a long one… There have been so many minute steps and awakenings over especially the last 5 years that has allowed me the space to have this much ease with what we are doing now.

Yes, that’s right… Ease…

Some of the workouts are tough… But if I hadn’t had the courage to have a PT for a few weeks before covid hit, I wouldn’t have had the courage to tackle the routines now…

See one small step 6 months ago created so much ease now…

So my friends, never regard anything as not worthwhile…
You’ve learned a new skill or knowledge in a step to becoming the very best version of you possible at that moment…

Keep on going!
If I can do this then so can you!

Adoring you 💖
Lorene xxx