Health Challenge Week 2

Health Challenge Week 2 & 3 Update – 1,1kg Lost In Total and A Wobble

I was hoping to write an update each week on my progress with my health challenge but I had a mental health wobble which meant I had to put my focus on putting one foot in front of the other rather than writing about my progress. Although it has been a really hard few weeks I’ve made some good progress and managed to stay on track through those challenges which makes me feel really good.

1,1kg Lost In Total and A Wobble

My Mental Health Wobble

I’m not going to go to deep into this as I have just published a blog post about it which you can read here to get the full picture. In short I had the Mirena IUD put in during week 2 of my health challenge and along with the expected pain, cramping and general discomfort I also experienced severe depression that jumped at me seemingly from nowhere but which I now attribute to the Mirena UID too.

While this wobbly was not pleasant some good came of it too since each time I have been on a mission to lose weight, increase my fitness and improve my health something has come along to put a spanner in the works and every time I lost my enthusiasm, motivation and determination… but not this time!

I didn’t write about my progress because that was too much for me, but I did stay on track and I did make great progress. This is something for me to get really excited about!

My Eating Plan

I stuck to my eating plan but it became quite boring, I ate all the same foods. In week 2 I was so busy that I did not take the time to come up with anything new for the week so I just copied from the week before. Then in week 3 I was so hit with depression I could not be bothered to make a new menu plan so once again I just repeated what I did in week 1.

While this became a bit boring I’m still proud of myself for sticking to what I should be eating.

I do feel that eating three meals and two snacks every day is a bit much food for me, even after I made the portions smaller, so I sometimes skip a snack when I’m still feeling full. I don’t like eating when I am not hungry.

So there is nothing much new to report on the eating side of things, but I am most certainly going to be putting in some effort moving forward to try new foods and mix up the menu a bit moving forward.


My Exercise

I’ve been exercising most mornings after I drop my kids off at school and I am really enjoying it. In the past I have tried to push myself to do more and to sweat a bit. However Helen’s advice to me at the beginning of the challenge is to get into a routine of exercising and to enjoy what I do rather than focus on how much exercise I am doing.

I really feel that this has made a difference to the way I look at exercise because I always dreaded it, as something that gives pain and offers no fun.

I do not push myself very hard, I walk a few kilometers on the beach most days and it is lovely. In fact the last few days I have jogged part of the way and I have enjoyed that too.

Reading Bubble Bath

My Self-care

This has been interesting for me because for such a long time I had to “make time” for self-care and I had to have it on my to do list as something that needed to be done rather than something I did because I wanted to be kind to myself in that moment.

I’m not sure if this point will even make sense to anyone else but I will try. Here is an example – shaving my legs has become a chore and something that I have not done very often since becoming a mother. In fact I usually only do it when my hubby starts complaining about it more than usual. Very often I will go the whole winter without shaving my legs at all because I can get away with it.

I realized this morning that I have shaved my legs this week and last week, not because anyone moaned and not because I was going to an event and I didn’t want to be a shaggy bear. While I was in the bath I just decided of my own free will to shave my legs, because I felt like it. I can’t even remember when last I shaved my legs like that!


My Weight Loss, Energy and More

My weight loss for week 2 was great – I lost an additional 1,3 kgs and ended week 2 at 79.7kgs. I can’t even remember when last I weighed under 80kgs so this was a massive achievement.

However after having put the IUD in, my third week was not so great and at the end of that week I weighed 80.9kgs undoing almost all the weight loss from the second week. I did my research before having the IUD put in and I knew that weight gain is a possible side effect so I was prepared for that but it was a let down all the same.

While I put on weight in the third week my body started to really feel different in this week. My clothes were looser on me and I felt thinner. When I looked at myself in the mirror I could clearly see a difference. So while the scale was a disappointment everything else was telling me I did lose weight.

My energy levels were shot during week 2 but that was due to the side effect of the IUD being put in. It was a bad week and I’m not going to be attributing anything negative in that week to the health challenge.

In week 3 my energy levels started increasing and I am feeling so much better but I am not over the mental health wobble so I am taking things slow and being kind to myself.

Another wonderful thing that I have noticed and my husband has pointed it out to me too, I am looking younger and healthier which is a huge bonus. Just before this challenge started I remember looking in the mirror thinking that age is catching up to me and that I looked tired, washed out and old…. so much change in just a few short weeks!

This is a 4 week challenge, so it is just about done but I can see that moving forward I will be continuing with the things that I have been taught so far, it can only benefit me.

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