Mum Tum Challenge Week 1 (01 May – 07 May 2016)

The time to change my naughty ways has come so fast, and in the build up to the day that I am starting to change my exercise and eating habits I have inevitably gotten worse in the panic. The Mum Tum Challenge is nearly upon me and I find myself eating big packets of chips, literally scaring my husband each night with the amount I can consume!

D-Day is 01 May 2016 and like I promised I will be sharing everything about this journey with you, and I really hope that you join me.

So in the first week of my Mum Tum Challenge I will be eating no sugar, low carbs and no caffeine. Will I make it? Oh dear I hope so. I want to really make this clear again. I am not a dieter, I have never dieted in my life. The reason for me doing this in the first week is not to torture myself (although it will probably happen) or to lose weight.

I believe I am addicted to sugar, caffeine and carbs. I kid you not. When I quit smoking last year I went straight into the sugars, caffeine and carbs and I have not been able to stop.

I want to clear my system and give my body a chance to detox… so this is not the way I will be eating throughout this Mum Tum Challenge because I believe that would be just silly and dangerous.

My mom gave me this special edition magazine from Women’s Health that came out this year all about sugar bellies… thanks mom (I think?). It is quite scary how much sugar is in the food we eat and how dangerous it can be for us.

So for this week the no sugar includes no fruit.

Ok so here is the plan, I hope you will join me on this challenge. I think it will be tough, but well worth it.

Mum Tum Challenge Week 1 (Sunday 01 May – Saturday 07 May 2016)

Exercise for Week 1:

I am going to get my butt out the door every morning, onto the beach and I am going to run. I can’t promise how far or how fast but I will be running. I will most likely be forced to do that short, high intensity run, followed by a short break (so I can catch my breath gasping on all fours). Or maybe just a high paced walk… who knows. I can’t see me making a 5km run that’s for sure, well not alive at least. The point here is that I used to be a morning person, well not anymore. I don’t feel like I sleep well and I can’t get up in the morning. I am sure this is down to my bad habits, so I will make myself a morning person again.

Then I will be doing this 15 minute yoga workout. Oh I love yoga, every time after a yoga session I have felt so good. Yes sometimes panting away but I have felt good. And in case you didn’t catch my previous post about my mum tum, the whole point of this challenge is not exactly losing weight or cms. It is because I feel so gross in my own body. I want to feel good again!

So here’s the yoga session mommies:

Oh and just for a laugh I tried out this yoga session yesterday with my 2 year old son and my 4 year old daughter. I was thinking of filming it for Youtube and I am so sorry I didn’t!

My daughter loved it and followed the video beautifully. My son on the other hand thought it was great fun and started climbing all over me, making it the most intense work out ever. (And now for downward dog balancing a 2 year old sliding down your back….)

It ended off with my son taking a run up and headbutting me hard in the face. He was fine, but my lip split and was bleeding all over. That ended the session a few minutes early.

It would have made for very entertaining viewing, it would have shown exactly how it is to be a mom, in all it’s glory.

**Note to self and all other moms: do exercise in morning when children are at playschool, or do it with 4 year old while 2 year old is sleeping in the afternoon. Do not attempt with 2 year old on the loose.**

I told a mommy friend about that this morning and I got NO sympathy for my bruised, swollen lip. She said to me (and I quote exactly) “You fucking idiot, what were you thinking doing yoga with a 2 year old? You could’ve been killed”.

She’s got a damn good point.

So you know those videos where you can exercise with your kids and everything looks so serene and peaceful? It’s a blatant lie. Don’t try it.

Drinks for Week 1:

• Warm water with lemon first thing every morning and last thing at night. (OMG yes I am serious, no coffee…. this apparently helps to detox your body and is a very healthy way to start and end your day!)
• Cold water – let’s try for 4 glasses a day? That’s 4 up from normal so it has to be good right? 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. Yes I can do that.
• Green tea or Herbal teas if I feel like I want something a little more interesting than water. BUT no sugar or honey… or anything really nice and tasty. I’ll add lemon slices if I want to go wild.

Food for Week 1:

Breakfasts: Protein breakfasts, so any choices of meat,egg, cheese or Bulgarian yogurt. No carbs or sugars, so no toast, cereals or sweetened/ fruit yoghurts.

Lunches: Salad topped with a choice of protein. (Chicken, Bacon, Nuts, Tuna, Prawns, Roast Beef)

Suppers: Meat and some low carb vegetables. First choice for meats will be high protein meats like Chicken and Fish. Then for the low carb vegetables the choices here are Mushrooms, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Spinach, Broccoli, Eggplant, Asparagus.

Snacks for mid morning and mid afternoon will be mostly protein snacks, so any of these: Biltong, Nuts, Cottage Cheese, Celery Sticks with Peanut Butter, Boiled Egg, Hummus, Tuna, Roasted Chickpeas, Greek Yoghurt, Avos.

What about portion sizes?

I am not going to give portion sizes or worry about it too much. I believe the key here is being mindful and everything in moderation. I am not trying to starve myself, I am trying to eat healthily. So eat slowly, enjoy your food and be mindful of when you have had enough and stop eating. If you eat too fast you won’t know you are full until you have eaten too much.

So where am I now?

I have weighed myself and I am topping the scales at a whopping 73kgs. This is definitely the heaviest I have ever been, well as in non-pregnant and not straight after giving birth to a baby. I am 1.68m tall and this makes my BMI 25.9. From 25 you are considered overweight, for the first time in my life I have just headed over that threshold. It does feel strange, I have been skinny all my life!

My tummy measures 104cm. I can’t remember measuring my stomach so I don’t know what it was before but judging just by the way I look it is probably close to double the size it should be.

What are my Week 1 Goals?

• Detox my body from all the sugar, caffeine and unhealthy things I have been stuffing myself with
• Start an exercise program, yes it is mild but I don’t want to hurt myself
• Start eating the right things, in the right amounts at the right time
• Be mindful of my body

So there’s the plan, if you want to join me in my mission you know what the plan is and you can prepare yourself… like I am mentally preparing myself by getting in as many chips as possible before 01 May!

Feel free to share your weight and/ or measurements (go on, I dare you!) and your goals for the first week of May in the comments. I would love to hear from you.