Part Two

I thought that it would be easy just to keep truckin' along myself, after the first six weeks, but it seems there is still stuff to learn. I'm all about learning stuff (although we won't even mention how hard it is to fit my uni paper in at the moment! Or how rubbish the essay I handed in last night was...) so, I've decided to keep going and do the next six week part of the plan. 

What have I learned?

- That I need to do some strength/weights/resistance stuff. I do not like this at all, I never have, but not only is Chrissie telling me that I should, my closer-to-home trainer and friend, Beth, leaped at the chance to set me up a program when I suggested I could start using the weights room at the school I teach at. Hmm, I'm sure it's a conspiracy, but I will go along with it.

- That buckwheat and quinoa are seeds, not grains. This may not seem earth-shattering to you, but having found that grains are bad (for me) in the first 6-week cycle, I had cut both of these out, even though I really like them, and now I know I don't have to. Yay!

- That the cutting down on red meat thing is so hard! I like red meat. My family likes red meat. I get zits and constipation from red meat. (Why does everything that disagrees with me make me constipated?! Honestly.) So I am still working on this one. At the moment I seem to be managing alternate nights, which is okay-ish. Now we just need to get our bottom paddock set up so that we can grow our own.

- That if I have a blowout, it makes a humungous difference on the scales, but that a few days of sensible-ness will take me back down to good places again. Not that I recommend this as a way ahead, but sometimes some friends come around, and you have some wine, and some cheese, and some other nibbly stuff... I think it's important to appreciate the occasion and not to regret it, but at the same time to know that getting back on track is not going to be too challenging afterwards.

- That nuts are great! I get hungry, I go looking for naughty snack food, I don't find any, I grab a wee handful of nuts and suddenly, I'm all good. Excellent.

So, the first week of part two has actually been really good. I have found that sticking to the nutrition plan is not too difficult, but that it is really effective to keep going with it and just remember what I'm doing. This coming week I'll be trying some new stuff - that strength training, and adding in more plant-based protein. 

Let's see how I go...