Lean in 15 - A Month Of Eating The Body Coach's Recipes

Buying this book was yet another helpful recommendation from the same colleague who suggested the 5K (holla, Andrea - thanks for keeping me motivated). I got it for £7.99 on Amazon at the end of January with the intention of eating as many of his recipes that I fancied - at least across the whole of February. I was keen to shake things up too - I'd been living off salads and chicken which was delicious but bordering on bland.

It arrived really quickly so I was able to get started straight away. I loved the book, flipping through every page the moment I opened it. The pictures and layout are colourful as well as glossy. He's also sectioned all the recipes according to when they should be eaten - low carb for everyday and carb-based for post workout meals to refuel. On top of that, there's some snacks and a section for his at-home HIIT workout (no equipment, no excuses).

It's a fantastic book for basic food education and re-working your relationship with food as well. His main focus is eating food that nourishes the body and staying away from the scale (or 'sad step' as he calls it). I didn't mind staying away from the scale so much with all that Christmas weight sat on my hips. I did struggle not to count calories though - I just couldn't avoid entering the recipes into MyFitnessPal to make sure I wasn't going over my daily calorie allowance. Most of the recipes were heavily vegetable based which was calorie-friendly, but I did have to halve quite a lot of the meat quantities to keep to my daily goals.

Another thing that a lot of people comment on is the cost. It does cost money to eat fresh, particularly as a lot of the recipes call for added ingredients to flavour the dish (ginger, lime, spring onion, chilli) which can stack up pretty quick. My first weekly shop was £67 where I usually spend £40 - but a lot of that basket were things like coconut oil (which is still going strong) and spices that I didn't have in my cupboard already. Subsequent baskets were around £50-£55 so still expensive but the portions are huge even with my meat quantities halved so the cost was well worth it to me.

I definitely had my favourite recipes - usually anything that involved cheese (come at me cheesy chorizo). The thing I liked most about the book was how easy to make the recipes are. None of this 'broil this', 'ferment that' or 'grow your own asparagus' bullshit that you get in a lot of other cookbooks. Just straightforward recipes that can usually be chucked in one pan and completed in 15-20 minutes.

At the end of the 5 weeks of Lean in 15 recipes, I ended up losing 9lbs. However, I should point out that I think this more to do with a calorie deficit than the recipes themselves. I didn't buy this book for weight loss - I bought it for fresh and tasty recipes. The weight loss that came with it was reassuring though. Especially since you see so many amazing transformations through his 90 Day SSS Plans on his social media.

All in all, I really enjoyed all of the recipes that I tried in the Lean in 15 book and it's got a firm place on my cookbook shelf. I'm moving on to the BBC Good Food Low Calorie cookbook next and will let you know how I get on with that. In the meantime, here's some pictures of some of my Lean in 15 dinners from Instagram because YES - I'm the type of instagrammer that takes picture of food #judgeme

Couch to 5K - My Journey From Netflix Under a Duvet to 05:00 Gym Sessions

As part of my on-going 'weight-loss journey' (cringe), I decided to chuck a bit of exercise into the mix to try and speed things along. It turned out that I actually put on quite a bit of weight across Christmas (24lbs....) so I have an even longer way to go to get to my goal weight before Bermuda.

When a colleague said she was signing up for the 5k Race for Life in July, I told her to sign me up with her and suddenly I had a tangible goal to work towards. I'd heard about Couch to 5K before on the My Fitness Pal forums and figured I could give that a try. There are actually quite a few apps for it out there - even one from the NHS which helped me feel like this was a good idea.

I chose the C25K app from ZenLabs. It's completely free from the app store with only a tiny strip of ads at the bottom of the app which doesn't bother me. I also think it's really well-designed as an app - simple, sleek and easy to use. 

Week 1 was a really gentle start. I remember feeling like I could definitely run more than the 60 seconds of jogging that it starts you off with. The immediate running endorphins had me feeling like such a bloody champion. I kept thinking 'oh my god, this is so easy. I'm a natural! I was MADE for running!' and day dreaming about running a marathon someday. 

As the weeks go on, the time spent running slowly increases up to the full 30 minutes of non-stop running that you eventually end on. I should note here that you're only going to be running a full 5k by the end of this if you're running a 10 minute mile. Any slower and this app is only going to train you up to run 30 minutes without stopping - but you can work on speed later on.

I did have to have two weeks off near the beginning - the first one because I got a horrific case of runner's knee. It turns out I had VERY WRONG shoes and it was putting all kinds of pressure on my poor crooked knee joint. I invested in some high-arch Nike trainers to support my ankles and haven't felt any pain since. I also had to have a break when I got a chesty cold too but thankfully that passed quickly.

I'm just about to head into the 8th and final week of the programme on Tuesday and I'm really excited about it. I'll be continuing to run 5k three times a week after the programme and until at least after the race. 

I didn't expect that I'd stick with this for as long as I have so I'm really proud of myself for that. I remember that after completing the 4th Week, the app comes up with a little trophy and says that people who reach the halfway mark usually go on to complete the programme. That motivated me massively. It's so rare that I actually complete the fitness goals that I set myself so this feels like a step in the right direction at last. 

There have been so many mornings when I've just wanted to go back to bed - especially those mornings when the alarm goes off at 04:15 because I have to fit a session in before an early start at work. But I have managed to overcome the hesitations each time and my reward has been endorphins and a buzzing energy for the rest of the day afterwards so it is well worth it.

I'd recommend this programme to anyone that is wanting to take the first step in fitness and isn't sure where to start. It's perfect for building up stamina and you can take it all at your own pace too so there's no pressure.

Tabitha

Hello.....It's Me

Cheap Adele reference...sorry.

It's been well over two months since I last posted on here. Half of that is sheer laziness and the other half is me truly believing that I am too busy to blog. That said, I am back with a brand new blog design? Isn't is fancy?!

The hideous old pink design that I had tried to stitch together on my own is now long gone (thank god!) and I finally gave in to buying a ready-made template. Shout out to Kay Luxe Design on Etsy for the new design.

I'm not going to set myself a target post number for now. I just want to get back to blogging for the love of it. Particularly since 50% of my monthly content last month was a Birchbox and MyLittleBox review - neither of which I'm subscribed to any more.

In any case, I hope you enjoy the new layout and the new content I'll be posting. Don't forget to subscribe by email at the top right of the page to be notified of any new posts.

Tabitha