Elimination day 3 and finally a cure for pregnancy acne!

Well this last week has been hectic to say the least. I finally moved home on the weekend and it's great to be back. Although I can't get used to not having to go to work. Think that may take a while!

Now that I'm home I've gone back on Elimination and it's been great. I'm loving it and the fact that I have the kitchen at my dispoal any time I want makes it sooooo easy!

Today is day 3 and it's been an absolute breeze! My body is loving it and my pregnancy acne has practically gone, (although I think that also has loads to do with the fact I'm no longer living in a cupboard, sleeping on a sofabed and completely stressed out all the time!).

The great thing about elimination is that the more often you do it the easier it gets. You know exactly what to eat, you have loads of recipes in mind that are quick and easy and I actually really look forward to my meals. I love that I'm doing the best for my baby and I'm sure tadpole is appreciating it too!

I'm still craving fruit like crazy but I'm sure that probably won't change.

For those of you who are still sceptical about elimination and the restrictive nature of the diet here's what I've eaten over the last 3 days:

Thai beef salad
Chicken Curry
Masala mincemeat and peas
Banana eggs
Muesli
Yogurt
Fruit of all colours!
Fudge walnut bounce balls (protein snack - all natural ingredients)
Loads of veggies done every way!

Tommorow I'm making blackberry muffins, yummy!

The only thing I'm struggling with is finding a raw milk supply near me. There's loads of farms seeing as I'm out in the West Country so I think I'll just get in the car and drive and see what I find!

The one week quitter!

A few weeks ago I had a client quit, after just 6 days. Now it's a rare occurance to have a client quit and especially so early on in the programme. Not because I'm blowing my own trumpet about how great a trainer I am, but because the consultation process usually weeds them out so they don't start in the first place.

Without going into too much detail the consultation process we use here at the studios really gets down to the core of a person's motivation and commitment and if they're not willing to give 100% then we don't accept them as a client.

Anyway, so here was this great client, raring to go and all fired up. I gave her strict advice on the nutrition, training, hydration, sleep cycles and homework that she would have to do for the next 30 days and she was ready to give it her all.

And she did!

For 6 days.

I had a message over the holiday weekend saying she was struggling and when I saw her the following week she told me the programme wasn't working for her and she wanted to quit.

Why?

Well in her mind she had a very good reason. She'd been trying really hard, eating everything she was supposed to, doing her homework and training with me, (we had almost 2 sessions), but she hadn't lost any weight. To add to the distress, she'd put on 1cm.

Now 6 days is no time to be able to assess anything. Detoxing the body can have many different effects and cause varying symptoms in the first 10 days. If you do find you are feeling bloated there are several things that may be causing this.

Possible causes of initial bloating during detox

Bloating due to the initial reaction to toxins being released
Hormonal fluctuations - particularly if there are existing hormonal imbalances or sensitivties
Initial water retention due to release of toxic load into the body's extracellular environment
Hydration levels
Food sensitivity - in particular: raw food, higher fibre foods, new foods
Lack of sleep
Altered glucose sensitivity
Stressor reponse

The list goes on..

So what I'm saying is, with any change in lifestyle you need to give your body time to adjust and settle. The body is a cybernetic organism. That means there are many different systems that work synergistically. If any one, (or all) of these systems undergo a dramatic change it will affect the entire balance of the body. So not only do you need time to clean the body up you also need time for it to rebalance and settle into it's new routine.

This will take a minimum of 10 days to clean up and at least 30 days to adequately assess how the body is responding to different stressors, be they exercise, diet, rest, hydration, hormonal....

So please, don't be too impatient when starting something positive. 6 days of a new lifestyle may seem like an age to you, but think of it in relative terms. If you've been putting rubbish into your body for months/years then even 30 days is a very small comparison.

My birthday, the Queen and a lot of food.....

The mayday weekend is always the first bank holiday of the year in the UK, where we get a long weekend with Monday off of work! It also happens to fall on my birthday almost every year. My Birthday is the 6th May, (today, yippee!), so I always celebrate over the entire 3 day break.

Yes you got it, I love my birthday and make the most of it by claiming from Friday to whatever day it falls on that, "it's my birthday!". This, however, turns into a bit of an excuse to eat and drink whatever I want, because....,"it's my birthday!".

This year was no different, and I probably gave myself even more leeway than normal, "because I'm pregnant". (Don't worry not using that one evey day!).

Friday turned out to be a bit of a disaster as I had planned to have dinner with my dad and boyfriend that evening after doing a favour for a friend. Unfortunately the favour turned into a bit of a nightmare. My friend works for a big name hairdressers and needed a model for a show, so I agreed I would be the model. We arranged that she would cut and colour my hair, early Friday evening before I went out.

What started well and was supposed to takle only a couple of hours turned into a 5 hour nightmare, with me obviously having to cancel my birthday plans with my dad. I'd been at work since 7am, drove straight back from London to the hairdressers and finally left there about 9:45 pm that evening.

I was not best pleased as you can imagine. And starving. And in the bad books with my boyfriend.

Got back to my dad's and it was too late to eat anything so just had half a tin of rice pudding that was in the cupboard and went to bed upset.

Woke up feeling, much better but still upset I hadn't seen my boyfrined yet. Had a good breakfast and then went off to do some birthday shopping in town. Stopped in the supermarket and bought lots of healthy salad stuff and had a good lunch.

I carried on in this vein that evening at my birthday dinner with friends and had a chicken salad and two glasses of wine. So all good!

Then Sunday came and those two glasess of wine hit you when you're pregnant! Woke up feeling tired and queasy but ate my yoghurt and fruit and felt slightly better. Carl and I went to the market and there was the sweetie stall!

During this pregnancy I have turned into sweetie monster! It was always chocolate before but I'm off that now and just love sweets! I picked at a few then we stopped and shared a mincemeat curry, (lush!).

3 hours later I was picking again and had some aubergine pakora that we'd bought earlier from the Indian stall and a chocolate dessert thing.

Then, we were out for dinner that evening with my mum! We went thai and I tried to stay good and had the thai beef salad and a little rice. ALL GOOD SO FAR!

Then the dessert menu came out and I had to have lemon meringue ice cream!

Still stuffed when I got in I managed to eat a piece of cornish fudge.

Monday after a healthy breakfast we went shopping for my new camcorder, (it's really cool!). I had to go into MacDonalds for the toilet and came out with large fries and a chocolate milkshake!

AGGGGGHHHH!

I didn't realise how much all that was till I wrote it down - I'm so glad birthdays are only once a year! I wonder how the queen manages to stay trim..she has two!!

My first scan! (...oh and me, my IBS and my midwife)

Yippee, yippee! I had my first scan and it was sooooo cool!!

I did not know you could see so much! It even had a zoom in feature so I got a close up of my little tadpole, (gotta think of a new name, it's so not a tadpole anymore!)

Anyway, he/she was very active and was waving at the camera and spinning around. It was so exciting and I feel so much closer to my bump now that I've seen it is real!

I'm so excited now about moving home, it's only 4 weeks and I'll be out of this place and back where I belong. The thing I'm looking forward to most, (apart from being free from stress), is the fact that I'll be able to get my nutrition back on track.

Whilst I've been in London I've been working some serious hours. My first client is at 7am and my last is either finished at 8/9pm every day bar Friday. What this means is that when I get home I force myself to eat something but have no time or inclination to prepare food for the next day. Unfortunately we don't have a fridge at work so I end up buying and eating 3 meals plus snacks at work.

I try and stay healthy but often the cost of buying all my meals from local cafes restricts how much I eat. Therefore, I often end up going whole days with just 1 proper meal and then snacking on clementines, raw veg and hoummus. Considering my job as a personal trainer and lifestyle coach this is just not acceptable! I would have serious words with any client of mine who did that.

My IBS has really been flaring up lately, (Kathleen, I hear you on the gassy lady bit!), and I know that when I don't eat regularly my stomach will go haywire. Cramps, bloating and pain are not fun. So roll on the end of May when I'll be back to my normal healthy diet of organic meat, lots of veggies, gluten free and organic muesli and bread and no processed cr*p!

I have started today:

Brekkie: Live yoghurt, gluten free organic muesli, grapes

Lunch: Spinach, watercress and rocket salad with smoked mackerel fillet, cherry tomatoes, cucumber and coleslaw

Was all going well until I had to go to my booking appointment with my midwife and she made me down a bottle of Lucozade. Agh, the sugar! Unfortunately I couldn't argue as she needed to do some tests on my blood sugars.

I am now feeling the consequence, I'm bloated and gassy again. For pete's sake people! Please let me eat normally!

TFI Friday!

Thank God, the weekend couldn't come fast enough this week!

I spent last weekend in Belfast with my boyf and his family and it was so relaxing it was a bit of a shocker getting up at 5:30am on Tuesday for work, knowing that I wouldn't get home till 9:30pm!

Feeling a little sick this morning but think that's tiredness from the long working week.

Elimination has been good and I'm feeling better about my skin already knowing that I'm doing something to help it clear up.

Breakfast this morning was my yummy gluten free porridge with a chopped banana. Can't wait till it gets warmer and I can swap it for bircher muesli!

I'm sooooo looking forward to tommorow as my boyfriend is visiting me for the weekend. It's really tough right now and sometimes I get a bit lonely knowing that we have another 5 months apart. Oh well all in a good cause!

I am too tired today to exercise so I'm giving myself the day off. Will do some yoga stretches and some relaxation meditation. I'll train in the morning after I've trained my client.

Todays poses:

Mountain Pose
Forward bend
Down dog
Warrior 1
Warrior 2
Triangle pose
Backbends
Long stretch roll
Supine butterfly pose

10 min relaxation and connecting with tadpole - can't wait to find out what it is so I can call him/her by name!