I really do have to come up with a more complimentary term than 'guinea pigs' – it’s not really sending the right message! But anyway, I hope your week has started well, it felt strange not posting yesterday but after a day off I’m ready to get going again!!
After doing my StealthHealth diary for 28 days, where I was essentially my own guinea pig, I thought it would be useful to take it outside and see if I could apply the Key Concepts to some ‘real life’ situations. My friend Jane suggested I enlist some volunteers which she may well be regretting because I instantly signed her up! It’s slightly daunting because Jane knows A LOT about food, she herself works in the food industry and has many foodie strings to her bow, but that in itself can be an issue, if your fridge is constantly full of tempting deliciousness then it can be really hard to stay on track health-wise.
My second 'GP' is Andrea who I haven't met before today, she's a friend of Jane, so it’s going to be great experience for me to coach someone I don’t know. Sometimes guiding friends is harder because you have to try and detach from the personal, having said that I can already tell we will quickly become friends! Andrea gives her busy social life and being partial to a glass of wine (a woman after my own heart!) as the main barriers to her achieving her health and weight loss goals.
And last but not least is Kate, she has to deal with food restrictions within her family and spends so much of her time and energy managing her family’s nutritional needs that hers can end up at the bottom of the pile, I’m sure there are many people who can relate to this. She’s also not much of a breakfast fan so this is an area I am keen to explore with her because as you know I am a bit of a breakfast fanatic!!
So our kick-off meeting was this morning - we went for a lovely walk first to get to know each other and then we parked ourselves in a coffee shop and had a good old chat where the ladies shared the food diaries they had been keeping for the last week - this is going to be a great benchmark to see if we can make some positive changes over the course of the next 4 weeks.
As it is WEEK 1 (if you remember from my previous diary posts) we are going to be focusing on Breakfast is Best and Eating with Awareness this week, it will be so interesting to get their feedback at our next meeting on how it has gone. We also discussed a recent phone-in on Woman's Hour called "What kind of relationship do you have with food?" which you may also find useful, click here to listen.
So, I’m going to be taking these three lovely ladies through the StealthHealth programme over the next 4 weeks and with their permission will give you insights and updates on what we discover along the way, I’m sure it will be helpful for all of us and I’ve got a few great recipes to share with you too.
In the meantime, although my own 28 programme is complete I am absolutely continuing with all the Key Concepts and, at the risk of sounding corny, StealthHealth is not a diet it’s a way of life and now I am firmly in the groove I intend to stay there …
So just to keep it real, here’s my day so far:
Breakfast: Berry smoothie bowl (pictured) topped with banana, granola and blueberries. Coffee. Water.
Exercise: 45 minute walk with the ‘GPs’, also 45 minutes reformer pilates class (usually would just do one of these!)
Mid-morning: Americano with milk. Water.
Lunch: Leftover shakshouka. Water.
Afternoon: Cup of tea. A banana and some peanuts
Dinner: I’m going out, it’s my birthday! Champagne will be consumed.
Sam xx
P.S. I’m 49 in case you were wondering!!
Yes, and now here's my usual request to please recommend the blog to all your friends. Thank you xx