Pure Loser - Results

At the beginning of April I signed up for a 6 week course through my gym (Pure Gym) called Pure Loser. It's basically 6 sessions where you discuss nutrition and exercise and try to form some healthy habits.

If you're looking for information about whether this will work for you, I should say that I think it will depend a lot on how many people sign up for the course and how good your trainer is. The information provided by Pure Gym is pretty standard stuff, but it's the advice from the trainer that made it worth it for me.

I was lucky in that my trainer was really good and I was the only one that signed up for it! So I got 6* sessions of 1-2-1 time for £20, you can't beat that really!  (*I was sick for 2 weeks and so I missed a session.)

We started by talking through my goals, current routine and diet habits. It helped that I was already tracking food in MyFitnessPal and wear a Fitbit, as he could look through these on my phone and get an idea of goals to set me.

We worked out I was doing an average of 6500 steps a day (some days over 12000, some days more like 1000!) so we agreed a goal of 7500 a day and to try to make that consistent. We upped my protein goal a bit, with the idea that eating more protein keeps you fuller and hopefully means snacking less.

We worked out what my bad habits were (coming home and heading straight for the fridge, eating dinner in bed watching TV...) and tried to come up with ways around those.

Also, we worked out in the gym and this was great because it was way more challenging than my solo sessions. When I would have normally given up, it was great to have someone telling me I could do a bit more.

The best habit I think I've picked up is walking. I try to go out for a walk every day now either after work or at lunchtime so I can hit my step goal. In addition to a few sessions a week at the gym.

Monday was my last session and I had lost 4.1 kilos (google tells me that's about 9 lbs) - in 5 weeks? I'm pretty bloody happy with that. (Since January, I'm down just over a stone).

My bad back - has never been better. The exercise is helping that immensely. I couldn't even walk for more than about 10 minutes before Christmas, without my back killing me and now I'm walking for around and hour a day with no pain! I've also just restarted Couch 2 5k on the treadmill at the gym.

I feel a lot more relaxed with food too. I am trying to pick things with more protein in and be mindful of what I'm eating. I'm still tracking with MyFitnessPal and sticking to my calorie goal as much as possible, but not worrying if I go a bit over at the weekend.

Was it worth it? YES! for me, absolutely. I''m going to continue on working with my trainer as I have found having him there really valuable and motivating. I'm looking forward to challenging myself even more in the gym and dropping some more pounds.

Mostly this has done what I've been trying to do for over a year - kick started my motivation! Seeing myself in my wedding dress was not the motivation I needed - because I already like how I look in it. Also, the wedding is only 5 months away and I am not going to be anywhere near goal by then. I am not planning to stop after the wedding though - this is an ongoing thing for me and as I said, I already feel great in my dress. But if I have lost a bit of weight by then, I think I'll just feel even better!

So that's about it for this update. I'm going to carry on eating well, going to the gym and next week I'll up my step goal again to 10,000.

How are you doing?

Have a great weekend. :)
Sal xXx