Did it the healthy way.
Still doing it the healthy way! Fleur. Sydney, Australia. Age: 25
Height: 5'9"
HW/SW: 126.2 kg (277.6 lb)
CW: No longer a slave to the scales
UGW: Focusing on my UGB (Ultimate Goal Body)!
Weight lost Jan 28 '11 - Jan 28 '12:
59.7 kg (131.3 lb)
Testing testing... Is there anybody still out there?
I’m thinking of making a comeback. A blog comeback. A life comeback. A positivity comeback. Let’s just bring it all back, baby.
I know I’ve been gone a long time. Too long. I made a fitness insta but I just couldn’t keep it up. It’s not quite the same as this really. A lot has happened since I left.
Beginning with the elephant in the room...
I gained heaps of my weight back.
Heaps.
HW 6 months ago: 95kg.
I gained back HALF of what I originally lost. If that isn’t a HUGE fml I don’t know what is.
However there is good news. Because I’m down 14kg from that, currently sitting at 81kg and feeling effing great. I could write a huge post about what happened but I won’t right now, or maybe ever. But I think it learnt so so much, the main thing being losing 60kg in 12 months is not sustainable weight loss. That I was disordered in my eating and my exercise towards the end of that year. That I’ve spent years yo-yoing like my girl Oprah. And it just isn’t a life. It’s not. Don’t do it. Don’t you dare. Don’t you dare exist on 1200 calories a day and hours of cardio a week. Fuck that shit right there because that is misery and deprivation personified. Because when you reach that number on the scale, and oh girl you will because your poor body will drop that fat on that regime because you haven’t given it a choice, you have to stay like that. You have to stay a 1200 calorie cardio skeleton to maintain it. DID YOU KNOW THAT. I KNOW THAT. And damn what a hard lesson the past few years have been.
And I’m not saying I have the answers. Because no doubt I will struggle for life with this. I’m a girl who loves her treats, and loves them in excess, so it’s always going to be an uphill battle for me. But at least I’ve come to terms with the fact I refuse to punish my body into a skinny submission.
So I’ve spent the past 6 months running again, and doing some Jillian, and the past 2 months I’ve done Kayla’s BBQ. YAS I have become that girl and I love to hate to tell you so, but shit yeah that program actually works. Month 3 is kicking my ASS but it’s great, thanks Kayla girl.
Peace out for now. I had a sudden burst of inspo to log back on here and spill my guts and here it is.
I just received my first month of Goodness Me and it's packed full of yummy healthy treats. Anyone in Australia, you defs need to get onto this. Eating this months raspberry & chia jam on Ryvita crackers as I type hehe. Sign up to our health food subscription box & receive GG Gourmet's Chipotle Almonds & Salad Topper as a BONUS $12 gift!
Today this blog is 3 years old! I can't believe I started this amazing journey a whole 3 years ago. I'm so grateful anyone clicked follow or, if you don't have tumblr, clicked bookmark or followed me on bloglovin'. I've always said this and I always will, I never started this to get followers or recognition or attention. It was all for me.
Sometimes I struggle with keeping this blog updated because I no longer use it for what it was originally intended, which was a record of my weight loss and the accountability that brought with it. I still drop in from time to time, of course, but it's not like it used to be I will admit.
However, I'm feeling like having a health&fitness instagram is the new blog. I've been obsessed with instagram for years now, so I thought, hey why not have 2 accounts (one personal, one health/fitness/etc). So If you want to follow me somewhere where I update daily, that's where you'll fine me, @fleurmeetsfitness ! I also love how easy it is to comment others and reply to comments and have general conversations, unlike tumblr. So if ya wanna drop by, say hi, give me a double tap, you know where to find me ;)
I have a new fitness/health instagram account! I'm obsessed with instagram so that's a guaranteed way to follow along with me daily if I'm struggling to update the blog.
Follow me @fleurmeetsfitness
Selfies, yummy food from healthy cafes/restaurants, my own clean cookings, running, working out, inspirational quotes/photos/babes, random things thrown in there, progress photos...
I work in the Sydney CBD with pretty irregular hours so there are always plenty of opportunities for me to eat out whether it be breakfast, lunch or dinner catch-ups and I've found the best way to avoid eating badly is to go to places where they don't serve bad food. It is honestly that simple.
And there really is no shortage of cafes or restaurants around Sydney to are full of healthy choices just waiting to be made. Here are a few of my favourites to eat at in Sydney:
Top Juice, various locations
I am addicted to Top Juice. There. I said it. It's out there. My all-time favourite juice is the "Slim Grin" (kale, apple, celery) and I've been known to pick up 1L bottles of it, for only $9 mind you. It doesn't hurt that there's one right next to where I work, and that I also won an instagram competition of theirs that netted me a 15% off VIP card. The have plenty of yoghurts with different toppings, fresh fruit in fruit salads or just berries or just fresh mango, as well as salad options. Around 4:30pm they have their sales on with whatever fruits/salads/yoghurts they didn't shift that afternoon (1 for $5, 2 for $8). Their chocolate covered strawberries are monstrous and the most amazing chocolate covered strawberries you will probably ever experience. You can't go wrong.
Madam Char Char, Surry Hills
My go-to. I've been coming here regularly for a few years now and I've even posted about them on this blog at least twice before. Their twitter bio line sums it up perfectly "Sexy and healthy salads. Beautiful braised dishes and burgers that kick ass." They also have roast chicken for you to peck at (see what I did there), braised dishes, burgers and probably what I would call the best brownie in Sydney. It is huge though so share it or probably don't, I downed the whole thing on my own once. I always get the beetroot salad, it is my life. Tahini or mint yoghurt dressing to chose from, iI usually get a medium bowl or 3-4 salads.
Bread & Circus Wholefoods Canteen, Alexandria
In a nutshell, “amazing tea, mostly organic and biodynamic food and sweet things and no coffee – not a single drop.” I really need to go here more. Admittedly, I've only been twice but both times I questioned my lack of visitation because the whole thing is up my ally. The menu changes daily (whatever's in season), I've had the salad sharing plate and it is the bomb. The breakfast is also where it's at. See: the Foxy Autumn Porridge ($15), with slow cooked, pre-soaked dairy-free organic oats, real vanilla-cinnamon, cardamom, hazelnuts, organic coconut milk, seasonal fruit and agave. There’s also Very Particular Pancakes ($16), pre-soaked buckwheat black quinoa coconut-rapadura wholefood pancakes with your choice of maple-orange gloss or maple biodynamic yoghurt. Like whut.
The Grounds of Alexandria, Alexandria
Ah, The Grounds. If there ever was a cafe that was too popular, this would be it. Lunch time table waits can be up to an hour. I've done it before. However if you time your visit well and don't mind eating late or early around meal times, you can be seated right away. To be honest, the place is gorgeous and the food is really nice, but you wouldn't wait an hour. It's definitely a place to be seen, to check in, to get your insta-snap at and I don't see the fuss dying down anytime soon. The coffee is great, the breakfast menu is to die for, but the food presentation is next level. (That's a bircher muesli trifle above right). Vego options a-plenty. Also on the premises is Salt Meat & Cheese, a shop with a huge amount of organic food available. I picked up some acai/banana blend and kale chips last visit. Say hi to the resident pink, Kevin Bacon, while you're taking photos of all things pretty in the courtyard/garden.
Melonhead, Coogee
I can't be in Coogee and not stop at Melonhead. Even the thought is sacrilege. "Melonhead squeezes fresh juices from their extensive range of fruit and vegetables on display. Famous for its amazing fresh fruit salad, gourmet Turkish rolls, fresh juices, fresh fruit smoothies and whole fruit crushes, all produce is hand picked and delivered daily from the Markets." Love their acai bowls. The service can be so-so, it's pretty much a roster of ever-changing female backpackers, and there's always a line but it moves quick. Doesn't matter, stop by for a nice fresh juice (the honey bee is really popular, so is the breakfast muesli shake) pre or post beach session.
Pablo & Rusty's, CBD
This is my breakfast cafe. It's only half a block from my work so it's super convenient for a before-work catch up. I've been here 12+ times in the past 6 months for breakfast which is quite a lot for me as I like to spread my cafe visits between places I've never been before. I've recently been having a love affair with the grains & nuts in yoghurt (photo top right). However, that balsamic mushroom on sourdough is a game changer. Their coffee is amazing, all their staff is bizarrely good looking, and the fit out is beautiful. I've been for lunch once and didn't rate it but I'm happy to try again should the opportunity arise. They present food pretty well, hey.
Armchair Collective, Mona Vale
Lovelovelove this place. If only I didn't live so far away! It's a block from the beach, really popular with the locals, and also doubles as a furniture/lifestyle store and florist as well as serving a cafe breakfast and lunch menu. The Armchair Salad is the bomb, as is the berry crush (of course served in vintage milk bottles). The cafe/store is quaint, and light, and extremely loveable. As a space it works so well. The menu is tight, focus on simple food but quality produce. It's cafes like this that push me to visit my sister more often on the Northern Beaches...
All Good Things Eatery, Kingsgrove
Oh how long I have waited for a suburban cafe worthy of a city-location to open near me. My dreams have been answered in the form of All Good Things Eatery, about a 20min walk from my house. The space is huge and bright and warm, easily one of the biggest in the area. My eyes lit up when I browsed the menu, with options such as ceviche, confit of pork belly, sashimi tacos, grain fed beef burger, etc. Unheard of in suburbia! Vego wise, they have the grains & nuts with a fragrant yoghurt, as well as a falafel and fatoush place (which I wish I ordered in retrospect after finding a photo of it on instagram!) However, it's their breakfast menu I'm most excited about sampling. Light, fresh, innovative food right on my doorstep. I think I best become a regular.
Mejico, CBD
I love Mejico. If I want to eat somewhere fancy and I've got some money in the bank, this is where you'll find me. This isn't standard Mexican affair, however. No tex-mex to be seen, my favourite thing on the menu is the Peach & Strawberry Salsa w/ plantain chips. The chorizo salsa is also pretty delish, like I could probably live off either for a month. The tacos are melt-in-your-mouth, my pick is the trout or the pork. A little at this joint goes a long way, it's not heavy, it's not cheesy, and it is a little pricey, but it's a price I'm willing to pay for a mouth watering mexican fine dining experience. I never feel bloated or gross after eating here. Very fresh and light, and easy to order healthy options. Downside is it gets reallyyyyy noisy in here so it's not a great place if you want some quality conversation with your meal.
Iku Wholefoods, various locations
It's either Iku or Top Juice when I'm making my dining decisions in the Westfield Sydney Level 5 Food-court. Organic, animal free, dairy free, preservative/additive free, and free from genetic modification apparently! Everything is vegan, everything tastes so good. My favourite is their rice paper rolls and the bancha slice. I'll give their wraps, cashew cheesecake, rice/millet balls a special mention. Above is the $10 mezze box, which is one of my favourite lunch options for a bit of everything.
I've done a whole post on Press Juices, this is the company I bought my juice cleanse from. They sell their juices individually bottled and they come in a huge variety of flavours, from veggie to fruit to milky-based juices. They are on the pricey side ($7.50-$9.50 a bottle) but it's well worth it for a piece of bottled brilliance. Cold pressed daily, you know you're only getting the freshest juice. The stores are cute, the staff are lovely and helpful. To have a truly iconic weekend Sydney inner city corning, have brunch at Kawa next door, pick up a Pressed Juice afterwards, and wander down to the Surry Hills markets down the street and feel the health radiate off you. *daydreams*
Sadhana Kitchen, Enmore
Their website tells us they're Sydney's first organic whole-foods and raw foods cafe! They have their dine-in cafe, a lunch box delivery service if you're around the inner west/cbd, a juice cleanse on offer, a 7 course degustation dining experience, and a vegan high tea! I discovered them through a voucher website, for which I am very grateful. I've had their Tejas Tacos (walnut mince, salsa, guac, and house fermented sour cream) and the Sadhana Lasagne (layers of zucchini pasta, cultured cashew cheeze, basil pesto, walnut mince, wilted spinach, and chunky tomato sauce) and I can't go past their yumbals and green smoothies. So much left on the menu I'm excited to try!
On my healthy cafe/restaurant list I have yet to try:
Earth To Table, Bondi Junction
Kawa, Surry Hills
Trio, Bondi Beach
Little Indi, Alexandria
Porch & Parlour, Bondi Beach
Kepos Street Kitchen, Redfern
Me & Art, Surry Hills
The Boat House, Palm Beach & Balmoral Beach
Jo & Willy's Depot, Bondi Beach
Thr1ve, CBD
Earth Food Store/Cafe, Bondi Beach
Rubyfruit, Katoomba
Bondi Wholefoods, Bondi Beach
Bird & The Bear Boathouse, Potts Point
Kitchen By Mike, Roseberry
O Organic Produce Cafe, Surry Hills
Agape Organic Restaurant and Bar
Nourishing Quarter, Redfern
About Life, Bondi Junction/Cammeray/Rozelle
COOH Cafe, North Curl Curl
bloom., Mosman
As you can see, there is literally no shortage of healthier options and no excuse to chow down on fries or ice cream or hamburgers laden with salt and fat for any meals out. Sydney has a huge amount on offer, and it's only getting more prevalent, so if you're a local, get out there and support cafes/restaurants bringing fresh, healthy food to Sydney.
I could spend my summer hiding away while I get a perfect beach body, or I could say "fuck it" and get on with it and live my summer to it's fullest. I'm done waiting to lose weight to live my life. There's no point in punishing yourself for your weight. The big upside of going to the beach a lot of how much healthier and less I eat. Green smoothies, salads, fruit juices...
On day 3 out of 5 consecutive days at the beach! I love that I'm more accepting of my body then ever before (even when I weighed my least) so I genuinely couldn't care less what strangers on a beach think about me. Also, Sydney summer is the best summer. I highly recommend it if you've never been here during summer before.
I did a 3 day juice cleanse last week. And it was hard. But I did it. Oh by the way, hello again.
I've had shocking eating habits for basically the past 6 months, maybe more. I've been on and off diets and restrictive eating and then balancing healthy eating with periods of overeating and binge eating and then doing heaps of exercise to balance it out and it just hasn't been working out too well for my body. My weight isn't too bad (it's not where I want it though), it's just I can feel how poorly the whole process has been going for my body and I'm ready for a change. Enter: the juice cleanse. The ultra health fad of the moment.
First of all, juice cleanses ain't cheap. They probably work out a lot cheaper if you make your own juice, but then I don't have a juicer and I'm not ready for the kind of financial commitment it would take to buy a proper juicer, so I was more than happy to pay a one off fee of $198 for 3 days worth of juice.
I went with Pressed Juices, not only because they're competitively prices compared to other cleanses, but because they're in a location convenient for me to pick the juices up myself every day. A bit more about Pressed Juices - "Pressed Juices, extracted by cold pressing, is the most nutritionally complete juice available, and contains up to 5 times more vitamins, minerals and enzymes than juice made by any other method. Each morning our fresh produce is slowly cold pressed - no additives, no pasteurisation or preservatives, just live juice - and immediately bottled to ensure a shelf life of up to 3 days when refrigerated."
I ordered it online (I chose the basic 3 day cleanse), picked what 6 juice flavours I wanted, they called me within 10 minutes of placing my order to organise my juice pick up location and if I wanted to pick up 1 days worth of 1.5 days worth, and the date I'd be starting. Can I just say, wonderful customer service. So every morning for 3 days I went in and picked up the days worth of juice.
Basically you drink 1. green juice, 2. beet juice, 3. green juice, 4. beet juice, 5. fruit juice, 6. creamy juice with a 7. chlorophyll water to sip during the day and an 8. aloe vera water to drink before bed.
Let's cut to the chase. On day 1, hunger-wise I was fine, but I fought a headache from midday till late afternoon. The second green and the second beet juice were revolting to me (on every day of the cleanse, urgh). One can only stand so much ginger/parsley/lemon, clearly picked dud flavours. That creamy one for dinner gets you through the end of the day though! I had a solid 9-10 hours sleep which is incredible because I only ever get 6-7 hours tops. On day 2, I was hangry as all hell (hungry-angry for the uninitiated). I also had work on this day which was good because it distracted me, but bad because I felt quite weak and my job is fairly physical so it made it hard. Today I found the juices hard to stomach. I laid in bed an hour in the morning before I could muster up drinking the first juice and I didn't finish the first 2 of the day. It got better later on. Once again, slept for 9 hours that night. Day 3 felt much easier. I was at work again and by now I feel quite rested but in terms of strength, it felt almost non-existent. I spend an 8 hour shift constantly on my feet, I wear a heavy harness for 2-3 hours of it, and spend the day using upper body strength doing up harnesses on others so this wasn't ideal for me. Therefore I didn't do any additional exercise at all during the cleanse (no strength training, no running, I did do some yoga though). However, I made it through. On all 3 days I drank plenty of water and I drank plenty of herbal tea because by God if I couldn't eat, I was going to be super hydrated.
DId I feel super energised and incredible when I woke up the morning after finished the cleanse? To be honest, not really. However, my sleep has been restful, my skin looks great and surely my insides must be stoked. Post-cleanse, they advise you slowly reintroduce foods like grains, eggs, dairy, and meats back into your diet over 5 days. I've done this so I feel no negative effects. I can apparently start eating white and red meats today (day 4 post-cleanse). It was only yesterday I felt my strength return after ploughing through a whole cup of quinoa the day before. So what have I gotten from this experience? I have no cravings for sugary/salty/fatty foods. You could not tempt me with a chocolate bar. I haven't gone a day with chocolate in what feels like months. Ice cream? Nope. Pizza? Nada. I'm good, thanks. It's weird, I have a re-appreciation for my body and what fuels it and I don't want to un-do any of the good the cleanse did!
Would I recommend a juice cleanse? Absolutely. Try anything once, I say. If you've never done one, a 3 day cleanse is the way to go for your first attempt. Would I do one again? During it I was like, HELL NO. But maybe every 6 months to give my digestive system a break. All-in-all, I'm very happy with it. Not quite a juice-convert just yet but it was a step in the right direction.
Did you experience any injuries from running 6 days a week when overweight, apart from that one time you hurt yourself before City2Surf? I'm doing C25K as a big person and would like to run more than 3-4 times a week, but the Internet does not seem to approve of running consecutive days.
I miraculously didn't! I wasn't hardcore running at that weight though, I was just doing intervals, which wasn't as hard on my body as doing a non-stop run would've been. I remember I stopped running 6 days a week when I noticed my running wasn't getting any better. I wasn't going faster, I just kind of plateaued and then when I made the change to running 3-4 days, that's when the real breakthroughs started occurring.
Best of luck with the C25K! Good on you for getting amongst it. :)
