Forever Living C9 - Final Thoughts..

It was day nine of the cleanse yesterday, I'd been gagging for it to end for a good few days, I've not been this hungry in months!

So, the results from this nine days are - A loss of 6 lbs (probably mainly water and muscle) and 4 or 5 inches from here and there! If that had been a loss of 4 inches from my waist, I'd have been way more impressed, but an inch is so, meh!

Was it worth it? As I'm a healthy, calorie counting, eater, and a gym goer anyway, it helped bust through my plateau, but essentially, no it wasn't worth it!

I think that maybe this is aimed more at people with awful diets, who eat way too much rubbish, so when they drastically drop calorie intake, of course the weight falls off!!

I think the rules were too vague, as in, they don't give you any idea of how to balance your meals in the book.

If they had properly written recipes, rather than throwing them together and under/over estimating calories, it may help more in understanding what you're eating.

It's important to get a healthy balance of fats, carbs, and proteins. Which is why, after I've steadily upped my calories over the next few weeks, I'll be going on to LCHF - Low Carb High Fat. Fat is not the enemy, we need fat to burn fat, which is not what anyone was told back in the 80s when crazy low fat diets went off the rails!

As I'm halfway through my weight loss journey, I think that my body is getting more comfortable with my current weight, so doesn't want to carry on quite as quickly as when I started.

So, having done some research online, and seeing some great results, I'm giving Low Carb a bash!

My macros are now, roughly, 10% Carbs 35% Protein 55% Fat - The challenge is set! I'm a big carb fan, brown rice, bulgar wheat, oats, sweet potato etc, so this will be hard at the start, but hopefully worth it, in order to lose the rest of the flab!

Another thing that can really help to lose fat, is Intermittent Fasting - Pick two days a week where you eat around 600 - 800 healthy balanced calories. Also known as the 5:2 Diet.

So in conclusion, if you're like me, and have hit a plateau and looking for a boost, save your money, and go on to something like 5:2, or LCHF, drink plenty of water and do some exercise a few days a week.

It's not always fats that make us fat, sometimes it's those pesky starchy delicious carbs. It just takes time to work these things out!

Oh, another thing, the Garcinia didn't work on me, I still felt hungry all day, and the shakes never filled me up! I believe that a lot of it is a placebo effect. You take supplements that stop hunger and you convince yourself that they work - It's a load of rubbish! I also sneezed everyday, A LOT, how unusual!

I've read reviews on Amazon, but Forever Living don't sell their products on there. So anything sold on there isn't legit, but my review is the only negative one so far.
I'm just the kind of person that expects a lot for my money, and when I don't, I'm not impressed!

If this genuinely worked on people, and they kept the weight off, and continued to live a healthy life, then good on them, but for me, nah, a total waste of cash - how effing annoying!

Cheers guys - Here's to the next few weeks!

Byeeee :)

Day Five of C9.....

So day five has arrived! *Update - I was actually supposed to weigh on day six, not five, oh well!*

I'm all weighed, and measured, and have lost a further 1.2 lbs, and another inch off my chest. Since starting my fat loss journey last January, I've basically shrunk from the neck down.

It must be a girl thing, some of us always lose our boobs first! I'm not complaining though, big boobs are a hazard when trying to run haha!

Since Sunday, I have been so glad to be eating meals again, man was I hungry on days one and two..

Yesterday, I split my calorie allowance for meals between lunch and dinner. 600 calories worth of vegetables is a massive plateful, even with 100g of brown rice and chicken! I struggled!

I went to the gym yesterday, had more energy so was able to put in some time on the cross trainer, and weights.
Though got tired quicker, as I didn't have my usual fuel of porridge, and protein shake..

To be honest, this is a quick fix, and I will be glad when it's over, and I can incorporate more calories. I wouldn't want to undo the losses, so will take things nice and steady, plus regular gym sessions should keep things moving - fingers crossed!!

I've set a couple of goals for the end of April, I have a wedding to attend on May 2, so they're my main focus, mini goals are easier to stick to than massive goals. 20 lb losses at a time are perfect for me, I only count in lbs - 40 to go!!

For anyone who may be thinking of doing something like this cleanse, my advice would be - lift weights, keep your muscles working, don't just rely on cardio type exercise - walking, swimming, running etc.
Muscle loss is one of my fears, I've only just been able to get back to lifting heavy weights, I wouldn't want to go back again!

Even if you can't lift the same weights for the same amount of reps/sets, try your best, so long as your muscles get a work out, and you feel fatigued, it's better than nothing!

That's about it really. I will be back on the weekend with another update, and my final results/thoughts.....

Byeeeeeeee :)

Day Three of Forever Living C9....... An Update!

So here it is, day three, finally I can have some real food tonight! WOOHOO, I am soooo excited about eating chicken, brown rice, and broccoli!

I have to admit, the first two days are tough, my stomach was growling a fair bit, I felt cold on Friday evening too (A side effect).
You are allowed to eat fruits and vegetables from a list of low GI food, but I wanted to go hard on this!

The therm tablets are full of caffeine, as I don't drink tea or coffee, they did make me feel a little sick after I took the morning dose. But that faded within an hour, it might have been because I started my exercise too soon.
I should wait an hour maybe.

The vanilla shake, although nice, well REALLY nice with unsweetened almond milk, takes a lot of vigorous shaking and still I had a few gritty bits left in the shaker.
Not like my usual brand of protein powders from gonutrition.com, they have amazing flavours!

Anyway, I digress, so I weighed and measured this morning, like I'm supposed to.....aaaaaand, I lost 4.4lbs and an inch of my chest, waist, stomach, and hips.

So 4 inches total, not bad, but yeah, it is because I've eaten nothing and had very few calories!

Thank God it was only two days!
To go from eating lots of healthy food, to nothing, is hard going, and why my stomach tried eating itself!!

I have to weigh and measure again on day five, so I'll do another update then.
Thankfully on days three - nine, I get a 600 calorie meal each night, plus on the last day, I also get a 300 calorie lunch!

I'm thinking after I'm done with this cleanse, I will start to incorporate a 5:2 kind of lifestyle, but eating the kinds of food I eat anyway, instead of from a book. I find it much easier to log everything on MyFitnessPal, so I know where I am.
Plus so many of those kinds of books always state, a portion of this, a medium sized that, and I end up saying, "For goodness sake, just put the amount in grams!!" Haha.... The meal ideas in the C9 booklet are like that, a portion of green veg, or, a medium sweet potato.

I'm just going to log everything on MFP as usual, and see what happens, as long as I get the calorie allowance, I'm sure it will be fine..

Tip : I've read quite a few reviews/blogs about this cleanse, and a few ladies stated that they had no problems with toilet activities. Well, I don't want to be gross, but I only had no problem peeing, like a race horse!
Had to have a salt water flush this morning though - 1 tsp sea salt flakes in a glass of warm water - it worked haha ewwww, I'm sorry!

I'll be back on day five, with another update..

Byeeee :)

Time For A Cheeky Cleanse...

Friday February 13 - Well that can't be good! I usually stay in bed, hiding under the covers on a day like today!

Actually, I'm not that superstitious, if someone has a crappy day, they can't very well blame it on the innocent magpie they spotted that morning!

So anyway, I am on day one of a cleanse. I am well aware I have already stated in a previous post that the only real thing that's gonna help fat loss is - healthy eating, exercise, drinking plenty of water, etc etc......and that no lotion, potion, or magic pill can do what those things will. So please don't judge me ;)

This is more of an experiment, a way to see if these can truly help rid your body of toxins, and shift some weight/fat/inches! I am only halfway through my fat loss journey, and halfway to my ideal weight. I really should change the name of my Blog haha!

So this is what I'm doing - (Apologies for the mediocre quality photographs, I used my phone!)

Forever Living F.I.T C9! Crazy I know! I'm not one for 'quick fixes', or similar, but I know people who have done this, and have had good results. Just so you know, I don't work, or have anything to do, with this company.

It is all about restricting calorie intake, but is unsuitable for anyone with Diabetes, Epilepsy, Kidney Disease, and Pregnant Ladies! I am sceptical about this, purely because of the lack of calories and risk of muscle loss, so we'll see what happens! Hopefully muscle loss will be minimal due to my strength training at the gym.

What comes in the box?

These booklets. One is a booklet that I fill out with my weight, and measurements, and it gives me all the information I need about the cleanse. The other booklet lists all the products that Forever Living do, aimed at weight management. I also get a cute little tape measure. So before I started, I weighed, and measured myself, and wrote the numbers in the book. This is repeated on days 3, 6, and 9, with Total Losses being recorded on the final day.

This small box contains supplements, and fibre sachets.