I’ve always struggled with my weight since turning 30. It has fluctuated over the years, and my most recent best results on the scales was nearly 5 years ago. At that time, I was genuinely happy with my size and felt much better. However, since then, especially due to the lockdown, let’s just say that I ballooned.
I recently wrote and reviewed an app I was using to help lose the pounds called Nutra Check (here). A calorie-counting app to help create a healthy food deficit and increase awareness of what you eat. This post is about my progress and journey rather than specifically about the app.
To motivate me and my progress, I am going to do a few monthly updates on this blog to keep me focused and on track with my goals. The app is of great assistance in doing this and works really well for me, it just works reliably with no issues. All foods that I consume are always accurately recognised for tracking purposes which makes life easy.
When I started this diet at the beginning of January, I was of a size that I could not face weighing myself and I know at a guess what I was likely to be. All that matters to me is that I get to my end goal and I will face the scales at some point once I believe that I will be able to stomach the results. However, I know that the diet is already a success as my belt size has already gone down two notches and some clothes and jackets already feeling more roomy. I am actually really determined to lose weight and find that with the app I can still eat some less healthy foods but that does not matter really as long as I don’t exceed my allowed calories for the day.
Weight loss-wise, I was most likely at my largest during the summer of 2022, gaining a massive load of weight during the lockdown years from 2020. Since then, I do believe that I had been already losing weight very slowly but still had a bit of a belly. Already, just within a month of this latest diet, I can see improvements with loss of weight on my stomach, face, and even legs.
I have tried stepping up walking as well and still need to improve that, but my step count is definitely improving. I am also seeing other health benefits, such as it already being easier when crouching low to put on shoes, and some joint pain in my right hand is improving. I already take daily vitamin tablets to help supplement my health and will continue to do so.
One challenge, of course, is when you are going out and need to eat at restaurants, but so far I have been able to do that while still sticking to my calorie goal. In some instances, I eat a little less during the day to have more calories available for the evening meal by planning ahead. In February, I have a challenge that I am staying in a hotel for 4 nights, which includes breakfast and tea. I don’t want to miss out on the experience and will just be careful. As I am staying at a Premier Inn, I have already worked out what I can eat and in what quantity using the app. While I will definitely be using all my calorie allowances for those days, I will still have a deficit, and I know that as I will be at a conference, I will be walking quite a lot, which will help burn off additional calories.
At some point, I will likely share some pictures and approximate weight loss percentages. I hope that you will find this journey interesting and, like I say, it will also motivate me. As well as health reasons, other goals to lose weight are just looking good by summer, getting into some decent smaller-sized clothes that I have, and achieving a decent weight to carry a suit well for a wedding later in the year. I intend to use the app long-term to monitor weight loss and then, once goals are achieved, to help avoid adding on the pounds again.
For the Nutra Check app, I have an annual membership and my review is here. I will likely update it again in a few months time with longer term results and benefits.
Wish me luck with February, and I will put out another update early in March. Please comment below if you are also on a diet and let me know how you are getting on, particularly if you are also using the Nutra Check app. And if you see me writing any food or restaurant reviews, which will be likely as soon as the next few days, I can guarantee I will have monitored intake! Hopefully my motivation will not wane and if it does, I will also write about that in the hope it motivates me to stick with my goals.
