The Yummy Mummy with No Tummy Challenge - Week Two!
Last Thursday I spent the day with my ever so slender sister. Whilst we were sitting feeding our gaggle she mentioned that she hadn't read anything here for the last week or so as she hadn't had a chance to get to the Library (she doesn't have a connection at home) and had she missed anything major."Well actually yes" I said "You missed me telling the world how much I weigh."
"You didn't?" she said
"Yes I did" I said
"Wow!" she said
"Wow indeed" I said
Later she was having a look at Twitter and saw a post from Rainbow Jelly
and clicked on the link."What have you done?" she asked me
"What do you mean?" I asked wrestling with Baby Cousin for control of my face
"This Woman has taken what you said to heart and some" she said
I lent over and read the post
"Wow" I said
"Wow indeed" she said "That is one brave woman"
"One brave woman indeed" I said
You see Rainbow Jelly has posted a picture of herself as she is now, in her undies and she isn't the only one at it Shutter Betty has done the same.
It made me realise that this challenge isn't just about me, or a bit of blog fodder, or something which I start and then don't carry on, but it is real and it effects real people that I am beginning to know and have come to love.
I just want to tell you all how proud I am that you agreed to go on this journey with me and we can all move forward to be in the best of health and to be a Yummy Mummy!
So last week I encouraged you to write a post acknowledging that you have accepted the Yummy Mummy with No Tummy Challenge and to explain why you are taking part in the challenge and if you wanted to give us some facts on your figures!
This week I am going to encourage everyone to start keeping a food diary. A food diary is a good way of becoming more aware of your eating and activity habits and helps you make a conscious choice about what you eat and when.
For example here is a small extract from mine;
Sometimes we will eat things without even thinking about it, such as the grapes I had with Baby Boy at 5pm, but by keeping a note of it we can look and see if there are habits that need amending or if our diet is actually quite well balanced!
You can do it online if you want at the following sites that I have found
http://www.tweetwhatyoueat.com/
http://www.tweetwhatyoueat.com/
http://foodfeed.us/
Or you can do it is a small notebook you carry around or even in an excel spreadsheet like me! Just try to do it as you are going along as it gets very hard to remember what you ate after you have eaten it!
Or you can do it is a small notebook you carry around or even in an excel spreadsheet like me! Just try to do it as you are going along as it gets very hard to remember what you ate after you have eaten it!
Now on to an extract from my activity diary. I only record sustained activity of ten minutes or over;
This way I can see that I am actually making time in my diary to exercise, and I find that I will actually go out of my way to to do a bit more just so I can write it down!
The one thing that I do want everyone to do (and it will only take a minute) is to work out how many calories that you should be eating daily. A good way to do it is to look here;
You know you have to burn 3500 calories to lose 1lb of body fat, and if you are eating more calories than you need you will need to work even harder to get the figure that you want. By keeping a food and activity diary for a week and looking at how many calories we should be eating, I am sure that next week we will find reaching our goals a little easier :)
Now if you are still with me and are up for a challenge, how about making sure that this week you do a minimum of 15 minutes of exercise a day? This could be walking to the shop, running up and down the stairs, dancing with your children, practising making more children (!), anything that gets your heart rate up.
Because the calories that you will burn off whilst doing this activity will either make up for eating too many calories or go towards that magical 3500 calories needed to burn 1lb of body fat!
Please visit each of the blogs listed below to show your support to them too and to maybe find a little inspiration!
Rainbow Jelly @ Rainbow Jelly Ramblings
Shutter Betty @ A Shutter Betty Blog
Amy @ And 1 more means 4
Tina @ Tales from Tina
And if you want to join in then its not too late, you don't have to be a Mummy to a young child, you can be a Mummy to a fur baby (Dogs and cats to those not in the know!) or just a wannabe yummy with no tummy! Please leave a URL link to your post in the comments below and I will update this post with your URL and you will automatically be listed next week.