FP’s Clean Up story

FP is a dedicated weekday boot camper and dragon boater who took 2nd Place for Body Transformation in the 2011 End of Winter Clean Up. During the four week challenge she lost 4 pounds and a total of 7-1/4 inches! FP committed to the Clean Up and it shows. Just look at those abs!

Here’s FPs success story:

I really enjoyed the Clean Up experience even though it was tough sticking to the plan at times. While it was no issue for me to cut out sweets and candy bars, I did miss pasta and the occasional glass of wine quite a bit. It was very motivating going to the store that weekend before. Buying lots of healthy food – some new that I had never tried before – was exciting and I couldn’t wait to get started. Planning ahead for the day (snacks and lunch) was probably my biggest challenge. I managed to do okay on that for the first week and then just winged it most of the time by grabbing something protein plus a piece of fruit from the fridge. The food diary was definitely not a favorite of mine and I stopped writing everything down after about half way through. It was helpful, though, to go back and look over the first week and see where I did well and what wasn’t so good. Also, having to write everything down made me think twice about if I really wanted to eat that food at that particular time…

Breakfast was challenging as I grew up on rolls with butter, jam, cold cuts and cheese. And I do love my Kashi cereal. However, I discovered that I like steel cut oats (and so does my husband now) and I am crazy about Ezekiel bread. I will definitely keep those in my diet. But I will also allow myself a nice whole wheat roll every now and then as a special treat on the weekend – we call it German breakfast day.

After about two weeks, I noticed that my clothes fit much better, more comfortable; especially my skinny jeans. There was an overall “skinny” feeling after about two weeks. I just felt so much better in my own body. While I didn’t lose a lot weight – about 4 pounds – I was extremely excited to find out that I had lost about an inch all around. That is awesome!

My husband joined me – partially – in my effort and we tried out lots of new recipes, some of which have become new favorites. We cooked much more instead of eating out and took more responsibility for what we ate. A nice side benefit was the much lower credit bill. 🙂

Congratulations to FP on her success. Look for more Clean Up success stories next week.