I keep on falling in & out of bad habits. There are days when I’m doing great and then there are days when I struggle. Be it blogging, work, reading or healthy living, it’s all the same.

My 12 weeks of Revolt are done. These were the 12 weeks I got for free in exchange for blogging about it. The end of these 12 weeks doesn’t mean that I’m going to stop going with Revolt. And it doesn’t mean that I’m going to stop going on about it. Because seriously guys, it’s amazing.

But let’s go forward with the results. These were my stats in April, at my biggest. Ever.

Neck: 38

Arm:41

Chest:112

Waist:100

Stomach: 124

Hip: 131

Thigh: 78

And I’m currently sitting at:

Neck: 37 (-1)

Arm: 37.5 (-3.5)

Chest: 106 (-6)

Waist: 92 (-8)

Stomach: 106 (-18)

Hips: 127 (-4)

Thigh: 73 (-5)

All in all, 45.5 cm lost – that’s about 18 inches!

I’ll tell you – as pleased as I am to have lost something, I’m disappointed in myself in the way that I could’ve lost SO much more, had I stuck to the eating plan & excercise routine through the whole of 12 weeks, and not taken that 5 weeks off in the middle.

This is not the end of the journey though. Ohno, not at all – it’s just the beginning! I’ve got so much to lose, so much to get on with, but let’s do it little by little. And let’s not worry about it too much – it’s all about enjoying life. That’s what Revolt is all about – you’re giving all the tools to work with so weightloss is the last thing you need to worry about. Follow the plan and you WILL succeed.

Although, if I had to mention one gripe, it’d be the fact that it’s a tad too easy. Nichole gives you a meal plan and exercise plans. If you wish to move away from the ready-made plan, you have the knowledge as to how to live healthy. But if you have specific goals, etc., there’s no deeper information given to you re: macros/calorie content of the meals, the muscles the exercises work. Yes, you know that it works for Upper body, and yes you know that you’re eating enough to keep you satisfied, but not too much to gain weight/remain the same weight. Yes, I was feeding my meals into MFP in the beginning, but just stopped at some point as it was just too laborious. I knew that the eating plan was good for me, and that was enough. But to me, the best healthy living plans out there are ones that teach you something. They tell you what your macros do for you, and what you need for healthy living. Revolt unfortunately doesn’t give you this underlying information below healthy eating. And to me, it’s a negative. For some people, it’s a positive as they just do not need to worry. Me, I’m an accountant – I need backup. And I need further information. And I NEED to know.

SO, I’ve started a new chapter in my life. More about that tomorrow!

Well, that’s a lie. This will be my, what, 6th week on Revolt?

I have so much regret. Not about getting on the plan, or going through the pain of the gruelling exercises that go along with it. Those I can take, and those I can learn to love. What I cannot learn to love is the slip-ups, and the fact that I was off-plan for 5 weeks. It took me back so many steps, and I have achieved a lot less than I would have otherwise.

As much as I can sit here and tell you that failure is a part of life, and that you live and you learn, it doesn’t mean that you should stop being upset by your failures. Because that is what pushes you forward. It HAS to push you forward or it’ll drag you backwards. You fall, you pick yourself up again and figure out why you fell in the first place. That is the way you’ll learn not to fall the next time. You know what I mean?

I’d like to sit here and rattle great results to you. But this week I haven’t really seen much in the way of results, it’s STS all the way down the line (well, I did lose .8 pounds. Everything else remains the same). I have, however, learned how much self-control I actually have. I CAN resist that bacon roll on a Friday morning. And I CAN have a frozen banana instead of cookies & cream ice cream (in fact, in the heat that we’re experiencing right now, all I can think of is eating apples, watermelon, tomatoes and cucumber. It’s the heat. At times, even the bananas just seem way too heavy!

Throughout this 11 weeks, I have learned that I love squats. I hate them at the time, but I love them. I love the results I get, and I love the improvement in the actual move I can see (squatting deeper & with heavier weights).

I have also learned that for the first time, I have something I am passionate about. I enjoy learning about nutrition and I enjoy learning about the human body and how it reacts to exercise. For the first time in so many years, I have something in my life that I can enjoy.

I’m not here to get all dreamy and philosophical on you. It’s the heat. I’m sitting here in my underwear, feeling all hot and bothered, which is making my brain go all fuzzy.

See you next week!

Which is why you won’t find me blogging much. Because I’ll be out there, absorbing all the Vitamin D I can.

You’ll hear more when the sun sets and the chill reaches Scotland again. Won’t be long!

But life happened.

There were no late nights in the sun, sipping vino in fine company. There were no romantic nights in, gazing into each others’ eyes lovingly.

There were loads of nights in, sitting in front of the tv, not really doing anything. I didn’t read logs, I didn’t write blogs and I didn’t follow a healthy eating plan, let alone a fitness plan. I didn’t eat particularly unhealthily (I lost 1 lb in the 4 weeks I was off track.), but I wasn’t particularly healthy either.

Then it hit me. I have 6 months until I should order my wedding dress. 6 months until I should be at the size I will be when I marry my beloved. 6 months of losing weight, and then a good 6 months of staying the same size so the dress will fit. 6 months of waiting until I can get back to losing weight again.

So as the panic set in, I logged back onto Revolt, and downloaded the June uprising guide. And I started off easy. I spent a week on the healthy eating plan. I felt good. My stomach problems settled, and I am no longer feeling bloated. By simply eating healthy, I lost another pound. Which felt really good. So it’s about time to re-introduce the exercise into my routine.

In the gentle heat of the Scottish sun (25 degrees today. That’s BOILING over here!), I pulled out my exercise mat, dusted off my dumbbells and got to work.

And I’m dying.

And I’m falling in love again.

Because it’s good.

Current Stats:

Weight: 238.6  - 3lb’s lost

Neck: 39 – +2.8

Arm: 39 – +1

Chest: 112.5 – +4

Waist: 95 – +2.5

Stomach: 113 – +3

Hips: 126 – STS

Thigh: 75 – +1

But hey, as of today, we’re onto the 2nd uprising! (Have you signed up? [affiliate link]) The next 4 weeks are going to bring a lot more trials & tribulations. But why on Earth am I willing to do this again? Let’s look at the measurements!

Weight: 241.6 = -2.8 from last week (4.8)

Neck: 36.2 = -.2 from last week (1.2)

Arm: 38 = STS (3)

Chest 108.5 = STS (3.5)

Waist 92.5 = STS (7.5)

Stomach 110 = -5 (14)

Hips 126 = -1 (5)

Thigh 74 = STS (4)

Bringing this week’s loss to 8cm or 3 inches.

You might’ve noticed another figure after this week’s results. Those, my friends, are the total loss for this uprising. In total, in just the last 4 weeks, I’ve lost 4.8 lb’s (healthy 1.2lb’s/week!), 38.2cm or 15 whole goddamn inches around my body. I’ve gone down a dress size and a half, and I’m feeling all kinds of better.

Results speak louder than any blabber I might have. Trust the program. Because it works. You don’t need that gym membership; this is where I’ve built up my musculays;

in my living room, in the middle of all the clutter that is there. Everything gets shoved to the side whilst I’m squatting, lifting, hopping and sweating my ass off. All I’ve needed are two free weights (5lb’s. Any kettlebell exercise can be done with a freeweight!), a gym ball & an exercise mat. Even that is optional; this is a brand new addition to my home “gym”! I’m used to hopping about on our wooden floor, in my tootsies (as socks just slide about everywhere!).

Best thing about working out at home? Watching Hollyoaks at the same time. Although my squat schedule is at times interrupted by all the necessary shouting (“can you not see it was HIM?! HE did it! Daaaaamn!”).

The 2nd uprising starts with 1 week Detox. Which I will not be doing, by the way. Just because I tried it in the beginning of last Uprising, but could not complete. It’s just not worth it for the headache, and the hunger, the grumpiness and constant ill feeling. It’s good when you’re just starting out a new healthy eating regime, but for me, it’s just not worth the trouble. With Revolt!, you make your own choices. And it’s never a wrong choice.

I’m going to leave you with a few thoughts that one of the girls doing the program posted on the Revolt! facebook page:

*I was given access to Revolt! programme for 12 weeks, in exchange for blog posts, however my thoughts are my own, beit positive or not.

At 8am on a Sunday (Who knew that there’s an 8 am in a Sunday? I normally wake up round about 12 if I want to get up early…) and set off for a trip towards a small town called Elgin. We made a small detour via the Thainstone car boot sale (if you’re ever in Aberdeenshire and looking for a good car boot sale, this is it. We toddled around for an hour, and saw about 1/4 of the tables.), but mostly we were hotfooting it towards our end destination.

(and let’s not talk about how many times we ALMOST DIED due to the stupidity of other drivers. I mean, who overtakes in a corner? Or who tailgates a car with P-plates, driving at the speed limit? Stupid, stupid, STUPID people!)

You see, we’ve not done much towards the wedding in a while. In all honesty, the last year has been a bit of a non-wedding zone. Nothing’s more has been booked, and very little has been bought. With a year and a bit to go to our wedding, it’s very easy to become complacent. “we still have time” is a dangerous concept! So, we’ve decided to do the final bookings. This includes the cars, the buses, block-booking of hotel rooms for the guests, the cake and the PA system. Everything else can be bought & made little by little (as we’re doing our own decorations, there’s no florist/day-of coordinator to book!).

So, why did we travel to Elgin? Surely booking anything 75 miles away from our wedding venue would be counter-intuitive? Well, turns out that it’s not.

In the beginning of this year, we went to the biggest wedding expo you can find in Aberdeen. We’d booked our venue, photographer and I knew where I was getting my dress from. So there wasn’t much to find. Cake was one of the things we were looking for (hel-lo free cake!), and we found one. She’d just set up her business two months before, and it was her first wedding expo.

Don’t get the wrong idea though; she’s done cakes for YEARS, it’s just that she used to live in ‘murica (the U, S of A for those of you not down with the lingo of kids these days), and didn’t start her business over in the UK after moving across.

At her booth, she had a couple of samples of cakes she can do, and they were stunning. For her tasters, she gave out cupcakes. Her portion sizes were bigger than other cake makers, and absolutely delicious! The only problem was that she lived so far away. The delivery charges would be shocking.

Before our meeting with her, I sent her a couple of inspiration pictures;

(all pics from Google – can’t remember where as I’ve had them on my computer for a good while!)

There’s a definite theme there, eh?! Pink & black (our colour scheme), most of them delicate, almost vintagey designs. But we had a challenge for her; we wanted buttercream icing. No fondant to be found anywhere. Cakemakers kept on telling us it cannot be done with our designs in mind. It wasn’t possible and it wouldn’t look good. Andrea disagreed.

So, armed with our pictures and some ideas of how the cake should look, we went to her wee shop and discussed cake. And boy, did we make the right decision. She was able to pick out what we were looking for, and we ended up deciding on an absolutely fantastic design, using some of the ideas in the inspiration pictures, as well as a cake she’d done that week. You’ll have to wait for the wedding to see the actual design though; some of our guests read here and I don’t want to spoil the surprise. Suffice to say though; it’s going to be amazing.

After an hour and a bit of talking cake, we headed back home, a few hundred pounds lighter and with a box of cake in hand. And, look what arrived today as well!

t/l to t/r; lemon, chocolate, vanilla

b/l to b/r; toffee, red velvet, chocolate orange More cakes! Lovingly wrapped in plastic cupcake holder-thingies, still intact even after going through the Royal Mail trail! The bottom picture is of her Red Velvet cake – yum-myy! Suffice to say, there is only one of the 6 left. And its future is questionable as I’ve got a hankering…

So, let’s talk about pricing. With our design and the size of the cake (~70 dessert-sized portions; 3 levels -6/8/10), we were looking at around £600 for the cake.

£600

For cake.

I’ll just let that sink in for a while.

You okay?

Survived?

Well, our cakemaker (Glamourcakes) has to charge us for delivery. Which is £130.

Ouch.

Expectations were high. I’d probably have to go on the game to pay for this bleeding thing. We’re talking intricate design with complicated sugarcraft & unusual designs.

BUT

(Wait for it)

In the end…

we put in a 50% deposit, at £230.

Our cake, INCLUDING delivery will be £460.

£140 saved by going out of town. Result!

And the thing is, we’re not compromising anything. In fact, we’re getting the most delicious cakes I have ever tasted (by far!), an original design, and wonderful service.

I believe I’m in love!

However, that last cupcake is calling my name… Want a piece? Tough. You can’t have any. Actually, I’m not sure if I’ll want to share at the wedding either. I think it’ll be Costco cake for our guests whilst we sit there, admiring our actual wedding cake, before taking it up to the honeymoon suite and completely demolishing it in about 5 minutes.

Who’da thunk wedding cakes were so complicated?!

why does nobody do bras with mismatched cups? As in, you’ve got a 34″ waist, L-B R-C. So your left cup would be a ‘b’ and your right one a ‘c’. Cos, you know, surely there are people whose puppies are a bit… Lopsided.

Me for an example – left one is DD, right’een an E. When looking at them, you can’t see the difference. When I chuck them in an over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder, the left one fits all snugly and the right one always takes a little gander to the outside world. It would be nice to have them both tucked in nicely.

I think I may have an idea for Lord Sugar…

But I can’t do it today. Simply because despite what I said last week, I never got back on the wagon. There was too much driving going on, and too much excitement. So, the food prep didn’t happen, and the exercises didn’t happen.

That’s life though; sometimes things just get in the way. And if you’re not prepared, you’re going to get off-road, majorly.

I’ve learned though. Not for this week as I’m doing all my foods etc. on a day by day basis, but for next week.

Prior Preparation Prevents Piss-Poor Performance.

I just need to follow the five P’s. And I’ll be fine. Not just diet-wise, but blogging-wise (I really have to start scheduling some posts! I used to write up ideas during my commute, but now I’m driving, it ain’t happening!), and life-wise.

Back to normal tomorrow. Maybe. If I get round to it.

At 12 pm on Sunday, we took a 15-minute bus ride that ended up costing us a heck of a lot. Because we came home with a wee nipper…

That’s it in all its beauty – not the very same car, but the same model, in the same colour. Beautiful, isn’t it? It’s a used car, and a bit more than a tad grubby on the inside, but it’s such a nice drive, and in the end – it’s a bloody car!

I’ve cut my commute in half. And I don’t have to smell other people. I can sit there, light up and smoke, WHILST ON MY COMMUTE!

When it’s hot, I can put the aircon on. When it’s cold, I can put the heating on. And I can blast my stereo, yowling along to a crappy cd. It’s ace.

I know very well that it’s a novelty that will wear off in the next few weeks, but meanwhile I’m enjoying it. I’m loving the freedom, and goshdarnit, I’m driving everywhere.

So, I’ve spent the last 3 days just driving. Nowhere exciting, just to shops that we otherwise couldn’t get to (Hel-lo Costco!), and just around town.

Do I even need to say that everything else has taken a back seat (no pun intended)? Blogging, reading, TV, the diet… All in all, I have not been a good girl at all. The diet has totally gone out of the window. I mean, I’ve been eating within my daily calories, but I have not been eating particularly healthy, and it shows. It’s carb central over here, and it is NOT good. Don’t get me wrong – when it’s going in my mouth, it’s goo-ood, and when it’s in my mouth, it’s goo-ood. But when it’s past that, it’s not so good. I am bloated, I have a constant stomachache, and things aren’t as… normal… in the bathroom as I’d like (sorry for the TMI!). It makes me wonder if I was like this all the time – I can’t remember, it feels like ages ago! And in all honesty, I do not want to feel like this ever again. So, as soon as I’ve finished this blog post (and the slice of pizza), I’m going to go and prep my garlic chicken for tomorrow’s lunch, and I’ll be back on it.

Besides, Revolt works!

I’m going to give you this week’s results in a minty.. But first. Want to try this Revolt thing? Hop onto their website and Nichole will give you a week for free. Nutrition plan, yummy recipes and brutal but effective workouts. FOC. None pounds. Try it, and you’ll love it! Afterwards you can sign up and reap the benefits. How much do you pay for the gym at the moment? £20 a month? 30? 50? Add to that the fact that you do your own food plans. You never know exactly what foods to put together. How can you make sure that you’re going to be full from breakfast to lunch? For $10 a month, Nichole will do all of this for you. $10 is what, 8 quid? 3 months is $27 (or £20 methinks?), and a year is $50. For a month’s gym fees you can get a year of Nichole kicking your butt. Do it. Now. You’ll hate me for it. But you’ll thank me for it.

But… Here’s this weeks’ measurements + results (I also track online on Myfitnesspal, so if you’ve got an account there, add me so we can be friendsies!)

Weight: 244.4 (-1.8. I actually did a sneaky peek this morning, and I’d dropped to 242, so another 2 pounds gone. We’ll count that next week! )

Waist: 92.5 (-1.5)

Hips: 125 (-2)

Thigh: 74 (-2)

Arm: 38 (STS)

Neck: 37 (-1, lost the cm I “gained” last week)

Stomach: 115 (-5)

Chest: 108.5 (+.5)

All in all, it’s a loss of 12.8cm, or about 5 inches I think?

So guess what.. In three weeks, I’ve lost 18 inches all over. 18! If that ain’t a result, I don’t know what is!

See below for other posts from the wonderful Revolt bloggers. And if you’re a Revolt blogger – LINK UP!

But I’m going to say it again; just in case.

I don’t do exams/tests very well.

When I was at uni, when all my classmates would head to ‘The Bobbin’ (the uni local) for a pint, I’d take a bus home and spend the evening nursing a humongous headache. You see, my stress levels very well profess themselves physically. I have a bad habit of grinding my teeth in my sleep (it’s called bruxism apparently. I really should get a mouthguard before I ruin my teeth completely..) and when I’m not concentrating on NOT grinding my teeth. This then leads to increased tightness in my jaw, which then leads to headaches & tightness in the shoulders. From the shoulders the tightness then moves downwards until the stress stops. During the final weeks before I handed in my dissertation, my whole body was so tight I couldn’t turn my head, and walking felt like someone was stabbing me each time I took a step.

So it can be said that I don’t deal with stress very well.

Add in driving as well. You know, where you have to pay attention, and if your attention wavers, you could potentially kill someone. That is NOT the ideal situation.

But I had to do it.

Because of reasons. The day had come; it was time for my driving test.

The culmination on 10 months and 66 hours of driving at the cost of £1824.

My hands were shaking & I was chain-smoking all morning. Stepping into the car was a terrifying experience.

But once I sat down and started up, I relaxed. Moving towards the test centre wasn’t terrifying; I had done it before. We’d driven those routes before and I had my instructor with me, barking at me for my non-existent mirror usage. It was familiar, and it was comforting.

None of that during the actual test drive though. My instructor wasn’t with me, and he was in a bad mood. He didn’t do anything to calm my nerves, and it was terrifying. I made stupid mistakes that I wouldn’t have done normally. About halfway through my drive I’d given up hope on passing, and with each sigh from the examiner, any hope of driving away in my own toot toot within the next few weeks just withered away.

WRONG!

Passed. Not with flying colours, but not by the skin of my teeth either. A comfortable halfway mark. I’m okay with that.

Now to buy something shiny. Because I have things to do & places to go to.

Toot toot. Watch out. Cos I’ll be on the roads, y’all! I might’ve convinced one silly person that I can drive. But in reality? Don’t think so…