Perhaps, we all have tried a different lose weight and slimming solutions at some point in our lives. The internet is full of magical products promising us lose weight effortlessly while watching TV… yeah whatever, you say… I know, I have tried different stuff from detoxing juices, gym to slimming solutions including body wrap and diet patch to lose weight and here is my honest opinion on that all.

Originally, this post started on calling myself a skinny fat in the title. I came across this term in the past, used on the lost weight forum. I tried to find out how to lose weight and someone called my body shape this way. I googled and found out that this describes a person who has little muscle, its petite in shape but still has large percentage amount of fat. The thing is, that I had absolutely no clue that this term may actually offensive or hurtful to people.

“skinny fat: medically known as metabolically obese normal weight—a phrase used to describe people who look fit and healthy on the surface yet, due to a lack of exercise or poor diet, have a slew of health problems brewing beneath it.’’ link to quote 

Medically. Exactly, this was I though skinny-fat means. I thought it was just a simple medical term but I have learned my lesson that people actually feel offended by it, so I won’t be using this term- from now on. My blog is not to trigger controversy, offend anyone or simply make someone sad. No. I will always defend myself and stand by my opinion but the last thing I want is to offend anyone. I decided to write this as one thing I noticed, is few people didn’t hear this term so just wanted to enlighten you on this – so you won’t make my mistake.

Some honest thoughts …

Please note: This is NOT a post showing that I desperately need to lose weight. I don’t even own a scale at home. My BMI is correct, however  I have a large percentage of body fat around certain areas that is NOT HEALTHY! This post is to show my ‘journey’ with different stages of different sizes. I have never been desperate to lose weight. I have said that multiple times within the post that I just want to be healthy, and having this percentage of fat is not healthy at all. I may appear and look okey- but I am not ”fine”. I need to change this to become healthy so please- read the entire post, before you jump to comment ”but you look fine”. I don’t feel fine- I have heath issues and this is what I need to change. Please read- before you just scroll down to bottom and judge this post based on images. I am simply tired of ”but you look fine” comment, especially when is told by people who try to lose weight on their own as this is a litte bit of hypocrisy, don’t you think? It’s like you are saying I have no right to be happy and feel happy in my body while you do.

I don’t know why, but I noticed for some reason if you are different: slimmer/have longer hair/ shorter hair/ you taller/ – you are like the opposite to another person, and you come for an advice on how to change that – this person will tell you; you are a crap person because you want to change that! (because that person want that be slimmer/have longer hair etc) They will make you feel ashamed that you want to change this because in their eyes, you are okey and you have just ‘no real problems’. Come on ladies, we all have bits we don’t like about ourselves but telling others off or calling their problem nothing, because your situation is different- it’s just stupid and hurtful too! We will always have our own reasons to change things, so stop measuring others with your own meter because it’s not equivalent. Same as fat shaming, there is a skinny shaming but also ”you don’t have real problems’ shaming. For all those who stand for ”body is just a body” and positive body image, yes I agree but sadly I can’t accept the fact that my body is destroyed by fast foods and my body doesn’t have vitamin levels I need and simply, I can’t live with it. I have to change that or I die of diabetes. Once I am eating healthy and exercising I may as well, have the 6 pack 😉 Becuase why not? It’s my body after all, and it’s me that is watching it every day in the mirror. 

Also, the world tend to promote the unhealthy lifestyle. If you post a picture of your burger or double pepperoni, it will get more likes than a picture of a healthy salad or smoothie! Not sure why is that? Again, people will tell you not to diet and get ”used” to rather just encourage you to go the healthy way.

Back to me then 😉

I know, we live in the photoshopped world with tweaked Instagram photos by apps and brushed faces but with me, the problem is not that I watch these and I am unhappy. No. I don’t give a flying duck about how model A or B look like, or how girl A brushed her face or whether my friend put on weight or lost weight. The truth is, I am way too selfish when it comes to me- to give a damn about people’s bodies around me. All am focused on, is me and my body and how I feel about it. If I am unhappy, that’s the most important thing to me. Before you ask, no not so I can show off a selfie online in a new bikini or have the ‘perfect beach body’. I don’t even go holidays these days… but I spare you the details. I don’t want to drain on negative thoughts of my body. Ah and saying selfish ( I care about people emotions and self-being) not about how they look like so let’s call me half-selfish ) ;p

Picture above me size 6 and the 2 pictures below me with nearly size 12/14

To cut the story short:

From being a size 6 all my life, I started realising that my jeans gone tighter and tighter, and one day I just couldn’t fit in them anymore. When I was buying clothes, I usually blamed period or ‘I just ate’. One day, I went home, and stripped to my underwear and looked at myself in the mirror. ‘Oh geez.. what did I do to myself’. I glanced, at my body – put clothes on back and went to pick up some food- ‘I am hungry’’ I told myself. If I’ll be super honest, I wasn’t giving a damn about the way I looked. I was in a happy relationship, if I went to pub, I still had ‘eyes on me’ so believe, me those few kg here or there, wasn’t making any difference to me.

I tried diet and gym by myself- biggest mistake

It all changed around 4 years ago when I matured up and realised that I have lived on trash food and the biggest exercising was to bend down and picking empty boxes of pizza and running up to 2 metres to lift to throw them away to the bin. I started a new job at that time and I’ve seen fellow colleagues super energised, full of ideas and regularly talking about the gym. Yes, it was kind ‘trend’ somehow but I also felt I was a just bag of trash myself with always bags under eyes, tired and ‘’fuzzy’’. So, I joined gym and started exercise heavily, trying what other people were doing but without having clue what I was actually doing. Sometimes I would spend 3h exercising on a different machine because I had ‘the power’ and sometimes I would go and spend 2min on a treadmill, 2minutes on raw machine then go and sat in pool for 5min just to switch to sauna for another 5min following by jacuzzi 20min and I would leave thinking ”I went to gym”. Seriously, I was a joke!

I made a huge mistake. I even tried some stupid juice detoxing’ which basically was drinking veg juice a day and zero carbs every day for a week. This made me the most miserable person alive. After around a month of eating weird things, doing even more weird things I had no clue about, I dropped it.

2015/2016 I finally started gym properly and paying attention what to eat. Managed to go down to a size 10 but stubborn fat area cover my stomach, ”love handles’ and legs

Only after I started reading properly and learning more about healthy food, I joined gym talked to few dietitians and started properly on ‘diet’. You can also read to educate yourself, have a look at https://totalshape.com/ for some interesting content. I went for an induction in the gym and got kinda exercised I needed. Everyone around me was under the impression I needed that ‘’beach body’’ but I knew, in reality, I just needed a lifestyle change. Yes, I had bad muffin tops and my tummy looked like I am just about to share the news that I’m expecting. In reality, I just realised that eating so bad and making myself looking like that it’s just unhealthy. Sadly, I dropped after few months and the bad habit came back. Since started my LiveLagom in January last year, I started eating healthier and doing small exercise everyday. I managed to keep the wieght, but not lose more. It was until June 2016 when I managed to losing again and dropped to 34,5 inches in my tummy from 38inches! You can buy weight loss treatments online to achieve similar results to mine and simple and carefully lose weight. I think there are so many options these days. 

 

Diet Tea Ortte ( slightly more gentle than TeamBlend! 9not as many trips you know where – Diet Tea review)

Trying the internet stuff.

Perhaps you have read my Diet tea most honest review    ? It definitely worked for me as kick starter last year when I needed that motivation. It didn’t magically help me lose weight ( because none of the stuff does) but does help with encouragement and seeing results just after a week, definitely helps to gain a confidence. I have tried many things and most of the stuff didn’t made to this blog as I wouldn’t share them with you. I prefer keeping this as ‘’If I don’t like it’’ I won’t give them the publicity. I think any publicity is still publicity, so if I feature a product, even in a negative way, then still the name of the product brand would appear here, and I don’t want to be associated with this brand. So, this is my honesty. You will only find products, I did try and liked. I will never risk to lose your trust by some £15 tea or freebie. You can hover here for more info to find out about more diet teas.

I tried multiple products from diet tea’s , diet coffee to pills

After my diet tea, I was keen to try another ‘internet revolution’ so when slimming world approached me to try their products, I was like hell why not. I was asked to pick any product of their website to try out and decided, to go for ‘’Body Wrap And Diet Patch Combo’’. I was very intrigued by the body wrap as I’ve seen the magic advertising popping up my Facebook feed with super skinny models showing off 😉 of they can do it…. Why not. Also, I wanted to try the patches, mostly because of the Diet Patch Ingredients.

I start with the patches. I took 2 turns, first when I received the combo. I have put on for 2 weeks. Every day, I have applied a patch (removed the old of course first) into a new hair free area ( arms, tummy inner arm area etc. I am used having patch after 2 years of using contraception patch, so I know exactly where to stick them and they won’t fall off.

1.First week with a patch.

I didn’t notice anything within first few days. I had the same appetite, and haven’t noticed really anything. the patch glue is quite strong and it stayed when I put in the first place. I always placed the patch after shower on a dry skin ( most patches fell off because people put them on and then and go shower/swim straight away…sigh!). So, just bear that in mind. On my second week, I kinda start noticing I was less hungry and combined with extra vitamins, healthy diet this started to work.

Let’s talk about the ingredients of: Fucus Vesiculosus Extract, 5-HTP, Guarana, Zinc Pyruvate, Yerba Mate, Flaxseed Oil, Lecithin, L-Carnitine, Zinc Citrate and sweet vanilla. I have compared the 44mg to my other tablets. I have around 3-4 package of diet pills at home.  The three out of my packages were showing ingredients but not in mg contain so it could be anything! I had pills from Holland& Barret and each ingredient content between 5 to 10mg so comparing these patches, it was kind of the same. It was different story comparing them to fitness shop thermal pills ( which made me feel sick for a week -but about that next time 😉 After 2 weeks I had to take a break and I came back to patches a week later but noted being less hungry just within the first week of using it.

2. The wrapping

I have never had more laugh than when wrapping myself with this. Seriously, I really regret not recording it. I should have snapped my face too when taking the shots. I have chosen a night when I was doing some work to try the Boot Camp Body Wraps. So, I have followed the instructions and applied the mud to my tummy area, it felt very cold and weird, I must say. I wrapped myself and sat for 60min with the wrap on. At first, I have wrapped it a little too strong and my tummy was hurting me, so I have done this again with a less tight option. After an hour I was really curious, and I have unwrapped and measure myself. I was left really really disappointed as I couldn’t see anything. Not even a millimetres moved. How come? It clearly didn’t work for me then! However, I noticed that my tummy was really smooth. It felt so nice despite the dry and dirty mouldy marks, I have left it like that for the mould to absorb for longer. It seriously felt super soft. I have tried the wrapping every day for another 4 days, and on the 4th day, I have noticed that I indeed lost an inch in my tummy and hips (muffin tops) area. Whether it was that because I have been using it everyday, or because it was along with the patches, I am not sure. I was going to awards night and last minute I tried my bodycon dress and it fit well. This was the reason I wanted to try the wrap, and it did the job (but after more than one application!). 

So, the Result.

I was eating well during testing the products and I did see results in the end so I can say it did kinda worked. However, it’s not a magical lose weight solution, and if you try this on its own I really doubt it will do anything. I find this product kind of on the same lever as the tea. It does help, it works more as encouragement and start your lose weight journey but all rest is in you and you have to eat healthily, drink water as well as exercise. These are supplements, not a magic. It helps tighten the skin and make it nice and soft, so when you exercise you can see the results better. I would definitely recommends as support in losing weight but also to tighten skin and make it look smoother but i wouldn;t rely on this product on it’s own, always drink water  & eat heatlhy. This is a support not gym in patch or jar!

Measuring straight after the taking bandages of 4th day seeing 1 inch down as is 33,4

Picture about 3h later & after having a shower, the mud is washed off and I had a food and water after that. ( I know some sources saying about water retain) but here is the results on the 4th time

Unedited- before and after picture- so you can see the difference- this is an overall lost weight look including healthy diet! It’s not just product itself!

As you can see, I tried many things from juices tea’s and body wraps. One thing I have learned along, is to take it easy. There is not a quick fix in whatever you do. I had a bit of muffin tops I hated it, I thought I will never be able to lose that and you can see the difference yourself. What it helped the most it’s a clear mind, consciousness about what I eat and cutting down on sugar and takeaways. But again, this will help you not to gain more weight, but if you want to lose you still need to exercise and eat less, and thing about the food types etc. My next goal is to have completely flat tummy by May and remove muffin tops whatever so my measure will show 31/32 inches and my bum will be much firmer! This is the body goals but the biggest goal is to wake up in the morning, not feel tired and have so much energy to do stuff! Fingers crossed! Remember what works for me,may not work for your so just keep that in mind that each body is different and may take more attempts or more time. I will be definitely trying different stuff to show you whether it works or not 😉

• I was sent the patch & wraps to try but opinion, kilogrammes and stupid pictures are my own 😉