Group results from the programme that Abigail participated in
Abigail Simmons, a freelance journalist and graduate of our Venus Restore programme, has written a blog about her experience and kindly allowed us to share it here. You can read the original blog, and other interesting posts, at Abigail’s website.
Whilst I’m at home, planning my new future, I thought I should make sure I’m nutritionally and mentally healthy. I’ve just graduated from Venus Nutrition‘s ‘Restore Online 28 day programme’, and I’m enjoying the compliments! People have told me how well I look, how I’m ‘glowing’ and I’ve lost weight (fat actually, but I’ll get onto that later). Designed by Helen Moynihan, a qualified local nutritionist and all-round pursuer of eating healthily, the programme is there to help you rebalance your metabolism, eat well and reduce sugar, carbohydrates and gluten. After my initial ‘I’m not ready for this’ panic, mainly due to the realisation I had to reduce my caffeine – which Helen gently suggested I weaned myself off before the programme started – I was off. Armed with a suggested shopping list and an abundance of useful recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner, I quickly fell in love with my new breakfast of ‘overnight oats’ and almond milk. I didn’t feel starving in the morning – I was amazed at how much longer I could stay fuller for, with a much more consistent appetite during the day – it was partly switching to decaf I’m sure! Usually I’m constantly hungry, craving sweet things, drinking lots of tea and coffee and snacking and battling to lose those pounds that have crept on over the years. I knew I needed to do something. But no one likes ‘dieting’, by restricting calories and depriving themselves of ‘bad’ foods do they? Because after you’ve (I’ve) lost weight, you (I) simply go back to bad habits. This programme is definitely NOT a diet. It’s a way of eating healthily, thinking about nutrition, protein, reducing sugar, what a healthy snack actually is (apparently not Mini Cheddars or Hula Hoops) and looking after yourself. I started doing yoga for goodness sake! And I loved it. With access to a private Facebook group to discuss menus, ask nutritional advice, get inspiration and share tips, we were all encouraged to share our healthy eating habits. Many a morning I took a photo of my breakfast! The programme starts and ends with a 15 minute mini consultation with Helen, diagnosing your body make-up using Tanita composition analysis and your goals for the programme. I really wasn’t looking forward to body analysis as you simply can’t hide that roll of extra love for cheese and crackers or ‘fat percentage’ as the Tanita defines it, although I was pleased to see there is still some muscle mass in me too. The analysis gave me a kick start to stick to the programme, the fat content was eye-opening and it was something I really wanted to bring down. You also get an idea of how your metabolism is working – let’s just say mine got better over the weeks. So out with the wine, takeaway curries, thick bread sandwiches and white bagels, and in with water, decaf tea and coffee, proteins, beans, pulses, quinoa and organic vegetables. Looking at this before and after list I realise why I feel better, although clearly I did need a nutritionist to guide me through making better food choices. So that’s why I’m sticking to the 28 day programme more than a month on, and yes, my fat content came down and my muscle mass increased – what a result! I also sleep better too, without all that caffeine and sugar in my system. But I’ve just one question – how do you milk an almond?
If you would like to give our next online programme a try, Venus Sparkle commences on 20th November. It is a 20-day programme that will give you everything you need to look and feel your best for the festive season. Click here to find out more and book your place.
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