In this weekly feature, Her.ie's Liz is going to share her weight loss journey. She’ll be filling you in on fighting temptation, her willpower struggles with the cocktail menu and taking painfully slow steps towards regular exercise. All in the name of a dress. _____________________________________ Hanging on the wall at the end of my bed is the constant reminder I plan on shedding nearly two stone this year. I also plan on marking the trials and tribulations of ‘trying to be good’ – the favourite saying we all tout, and quickly replace when a cake is put in front of us. Week 66: Taking stock… I’m officially half way through a self-imposed challenge to lose a stone and tone up in 12 weeks. For anyone who hasn’t yet been following the journey so far, let me do a quick rundown for you. I’m a perpetual dieter, and was never really a fitness fanatic. I knew the importance of getting in your walks, going to a dance class or even attempting a jog, but I think it’s safe to say Usain Bolt could rest in peace knowing I was never going to steal his thunder. So when I got challenged to join a three month bootcamp at The Health Club at The Shelbourne, I was honestly apprehensive. My gym track record wasn’t exactly exemplary. Along with my personal trainer Philip, I had moved from my first ever workout routine to moving up to the next programme. It was all part of my ‘progression’. If I’m honest, it felt like a punishment. Month one had come and gone and I’d hit my target of losing between 4 – 5 pounds. I had congratulated myself on making it happen, but I was in no way prepared for the second step. As well as my workouts in the gym, I had a home circuits programme and a regular one on one session where I was *kindly* subjected to anything from boxing to TRX, kettlebells or HIIT training. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I usually follow these sessions by sitting in sweaty silence on the couch in the changing room for five minutes before hitting the showers. My gym bag smells delightful as you can imagine… As well as attending the gym, I spent a fair chunk of time actually watching what I eat. While I had been a member on and off in Weight Watchers for years, in the past year I’ve become much more of a mindful eater. Yes, I still 100% order a Dominos on occasion, or sneak out to have a cheeky Nandos with himself (I’m not even sorry), I thankfully also started picking up on a lot of my bad habits that landed me with a weight gain in the first place. Snacking while watching TV when I wasn’t even hungry, cooking larger portions because I had some extra vegetables to use up (freezing dinners has saved me a LOT of cooking time in the evenings), to eating when I was bored or upset. I 100% think that in a vast majority of cases, being a mindful eater can drastically change your weight loss efforts. So with my new fitness mission, I was also trying to change up my eating habits. I started eating baked fish and poach eggs for breakfast (seabass is surprisingly light, tasty and cheap to get your hands on), packing my lunches, or grabbing salad bowls from a local deli, before moving on to a dinner which nine times out of ten isn’t too shabby in terms of nutritional benefits. After five weeks, I found the waistband on jeans and fitted capri pants were suddenly way too loose. That Saturday, I happily took myself into town to buy two pairs of jeans in a size 10 and some tshirts too. There was no dressing room struggle, wriggle to the floor wiggle, or wrestling efforts. The slid up, zipped nicely and felt good. And they were skinny jeans. Did I mention how good that felt? So now that I’m half way through, I’m including (as promised) a snap to mark my progress. This day six weeks ago, this is how I looked… Now, half way through, this is my progress to date... It may not look like a lot, but for me, it’s a slow and steady drop that I can really feel within myself. And I still have six weeks more... so I'm excited to see the end results.