So over 12 weeks ago now, I started a 12 week, healthy eating and fitness challenge. It was pretty challenging, a lot of fun and extremely rewarding.

Under my excess 20-25 pounds of fat are now muscles to be envied. I’m stronger, more flexible and I feel great. On top of this I’ve been getting my movement per day up with trying to achieve 10,000 steps per day which has also gone really well.

Despite this, I am yet to move any of my excess weight and in fact, I put on a bit more (whoops!).

I am undeterred by this and you will understand why when I tell you I don’t think I’ve ever been this strong!

Again, my nemesis was my ongoing obsession with food and snacking. Having beaten my sugar addiction more than 7 months ago now, I am yet to get on top of my need to ‘eat what everyone else is eating’ despite my over 40’s metabolism slowing down to the point where a geriatric sloth would work faster. I also found all that increased exercise and movement kept my appetite going and I fell into the trap of eating back my calories.

Part of the problem is that I enjoy eating as entertainment which probably has something to do with having a chef for a father which I don’t regret for a second but I do struggle with moderation and saying ‘No’.

Not to worry. I enjoyed the fitness part of the program so much that I am repeating the whole program again with some ambitious goals, These include doing all the push ups on my toes instead of my knees and getting to the point where I can actually do a proper burpee!

I also want to see all those muscles that are forming under my layer of insulation so for the next 12 weeks or so I will be focusing on shedding my excess padding, emerging lean and svelte. That’s the plan anyway. There will be no cracker too tempting or cheese too inviting. In all seriousness, my main motivation for shedding the excess weight is more about mobility and long term health than anything else.

The only person who will be sad to see me at my slim best will be the cat who enjoys a little extra padding to sleep on. My only reservation is that going into winter is a hell of a time to lose all that body fat insulation but its a price I’m willing to pay.

The Year of Transformation is a long term plan to get in the best shape of my life. It’s been fun to focus on something for this long and it’s exciting getting to each new stage. I can’t wait to see what happens during this next phase.

Published by the lean minimalist

Donna Sherriff is a New Zealand based improvement and operations management specialist. Seeing a need for simple, no fuss, improvement advice she started The Lean Minimalist blog in 2017. Donna writes articles offering advice and tips for rapid and sustainable business improvement based on over 15 years in Senior Management roles. Passionate about sharing the lessons of over 20 years on the high performance track Donna offers coaching services to professionals. She also writes about her own personal improvement journey, minimalism, and her life long struggle against the tyranny of cookies and sugar which she overcame in 2020. These days, Donna is pursuing a journey to earn her black belt in Taekwondo after a long hiatus of 16 years away from training. On the side she is an amateur but passionate musician and poet. View all posts by the lean minimalist