12 week transformation: Week six: A change is as good as a rest, pancakes and progress photos

I tried to think positively after my rollercoaster of emotions and self doubt last week, and thought that after being brutally honest about how tough I found it, everything would be much easier.

But alas no. I barely moved all weekend, and although I did a great leg session on Sunday, I still just felt like I was getting nowhere.

Honestly, by Sunday night I was ready to throw in the towel, but thankfully I was given a pep talk and was pretty much forced to prep my meals for Monday before I went to bed on Sunday evening.

I had to be coaxed into going to the gym on Monday night, and ended up training much later than usual, but it was a good session regardless.

After the realisation that I was most definitely stuck in a rut, I spoke to Nicola, who I train with and who is also doing the transformation.

She’s recently qualified as a personal trainer, and advised that I have a look at my diet and see if I could change anything up.

Realistically I had been eating the same food for the last five weeks. I even took sandwich bags with weighed oats in them to Krakow with me, so a change was most certainly needed. As a life-long pasta fan, I headed straight for the wholewheat fusili in Tesco.

It is definitely true that if you restrict yourself too much you’ll just end up bingeing, and I did try to keep a certain level of balance in my life over the last five weeks, but I definitely got bogged down in the finer details, instead of just enjoying the process.

Pasta was the focal point of my diet for most of this week, before reverting back to the good old faithful spud, and the change has definitely helped get me back into the right mind frame once again.

There was also the excitement about pancake Tuesday to get me through the week, and although I did opt for some protein pancakes, I didn’t feel like I was missing out.

I used cinnamon Danish flavour protein powder, and topped them off with some dark chocolate, greek yogurt and zero-calorie caramel syrup - it really tasted like it should be bad for me.

Another quiet weekend looms, although there will be Strongman/Strongwoman classes running on a Sunday throughout Lent at U-Turn to try and help people stay motivated.

It’s also D-day on Sunday. I’m getting my progress photographs taken, which will of course be published next week.

Keep an eye on Instagram (aine_od) this weekend for progress photos!