Guest Bloggers: Nikki's successful challenge

As I wasn’t able to take part in the lifestyle challenge last year, I was determined to be involved and do well in this one. 

Nikki happy after her awards

I am a competitive person, but I also wanted to take part as extra motivation to make some changes.

I knew some things would be easy, such as reducing my coffee intake to one a day as I don’t normally drink hot drinks.  But the idea of getting to bed by 1030pm every night, and the thought of missing out on my occasional glass of wine with dinner was quite daunting.

Getting the food related points was also a challenge, particularly eating the five fruit and veg and having protein with every meal.  I became more creative with my food choices and ended up with a lot more variety in my diet, trying new things such as a lot more fish. Chewing my food until it was liquid meant that I took twice as long to eat a meal, and often felt full before I finished, therefore stopping my late night snacking.

The first week of the challenge was quite difficult and to be honest, I felt worse, maybe even a little bit low. This was possibly due to my body detoxing. However, after this initial hurdle, I began to feel much better and had a lot more energy - bouncing around like Tigger first thing in the morning, much to the regret of my colleagues.

After such a positive outcome I am planning to keep up with the changes I have made to my lifestyle, which I think will be quite easy as those habits are now, well, habits (although I may allow myself the odd glass of wine now and again).  Bring on the next challenge!!