When you reach a certain age, your metabolism changes and it gets more difficult to keep fit and slim. Unlike being in your 20s when you can eat whatever you want, whether is a late night pizza to McDonald breakfast and it won’t affect you as much. When we younger we tent to have a busier lifestyle, moving faster and have a quicker recovery from. I remember myself in my 20s with size 6, eating double portions, takeaways and I always kept slim. It starting changing after I reached 25 and my metabolism has slowed down which I gained 2 extra sizes.

• Gifted Item from SoShape

As we reach our 30s it is more difficult to sustain a healthy weight. I can imagine, even more, difficult of those who had babies. I haven’t yet so can’t speak about that. I have gone myself from slim size 6 to up to size 10/12 which is actually a moral size, however for a petite girl, who’s height is 1.56m (5.11foot) gaining any extra size can make a huge difference. Just check my before/after image so you can tell the difference can make 2 sizes. I wasn’t happy with my weight, and not because I couldn’t fit into a bikini but because I was unhealthy. I was constantly tired, like all the time. I didn’t eat properly and I had quite a health issues. I have written a post before about my diet journey trying different diet tricks. Including before and after photos!

I believe any size is a good size, as long as you eat healthily, exercise and feel energised.

Metabolism in the 30s is one thing and actual lifestyle another. You can have the most amazing metabolism, but you don’t eat the right foods and nutrition then you are not going to stay healthy long way. You may have a not see many changes for a few years, but then it will suddenly build up and before you know, you will start gaining weight, feel tired and is not going to make you feel good overall. Not just about yourself, but your health. I believe any size is a good size, as long as you eat healthily, exercise and feel energised. I can only speak about myself and my size here, as I am no way to judge anyone else. Everyone knows their own goals, and how they want to look and feel. I often work too many hours, with very little sleep so for me feel fresh, energised and healthy is important. I won’t give you my weight in kg because I feel is completely irrelevant. We all have different body shapes, bones weight and heights so you can’t compare a tall person with a short person of the same weight as they will look different.

So, how did I lose my weight? No, I didn’t torture myself in a gym or applied stricken diets. I did try and failed on both. I am not a gym shark and personally, I hate sweating ( I know!) However, to keep healthy and exercise I do try Yoga and general strength exercises at home, as well as going to the gym. You won’t see me sweating my bum in the gym, instead, you will see me swimming mostly, and using weights instead. I hate cardio more than anything in the world and is you see me running its when I’m late ( read. every day) but to run in a gym is only when is cold so I need to warm up, but I would rather use the bike or rowing machine instead of running machine.

The first step for my weight management was to change my habits. I used to eat large meals or takeaways shortly before going to sleep. Especially during weekends. I would order half of the chip shop, including burger, fried chicken, cheesy chips, garlic bread and milkshake. Yes, I would eat that all. Then Monday-Friday I would pop to shop late to pick up a ready microwave meal. Vegetables or fruits didn’t exist unless a favoured gin or fruity wine. I spend an enormous amount of money on food and changed that when I became IKEA sustainability ambassador which you can read about my journey of saving money here. I have started cooking from scratch and completely ditched ready meals and all pasteurised foods. I would fill my fridge with vegetable and fruits and look for recipes that are healthy and quick. I also learned about carb diets and after speaking to doctors, they told me most of my belly at the time was bloating caused by eating brown bread and wholemeal. As much as these are healthy, you should eat that in moderations especially if you are IBS sufferer. I started eating much fewer carbs but switched back to normal white bread just in moderation.

Second thing was to start taking vitamins. As much as I increased my vegetable and fruits intake I also needed extra vitamins. I have tried several brands and most work well, but my favourite is 7 seasons and centrum women. Another important factor for me was sleep pattern. I used to stay up late and then like a zombie crawled up the bed and go to work, while half of the day I was barely functioning. I started going to sleep around 10 pm and set alarm at 5 am which gave me a solid 7hours sleep. I could get up, do blogging before work and get ready for my full-time job.
Also, going to sleep early reduced the cravings I had late nights and I limited ordering food to just 1/2 a month and mostly only if I went out the night before. I would have my dinner at 6 pm and that was a cut off time for food. I would eventually have a small sandwich or snack on cucumber or carrots if I was still working in the evening but large meals especially carbs meals were cut after 6 pm. It was hard at first, but then I learned it and now, I can go along without eating anything after 6 pm. Alcohol is another thing. I used to drink wine or cocktails. next day my face was puffy and I as highly dehydrated. I have changed from drinking wine to prosecco ( which I drink slower and is smaller glass) so while normally I would have a 250ml glass of wine, I swapped that for 125ml prosecco. As is also more expensive, I started drinking less. Instead of cocktails, I would go for a gin and tonic which has fewer calories.

Drinking water is another very important aspect. I can’t stress enough about this. I used to drink fizzy drinks only, along with coffee and teas. This was very unhealthy considering the foods I also ate. I started drinking more water, and as I personally hate the taste of pure water, call me weird but I started drinking it with a fruit bottle. I would add strawberries, mint or lemon to my water. Also, each morning I drink warm water with lemon, and so 1h before sleep. ( not directly before sleep) and of course, replenish throughout the day.

SoShape

Last week I have taken SoShape challenge to try their shakes and I have to admit, delicious! I didn’t take the challenge to lose weight, – because I personally don’t believe in a quick fix or quick weight losing. As you can see above, it took me 2 years. However, I can believe in real results after a few months. SoShape can be taken as a warm meal or cold shake twice a day. You can use this a 2 meal replacement or just 1 meal replacement. if you after bigger goals, then I recommend taking 2 times a day, and for nutrition benefits once a day. Whether you chose a warm meal or cold shake, both are delicious. These are not your complete meal replacements, so still, you would need your standard protein and another nutrition intake.

How SoShape became my favourite shake? Because it contains 50% of your daily nutritional needs with only 230 calories. I usually have 5 small meals a day and replaced one with SoShape ( second breakfast ) and this gives me energy and nutrition for the day. They also have a whole range of 26 flavours from Hazelnut, Sea salt caramel, to coconut Coco Choco just to name a few for cold shakes ( can be drunk warm too if you wish to) Meals has delicious flavours like pumpkin and chestnut soup, green vegetable soup or even mushroom risotto! SoShape is not only shakes but also pasta and soups! If warmed up they come as thick soup texture. If a shake or meal is not enough and you need that extra snack then they also have a range of healthy snacks like pancakes, muffins or chocolate chips or healthy granola. The shaker itself can turn into a water bottle with a special fruit insert, which is amazing as you don’t want to end up with too many bottles in your home. The product is made in France, GMO-free and you can find gluten-free and vegetarian choices along with their products.

Here is my overview after taking 5 days challenge with SoShape

Time-saving

I was a really busy past week, as I have quit my job to focus on blog for a couple of months, and I was super busy past weeks. normally as I mentioned before, I cook my meals from scratch, it took sometimes 2h for it. With so shape, I have saved that time, while I could prepare to shake within 5min I could focus on another task instead.

Nutrition and Energy

As mentioned before, I am very keen on my vitamins and nutrition. As so shape contains 50% of your daily nutritional needs, it’s not only tasty but also gave me that energy to become more productive and also I also overall felt great. The meals are quite feeling, so I didn’t really feel like a need for snacking after that. Which helps with the bad habit of snacking on chocolate. Especially, with my favourite hazelnut flavour, its like having hazelnut milkshake.

Multitasking Bottle

The bottle on its own it’s great. it contains an insert, where you can add fruits like lemon or strawberries or mint leaves. The insert keeps the fruit in place so it won’t clog the drinking part. It will infuse water with fruit and you can easily throw them away after that. You can use the bottle both ways, and remove the filter insert when you don’t need it.

Bloating

Also, what I noticed is that I feel far less bloated. With the traditional meal, especially after beef, I would look a bit pregnant like ( because of the petite shape of my body along with IBS) after each so shape shake, I have none of these. I would wake up with flat tummy, that would stay all day even after the shake. This was great especially before my photoshoots, as my tummy would stay flat all day.

My top tip with SoShape:
SoShape shakes contain small pieces of fruits and chocolate. If you don’t like ‘bits’ in your drink then I advise using a blender, when mixing. I personally hate juices with bits, but if you fan of pieces of fruits or chocolate in your drink then is perfect, if you not like me- blender will resolve the problem.

I honestly really love the flavours of the shakes, and I am yet to try the snacks next week, so I’ll keep you posted.