For the first time in 33 years I did not eat cake on my birthday! Not even a cupcake or cookie. In fact, on my birthday I did an Accelerator Day, cut the carbs and had an amazing watermelon cake, with an amazing weight loss result.
Since starting at Vision Personal Training Hawthorn as a Mentee, I have learnt so much about nutrition and the importance of eating right in order to achieve my weight loss goals. For the ones that are not aware, all new trainers at Vision Personal Training need to go through the 9 week long Mentor Program, which also includes experiencing 9 weeks of being a client themselves. I set my goals to lose 5 kilograms and to run 15 mins without hip pain (as I have long history of injuries, this is huge for me).
At the start I was smashing my goal of losing weight, but a week before my birthday I had put on 600 grams. I was devastated!! I was so close to my goal with 3 weeks to go but now had a set back and needed to lose 1.5 kilograms to get back on track. Knowing it was my birthday I didn't know if I could lose the extra weight and get back on track. Courtney, who is my PT, helped me to understand why I had gained the extra weight and helped me to break it down for what I needed to do in the week to come to see me drop 1.5 kilograms. We decided I was going to be only eating whole foods and being very strict on my macronutrients. Courtney also wanted me to do an Accelerator Day on my birthday. This meant very low carbohydrates for the day and therefore NO CAKE. This was going to be a challenge!
Who doesn't have cake on their birthday? What was one slice of cake going to do? What would I have instead of cake? The questions were many!
Alex, the studio owner, suggested I tried a watermelon cake. This was an interesting concept. I had seen watermelon cake on in Instagram and thought they looked interesting, but how was I going to get my family to agree to this?
I went home and spoke to my mum about my birthday. Like most families and mothers, she wanted to stick to the tradition. She wanted to order pizza for the family and have a nice homemade chocolate cake. Mum does make amazing cakes after all. After many arguments surrounding the dinner options, we decided on a variety of Thai Curries. Then when I suggested a watermelon cake, my mum did not understand; 'What about the grandkids? What will they have?' This was her biggest concern. Again many arguments and me arguing; 'Mum it's my birthday and I have a goal to achieve.' I really felt my mum didn't understand me and thought that I was just being very difficult. It wasn't until my mum saw a photo of an amazing watermelon cake that she came around to the idea. A watermelon cake it was!!
My birthday came, my Accelerator Day started. Yummy eggs and bacon for breakfast, the rest of the working day was lots of green veggies and chicken, keeping my carb intake to the very minimum, so that I could have my watermelon cake that night. Alex and my manager Ashild brought 'healthier option protein cupcakes for my colleague James and I for our birthdays. I took mine home to have another day and they are still in the freezer. Clients and the other trainers were shocked I was doing an Accelerator Day on my birthday but as my PT had put it, it would help me not only achieve my goal of lose 1.5 kilograms in a week but also help me better understand the struggles that a lot of our clients experience when they are on a fat loss program, giving me the ability to understand the challenges for these clients from my own personal experience.
The family dinner was on that night. Mum stuck to her guns and made the grandkids chips for dinner and cookies for later on. I fought the temptation. I sculpted my watermelon cake and added blueberries, strawberries and raspberries to the top. The cake was a huge success! Everyone had a slice, the unusual looking cake I had created excited even the kids. Not only was my watermelon cake a huge success on with the family, but also on social media. Plenty of friends asked how I made it, how did it taste and told me how amazing it looked (and don't we all love those "likes"?!).
The following Monday, it was my weekly report with Courtney. I jumped on the scales, fingers crossed that I had achieved the 1.5 kilograms weight loss I had been working so hard towards in the past week. My hard work had paid off, the Accelerator Day helped and the watermelon cake was not detrimental to my weight loss goal. I had lost 1.6kilograms!!!
Looking back, I am so grateful that Courtney suggested I did an Accelerator Day on my birthday, not only for the goal of the 1.5 kilogram weight loss, but also to truly understand what it is like to have to the willpower to say no to temptations. To understand my circle of influence and the challenges I face when I need to be strong and stay determined to achieve my goals. But more importantly how that experience will help me better understand my client's struggles in the future.
*Disclaimer: Individual results vary based on agreed goals. Click here for details.
