A rather odd couple quit everything to travel the world on bikes....

From Roly Polys' to Warrior Women

It's a bit unfair to suggest that Shakti was ever a Roly poly but I certainly was. Cycling has helped me lose 7 stone and Shakti has lost 2 stone. Between us we have lost a whole person of fat so its shameful to say that we have still got further to go.

We both want to lose between 2 and 3 stones each before we set off and won't be buying our touring bikes before we've achieved this. We are well on track though with our weight dropping and bodies toning each month.

I tend to find that my weight loss occurs in steps and sometimes it can be a struggle to push myself from the plateau. Our current routine is particularly successful as it leaves me satisfied after eating, without cravings and still showing weight loss in the morning.

We are cyclists so our healthy eating is always combined with daily exercise but below is an outline of our successful eating plan, which we achieved by combining Alan Carr's ideas on weight loss and those recommended by the "You are what you eat" team.

Breakfast:
Chopped fruit - bananas, mangoes, strawberries, kiwis etc - no juice and no sugar
Nothing else for breakfast and fruit should only be taken at breakfast.

Lunch:
Salad - this is more than just a salad, its a veritable galaxy of delicious foods - nuts, butter beans (or any legume), carrot, garlic, lemon, toms, cucumber, avocado, lettuce, beetroot, red onion and herbs.

Dinner:
Half a jacket potato and steamed vegetables, usually courgettes, leeks and brocolli. Sometimes the veg are served with garlic, lemon and olive oil.

This is pretty much all we have, it is predominantly a vegetarian, in fact predominantly vegan diet, free of processed and refined foods - so no sugar at all. Once a week we might have a trout because its so good for you, so thats the vegan diet through the window.

The dinner may sound dull but we have both found that it "puts a lid" on our appetite. We both love huge plates of flavour - spicy curries, tasty pasta sauces etc but it seems the more flavours on the plate the more food we want in our bellies. By sticking to the fairly neutral dishes I find that I forget about food - I've eaten, I am satisfied - end of subject.

We both take vitamin and mineral supplements, Shakti bought a job lot of kelp, so thats a regular addition to everyones diet - even guests go home with a little bag of kelp tablets, I tend to stick to Vit C and zinc.

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The Next Phase

The healthy approach outlined above is great. I feel fit and full of energy but when it comes to weight loss I am always disappointed by the hit and miss nature of it all. Sometimes I lose weight and other times I seem to sit on a plateau.

I would like to take all the guess work out of my diet so that when I sit and wonder whether to have that extra packet of nuts I know exactly whether it will tip me over the balance and scupper my weight loss plans for this week.

When you exercise loads it is so easy to think you deserve a little treat and it must be that little treat that makes all the flippin difference.

To counteract this I have devised a spreadsheet based on the calorie intake required to maintain a sedentary person of my weight and knocked a few calculations in to take account of my exercise and required weight loss. It spits out the answer to live the universe and everything in the form of a very small number of calories that I am allowed to consume for the day.

I'll keep you updated, if my maths is accurate I should be wather thin in months.

More: Further Weight Loss by strict balance