(Back story coming up, if you just want to know what I thought of the drink then skip the next 4 paragraphs)
I have had problems regarding my weight for a while now, fluctuating significantly from year to year, and between 2013 to 2015, I had gained nearly three stone (or 18 kg for European readers). I was 68 kg at my heaviest in May last year, potentially due to daily consumption of alcohol and lots of meat and bread whilst touring Poland. I also suffered from pretty bad constipation, likely due to my diet and lack of exercise (which I used to do a lot of cycling 8/9 miles a day to and from work in Manchester (2013-2014)). And with the pressures of Uni and work alongside, since late 2014 I've not really had time to work out, and I lived too far from campus to cycle in to uni every day, so I got the bus, and got fat in the process.
Once I moved closer to Uni I started to cycle in everyday, however I was still spending my weekends working in an office and my evenings doing coursework/revision. So I still lead a predominantly sedentary life. I also live with my boyfriend who is 6ft 4". Whilst I'm only 5ft 2", I still consumed (roughly) the same amount of food as him, and would genuinely get annoyed when he even suggested the idea of me getting a smaller portion. Only child syndrome and all that.
So though I did manage to shift some of that weight, I couldn't seem to get past the 10st mark. I'd always fluctuate between 10st 2 and 10st 4. And I didn't really know how to cook at all (still don't) and due to mostly living off alcohol, sandwiches and Weatherspoons dinners; I constantly felt lethargic and Senekot became my only friend on my days off often going several days without a number 2.
So at the start of this year I decided to try to reduce my dependency on alcohol by doing the Dry January thing. The last post I wrote on here talks about how that went. And basically I decided to keep it up after January due to the significant amount of money I managed to save and how better I slept/felt generally (4 months sober next Friday woo!). However I barely lost any weight despite the fact I used to consume either a bottle of wine or several tins of high % alcohol beer every day. I basically went from fluctuating between 10st 2 to 10st 4 to 10st - 10st 2. So within the entire exercise, I lost an average of 2 pounds. If I stopped drinking solely to try to lose weight, I'd be drinking again.
So, digression aside (Jesus), I clicked the link, and read up on it, and read reviews on what other people thought about it. And it sounded perfect for my demographic. "Lazy twenty-something who can't adult". They were also giving away a free shaker thingy and a t shirt on your first order. So how could I resist?! After reading up on it honestly I wanted to go ahead and buy a months supply but my boyfriend told me to hold back and check to see if it doesn't taste like how curry mile smells on a Sunday morning.
So I bought it on the Sunday and it arrived last Tuesday. The first time I used it I just mixed it with water and used the shaker thing that it came with, and it was all lumpy and tasted weird (I got the Vanilla one). NOT unbearable, just weird. So I then checked out Instagram to see if other people were using it and what they mixed it with (since they say on the site you can mix it with other things to make it more appatising). I saw a girl mix it with Hazelnut Almond milk and I thought that sounded nice so I got some, mixed the almond milk with water at a ratio of 5:3 for 100 grams of Huel. And blended the shit out of it. And not only did it become MORE bearable, but its actually really yummy!
I've not gone cold turkey like I thought I would I must admit, I have had the odd solid meal here and there, but most days I'll have Huel for breakfast, lunch and dinner and have a fruit bar or something in between. I'm also trying to only consume 1200 calories a day and if I go over, I'll work off the difference. I'm really trying to get down to 57kg or 9st at the moment. Honestly after that I'll probably try to get down to 8st (50kg), unless I happen to amass some Hulk-like muscle, though I doubt that since I mostly just do cardio (Just Dance Sweat).
BTW something to note if you haven't noticed already, I have a LOT more energy now than I used to, and I've been exercising every day (bar 1, uncle popped round) since I started using Huel.
(The constipation issue has also been resolved, probably why I lost so much weight so quickly (as you'll see below), people always tell me I'm full of shit but I didn't actually believe them!)
Below are a few tables showing what I've been eating in conjunction with Huel and how many calories each meal contains. Along with this the amount of calories I've been burning through exercise.
(Note that I'm meeting all of my nutritional requirements by the amount of Huel I'm consuming alone)
| Tuesday (22/03/16) | ||
| Breakfast | Cornflakes, Milk & Coffee | 183Kcal |
| Lunch | Huel Vanilla 100g | 410Kcal |
| Dinner | 1 third of a Pizza | 271Kcal |
| Snacks | Crisps 10g, 2 Flapjack bites (FJB) & Winegums | 504Kcal |
| Exercise | Just Dance Aerobics In Space (55min) + Walking (22min) | 231Kcal |
| Goal-Food+Exer (Kcal) | 1200 - 1368 + 231 = 63 | |
| Wednesday (23/03/16) | ||
| Breakfast | Huel Vanilla 100g | 410Kcal |
| Lunch | / | 0 Kcal |
| Dinner | Huel Vanilla 100g + Orange & Mango Juice (500ml) | 640Kcal |
| Snacks | Crisps 5g, 2 FJB, Coffee & Granola Slice | 478Kcal |
| Exercise | Just Dance Aerobics In Space (42min) | 117Kcal |
| Goal-Food+Exer (Kcal) | 1200 - 1528 + 117 = -211 | |
| Thursday (24/03/16) | ||
| Breakfast | Huel Vanilla 100g + Orange Juice (400ml) | 578Kcal |
| Lunch | Huel Vanilla 100g + Orange & Mango Juice (200ml) + 2FJB | 676 Kcal |
| Dinner | / | 0Kcal |
| Snacks | Coffee | 2Kcal |
| Exercise | / | 0Kcal |
| Goal-Food+Exer (Kcal) | 1200 - 1256 + 0 = -56 | |
| Friday (25/03/16) | ||
| Breakfast | Huel Vanilla 100g + Orange & Mango Juice (200ml) + 2FJB | 676 Kcal |
| Lunch | / | 0Kcal |
| Dinner | Huel Vanilla 100g + Orange & Mango Juice (200ml) | 502Kcal |
| Snacks | Paluszki solone (26g) | 97Kcal |
| Exercise | Just Dance Aerobics In Space (58min) | 157Kcal |
| Goal-Food+Exer (Kcal) | 1200 - 1275 + 156 = 82 | |
| Saturday (26/03/16) | ||
| Breakfast | Huel Vanilla 100g + Orange & Mango Juice (200ml) | 502Kcal |
| Lunch | Pasta, Soup & 2 FJB | 658Kcal |
| Dinner | Bagel w. Low fat soft cheese | 254Kcal |
| Snacks | / | 0Kcal |
| Exercise | Gym - Cardio + Walking | 216Kcal |
| Goal-Food+Exer (Kcal) | 1200 - 1414 + 216 = 2 | |
| Sunday (27/03/16) | ||
| Breakfast | Huel Vanilla 100g + Alpro Hazelnut Almond Milk (200ml) | 515Kcal |
| Lunch | / | 0Kcal |
| Dinner | Huel Vanilla 114g + Alpro Hazelnut Almond Milk (250ml) | 527Kcal |
| Snacks | Coffee & Green Tea | 3Kcal |
| Exercise | Just Dance Aerobics In Space (38min) | 102Kcal |
| Goal-Food+Exer (Kcal) | 1200 - 1045 + 102 = 257 | |
| Monday (28/03/16) | ||
| Breakfast | Huel Vanilla 100g + Alpro Hazelnut Almond Milk (200ml) | 515Kcal |
| Lunch | Huel Vanilla 50g + Alpro Hazelnut Almond Milk (100ml) | 258Kcal |
| Dinner | Huel Vanilla 50g + Alpro Hazelnut Almond Milk (100ml) | 258Kcal |
| Snacks | Granola Slice | 275Kcal |
| Exercise | Just Dance Aerobics In Space (1hr 19min) + Walking | 225Kcal |
| Goal-Food+Exer (Kcal) | 1200 - 1306 + 225 = 119 |
My weight on the 22/03/16 was 63.5 kg. My weight this morning on the 29/03/2016 is 61.4 kg.
I've lost 2.1 kg or 4.63 pounds in 1 week. And I feel pretty good in general.
I'll keep you updated with how I get on over the next few weeks (hopefully not essay-like like this one, felt like I missed a lot of points out but nobody's probably reading this anyway)
Tra for now xx
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