The Transformative Years

I toyed with the idea of this post for a while. I'm not a showy type of person, and having my photo taken is something that has always caused me the utmost anguish. But I was curious as to how my body shape has changed photographically throughout the years (or should I say the last two years). Obviously, I see my body on a daily basis so it's difficult for myself to notice any sort of physical change. All I know is that I've lost roughly 30lb since the end of Summer 2011 (which translates to 13.6kg), and I've gone down two dress sizes (from a 10 to a 6). Pretty drastic, huh?



The photo montage sort of speaks for itself, really. I don't want to go into too much detail for fear of sounding overly self-centred and egotistic; however, you can evidently notice the difference in muscle tone and body fat %. These photos were taken in the summer of each year. Goes to show how much a difference you can make if you persevere with a clean diet and regular exercise!

And for those wanting a little more background info...the first photo is taken just prior to my second year at university. I wasn't exercising much, I ate whatever I wanted, and was fairly happy in my body - though I knew there was room for improvement. I upped the exercise routine following this summer, and started to pay a little more attention to my diet choices.

By the time the middle photo was taken, I was a member of the gym, had finished university and had changed my diet slightly, eating less carbs (but still indulging from time to time). I think this is around the time when people (aka friends and family) started to notice a change in my shape.

Moving onto the final photo (taken just over a month ago), I'm quite a lot slimmer and have sort of 'leaned out' significantly. My muscles are more pronounced in my arms and legs, and my face is a lot less, er... round. I exercise on average 4 times a week, incorporating running, cycling (static) and strength training. I follow a semi-flexible gluten free diet (in other words, I eat gluten with caution), have cut out all types of refined food (i.e. sugar and fast-food, also known as evil energy-drainers), and rarely drink alcohol or soda drinks.

I don't see this as being an extreme measure at all - ultimately, my body runs better when fuelled with natural sources of energy/food, and whenever I do stray from the clean-eating path, my body lets me know. It's only when you've cut out the junk - and then attempt to eat it again on some random occasion - that you realise how it really affects your body for the worse. I feel like I know my body so much more now - I've finally recognised my food intolerances, and what formulae to follow in order to keep my body looking and feeling its very best.

Does anyone else have any body transformation pics to share? Any other opinions? Do let me know, I love hearing from you :).