I made it! 30 days of eating fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, nuts, seeds and not much else. This was my third Whole30 and it was hard, I think in part due to the weather. It feels as though it has been raining for months here in England and when you get up and leave for work in the dark and come home in the dark it can really grind you down and have you reaching for those comfort foods that you have relied upon for so long. Historically my mental health really begins to decline in January and I tend to spend a lot of time feeling very sorry for myself. Not this year! Despite some intense cravings, especially towards the end, I did not give in. Having the Whole30 as a focus, albeit an incredibly tough one, really helped. Not one morsel of sugar knowingly passed my lips (other than those naturally found in fruit), not even maple syrup or honey. This morning my breakfast of banana pancakes with bacon and maple syrup and a cup of proper builders tea with milk was absolutely delicious, and well worth the wait.

In terms of results I lost 7.2 kilos (1 stone 2 pounds), I have felt far less bloated, I’ve had much more energy and I haven’t had any IBS symptoms the whole time. I have also had the energy to go to regular Olympic Weight Lifting classes at 7pm on weekdays, when I could quite happily have been relaxing on the sofa and watching Breaking Bad (I think I have aged about ten years watching that show) or Community. We are now in our fifth week of Oly class and it has been incredibly hard. Despite the fact that I have been CrossFitting for over a year now, there have been very few times when I have gone to the gym and lifted weights pretty much relentlessly for over an hour. In the first couple of weeks I was blown away by how exhausting the programme was. Doing 5 x 5 sets of Olympic weight lifting movements, even at 60% of your maximum, is a huge challenge but I love it. I am naturally very flexible, which means that despite the fact that I am not particularly strong, I am able to easily achieve the positions necessary for Olympic lifting. When I see other, much stronger, people around me at the box struggling, I realise just how lucky I am. When we first started my husband could barely squat and struggled with his shoulder flexibility. It has taken a huge amount of consistent hard work for him to achieve something which is easy for me. Conversely he is extremely agile and is excellent at gymnastic movements, whereas I have all of the grace of a drunken clown on roller skates, so you know – swings and roundabouts.

I recently went to watch my first proper CrossFit competition and I absolutely loved it! The Battle of London was held at The Copper Box arena in the Olympic Park. A friend and fellow box goer, Christina, was competing in the event and what seemed like most of Reebok CrossFit Connect went along to support her. I have never seen so many fit people in one place in my life. I have also never seen so many people eating salads and drinking coffee! It was a fantastic event and I loved every minute of it. Christina did us proud and I was absolutely inspired by the athletes I saw, especially the women. When I grow up I want to be STRONG!