My Clean 9 Journey.



Forever Living Clean 9* – £114.70.

Some of you will have noticed that I have been somewhat absent from the blogosphere for the past month or so, and I am happy to tell you that I am back. Since January, I have been putting a lot of my time and effort in to getting fit, in shape and healthy – I joined a gym, I attend several gym classes a week, I started running again after 10 years, I found a real love of spinning and most recently, I went on a pretty intense 9 day cleanse. I put on a lot of weight in a really short period of time and I am trying to shift it whilst trying to lead a healthier and more balanced lifestyle. If you follow me on Instagram then you will have seen me posting wild and taking you all with me on my fitness/weight loss journey. A friend of mine has recently started her own business selling Forever Living products and after seeing how incredible she looked after her Clean 9, I obviously wanted a piece of that action. 

What is Clean 9 I hear you ask? Well, I’m here to talk you through my personal journey…

Clean 9 is essentially a cleanse that lasts for 9 days (the name says it all, right?) and it helps to cleanse your body of toxins whilst transforming the way you eat and exercise, helping you to make better choices when it comes to food. It builds the foundation of feeling and looking better by promoting a healthier and more balanced lifestyle.



Each Clean 9 pack contains:

2 x 1 litre bottles of Forever Livings best-selling Aloe Vera Gel.

15 x Forever Lite Ultra with Aminotein (Chocolate or Vanilla) servings.

18 x Forever Therm tablets.

54 x Forever Garcinia Plus soft gel tablets.

9 x Forever Fibre packets.

1 x Shaker.

1 x Tape measure.

1 x Daily diary/information booklet.





I’m going to break this down in to days for you to show you exactly how it works.

Days 1 and 2:

In my opinion, the first two days are without doubt the hardest. During the first two days of the cleanse, you don’t eat any meals whatsoever. Crazy, right? That’s what I thought and hey, I love my food. I decided to start this on a weekend but you can start on any day that suits you. I find weekends are the days where I tend to eat less food naturally so this would’ve been easier for me. I eat most when I’m in work, sat at my desk and bored to tears. My first two days on Clean 9 looked like this;

08:30am – Day 1 measurements – weigh in and all over body measurements.

09:00am – 2 shots of Aloe Gel, 2 Garcina Plus soft gels and 1 Therm tablet.

11:00am – 1 Fibre packet.

12:30pm – 2 shots of Aloe Gel, 1 Lite Ultra Protein Shake with 250ml unsweetened almond milk, 2 Garcinia Plus soft gels and 1 Therm tablet.

02:00pm – 1 Apple.

05:00pm – 2 shots of Aloe Gel and 2 Garcinia Plus soft gels.

07:00pm – 1 Handful of red grapes, blueberries or stawberries.

08:00pm – 2 shots of Aloe Gel and 30 minutes of low intensity exercise.

Throughout the day, you must drink a minimum of 2 litres of water and you need to do 30 minutes of exercise. In the diary that you get in the pack, you log all of the food that you have eaten and tick off when you have had all of your suppements, water, shakes and gel. It makes it easier to track your progress. You are allowed to eat certain fruits and vegetables in moderation from the free foods list during the whole Clean 9 process.

 (I chose the Vanilla flavoured shakes by the way and they are delicious.)

Word of warning: The Aloe Gel tastes pretty bad so prepare yourself for that BUT I can assure you that you definitely get used to it so don’t let that put you off. Let’s face it, we’ve probably drank much worse in our time.

Days 3 to 8:

Now this is where the cleanse was a little kinder to me. Throughout days 3 to 8, you are allowed to incorporate a balanced 600 calorie meal either for your lunch or dinner. I swapped and changed this about depending on my shifts at work to ensure that I didn’t get hangry (hungry-angry) because let’s face it, nobody wants that. After the first 2 days being so intense and incredibly tough, the rest seemed to be manageble and definitely doable. I’d cut out caffeine and went completely cold turkey before the cleanse and despite expecting to feel absolutely horrendous, I felt fine. I was less bloated and felt much better in myself. Caffeine and my beloved Diet Coke is a big no-no on Clean 9. Days 3 to 8 on the cleanse looked like this;

08:30am – Day 3 and 6 – weigh in days and all over body measurements.

09:00am – 2 shots of Aloe Gel, 1 Lite Ultra Protein Shake with 250ml almond milk, 2 Garcinia Plus soft gels and 1 Therm.

11:00am – 1 Fibre packet.

12:00pm – 1 Apple.

01:00pm – 2 Garcinia Plus soft gels, Grilled Chicken and Avocado Salad and 1  Therm.

04:00pm – A handful of red grapes, blueberries or strawberries.

06:30pm – 1 Lite Ultra Protein Shake with 250ml unsweetened almond milk and 2 Garcinia Plus soft gels.

07:30pm – 30 minutes of medium intensity exercise.

Again, a minimum of 2 litres of water is needed each day. Ideally on days 3 right the way through to the end of day 9, you should be taking the Garcinia Plus tablets 30 minutes before food and the Therm tablet after food – this helps to break down any bad fats. During this time, I was dragged out to dinner three times and each time whilst everyone was ordering burgers, I was ordering a salad. Willpower or what? I exercised willpower that I didn’t even know I had. I was super proud of myself. Go me!

The final day… Day 9:

My favourite day of all, the end is in sight. On the last day you are allowed to incorporate another meal of 300 calories whilst still having your 600 calorie lunch and you drop one of the shakes. Obviously the same rules apply with drinking water and 30 minutes of medium intensity exercise. I was apprehensive of doing so much exercise with so little food on board but I was pleasantly surprised by just how energised I felt. Weird, huh? So what does day 9 look like?

08:30am – Final weigh in day and final all over body measurements.

09:30am – 1 Lite Ultra Protein Shake with 250ml unsweetened almond milk, 2 shots of Aloe gel, 2 Garcinia Plus soft gels and 1 Therm tablet.

11:00am – 1 Fibre packet.

1:00pm – 2 Garcinia Plus soft gels, Quinoa Salad with chicken and peppers and 1 Therm tablet.

02:30pm – 1 Apple.

5:00pm – 1 piece of rye bread with Lightest Philadelphia Cheese and 2 Garcinia Plus soft gels.

07:00pm – A handful of red grapes, bluberries of strawberries.

08:00pm – 30 minutes of medium intensity exercise.



So the question on everyone’s lips, how did I do?

Very well indeed. 



Starting Weight: 67KG/10.6 Stone.

Chest: 34 inches. 

Biceps: 10 inches.

Waist: 31 inches.

Hips: 37.5 inches.

Thighs: 21 inches.

Calves: 14.5 inches.



End weight: 65KG/10.2 Stone.

Chest: 32.5 inches.

Biceps: 10 inches.

Waist: 30 inches.

Hips: 36 inches.

Thighs: 21 inches.

Calves: 13.5 inches.



Loss: 2KG/4.4lbs and 5 inches all over.

What a success? I’m not normally one to buy in to fad diets and I tend to avoid juice cleanses like the plague but this one was different and I am glad that I did it. Not only have I lost weight AND inches but I have kicked Diet Coke and caffeine to the curb (something that I have tried to do countless times and always failed) and I actually enjoy eating salad which I never have done before. My cravings for junk food have also subsided which is always a good thing. I frequently checked My Fitness Pal and the Jawbone UP24 app to see the nutrional value of what I was putting in to my body scored really highly which I was really impressed with. Like with all cleanses and diets, I was keen to see what would happen once it ended and I started to eat normal foods again (by normal I mean not just salad) and so far, a week on, I have maintained the loss and not put any of the weight back on. Happy days! I still have a long way to go until I am happy with my body but I’m over the moon with the results so far. My weight had plateaued for a while and this has kickstarted my body back in to losing mode. Now I’m not saying that this cleanse is for everyone as everybody is different but it worked wonders for me – I feel slimmer, healthier, fitter and my skin is noticeably clearer and more radiant. I will be doing it again in the Summer for sure!

If you want to give it a go then you can check it out HERE – there is 10% off the RRP with the discount code ‘ERIN’.

Have any of you ever tried Clean 9 before?

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What’s Inside My Gym Bag?

What’s Inside My Gym Bag?

It’s no secret that I have been well and truly on a health kick since New Year, I am all aboard that band wagon and I’m taking to parts of it (mostly the exercise part, still working on the diet) like a duck to water. I don’t want to be one of those people who act like a know it all because I do a bit of exercise every now and again because well, I don’t and I’m certainly not here to ram it down anybody’s throat. I still don’t know much about it at all being honest but I’m starting to get to grips with again after a few long months away from the gym and away from any form of exercise whatsoever. I’m starting to get myself in to a routine and slowly easing myself back in. I’ve put on nearly three stone in recent years and I am nowhere near happy with my appearance so I have decided to take control and get back to being comfortable in my own skin. I’m going to document this story on my blog as part of a mini health series to share my progress with you (my lovely readers) and to keep a record of it myself. I’ve spoken about ‘Body Confidence’ in the past and you can read about that here but this is going to be more in depth; exercises, recipes, gadgets, etc. So let’s have a look at what’s in my gym bag to start things off…

Nike Graphic Reversible Bag (Link, £15.00) – I didn’t want anything to big or bulky as I normally just go from the car/carpark straight in to the gym so this is perfect for me. It fits everything that I need in it, it wears really comfortably and I like that it’s reversible. It has a fabulous blue and white pattern on the inside which makes a great bag for shopping too. Multi-purpose – wahey!

Deodorant – This is pretty much a given, right?

Avene Eau Thermale Thermal Spring Water (Link, £7.00) – Perfect for a little refreshing spritz after a big work out, it instantly cools you down and works wonders for your skin too.

Headphones (Link, £14.99) – Big headphones are an absolute necessity. I’d love to be able to wear those nifty little ones BUT I have a lot of piercings in my ears and sadly, the earphones just fall out, a lot. These ones sit on my head nicely with no movement whatsoever, allowing me to listen to my Spotify playlists through my iPhone. The downside is that I look a little space age-y but needs must.

Padlock – I purchased this from Pure Gym for £4.00 to keep my belongings safe and sound in a locker. Believe it or not, I actually spent more time in the gym one night trying to figure out how to use the damn thing than I did exercising. It was a nightmare. In hindsight I should have purchased one with a key and not a code but hey ho!

Bobble Bottle (Link, £6.99) – Aren’t these bottles just a wonderful little creation? Basically, they are a water bottle specifically designed for people like me who absolutely despise the metallic taste that you get with tap water. I point blank refuse to drink tap water. These bottles come with a handy little replaceable filter which removes all of the rubbish from tap water as you drink it, making it all nice and clean. Trust me, this little baby makes a massive difference – the water tastes much fresher. Plus they come in an array of cute colours and different sizes.

iPhone Armband (Link, £3.99) – I don’t really use this in the gym but I keep it in my gym bag anyway for safekeeping. It’s good to have for an early morning/late night jog with my humongous headphones and my Spotify playlists.

Jawbone UP24 (Link, £99.99) – I purchased this just before Christmas and it is a cool gadget for tracking your health – food, steps, sleep and exercise. It comes with a great app where you can break down all your daily steps taken, calorie intake, exercise and level of sleep. It also sets you tasks to make you more aware of your normal habits and helps you to make changes for the better. For example; going to bed earlier to ensure at least 8 hours of sleep or eating at least 25g of fibre for a healthier, more balanced diet. It rates what you eat on a scale of 0-10 (worst to best), making you much more aware of what it is that you are putting in to your body and how good/bad that is for you. It also monitors the amount of deep/light sleep you get each night and you can set an alarm to gently wake you up by vibrating on your wrist. The Jawbone App links with other apps that I use regularly which is great such as My Fitness Pal, Strava and Map My Fitness.

Polar FT4 Watch and Chest Strap (Link, £74.50) – In a nutshell, this watch and accompanying chest strap is my motivation. Before using the watch, you must programme it with your sex and current weight and height so that the readings are as accurate as possible. At the start of every gym session, run or workout, I put my Polar FT4 watch on my wrist and I attach the heart rate monitor to the chest strap and rap it round my chest so it sits comfortably just under the breast bone and away I go… It monitors your heart rate continuously throughout your workout, focusing specifically on the amount of calories burned and whether you are in/out of the ‘fat burning zone’. My fat burning zone is between 125 and 165 beats per minute and once I fall outside of this, the watch will beep so that I can push harder or pull back a little. The watch keeps a record of your last ten workouts so that you can track your progress and look back over previous workouts. This is why I say that this IS my motivation – each session makes me want to do better than the last. It is a great investment in my opinion.

I will be doing more in depth reviews of both the Jawbone UP24 wrist band and the Polar FT4 watch and chest straps over the next few weeks as part of this little series so watch this space.

Have any of you took to trying to lead a more healthy lifestyle this year?

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Let’s Talk About… Body Confidence.

A lot of you may have read a post I wrote a while back about my battle with depression and I thought it was about time I wrote about another issue that is particularly close to my heart, weight and body confidence. What does being body confident mean to you? For me, it means being comfortable in my own skin, being happy with my body and being able to look at myself and think ‘you look good’. Now, I am by no means fat (and by no means thin either for that matter) but that doesn’t mean that I’m not plagued with self doubt and confidence problems when it comes to my weight. Have I felt bad about myself? Yes. Have I cried about it? Yes. Growing up, I was lucky enough to be one of girls that everyone hates, they can eat like a pig and never put any weight on. I always fluctuated between 8 and 8.5 stone and I had a toned stomach, a decent bum without a single stretch mark or bit of cellulite in sight. Over the past few years, I’ve had a serious battle on my hands…

So these pictures are me across the years… I made the mistake back in 2012, when I was in a relationship, to have the contraceptive implant in my arm which meant that I put weight on quite rapidly. I went from 8st 5lbs to almost 11st in a matter of months (I urge anyone wanting the implant to consider this before taking that step). After four months, I returned to see the doctor to ask if I could have it removed and they declined. Yes, you read that right, they declined my rights to have this horrible foreign object removed from my arm. Apparently, I have to leave it in six months and my weight will stabilise. Seven months to the day, I was back in there having it removed and boy I’m glad I did. I don’t know why I was thinking that the weight would just drop back off but sadly, it didn’t and I really struggled with it. The clothes that I always been used to wearing and clothes that I loved no longer fit me and it was fuelling my depression. I remember one particular day not to long ago when I was getting ready for work, I had to physically cut myself out of one of my favourite dresses because I couldn’t get it on or off. I think that was the final straw for me and I knew that something had to change. Luckily, I have a very honest sister that will tell me when enough is enough and when she turned around to me one day and said “Erin, you’re putting a lot of weight on”, I knew I had to stand up and pay attention.

So, what did I do?

Firstly, I thought of the easiest diet I could think of and one that I knew would be a total walk in the park. The Special K diet.

Pretty impressive results for a months work, right? It’s totally easy to live off cereal and with all the different flavours, it makes dieting a doddle. Erm… Not quite. Living off nothing but cereal for a month is not ideal and it’s not good for anybody wanting to lose weight. Your body goes in to starvation mode as it isn’t getting everything that it needs from these three tiny meals a day. I mean on average, per day, I was probably eating about half of calorie intake and that isn’t anyway to live. I was suffering with terrible headaches as a result of not eating properly, I was pretty much starving the entire time and as soon as I stopped eating Special K and began incorporating my normal foods again, I piled all of that lovely weight back on. Lesson learned; no silly diets. Short term results are good, long term results aren’t. It’s as simple as that.

So, what did I do next?

I joined the gym. I really dislike going the gym, I tried it for around six months and hated it. I am really self conscious about how my body looks and I hate being seen without make up (this is a story for another day – I’m a girl with a lot of issues) and I always felt like everyone was watching me and making comment about my appearance. Paranoid much? Everyone always told me that I’d get in to the swing of things and really start to enjoy it eventually but unfortunately for me, that day never came. However, I did enjoy the Zumba classes of a Thursday morning. After the gym thing didn’t work out, I got quite down and being a growing girl (outwards, sideways, every which way), I ate and then ate some more. I’m a sucker for fast food, crisps and chocolate. Terrible I know.

Recently, I decided it’s really time to clean up my act and thought to myself enough is enough. I couldn’t continue going on like this so I made some serious changes. With my dislike of going to the gym, I decided to bring the gym to me. I bought a 2-in-1 cross-trainer and exercise bike, some weights, some fitness DVD’s, some weird device you put between your thighs to tone them (I have no idea what this is called) and a mat for yoga, sit ups, ab crunches and so on and so forth. I feel comfortable at home, in my house, where I don’t feel so self conscious and I do my exercises here. Everyday I do anywhere between twenty minutes and an hour of exercise with the occasional rest day and it really feels bloody marvellous. I feel bloody marvellous.

My (almost) daily exercise routine:

15-20 minutes cross-trainer.
1 set of 16 sit ups.
1 set of 16 squats.
1 set of front arm raises with 2KG weights.
15-20 minutes exercise bike.
1 set of 16 sit ups.
1 set of 16 squats.
1 set of front arm raises with 2KG weights.
15-20 minute walk/jog around the block.

I am no fitness expert of personal trainer but I’ve found a little routine that is easy and that works for me. I occasionally throw a few other bits in there with exercise DVD’s once a week. Usually on a Sunday.

I bought a Polar FT4 Watch (Link) that monitors my heart rate. I’ll admit that it is a little on the pricey side retailing at £74.50 and upwards but it has been just the kick up the backside I needed. It may just be a watch to the average person but to me, it’s like a little personal trainer on my wrist pushing me to go one better than I did yesterday and two better than I did the day before. It comes with a chest strap that you put around your chest (obviously) to monitor your heart rate and the watch sits on your wrist doing the exact same thing. It asks you to input your height, weight, date of birth, etc and it calculates what your heart rate will beat at per minute for you to be in the fat burning zone so you know when your burning the most fat. Mine is between 125 and 165 BPM. It stores your training files so that you can look back and see how far you’ve come from when you first started and it has been a real help to me. I absolutely love it. I take pictures of my watch to share my journey with everyone, especially my mum.

As well as buying a new watch, I also bought a Breville Blend-Active (Link) from Tesco. It was only £29.50 – what a bargain? It comes with two cups with lids and you simply fill the cup with the fruit/veg of choice, put the blade on as the lid and attach to the main body and blend. Once blended, take the blade off and screw on the lid with the spout to drink from. Voila! I really like fruit but I really dislike vegetables and I’ll be the first to put my hand up and say that I’m rubbish at eating both. Since buying this blender, I’ve been blending, juicing and smoothie-making wild. I’ve loved experimenting with weird and wonderful fruit and vegetable combinations and it is an easy way to ensure you get your five a day, plus they make an awesome snack. When I feel like a bag of crisps or a chocolate bar, I’ll pop in to the kitchen, get some fruit/veg out of the fridge or freezer and make a juice instead. They’re healthy, tasty and have far less calories.

Some of my favourite smoothies;

1) 1 banana, a handful of mango chunks, a handful of pineapple chunks, 100ml low fat natural yoghurt, 100ml coconut milk and a handful of spinach leaves.
2) 1 banana, a handful of cherries, a handful of blueberries, a handful of blackberries, a handful of raspberries, a handful of spinach, a handful of kale, 100mllow fat natural yoghurt and 100ml of unsweetened almond milk.
3) 1 banana, a spoonful of peanut butter and 100ml of almond milk.
4 ) A handful of strawberries, 2 kiwi, a handful of spinach and 200ml of coconut milk.

All the NOMS.

There are a lot of applications that you can download to really help you on your quest to get fitter, healthier and more body confident. I’ve downloaded a few that have really been helping me.

My Fitness Pal – Based on my occupation, I should be eating 1200 calories a day to lose up to 2lbs per week. This is a great way to track your calories and it helps you to maintain your limit. It’s made me a lot more aware of what calories are in certain foods and how they break down in to fats, proteins, carbs, etc. It also keeps a record of your weight loss progress and suggests other fitness related apps.
Nike Training Club – This is like your own personal trainer. You can pick what level you want to start at (I’m a beginner) and it generates a workout programme for you that is tailored to give your entire body a work out. Each programme lasts for four weeks before you move on to the next one.
Nike Running – I used to be a good cross country runner believe it or not. Now I could barely run from one end of my road to the other. Nike Running similarly to Nike Training Club, generates a workout plan spanning eight weeks that will see you running up to 5K by the end of it. I’m on the beginner level, naturally, so I’m starting it off easy. There are intermediate and advanced levels. I’ll get there one day.
Couch to 5K / Couch to 10K – These are similar to Nike Running in that they get you steadily ready every day to run a 5K or 10K race. These will come in handy when I finally feel like I’ll be ready to run for charities. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do but never been fit enough.
7lbs in 7 Days – An app bought to us by Jason Vale aka Juicemaster. Now, I don’t agree with juice diets as I don’t think they are a really good or healthy way to lose weight. However, this app gives you list of recipes, ingredients and it tells you what each of the juices is meant to do. I’ve been trying out a lot of these to try and help put my body through a semi-detox. Most of them are pretty darn tasty too.

As I said earlier, I’m no fitness expert. I’m just your average, ordinary, twenty six year old woman that is struggling to find some body confidence and these are some of the little things that I’ve found that really help. I’m not saying that they’ll be for everyone but I am absolutely over the moon that I have lost 4lbs this week so it sure is working for me. We all come in different shapes and sizes and we are all beautiful, I think we just need to remind ourselves of that sometimes. If you’re unhappy with the way that you look and feel then only you can change that. I know how it feels and suffering with depression only magnified that for me. If I can do it, you can do it too.

Oh and always remember this…

Sorry if this post is a bit of a ramble but I’m finally starting to feel happy with myself and I’m going in the right direction to being comfortable in my own skin again.

How do you find your body confidence? Do you have any other hint and tips for me? I’d love to hear from you all.

Here is a picture of me in Ibiza two years ago resembling a mahogany wooden cabinet to make you smile. Tantastic much?

Fancy winning products from Stila, Benefit and Lime Crime? Enter my one year blogiversary giveaway HERE.

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