If you have been following me on Instagram, you might have noticed that I have leaned out significantly in the past three months. By significantly, I mean down by 5% body fat and 4kg.
It all started with an experiment. I was feeling sluggish and fatigued often, and I know it has to do with the diet (because you are what you eat), but I stubbornly refused to do anything about it and continued to snack on copious amounts of chocolate, chips, cake and cookies every day.
Don’t get me wrong – I was fine with my body and the way I looked. I wasn’t fat. But, I wanted to clean up the diet and see if it would help me feel better in terms of energy and overall well-being. True enough, it did and I managed to lean out in the process. I didn’t cut out carbs btw; in fact I was still on a high carb diet.
I promised that I would share everything that I’ve done that contributed to this transformation, so here it is:
1 – KEEPING UP WITH TRAINING
I’m a pretty active person as you might already know. I put in about 10 hours of triathlon training a week (swim, bike, run) and I also go wakeboarding about 2 to 3 times a week. Sometimes I might get a HIIT class at GRITYARD in too.
2 – CLEANING UP THE DIET by cutting out junk food and replacing simple carbs with complex carbs
This was hard. I am such a junkie! I loooove chocolate, cake, cookies, chips, ice cream and I would eat these things every day. Thank goodness I have my fitness regime to keep me in shape, otherwise I think I would be in serious trouble. The first few days were the toughest but once you manage to wean yourself off, it actually isn’t so bad anymore. I still let myself have chocolate and ice cream from time to time, like once or twice a week, and also fried chicken. A full abstinence would be cruel!
With the help of head nutritionist Wendy Riddell from UFIT, she gave me advice on what to eat, what to avoid, and also planned out examples of meals.
Instead of white rice, white bread, pasta and noodles, I would take brown rice, wholemeal bread, soba/buckwheat noodles, quinoa and sweet potatoes. I was still eating a high carb diet, just that I chose complex over simple. There is a lot you can read about why complex carbs are better. In short, complex carbs help manage blood sugar spikes after meals and simple carbs are just sugar.
Times like these, meal prep is probably the best solution because it is so hard to find healthy food outside in Singapore that is inexpensive. I live alone and I don’t cook, so what saved my life were the meals from Fresher. These are ready-to-serve healthy meals delivered to your doorstep that you can keep in the freezer for up to 30 days or in the fridge for 5 days. When you want to eat it, just pop it into the microwave oven – EASY! Their food is really tasty and they have different options like low carb, high protein, keto etc. Use my promo code ‘cheryltay‘ if you would like to try the meals and get 5% off!
I don’t count calories but if I have to guess-timate, it would be about 2,000 to 2,500 calories a day. And I eat carbs at all three meals!
3 – TAKING PRUVIT EVERY DAY
This is where the actual story starts.
I first heard about Pruvit in 2018 and I tried it back then, along with a ketogenic diet (no carb diet). I was curious to see how the keto diet would work for me and the Prüvit Keto OS is an exogenous ketone supplement that helps your body achieve ketosis (where the body burns fat instead of carbs for energy) quicker.
In 10 days, I lost nearly 2kg on a keto diet but I felt terrible. I had no energy to train and I was craving for carbs so badly. Thus I decided to stop the ketogenic diet completely and also stop taking Pruvit.
Then early this year, I had a long conversation with a friend and I decided to give Pruvit a second chance. This time, I would take Pruvit as a health supplement, not to help with a ketogenic diet. The Pruvit ketones are actually diet independent, meaning you can take them regardless of what diet you are on, and you will still gain the benefits of ketones (find out more here).
For two months, I drank the Pruvit Keto OS everyday together with my change in diet (as elaborated above) and my training regime. I conclude that Pruvit has contributed to my transformation – both physical and emotional. I have not only leaned out, but I also feel a lot better, with more energy.
I’m not saying you need to exercise as much as I do, or go to extremes and cut out junk food entirely, but I believe you will see results from taking ketones. By results, I mean improved energy and improved body composition. The focus here is not on weight loss, as Pruvit is NOT a weight loss supplement. However, if you take care of your body right, you might see weight loss as a bonus.
I would say that Pruvit is for people who feel tired all the time and want to improve your energy levels, and for people who want to improve their body composition (ie. more muscle, less fat).
I am sharing my experience because this worked for me and if you have any questions or is keen to try, just hit me up and I will try my best to help you. Or, you can find out more here!
