F45 challenge, Week 7: The diet-enhanced post-holiday blues

Last week her Hawaiian holiday featured doughnuts, beer and pancakes - this week, she's back in the game. Photo / F45 Training Facebook

Meet Stacey Hunt. She loves wine, hates protein powder and has zero willpower. How hard could sticking to a gruelling eight-week fitness challenge be?

I came into week seven, the final stage of the challenge, slightly on the back foot.

Any avid followers of this fascinating fitness journey (hi mum) will have noticed there was no week six. That's because week six would have been titled "Week six: My Hawaiian holiday featuring doughnuts, beer and pancakes".

Following a strict food plan while on holiday definitely wasn't an option for me, I love trying new foods when I'm overseas. Restaurants in Hawaii also seem to love to print the calories next to the meals on menus so it was great to know I'd eaten a whole day's worth of recommended calories in one slice of cheesecake...

Unfortunately, I probably threw a lot of my hard work out the window during that one week. Do I regret it? Absolutely not.

I had two weeks left to get back on track and try and undo some of the damage ahead of the final body scan.

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Phase three, "World Series", features a high fat, low carb meal plan aimed to help strip remaining body fat.

Despite being able to see the finish line and desperately needing to stick to the meal plan, I was having trouble trying to find the will to get through this last bit. I'd enjoyed my week off the plan and found eliminating carbs again a struggle.

A lot of the breakfasts during this week were things like "nutty protein shake", followed up by a snack later in the day of another protein shake, so I was screwed. I caved one day and ate avocado on toast instead. What a fail. Not only was I not helping "strip fat", but I also wasn't helping my house buying aspirations.

Getting back into the classes after a week off was also a bit of a b****. I had actually done some exercise while on holiday but that first cardio class back had me on the floor.

A few days in and I was back to feeling good about them again, but for a while there it was definitely a case of you are what you eat, and I was a donut.

One week left to turn this doughnut into a kale leaf.