Glad to be a part of the 2015 Beauty of a Woman Blogfest.

Most days I love my body and the curves that I have. However, there is a part of me that still wants 6-pack abs or at least a flat stomach. In the past, I lacked the self-discipline to be consistent about doing crunches and sit-ups every day. Plus, my diet is white potato, bread, and white rice heavy. Preferably fried. Did you just groan? I know I am not doing myself or my body any favors with less-than-healthy choices.

Last year, I began to follow GuruOfAbs on Instagram for tips to getting a flatter stomach. This February, I did his Stomach Sculpting No Bread 7-day challenge. Sign up was easy using www.trainersvault.com .

This was a strict regimen of daily exercises and diet. Each day, videos of the day’s exercises were available through the website. Certain exercises were to be done first thing in the morning. Another set of exercises were done at night. The diet consisted of the following: No bread. No pasta. No white sugar.

The Stomach Sculpting No Bread 7-day challenge was hard for me to attempt since

1. I do not usually exercise in the morning
2. I love all things bread
3. I have never done a diet
4. I do not like to deny my cravings

Nevertheless, I jumped in wholeheartedly and full of determination – 2015 is about challenging myself

Day 1 was easy because I was hyped up and optimistic about facing this challenge. I had steel-cut oatmeal with walnuts for breakfast, salad for lunch and salad for dinner.

Day 4 was a low point. I wanted bread, pasta, rice, cookies, and ice cream. All together. I did not want another salad. Oatmeal with no maple syrup sucks. Plain Greek yogurt sucks.

And then a wonderful thing happened.

A lady I know asked me if I was trying to lose weight because she could tell it in my face.

Yes, I am trying and thank you for noticing!

That was the boost I needed to keep me going. I ate grilled chicken with a side of broccoli for dinner.

By the end of the week, I lost a couple of pounds and I have some new ideas of ways to replace some of my comfort foods with healthier veggie options (e.g. Zucchini pasta AKA zoodles).

My stomach is not flat yet (it was only one week after all) but I think I have a better chance of working towards that with new routine of exercises and changes I have made to my diet. For example, I am doing crunches and other ab exercises learned from challenge daily.

This does not mean I will not indulge in the occasional milkshake or fried chicken.

While 7 days does not seem like a long time to some people, I feel it was a huge accomplishment for me to be able to stick to the diet for that length of time. The Stomach Sculpting No Bread 7-day challenge forced me to critically examine my current dietary choices. What I found, I did not like. Do not get me wrong, I still love all my curves. Nonetheless, it is better for me to make dietary adjustments myself before I am required to change because of adult diabetes or other illness.

Will I get my six-pack abs? I might. I might not. But at least I am striving to be healthy and happy. That is all that really matters ❤

Click http://www.augustmclaughlin.com/boaw15/ to check out the other bloggers participating in this year’s blogfest. You might potentially win awesome prizes! There is a digital raffle on the fest page.