Bali belly...

I am back from Bali! Our holiday was amazing, the most awesome holiday doing a whole lot of nothing which was just what was needed!

Padang Bai :: Uluwatu

If you have not been to Bali, I cannot recommend it more highly. I went with some girlfriends in February and loved it so much I had to get Simon over there. The thing I love about Bali is not only the people, who are so lovely and friendly, but the truly incredible quality of the food. My words wouldn't come close to describing some of the most beautiful restaurants and cafes that we ate at and I think everything tasted that much better after nearly four months of super clean eating. Every meal was crazy good and the service really does leave Sydney restaurants for dead.

Seafish Bloo :: W Hotel Seminyak

Word of Mouth ::  Seminyak

Potato Head :: Seminyak Beach

Petitenget :: Seminyak

The Junction :: Seminyak

Mozaic Beach Club :: Batu Belig

ku-de-ta :: Seminyak Beach

Le Sal :: Seminyak

I trained four times while I was in Bali. My aim was to train every other day and walk the others which I stuck to. There are two gyms that I tried out and would be worth going to if you need a bit of a party pump while you are on holiday ::

Hammerhead Gym at 80361 on the border of Kuta and Seminyak. A pretty good gym with all the equipment you'll need for a great work out. This gym has more locals than tourists and very inadequate air-conditioning so prepare to get sweaty!

Hammerhead :: Sweatfest

Another option was Seaside Gym on the Beach right on the border of Legian and Seminyak at 18 Jalan Pantai Arjuna. The gym is under the Seaside Hotel as is a modern hotel gym. It is smaller and quieter than Hammerhead and the air-conditioning is better. Personally, I liked Hammerhead, I liked training with the locals.

Seaside Gym

So I ate a lot. A lot at breakfast, a lot at lunch and a lot at dinner. Safe to say I spent the whole holiday with a full tummy. I binged and I binged a lot.

On our second to last night, we headed up to the Rock Bar in Jimbaran Bay. Rock Bar is literally a bar on the side of the rock and is accessed by an inclinator. We sat on a day bed, drinking cocktails and watched the most beautiful sunset.

Sunset :: Rock Bar

We then headed for a BBQ seafood dinner on the beach. I ate at Jimbaran with the girls on my last holiday and I was fine. Not this time! My last day in Bali was spent poisoned by a Jimbaran Bay prawn. I was suffering from the infamous Bali belly.

Jimbaran Bay

Not only did I come home with Bali belly but I also came home with a Bali belly! This was taken after the most amazing all you can eat breakfast at the W. I really did eat all I could and I seem to have left my abs somewhere on Seminyak Beach!

Following the worlds best breakfast :: W Hotel Seminyak

I look in the mirror now and can really see how much I enjoyed my holiday. I ate what I wanted, when I wanted, drank a lot of cocktails and bintangs and really did go with the flow. I would love to say that I did all of this without thinking about it but that would not be true. I thought about what I was putting in to my body and how long it would take me to lose the fat I was putting on.

I am fine with not looking how I did a month ago although I would not complain if I did. I now know what I had to put my body through to look like I did at my competition. I now know when I am looking through Oxygen or Women's Health what the women in the magazines have done to get ready for their photoshoots and I think that competing has given me a slightly better body image. I am learning to not be too hard on myself.

With saying that, I am not happy with my Bali belly and I am now at the start of a new challenge. So how long will it take me to lose what I have put on in Bali? How long will it take me to get back to a point where I can look in the mirror and be happy with what I see.

My new challenge to myself is to see what I can do with my body from now until the end of November. Can I lose in a month what I put on in a month? Nothing too exciting, no comp to work towards. I am going to train and eat well just for me. Chris will do my skin-folds so he can keep an eye on my muscle mass (as my goal is to put more on so my diet may need to be adjusted over the next month) but I am not going to weigh myself at all.

This challenge is to try and get my body to where I am happy with it, where I do not pick myself to pieces when I look in the mirror, to find that happy balance I have been looking for for a long time. I will check my progress purely on how I look and feel. I am excited and really pumped to have a goal without having a goal, if that makes sense.

Time to rock this rig in to summer!