Weightloss , lifestyle change
Before I start I want to make clear here I am pro-body positive but not pro-unhealthy, so while yes we should love our bodies and all our shapes sizes and quirks, overweight by a significant amount is unhealthy, diabetes can occur, high cholesterol and so on , this is poor health and can also have an extremely negative affect on our mental health which has then a psychological knock on effect to make healthy changes to our lifestyle Just like being underweight, this is also unhealthy as our organs can close down being underweight , breathing problems gastro issue same as being overweight, so promoting overly weight bodies and underweight bodies is incidentally promoting poor health. Its about balance. And being healthy -not just the way you actually look , with that said people who have a healthy physical look in mind often are the ones who make the changes and get results
So, after the poll I ran, number one was overindulgence in food, or overindulgence in unhealthy food, resulting in weight gain, some cases excessive weight gain
During this crazy covid year many of us who have even always had some balance and equilibrium seem to have developed some bad habits.
Not always food related either (another article on this soon)
I will cover here some tips tricks to get you back on track with healthy eating later but we need to look inwards to our personal blocks.
Some of my physical clients often come to see me for weightloss coaching and share with me their injury, or reason they cant exercise or lose weight. A popular one is Underactive thyroid, whilst I see injuries, illness, disorders etc as reasons to make losing weight much more difficult, I also see them as barriers, the barriers you have created yourself. Example Hedley court, is a rehab fitness centre for amputees, actual amputees still doing strenuous exercise. Underactive thyroid there is many people who have underactive thyroid who are healthy or slim, here are a few famous ones: Gina Rodriguez, Sofia Vergara, Gail Devers (Olympic participant ) to name a few, these people are living examples of you can still have underactive thyroid and be healthy, lose weight and so on
How much do you want that healthy body? How much do you want to feel amazing ?
When I lived in Dubai I was lucky enough to have a gym in my home, my alarm would go off at 4am to train before my eldest daughter (then 2 years old) would wake up. Why? Because I wanted it so much, having combatted eating disorder I had managed to change my state to wanting healthy body- I wanted a healthy body, and I will be honest I also wanted body definition. I had my personal goals and I was on a mission to achieve and maintain, if you followed me on my popular sparklefairy Instagram some of you will remember my journey. My drive was my determination of wanting it so much.
You have to want it so much.
Have you got that drive? -To then take action and make the changes to your lifestyle. There are heaps of worksheets available online to help with reasons for being healthy or losing weight, and tick boxes, worth doing a few of these.
Before starting exercise for the first time get checked with your doctor.
Aside from the psychological blocks we do have to admit sometimes we just like food! So there is some things above to reflect on, maybe stating the obvious to most and it just be a reminder.
Where to start with the food thing .
After all most of us have highlighted during lockdown we are over indulging, constantly eating junk food, sugar , processed food even takeaway.
- So first of all, take a healthy vitamin, make sure you are drinking enough water.
- Meal plan Sunday night for the whole week, prep in the evenings before for next day – I appreciate we work, have children and housework and a million other things to do but prepping the night before is such a big help, sometimes I do it at a silly time in the morning.
- My children is my meal planning motivation, I raised them vegetarian so its compulsory for me to make sure they have adequate nutrients (I will do another article on cooking tips, raising vegetarian children with food they actually like!) So this in itself wanting my girls to be healthy full of nutrients , is my personal drive to cook healthy, what is your drive? Tap in on it.
- If you are not a fan of cooking so batch cook, freeze it all , take out as you need it, there are lots of batch cooking insta /fb groups and support platforms for healthy batch cooking.
- If you can afford it then order from Mindful Chef or another healthy eating companies , even if you use these for just 2 weeks to get you on track and your mind focused. Great motivation too using an external healthy food company, even for short term.
- 1 walk per day min 10 mins
- Wear Fitbit / app downloads , monitor your progress and motivate yourself by sharing your achievements, you may also prefer to keep it private , still log it all and privately journal it, including physical achievements and mood! Healthy lifestyle plan is amazing for our self esteem
- Drink green matcha tea, helps with those poor unhealthy cravings .
- Eat lots of fibre, stops you feeling hungry and its healthy for the bowels
- Avoid buying food you are tempted with, if it is not in the cupboard you won’t eat it!
- Change habit / routine seating arrangements , example, each night 6pm – you sit in the same comfy chair with a cup of tea and chocolate etc , sit in a different chair with even a different drink, cranberry juice, herbal tea and so on, its replacing that regular habit with a new one. Not easy but reflect back on how much you want it.
- Visualize how you want to look
- Use Mantras /hypno /visualisations on you tube for losing weight and focus mindset – heaps of resources, message me direct for links
Additional tools
- Use my Banish the Habit incense (I also have a bath soak not listed them yet ) message me for it, the incense is on my website
- Power bracelet , (for weightloss I sell ) crystals, my apatite bracelet and iolte bracelets are very popular! The Crystals for Weightloss article will be published soon.
Hope that helps, like anything, healing, study, and so on you have to IMPLEMENT IT, we can read all day and know what we have to do but its making the physical changes proactively that will get you the results.