Hello lovely people,
INTRODUCTION
More than any post I have ever published, this is by far my favourite one. And the one that I am most excited about. Because it's what I believe in, what I preach and what I practice. Those who know me know that I hate diets, I hate the obsession of measuring your food and consistently weighing yourself. I despise diet schemes, skinny teas, weight loss and weight gain/loss pills. Due to the long term physical and mental damage that it does to your body.
The first step to living a healthy lifestyle starts with your mind. With any positive lifestyle change or goal, it begins with you. What you think about yourself and what you believe you can achieve. If you are constantly doubting yourself, that you will never be fit, gain or lose weight then you won’t. It is that simple. Changing the way, you see yourself and your abilities is the most important move to make.
Secondly is changing the way you see fitness. I am not a professional and my advise is from my research and personal experience. However, what has worked for me and for many people who have taken my advice, is to throw the scales away. Stop weighing yourself every day expecting a certain result, stop counting your calories and weighing your meals expecting some drastic change. Life was not made to be measured in grams and tons. Enjoy your life, enjoy the food you eat. But that does not mean eat poorly. Bear in mind that the information that I give does not apply to those who have a medical condition. If you do, please seek the advice of your GP before you take any of my advice.
Lastly, erase the idea of the perfect body. Because there is no such thing. In this generation we are finally beginning to understand and accept that. However, during our fitness journey, we tend to want to look like certain people. That is the most unrealistic expectation that we have as humans. We are all made uniquely. Your waist may never be as tiny as that Instagram model. Your body may never be as curvy as the nest person. you may never be as large or a small as your friend. AND THAT IS OKAY. Your body will look amazing for you. Your bum will be proportionate to your own body. Once you understand that you are made to look LIKE YOU and no one else, you will begin to focus on reaching your own goals and feeling good more than looking perfect. Because there is NO SUCH THING AS PERFECT. (okay I’m done shouting now)
I probably should have said this earlier, but this will be a reasonably long blog post. So, feel free to skip to the sections that you feel may apply to you. In this I will address weight gain, weight loss and maintenance and I will put up a table of foods that are rich in protein, fibre as well as being high density foods.
WEIGHT GAIN AND WEIGHT LOSS.
Many of us don’t know that weight gain can be as frustrating as weight loss. We all have our insecurities. But first, you need to ask yourself a few questions depending on your goals.
FOR WEIGHT LOSS:
Are you eating right consistently?
Are you always dieting?
Are you frequently ‘cleansing’ and on the newest skinny tea?
What exactly are you eating? And be honest hun…
How much cardio do you do in a week?
Do you lift weights?
What is your sugar intake like?
Are you getting the right amount of sleep?
How much water do you drink in a day?
What are you really drinking? Weekends included…
Are you starving yourself and then binging?
These are very difficult questions to answer but they are very important. If you are constantly on the latest diet, eating tiny portions, drinking skinny teas, taking weight loss pills; you are slowly killing yourself. Have you ever found that after the diet you look great but feel like crap? Then you have that one ‘cheat day’ and all the weight comes back slowly? That’s because you’re on a program and a lifestyle. Programs have to come to an end. Always remember that.
Gradually, start drinking 1.5L to 3L of water a day. Get your 7-8 hours of sleep. Eat high protein high fibre and high-density foods. Incorporate cardio into your everyday life not just the gym. Take the stairs at the office or in school, switch up the cardio machines that you use. Everything you do on a day to day basis counts to your lifestyle. The quick weight loss scheme will come back to bite you. Hard.
Reduce the amount of alcohol you’re taking. Do you drink beer? Well stop. If you must, drink alcohol with less carbohydrates and sugar content. This may be difficult, but stop chasing your liquor. The sugar in chase such as soda is a big contributor to your unhealthy weight gain. What are the condiments that you are feeding your body? The mayo, ketchup and mustard need to go. Substitute them with avocado, pesto, homemade dressing and water-based fruits and veggies.
FOR WEIGHT GAIN:
What foods are you eating?
How often are you eating?
What’s your diet like?
Seriously… what’s in your fridge?
How often do you eat out or get take out?
What’s the first thing you drink and eat in the morning?
Do you eat breakfast? (P.S being a ‘no breakfast person’ needs to change now)
How much junk food do you eat?
Believe me, I know how you feel if you’re trying to gain weight and it’s not working. But there are some ugly truths that we do need to face and some tough questions that we need to answer. Your body composition consists of 80% diet and 20% exercise. What you are feeding your body is more important than you think. That burger you just ate that made you super full for hours, isn’t helping you at all. Don’t be misled, junk food is just as damaging to people who are trying to gain weight as people who are trying to lose weight.
Are you eating high fat foods or high protein foods? Are you eating processed foods or whole grain? And most importantly, how often are you eating? Just because you do not see the physical change when you eat unhealthy food, does not mean that there is no internal damage. Eating small portions of food regularly is more effective for both weight gain and loss than eating 3 massive meals a day. It just depends on the amount and the content. If you find that you do not feel hungry very often and somehow find yourself eating 1 or 2 meals a day, try having 6 small meals a day. You are getting your stomach to adapt to constantly being hungry. This improves your metabolism getting you to eat more often and as a result you’ll gain muscle mass and not fat. Which is easier to maintain.
In terms of exercise, just because you are small does not mean that you do not need to exercise. You don’t have to go to the gym either. We live in this lovely era of technology where you can find a 2-hour home workout to build muscle mass using your own body weight. You can also buy weights and use them at home and an even cheaper option is to buy resistance bands
WEIGHT GAIN, LOSS AND MAINTENANCE
It is all about what your putting in your body and the portion sizes. If you are trying to lose weight increase your protein, fruits and veggie intake. For those who are trying to gain weight do the same and also build on your healthy whole carb intake.
This may all sound like too much. Don’t worry, here’s a table of foods you should start off with. Remember HIGH PROTEIN, HIGH DENSITY, HIGH FIBER = BIG REWARDS.
So, what’s next?
Start eating more meals during the day.
Weight loss: reduce your portions and increase frequency
Weight gain: gradually increase portions and increase frequency.
When you eat frequently, you are more conscious of what you eat. You tend to remember that every bite counts.
Couple you’re eating with working out.
Weight loss: increase our cardio and complement it with weight training
Weight gain: reduce your cardio and increase weight training
Maintenance: practice an equal amount of both.
Advise: 10-20 minutes of cardio and 1.5 hours of training
DO NOT OBSESS OVERMEASUREMENTS.
Get rid of the weighing scales, no more diets, no more skinny teas. Don’t take appetite enhancers. Be consistent, be conscious and you will feel and see change. Drink more water. No more sodas, get rid of the fruit juices, stay fresh. Reduce your sugar intake. Stick to natural sugars from fruits and honey. No more processed foods and condiments.
Later on in the week, I will be posting a guide to your meal plan. I hope this has helped!
Xoxo
See you soon!
