It’s been over 6 years since I radically changed my lifestyle and undertook my own body transformation, but despite the length of time which has past I can still remember the feeling of absolute dread as my summer holiday approached. There is nothing worse than feeling insecure, body conscious and uncomfortable lying on a beach in a swimming costume and knowing you only have yourself to blame.
This photograph in particular brings back vivid memories. Memories of sitting on my sun lounger in a water park, frozen to the spot and feeling isolated. I was so disgusted with myself about how much weight I had gained. There was no chance I was going to join my friends who were racing around the water park to go on all the flumes or playing water polo with my jelly belly and bingo wings. Everyone was having fun but me, and my negativity was of course having an effect on them who in turn felt guilty they were enjoying themselves and I wasn’t. This was one of many very low points for me on holidays and the funny thing is I made the same mistakes year in year out, following short term unsustainable diets instead of tackling the bigger issue: How can I improve my health, lifestyle and self-confidence to ensure long lasting results? When you are in the midst of body hate, it’s very difficult to break the cycle. I know first-hand that gaining weight is easy, losing it is bloody hard and time consuming and it doesn’t happen overnight. Having a goal is a great way to stay motivated, a ‘Beach Body’ goal is as good as any to assist in your lifestyle change. However, you need to think about it rationally. What is the point in changing your lifestyle for a “Beach Body” if that’s all it is? – working hard right up to your holiday so you feel healthy, confident and happy to then leave that beach body behind on the beach after your 2 weeks in the sun and return to your old ways? Committing to a healthier lifestyle is a HUGE commitment and it takes a lot of work, but believe you me it will be well worth it. Only you have the power to change your life by changing your mind-set. For me it was walking out of Perfect Bridal in Aberdeen measured for a Size 18 Bridesmaids Dress for my sister’s wedding which would take place in Cuba 6 months later. Instead of heading home to binge on biscuits and wallow in my own self-pity, I thought enough is enough, and I made a decision there and then to head to the gym and sign up. Six months is a long time and there is no reason why I couldn’t lose weight. I then started to reflect on what caused me to over eat, stress due to workload was a huge trigger for comfort eating. In Aberdeen the winters are long and dark, you go to work in the dark, you come home in the dark and on top of that a stressful job with long hours – it resulted in me raiding the biscuit tin every night. I put a stop to biscuits, sweets, cakes etc. being in the house. If they weren’t there I couldn’t binge. I then scheduled exercise into my life like I would a nail appointment. To start with I only went three times a week and this then increased to 6 times per week as I started to see changes in my physique – the changes motivated me to work harder. In fact through more exercise I found that my mood lifted and I coped with stressful workloads much better being able to think more rationally (which I also contributed to a change in the diet and no more mid-afternoon sugar crashes which made me tired and grumpy). Setting attainable goals was the backbone to my success story, the beach body in Cuba was just a small milestone on a 12 month journey, by the end of that year I had hit many milestones including · 80% of my daily diet being from whole foods · Running a 10k · Cooking more meals from scratch · Being scared of the weights section to resenting the cardio area! Another thing I changed was how I rewarded myself for accomplishments, no more did I reward myself with a cheat meal – why reward yourself with something that got you into the situation you hated in the first place? Instead I rewarded myself with new gym clothes, a pair of shoes, a spa treatment or massage. I failed on diets in the past because I didn’t surround myself with likeminded people, friends or work colleagues and my lack of willpower caused me to deviate. This time round I decided to use my new friends I met at the gym as my support network – after all they were going through or had been through what I was, I could share my achievements with them and they understood what it meant to me, rather than that friend who constantly said “you don’t need to go on a diet your fine as you are” or “Go on just have some more cake it’s not going to kill you”. Creating habits is the difference between another failed diet and lifelong weight loss! We are by nature creatures of habits, just like watching boxsets on Netflix is a habit, having the same colour of lipstick! So I turned exercise into a habit, eating more whole foods as a habit, reducing convenience food as a habit. When you perform these things regularly they become a habit and you will do it automatically without any thought. That’s why through constant education Nemesis clients post plan are able to maintain their results long term, because we embed habits throughout the entire plan. Remember permanent change requires: · A Change of Mind-set · Goals · A Support Network · Building New Habits Nemesis receives around 30 enquiries a month from prospective clients in pursuit of long term lifestyle, weight and fat loss – sick of fad dieting and suffering from low self esteem, out of this number only one or two are ready to embrace change and see it through. Many just go through the motions, they are looking for fast and easy fixes and will spend the rest of their lives caught in this vicious circle.
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AuthorsSharon & Lainey are Online PT & Nutrition Advisors with a combined 18 years experience in the Health & Fitness Industry. Archives
August 2018
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