Are you sticking to eat?

Many are the women wondering why they are not losing weight despite the effort – blaming their lack of consistency with diet or exercise… but what is the REAL reason?

Just a few weeks ago we read about a miracle “vaccine” due to be available on NHS who is being marketed as the solution to “all our problems”. A “gamechanging” as I could read on The Guardian.

Semaglitude (branded Wegovy) mimics glucagon – a hormone that works alongside insulin to keep our blood sugar levels stable. And that is the idea sold here, that if you are not hungry (and your body understands you don’t need to eat) you therefore lose weight by using “stored energy”.

It is this and other ideas/visions sold to us that take us out of track perhaps even more than just at an unconscious level which bring our motivation down, our hope fades away and the only thing remaining is guilt and the search for “easy solutions” that will bring our confidence back and ultimately happiness.

SO, CAN YOU STICK TO EAT?

If you can, then you are set to success! The fear of eating gluten-rich foods, of not exercising “enough”, of having to eat salads for the foreseen months… it is NOT the way.

With 5 simple rules you can change your eating habits and destroy wrong beliefs that have been sabotaging your body to succeed and allow you to achieve your goals.

1 – Sleep, Walk, Eat, Repeat

Sleep: everyone knows about its importance right? No. We see it as a less important need that we would rather skip if our bodies allowed us to. Coffee, energy drinks or just too young to notice how we are shutting down our natural pathways of regulating our bodies by ignoring basic needs as sleep.

Hormones such as cortisol, ghrelin, leptin are known to be affected by sleep deprivation leaving you with the “007 Mission Impossible” of trying to lose weight with a hormonal imbalance and body settings…

Walk: recent evidence suggests small walks (of 10-15min) help keeping our metabolism on the “burning mode”. What does it mean? That a short sharp walk in the morning to work or a dog walk not only will contribute for your mental health (this would give another post!) but also allow your body to wake up and turn on the right engines.

Eat! And make yourself aware of it! We all need to adjust and adapt – there isn’t such a thing as one rule fits all, but every chance you have to sit down and give yourself time to enjoy your meals – please do! As a foodie, rest assured you are to keep the pleasure of eating as blend diets are not the way (and not sustainable) to keep going…

Repeat: you already did the 3 points above – you are ONLY changing the time you allocate to each. Seems easy enough to give it a go? Then repeat it daily – you will see the results!

2 – Time-restricted Eating

Most have read/heard/tried ketogenic diets and – besides time consuming and somewhat expensive – I am not in favour of such diet at a medium-long term unless medically justified (like in some cases of epilepsy).

One of the options such as the 16:8 intermittent fasting which has been catching more attention will allow your body to rest and restore. Being these hours mostly covered by your sleeping time, it has a great potential to support a weight loss plan.

And the good news? You can adjust and adapt to your lifestyle and adapt this time for what REALLY WORKS for you. As a family, you can always opt for a 12-14h fasting with respective 10-12h time-restricted eating window and still collect benefits from doing so!

3 – Whole foods & Meal Preps

MAKE NO MISTAKE – do not trust anything on the packaging except nutritional information and ingredients. The “rich in fibre” and the “high in protein” are often seen in processed foods such as bakery items, breakfast cereals and cereal bars. And these are the ones that may hinder weight loss.

Choosing the right sources of whole foods and fibre-reach ingredients and adding them to your meals is the way. And, as a coach, it is a promise that those tools are passed on to you so you can chose, vary and smart out any wording designed to get our attention, not our health.

Meal preps – no longer a gym bunny thing! It saves us time (especially for busy schedules), allows us to use decision-making energy elsewhere (no more “what should I eat today?”) and, if there is a hunger pang, we have a better control over our triggers and emotional state.

Does it lose nutritional value? It depends. But surely better than having processed food. There are always ways to adapt and I am here to help.

4 – Stress down

Having been a retail manager for nearly a decade, stress is without a doubt a wave we need to surf. Surely there are more stressful jobs and also situations in Life that will bring you to the spot where it starts taking over your emotions/mind and subsequently your health.

It is not reasonable (or helpful) expecting to be stress free. But there are ways to decrease it and minimise it as we learn about ourselves, our triggers and where we can improve in dealing with stressful situations and jobs (should I add, and people?).

By bringing your stress levels down, you are simultaneously working towards your weight loss plan.

5 – Exercise in moderation

Undecided to have this step last as it is constantly promoted as the key factor to lose weight – but it isn’t when we look at sustainable results. Shocked? Me too.

The calories in and out, the burn more than you eat are very easy to add to a trendy post or a decent video where people talk about their successful journey. Is exercise important? YES. But is it the MOST important – No.

Stop putting yourself down and blaming the slice of cake you had last Sunday followed by a cheeky pizza for your weight gain. Or that circuit training you missed because you were simply tired.

There are limits we must learn and respect. Body signs that we need to pay attention, accept and show compassion for ourselves. If you follow a healthy diet for the majority of the days and keep active (not a weekend pillow on the couch), you will see results even if you cannot commit to more exercise or push yourself to the gym.

Building habits takes time but reframing our minds takes time and energy. With coaching you get to understand the “why”, the “when” and the “how”. You are empowered to change your Life and reframe all those beliefs and misleading info we are fed with – daily.

So now that you read this post – are you sticking to eat?