In my sophomore year of college, I gained 50lbs. I was dealing with some emotional things (incorrectly) and used food as an outlet. Fifty pounds isn’t something you wake up with randomly one day, it’s more insidious than that. Fifty pounds is a collection of choices you make every day that show up a year later as a delayed reaction. Because of this, I didn’t notice the weight gain at first, but after a few months, I noticed my clothes weren’t fitting, I felt heavier, and I couldn’t move around like I used to. This had me doing more drinking and eating to escape my worsened self-esteem, which lead to even more weight gain, and a worsening physical and emotional state.
I felt stuck in a pit. I was too self-conscious to exercise at a gym without being filled with anxiety and hating every second of it feeling like people were looking at me and analyzing my form. I also didn’t want to make such drastic diet changes and lose the joy (and respite) I got from food. I briefly would try to do some intense dieting and promise myself I’d wake up at 6:00am to go to the gym, but I would quickly get discouraged after sleeping past my alarm or indulging on a night out, and I would quit before I saw any progress.
Then, one day, I decided to stop trying to go 100% in and just go in 30%.
The results?
I lost half of the weight.
What does 30% look like?
I started walking everywhere
At this time, I lived in a city with a 25-minute walk to work. I started by just walking to work, then I began walking to and from work, and then I made a promise to myself to make time to walk to ALL of my appointments (as long as it wasn’t raining).
I started to feel exponentially better each time I raised the bar for myself that doing it again was exciting- not a drag. Pair it with a set of noise-cancelling headphones, and I was in bliss.
I filled half my plate with veggies or berries
I wasn’t a nutritionist at the time, but I knew fruit and veggies were low in calories, so I made a rule for myself to fill up half of my plate with them at every meal. Not only did this cut my calories naturally without cutting my satiety, but this ended up giving me even more energy to be active due to the boost in vitamins I got from all the new colors in my diet.
I made the more active choice whenever possible
When there were stairs, I took them. On the train, I stood. On the phone, I paced.
I did this just to feel like I had small wins throughout my day while I was patiently waiting to reach one of my weight goals, but later on when I became a certified personal trainer, I realized there was actually a science to this.
It’s called “non-exercise activity thermogensis” It’s basically all the movement your body does throughout the day outside of exercise.
Not only can NEAT burn 15%-30% more calories compared to resting all day, but NEAT can increase your VO2 max, encourage healthy blood sugar levels and can help prevent diabetes for people at risk.
What can be considered NEAT?
- Walking
- Cleaning
- Fidgeting
- Cooking
- Wandering your office to say hi to co-workers
…and pretty much anything else that has you moving around.
Elliptical 3 times per week for 30 minutes
I know, I know– I currently don’t advocate for cardio queendom- HOWEVER, if you feel self-conscious at the gym like I did when I was at my highest weight, moving around and burning calories by any means possible is something I support. I opted for cardio because the machines tend to be on the outer corners of the gym, and I was easily able to pass the time with homework or Netflix on my phone.
The elliptical and stairmaster are especially great because you can increase the level of resistance to the point where it will make your legs stronger and build some muscle. So for newbies, it’s a win-win.
I must mention, though, you will only see progress up until a certain point if you stick to cardio, so use it as a baby step to the weights room as opposed to your forever routine.
I started eating animal protein with every meal
This one may be controversial, but the facts are the facts.
Animal protein is more bioavailable than plant protein. This means that you can eat less calories of it in order to have the same effect- less calories consumed will help you to lose the weight.
For most of my high school years, and my college years (when I did gain the weight), I was a vegetarian. While there is a right and a wrong way to be a vegetarian (I’d know, I’ve been both), when wanting to lose weight, having a plant-focused diet with animal protein worked best for the goals I had. I wanted to be toned and leaner and I saw drastic progress towards that once I stopped being a vegetarian and introduced humanely raised chicken and fish into my diet.
TLDR; you don’t have to drastically cut the joy out of your life to cut weight
Outside of those things, I still continued living my life. I was living in London and often went out for pints and had my weekly pub burger or fish and chips, and brunch every Sunday with mimosas, so just having to change these five things was very doable for me. After losing the 20 lbs, I felt healthier, more confident, and had more energy, which made taking the next steps (weightlifting, less snacking, no fried food) in turn, more doable.
In total, I lost 40 lbs in one year and kept it off going on 9 years now. I didn’t do it by trying to do all of the “perfect” weight-loss methods at once and never skipping a gym day, I did it baby-step-by-baby-step until my choices became the lifestyle that I’m still happily living to this day.
Need help on your own weight-loss journey? Let’s chat!
