How I’ve kept in shape over the years

How I’ve kept in shape over the years

I can’t say I have ever lost a huge amount of weight ever in my life, so I won’t tell you my ‘weight loss success story’ because I have always been slim. I come across so many ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures of people who lost 20, 30 or more kilograms, and they get recognition and praise from everyone. They ask how they did it, what diet they follow. Since age 15 I have pretty much maintained the same weight, around 47kg. No one ever asked me how I maintain my weight. You can say it’s genetics for sure, but I wouldn’t look like this if I ate fast food all day long.

Since my teenage years I have been conscious about my weight and scared of putting on weight. So I have been eating healthy (to the best of my knowledge at the time) ever since I remember. I was a vegetarian from age 16 to 30, mostly on a calorie restricting diet (not eating to full satiety). I decided to be a vegetarian not just because I thought it healthy but because I hated death and wanted nothing to do with it. I was convinced I would never go back to being a carnivore. What for? I didn’t need meat, my bloodwork was good and I was healthy. I also believed it was going to be good for me health-wise not to consume any meat or fish, and that I’d be able to maintain a slim figure easier eating mainly vegetables and fruits. There were times when I went overbroad a little, not eating almost anything for months on going too skinny. But I always got back to my normal shape after a while.

I started running in my early 20s, doing up to 15 km regularly and winning a few half marathons but my knees took the toll and I had to stop. Then I did high intensity workouts (HIIT) at home, those helped me shape up and build some muscle. I followed YouTube workouts mostly by Zuzka Light and Shawn T. I did these every day for about an hour.
When I moved to England at 30 I became a vegan. I realized it’s not just meat consumption that hurts animals, but also eating dairy products. I read a lot about the subject, found research that said it was good for people to quit dairy and I went on with it for about 8 months. I lost weight, lost my monthly period, and I got weak. I was eating my usual volume but restricting all these food groups was obviously not working for me, however I kept it on until I went backpacking in Asia. Suddenly I didn’t have a choice, if I wanted to eat I couldn’t avoid meat. I remember my first bite into a meatball after 15 years, I though the world would fall apart or I would at least throw up but nothing happened. It wasn’t so bad. So I started eating meat again, and continued with it when I got back after 9 months of travel and I gained some strength.

At age 32 I met my husband Peter and he introduced me to working out at the gym. My mind was set to hate it. I felt self-conscious at the gym, I didn’t know what all those big machines were for and everyone there was probably thinking: what is this skinny girl doing here, she hasn’t seen weights in her life. But I stuck to it, Peter showed me around, and I realized I enjoy it more than HIIT. It was more intense than HIIT and results were showing after just a few months. We went to the gym 5x a week rain or shine. I also became a personal trainer recently, completing a course with thetrainingroom.com and I am about to start coaching people.

I knew I needed protein for muscle growth, so I started eating protein powder. Sticking to the same schedule since then, I eat meat 1-2x a week and 2 scoops of protein powder a day and working out 5x a week with the occasional cardio session thrown in when I can’t do anything else because all my muscles hurt.
I feel and look my best now, at 35. Yes I am slim and petite, but I have muscles and I am strong. Working out has helped me be more confident in life. I still watch what I eat and I never ever eat junk food (that would undermine all the work I do at the gym), but I am happy with the way I look.

I keep seeing questions like these online: Is this food fattening, does that food help you loose weight? If you want the truth, no food is fattening or slimming. You won’t magically loose weight if you eat a cucumber. Rather than asking questions of this sort and overcomplicating things, I follow these rules:

• Quality: eat low carb healthy foods with high nutritional value. Watch the macronutrients; your meal should contain slow carbs rather quicks (no sugar/flour, junk food/drink), fats should be unsaturated (fish oils, olives, etc), and high quality proteins (grilled rather than processed meat)
• Quantity: do not overeat, eat with modesty
• Timing: don’t eat big dinners and no desserts
• Sport: Do any sport you like regularly, and stick to it. But remember, your figure depends 80% on your diet and 20% on working out. I am not suggesting you shouldn’t workout, on the contrary, moving is essential, but the most important thing is to watch your food. You can workout all you want if you eat junk, or you can stay away from working out and eat healthy, either way you’re not going to see much improvement.