How I Naturally Lost Two Clothes Sizes Without Dieting
Here’s what I did to get rid of those extra kilos
Feeling unwell in my body has accompanied me for more than ten years. Changing family situations, growing up independently, and being on my own most of the time, turned me into a very self-critical person. There was nobody who paid attention to what I did or what I accomplished in my childhood or early teens. My parents were busy with themselves, my younger brother, or with meeting someone else’s expectations.
Guess what? I also thought I needed to meet everyone else’s expectations more than my own, instead of living my life fulfilled and happy. I wasn’t able to meet these external expectations (I made them up myself of course.) Which also caused me to think I was not capable of imagining my own dreams, being honest with myself, or taking the first step towards my own aspirations.
This resulted in emotional eating and unhealthy peaks of either doing sports or spending too much time going out and consuming alcohol.
I felt stuck, and I knew I had to get out of it. Otherwise, I would end up unhappy and feeling even more insecure in my body. The constant feeling of imbalance and ups and downs had me feeling like a superwoman one day -when I had a moment of “Yes, I am going to diet or workout twice a day.” — to a depressed, self-critical person who thinks she is fat and does not deserve to be happy on the next day.
“I felt stuck, and I knew I had to get out of it.”
Fortunately, I figured out one of the main reasons I wasn’t able to escape. I was constantly moving between different places, working jobs that burned me out (also because of toxic people), and wasting time with people and boyfriends with who I shared mostly no values.
“There is no roadmap to creating a good life. You need to design the life you love.” — Ayse Birsel
So here’s what I did — accidentally and planned — for designing the life I love.
1. Striking roots to building routines
I know — not everyone is cast in the same mold and thus needs routines, but no matter who I’ve been talking to recently feels exhausted from working late, living at two places (staying overnight at one’s partner), not having control over the meals they eat during work, or from any other crazy life circumstances.
For me, the best starting point was to move in together with my boyfriend and decide on one place to live in where I spend my weekdays and weekends. It felt calming and restorative. I could finally breathe freely and had the energy to leave bad habits like emotional eating behind.
By the way, we chose Vienna as the centre of our lives and we could not be happier to have done so.
“I could finally breathe freely and had the energy to leave bad habits like emotional eating behind.”
2. Quit your job and find one that fits your biological rhythm.
Easier said than done, but for me, a job with predictable working hours and free weekends was a decent start. It’s also important to consider the people you are surrounded by while you’re at work. The occupations I had during the three years after moving to Vienna, did not fulfill me most of the time. What I figured out, though, after these three years and three different jobs, was what I did not want and that I could slowly start moving towards my real profession — coaching people with health-related issues and teaching (private) pilates classes.
Even though finding the right job might be a long and exhausting process, never stop exploring other opportunities that interest you and follow your gut feeling. Don’t feel sorry for quitting and taking on a new job in a different company. We don’t get to the bottom of what we truly enjoy doing when we stick to one job just because we think we have to work at one place for at least five years or so.
“Don’t feel sorry for quitting and taking on a new job.”
3. Why sitting on the couch won’t make you feel better in the long run…
A decent home where you can recharge and an okay-job does maybe sound already enough for some, but I think we should strive for a life(style) that we truly desire and fills us up mentally, emotionally, and physically. Sport has been a huge passion in my entire life. Sometimes it was even too present, and I worked out twice a day. But that was not sustainable, of course.
“I think we should strive for a life(style) that we truly desire and fills us up mentally, emotionally, and physically.”
I’ve been struggling to create a consistent workout routine that lasts longer than one month. Knowing that the types of sports I did when I was younger do not fit into my working life anymore, I was forced to find something that is fun, easily accessible, and flexible in time and place.
So I invested a bit of money on a fitness app called Freeletics — quickly ask yourself in which other areas of your life (drinks, eating out, clothes, etc.) do you spend your money on? I heard about the app from my boyfriend, and I was even more motivated to do it regularly by starting a little competition with him — for each workout you receive points and you climb up different levels as the workouts get more difficult.
Another tip that keeps you committed:
Find friends who are willing to sign up for the same app or already have it, and you will see how working out gets easier and easier. If you want you can also virtually applaud them for finishing another workout.
4. You are what you eat!
…and this is 100% true!
Accepting things as they are, has never been an option for me because I didn’t want to accept feeling uncomfortable in my body. But I also knew I had to be honest with myself. Protein and no-carb diets only had a short-term effect and thinking that eating a whole pack of nuts after dinner would help me with meeting my desired physical feeling wasn’t working either. I didn’t name an exact weight on purpose, because I had no number in my head that would have told me “I reached my goal.”
“I had to be honest with myself.”
Honesty with myself was the most important step I had to take to be able to change my eating behavior. What helped me again with achieving a healthy relationship with food was a nutrition app (from Freeletics) that acts as a food coach.
You can adapt the settings based on whether you want to lose weight, eat healthily (meaning keeping your weight) or gain mass. Based on this setting together with your body weight, gender, and age, the app provides you with different meal options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Optional morning, afternoon, and workout snacks are added when you complete a workout.
I loved it because there were no restrictions at all on macros. Of course, they cut out refined sugar, wheat, and everything containing simple carbohydrates. Through eating a balanced diet that “allowed” me to eat basically everything like pasta and bread (with the right ingredients of course) I developed a different attitude towards food and I felt food freedom for the first time in my life. For me, it was a psychological thing I guess when I finally was able to enjoy every food in proper portions and not relinquish certain foods because I thought they were bad.
5. Be aware of your body
When it comes to nutrition and sport, being aware of one’s body and what it is capable of in a given moment is of utmost importance. Start listening to your body — it gives you all the answers you need without having to read hundreds of books on fitness, nutrition, or dieting the same way models and actresses do on a regular basis.
So here are some small but effective ways of how you can integrate more awareness into your daily life:
- Eat without distraction but do not eat alone if you can — great company at meals does not only fill your belly but also your heart. As a result the body automatically regulates the amount of food it needs itself.
- After your plate’s half-empty take some breaths and see how full you already are.
- When you do not feel well or struggle with digestive issues, figure out if there is a connection to the food you have been eating during the day.
- Before working out check-in with your body and figure out what level of effort and what kind of workout is just right.
- After working out, lay down on your mat and see how you physically and mentally feel. Ask yourself: “Does anything hurt?”, “Do you feel energized or fatigued?”, “How is your general well-being?”, “How fast does your breathing rhythm go back to normal?”, etc.
- Regularly pause and take deep breaths to stay in connection with your mind and body — your body is your home and there is only one!
- Forget about everything you associate with 24/7 — the only thing you should do 24/7 is being gentle with and good to yourself.
You should know that every person’s body and agenda are different, but no matter who I speak to, they either benefit from having implemented routines in their lives or wish for more routines. I am a fan of starting off with small steps and changes. Sometimes — as in my life — bigger changes set the ideal basis for moving towards the desired goal. You just have to find out what it is and use it to your benefit. Because then:
NOTHING CAN STOP YOU!
The mindset you develop through overcoming a challenge strengthens the belief in yourself. You’ll see what your mind-body connection is able to achieve when your values are in alignment with what you do. Because then you “Walk the Talk”!
If you liked this article stay tuned for another one about “What I do to keep my weight and live a balanced life without thinking about carbs and Co.”
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