The three most important things that helped me were healthy eating, motivation and exercise. I’m going to touch on all three and show you exactly what I did to start out on my journey.
Nutrition
Weight loss is 90% diet. There’s no amount of exercise you can do to offset a bad diet. The secret to weight loss is CICO. That stands for Calories In, Calories Out. If more calories are going out than are coming in you will lose weight. You need to create a calorie deficit.
One pound is roughly 3500 calories. A daily deficit of 500 will result in one pound of weight loss a week. 1,000 extra calories burned every day in week will take off two pounds. A 1,500 surplus calorie burn every day will burn three pounds a week. They say 1-2 pounds a week is the best thing to aim for.
Choose a deficit and stick with it. Consistency is really important. You don’t have to eat the same thing every day, just aim for the same daily deficit. The only way to know how many calories are going in is to count them. I write down everything I eat, and by now I’ve learned a lot of calorie values off by heart.
A normal meal for me when I was losing weight would be something like:
300g chicken – 318 calories
2 rashers bacon – 120 calories
500g lettuce – 70 calories
500g cucumber – 75 calories
200g avocado – 320 calories
100g low calorie blue cheese dressing (home made) – 100 calories
That works out at 1003 calories. I would then have 60g of cereal with two low fat toffee yoghurts which is 396 calories. That brings my daily total to 1399. Add a protein shake after my evening workout (mine are 276 calories) and that brings me to a grand total of 1675 for the day.
My average daily calorie burn (when I haven’t just been sliced in half) is 3000-3500. That leaves me with a deficit of between and 1325 and 1825. Obviously now I’m at my goal weight I eat a bit more than that! Also remember I do intermittent fasting where I only eat in a narrow window rather than throughout the day.
Technically I do OMAD (one meal a day). That doesn’t suit everybody so you might want to try three smaller meals. During my recovery I’m eating:
Overnight oats – 307 calories
100g strawberries – 33 calories
Chicken and vegetable soup – 330 calories
Teriyaki stir fry – 428 calories
Low fat toffee yoghurt – 78 calories
Protein shake – 276
The daily total is 1452. My daily outgoing calories at rest is in the region of 1500. I’m at my goal weight and I’m not exercising much so that should keep my weight where I want it to be. If it drops too low I can always have a treat at the end of the week.
I would advise taking half an hour to write out a calorie cheat sheet. Look at the caloric content of your favourite foods so when you’re cooking you can work it out nice and easily.
I do that so when I make my salads and I weigh the ingredients it’s really easy to work out the calories.
300g of chicken
1.06 (the calories per 100g) x 300 (the total weight in grams) = 318 calories
500g of lettuce
0.14 (the calories per 100g) x 500 (the total weight in grams) = 70 calories
200g of avocado
1.6 (the calories per 100g) x 200 (the total weight in grams) = 320 calories
If you have a few staple meals you eat regularly you’ll soon learn the calorie amounts. But if you change brand or buy it at a different shop be sure to check the packets, sometimes it varies! For example, ASDA chicken is 152 calories per 100g whereas Aldi and Tesco chicken in 106 calories per 100g.
It might be a pain to count every single calorie but it’s the best way to control exactly what’s going into our bodies. You’ll get used to weighing out foods and working out the nutritional content. Nowadays it feels weird for me not to!
Before moving on, I have a few simple eating rules I’d like to share.
- Eat clean. Avoid processed foods as much as possible. If you don’t recognise an ingredient, neither will your body.
- Add a fruit or vegetable to everything you eat. It helps create good habits. Sandwich? Throw a good handful of lettuce in there. Ice cream? Add berries or banana.
- Only eat when you’re actually hungry, no mindless snacking.
- Don’t eat LESS – eat BETTER!
I won’t tell you to avoid certain foods. But if there’s something unhealthy you’re eating in vast quantities try and reduce it gradually. Make small, manageable changes. If you’ve been going a month and the scale isn’t moving, increase your deficit by 100 calories or so.
I’m all about the volume eating. I stuff myself with healthy food so there’s no room for the junk. You could eat cucumber and carrot sticks all day long and not gain weight. But it’s a different story for chocolate or crisps. I know it can be difficult to let go of the unhealthy foods. But remembering the following few things will help.
Caveman mentality
Our bodies are biologically designed to put on weight. We all used to be cave people that lived off the land. Chocolate didn’t exist and we didn’t always know where our next meal was coming from. We’re programmed to want as much high calorie food as possible to ensure our survival. But things have changed. We no longer have to be in great shape to hunt our own food. Supermarkets are a thing. The drive to gobble as much as possible is our brain’s way of helping us stay alive. But we know better now and when we feel the urge to feast we can reassure ourselves that we aren’t about to starve. We don’t need to eat a huge wedge of cake, we’ve got a healthy meal ready and waiting to be cooked up at home.
Bliss Point
Modern food is scientifically formulated to make us want more. There have been decades of research into the magical combination of sugar, salt and fat that makes our bodies crave more of it, even if we’re stuffed full. Foods like milk chocolate make our brains hit what is scientifically termed a ‘bliss point’. The brain releases the happy chemical dopamine when it’s subjected to the right quantities of sugar salt and fat. That’s because of our old-fashioned caveman brains. The rest of the world had changed faster than we have been able to evolve. And the more we eat these kinds of sugary, salty and fatty foods the more we want. Abstaining from junk food breaks the cycle. We don’t crave it if it’s not in our system. It’s like smoking cigarettes. The last one we’ve had feeds into our desire for the next one. Cutting out the rubbish makes us less likely to want more. When we say no to junk food we aren’t missing out. The body doesn’t really want that kind of food. It’s all a big trick.
Advertising Trickery
Like everything in life, the food industry is designed to make money. Our wellbeing is not Cadbury’s priority. Profits are. And the products our bodies don’t actually need are packaged in luxurious bright wrappers that are designed to catch our eye on the shelf and look as appetising as possible. Even their placement on supermarket shelves is designed to trick us into buying more. Don’t fall for it. You’re much smarter than that! They want you to buy as much of their products as possible to they can enjoy big bonuses at the end of the year. Well, screw capitalism!
Big Bad Companies
Most companies that make junk food are unsustainable, bad for then environment AND treat their workers terribly. The majority of cocoa farmers get paid pennies and have never even seen a bar of chocolate, let alone tasted one. Most junk food contains palm oil which is a non-native crop where it’s grown and enormous chunks of rainforest and endangered wildlife habitat are cleared and destroyed forever to make room to grow more palm oil. Nestle and countless other big companies use slavery and forced child labour to maximise their profits and actively sabotage poor communities to make them reliant on their products. Like when Nestle spread propaganda in poor African communities that breast milk was harmful to babies in order to sell more formula. Don’t reward these big bullies with your money!
Whew, rant over. So, that’s the calories in covered, what about calories out? Personally I wear a Fitbit but I know not everyone has the funds for a smart watch. Instead you can use an online TDEE calculator. TDEE is your Total Daily Energy Expenditure.
Input your information and it’ll give you a good estimate of how many calories you typically burn a day. It will even recommend a deficit and break down how much protein, carbohydrate and fat you should have.
I would advise weighing yourself infrequently. Once a month is ideal. That gives your body time to adapt to the changes and really shed a few pounds before you take a new measurement. It’s also a good idea to measure your waist and other body parts to really be able to see the changes you’ll be going through.
Motivation
It can be hard to find the strength to say no to bad food. It can also be difficult to think up healthy meal ideas. There’s also a challenge in resisting the overwhelming urge to think ‘Oh, screw it! I can just start again tomorrow!’.
Here’s what I watch/listen to/look at to keep myself pumped. There are tonnes of great TV shows and documentaries out there. You should be able to find these online, on services like Sky or streaming platforms like Netflix.
My top picks are:
The Biggest Loser (The Australian version is my favourite!)
Supersize vs Super Skinny
Fat Fiction (This one is a must-see!)
What the Health
I also love podcasts and have a good few I can recommend for curbing bad eating habits. I like to listen with a pen and paper handy so I can scribble down anything I think is worth remembering, or I make a note on my phone. Here’s my list of good weight loss/healthy lifestyle podcasts:
Breaking up with Binge Eating
Dishing Up Nutrition
Just Eat Normally Podcast
Joyfully You
Maintenance Phase
I also have a ton on weight loss mantras that help be stick to my goal. Here are some examples:
Self-discipline is the highest form of self-love
We should love our bodies and treat them the best way possible. And for me that used to mean ‘treating’ myself to unlimited chocolate, sweets and crisps. Now I know that disciplining myself is much more of a treat than going on a food binge. Even if I feel hard done by, I’m actually being the kindest to myself I’ve even been.
Abs are made in the kitchen
Because weight loss is 90% diet! It’s not about slaving away doing gruelling workouts in the gym for hours on end. Nutrition is much more important for weight loss than exercise so remember that when you want to eat a huge pizza or gorge on chocolate.
This month’s diet is next month’s body
The results we see are not immediate. We’re on about a four-week delay. The effort you put in today won’t be visible until next month. When you’re considering giving up, tell yourself to give it until the end of the month. By then the results will be showing themselves and you’ll want to keep going!
I can do hard things
Weight loss is hard, every aspect of it. But hard does not mean impossible. When I watch Biggest Loser on Amazon Prime I’m always blown away. At first the contestants cry because what’s being asked of them is so difficult.
But they soon realise they can do it. They are capable of rising to the challenge. And soon they’re asking the trainers for more. Once you believe you can accomplish hard things you’ll see how capable you really are. You can be absolutely unstoppable if you believe in your own ability. You CAN do hard things!
Exercise
There are no right or wrong exercises to do. Anything that gets your body moving and heart rate up is what you’re aiming for. It doesn’t have to be strict or regimented but I would suggest trying to get into a routine of some kind.
Exercise really only accounts for maybe 10% of weight loss BUT it’s still really important. It makes a huge difference to your attitude, stamina and mental health. Seeing what your body is capable of and challenging yourself is the ultimate way to grow in my opinion.
Muscle
I cannot recommend getting some muscle workouts in highly enough! Building muscle is great for your metabolism and having muscle means you burn more calories at rest. And we LOVE rest! My strength nights were Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. I did cardio on Wednesdays and Sundays and had Saturdays off completely.
Protein
If you fancy working on building a bit of muscle the timing of your meals and workouts is quite important. You should begin your exercise roughly two hours after a high-protein meal. I call that period my protein window. That’s when the body is best primed to develop muscle.
In a pinch you can start an hour after eating but you shouldn’t wait more than three hours. You need your body to be fuelled up right or you won’t get the most out of the work you put in.
The great news is that you also need more protein after a workout so you get to eat something else – yay! It should be a small protein-based snack. I personally have PHD diet whey (the Belgian chocolate flavour is just divine, especially with a sprinkling of salt!) in 500ml of skimmed milk.
If I’m in a huge hurry or want something solid to actually chew I have a protein bar. My favourites are the PHD Smart white chocolate blondie bars. But you don’t need fancy/expensive protein products. 500ml of skimmed milk has plenty of protein by itself and very few calories, and you could add some sugar free milkshake syrup (I love the Crusha cookies and cream flavour) if you want it a bit sweeter.
In the UK there are places like Home Bargains and B&M that do reasonable protein powders and bars if you fancied giving it a try without spending too much. I even like the Aldi protein bars although they aren’t as nice as the fancy white chocolate ones I’m obsessed with.
Quite often I see my favourites on offer at the supermarket or on sale on the PHD Nutrition website so you might get lucky.
My top YouTube workouts
These are the exact videos I did when I was starting out. I did all three in a row four days a week. Together they take around half an hour. You might want to start with muscle workouts two or three days a week instead of four, it’s completely up to you!
Doing a little less at the beginning can be a good thing as you’ll have more room to increase nice and gradually. You’ll want to increase your workouts by a little every month or so. You won’t be able to do the same thing for a year and continue to see great results. But do it bit by bit. It’s all about small, manageable changes remember!
Core: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXITzjuRXYo&t=99s
I love this girl! She has tonnes of videos for every ability.
Arms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyTR2EjTAXU&t=1s
This is HARD! It involved keeping your arms raised for the whole 7-8 minutes. It’s going to burn but I promise you that you CAN do it. I managed to keep my arms up the whole time my first try and then I had no excuse not to every time after that. Stay determined and don’t give up and you’ll really surprise yourself.
Legs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nG69wuXHwxg
Another one of my favourite YouTube ladies! Just follow along as best you can and get lost in the music and it’ll be over before you know it.
So that was my beginner routine. Then when I wanted to step things up after about four weeks or so I moved on to these three.
Core: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1f8yoFFdkcY
Pamela Reif again! I still do her workouts to this day and will do for the foreseeable future. They’re quick and intense and I love the music she chooses.
Arms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyTR2EjTAXU&t=1s
This one is the same girl from the first arm video but it’s a little bit of a step up. Once I had mastered this one I managed to do both of her arm workouts back to back! Then I added weight for more of a challenge. Again, it’s going to burn but I know you can do it!
Legs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG3TAwfo9iQ&t=17s
You’ll need a resistance band to do this workout properly but you can also go without for the first few tries. I got a multipack of looped resistance bands off Amazon for pretty cheap and they came in five different strengths. I started with the lightest and worked up to the heaviest.
If none of these are to your liking I can recommend trying Pilates instead. It’s all about slow, controlled movements using your own body weight and core muscles. It’s also a great way to improve flexibility and mental stamina.
15 minute beginner video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdjRQ6GG8bA
25 minute beginner whole body workout: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyP_waVgL1w
30 minute intermediate full body workout: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HnWLkHL1hU&list=PLpFpnrMkqfxN8TSRUXpLPZ4rp5BjaSxMG&index=5&t=281s
Now you might find that you absolutely detest all of these. And that’s okay! Everybody’s different. Along with these videos I also made up my own workouts, focusing on the same three areas.
I did squats to work the body’s biggest muscles, the glutes and quads. I did planks to strengthen my entire core. I lifted weights (light at first) to help build my arm muscles to prevent loose skin on my upper body.
One resource I found invaluable was a website called Darebee. They post free workouts in the form of posters. I didn’t print them out but you might want to and put them up at home to help motivate yourself.
Cardio
I can’t recommend going out and running from day one, but it’s really important to get your heart pumping and building up a real sweat as often as possible. On top of my long daily dog walks I did two cardio nights a week. These are two of my favourite videos.
10,000 step workout: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3AUw3-jtEo
The title is misleading! You’ll only do 5,000 steps if that. But it’ll really get you sweating and it’s insanely easy. Plus, it’s only half an hour!
Afrobeats ‘twerkout’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIbeZ4dy8xA&t=1110s
I added this into my weekly routine because I wanted to learn to twerk. I’m still pretty rubbish but I really love this girl’s energy and I find her so fun and easy to follow. It’s a good mix of high energy and restful movements. At first I would only do half but before long I was doing the whole thing.
I don’t bother with protein after my cardio workouts unless it’s a run of 10K or more. Obviously go ahead if you want to but it’s not necessary.
That’s all I can think of for now! I hope it all makes sense and is at least a little bit inspiring!
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