I was once told, you can eat anything so long as you exercise enough. The reality however is:
- that you need to do a lot more exercise than you think, and
- What you put into your body impacts more than just your waistline.
I wasn’t exactly a junk food person and by most people’s standards, I ate healthily. My diet consisted of mainly ‘healthy’ main meals plus some chocolate, some ‘snacks’, pastries etc on occasion. I was vegan after all, so how unhealthy could I be? Spoiler: the junk food vegan is definitely a thing.
When my doctor told me my diet mattered more than my increased exercise, I did not want to hear that. Surely, surely if I didn’t change my diet but added 30 minutes of exercise per day I would lose weight, right??? The reality was I shed not a single kilo over many months. My fitness improved, which was excellent but I was in this for weight loss too.
Fast forward 6 months and another doctor informed me that weight gain was inevitable at my age as a woman, and it would continue, and there was little I could do about it. I’m an incredibly stubborn person though, so I’m showing him aren’t I. And here is an important point. Don’t confuse statistics with what is actually possible. It is absolutely possible to lose weight in your 40’s. I know, because finally I am doing it. That growing waistline is not inevitable and it is a dangerous norm to perpetuate.
The reality is that food choices are very important to weight loss. And small changes can make the difference. For myself because I had what most people would call a ‘healthy’ diet already, I had to really hone in on what changes I would make. the most logical change for myself was to avoid fad diets (I don’t ever think they are a good idea) and go to a whole food plant-based diet (wfpb). This meant avoiding processed foods and bit by bit removing ingredients that may be counterproductive. More on this type of diet later but suffice it to say it is what most people would call vegan and includes a lot of vegetables, whole grains, and pulses.
I’ve also reduced portion sizes. This was difficult for me as I was attached to being over-full.
I’ve also integrated intermittent fasting – which I will also go into in more detail later. IF (intermittent fasting) has many benefits beyond weight loss.
These three changes (wfpb, portion sizes and intermittent fasting) have resulted in me being 6kg down in 3 months. In another post let’s discuss what you may need to change to make the difference for you. And I’ll discuss why these three work for me.
