5 TIPS ON HOW TO LOVE YOUR BODY WHILE LOSING WEIGHT

 

It is thought by some that being body positive, confident and losing weight can’t go hand in hand; in fact many people lose weight because they hate their bodies thus defeating the whole concept of being body positive. However I assure you that a complete balance of self confidence, body positivity and weight loss/fitness can be achieved in a very harmonious way , choosing to lose weight and becoming fit out of love for your body is long lasting and the best way to do it,

Here are 5 tips on how to love your body during your weight loss/fitness journey!

1. BE KIND TO YOURSELF!

You know that terrible habit of pin pointing every little flaw you have and then fixating on them over and over again? Yeah, that has to stop, instead of wasting your precious time and joy thinking about how much you hate your belly, arm fat, back fat, cellulite etc think about the positive things!, think about what your body has been through all these years and how hard it has worked moving around and doing all the things you have been doing! There is enough negativity in the world so don’t bring it that close to home. Your body is precious, you should be thankful that you have it up and running!

2. HEALTH AND FITNESS NOT JUST LOSING WEIGHT:

what this means is that do not get fixated with the number on the scale! Its not just about losing weight, you must look at the bigger picture, it’s about losing fat, gaining some lean muscle, getting fit and ultimately getting healthier! If you think of it as a journey to better health you will not fall for fad diets or any other weight loss schemes because your primary goal will be getting fit and healthy and not just seeing the number on the scale going down.

3. LIVE IN THE MOMENT:

 

Do not wait until you have lost X amount of weight to be happy, to love your body, to start going out again, dressing up or to have fun! you have to do it right now, if you can’t be happy with yourself now chances are you wont be happy with yourself in the future!. Many people have experienced reaching their goal weight being ANTICLIMACTIC simply because they didn’t take time to learn to love and appreciate themselves during their journeys. Start being happy now and save yourself from a full-blown depression incase God forbid being unable to get to your goal or just taking forever to get to it! Weight loss and fitness can be unpredictable so save yourself the pain and just love yourself and start enjoying yourself NOW!

Life has no pause buttons, dreams have no expiry dates, time has no holiday, so don’t miss out on a single moment of your life!

4. STOP COMPARING YOURSELF TO OTHERS:

You are unique! We lose weight differently just as how we carry the weight differently, therefore your journey may not be as quick or eventful as the next person’s journey, stop going on YouTube searching for people who have the same weight as you and start copying everything they do and then comparing your weight loses! (I’ve done that a couple of times lol!) That’s a horrible idea because if things wont go as planned you will get frustrated and quit! Find something that’s tailored to you, make it yourself or get professional help for your doctor, nutritionist, trainer or a qualified health coach to help you stick to the plan.

5. WORK OUT:

Losing weight without exercise is possible in fact a lot of people do it everyday, because it is said weight loss is 80% what you eat and just 20% exercise. However working out is crucial to the rejuvenation of your body! Imagine your body at a high weight, you walk slower, your joints are overworking, you are mostly sedentary, your organs are running a very heavy load, now that you are in the process of losing weight the load is decreasing so you need to change the efficiency of the machinery that runs your body!, the joints need to be stretched, the muscles need to recover, be renewed and grow to keep up with the now lighter and more active body, your organs need to keep up as you basal metabolism rate is changing, all these are made possible by working out! You don’t have to go to the gym, the comfort of your own home is enough and you will feel amazing once your body gets in tune!

DRESS YOURSELF UP! I can’t emphasize enough on this! Dress the right way for your current body, give yourself compliments, feel beautiful and sexy because you are! Go out, treat yourself and have some fun, stop fixating on just losing weight! Lose weight out of love for your body and not out of hate.

It has taken me so years to realize the importance of self love and body positivity, I wasted a lot of time hating my body, but now regardless of the fact that I am nowhere near my goal weight, I LOVE MYSELF! I feel BEAUTIFUL, SEXY and CONFIDENT! I do not care if no one else thinks that I am still obese and not beautiful or if no one compliments me because I have learnt that the only person in this world that can love me UNCONDITIONALLY is I! And I am going to keep being kind to myself and loving each part of me because I am GORGEOUS, SMART, KIND and very TALENTED Obese or not,

And guess what?, you got it! SO. ARE .YOU!…so are you…Now lets give our health and fitness journeys 100% We can do it!

Love Gg!

WHAT I EAT TO LOSE WEIGHT ON KETO! (10 kgs lost!)

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZnTI8ettfA

❤️ Gg

SIGNIFICANT HAIR LOSS ON THE KETOGENIC DIET!

 

MY 1 MONTH KETOGENIC DIET WEIGHTLOSS RESULTS!

Finally something that works for me! This is it, no turning back I’m going to reach my goals this time around!

30 DAYS JUMP ROPE CHALLENGE!

 

So! my sister Kate has been doing a jump rope challenge and says she feels absolutely amazing! After 11 days of excuses and hearing her say how amazing she feels each day!I have decided to take the challenge!

Something kept telling me to just wait till 1st october to start but that mentality of “I’ll start tomorrow” or “I’ll start on monday” is one of the biggest reason I’m not fit!. I believe challenges should not wait for the beginning of the month or week, we should start immediately!

So I will be doing this and another very fun challenge called the ‘spell your name and do the work out challenge”. I hope you will join me coz 30 days from today we will wish we had done this sooner!

So lets do this!

Gigi.

PART 2 HOW TO LOOSE UP TO 13 KGs (29 LBS) IN 30 DAYS. [MY STORY!]

Okay so I’ll just jump right into it and make at as short and informational as possible.

Why I decided to try the programme

Like I had mentioned in the Part one my body started acting funny! I was extremely heavy and it started to take a toll on me, I had 3 episodes of scary palpitations within a short period of about 5 weeks mostly unprovoked by any activity that gave me what I thought was a taste of death!

• 1st incident happened at the comfort of my family home,I was rushed to the hospital by a family friend at about 0100 hrs got back and my dad who was away at that time had to drive back and rushed me to a bigger hospital where I had to stay till my heart stopped pounding.
• 2nd incident was provoked by a slope! can you imagine! I was going down hill not up ill and I had to stop and get on my knees coz my heart was pounding my chest painful and regardless of reaching home and lay in bed It didn’t stop.
• 3rd incident happened to me when unprovoked in my hostel room at around 0200 hrs and I couldn’t sleep coz I thought I wasn’t going to wake up! It was this night that I decided enough is enough I could not ignore anymore that my weight was definitely somehow related to my heart’s new found beat so I went online and searched till I found the Diet program and made a decision to change.  

HOW I STARTED

So the most terrible thing happened! It was about a week after I finished my third year in med school so I had to move all my stuff from the hostel I lived since I was going to leave in an on-campus hostel for the remaining years hence my mom came to help me move to home for the 3 months break.We didn’t have a weighing scale at home so we ended up at a very sketchy looking dispensary with what looked like a 35 yrs old scale. I was desperate so we both hopped on it anyway and I was sooo surprised coz I did not expect such a low number! I mean it was EXTREMELY HIGH but it was small to me since I was expecting waaaaay worse!

WEEK ONE

My dad who is also a medical doctor by profession (but not practicing)  was totally against this which was very understanding since it looked like I was not eating enough and since he knows me pretty well he knew there was no way I was going to stick to it.

• Morning: I woke up at around 0700 hrs then grabbed a banana, while setting up the TV for my 30 minutes TAIBO WORK OUT. A rest after then at around 1000 hrs I took my juice, water and my phone to the farm and DUG! till about 0100 hrs then rested a bit
• Afternoon I had my salad and took a nap
• Evening had dinner at around 1900 hrs then at night I danced and jumped around for about an hour. I was ALWAYS in bed at about 2100 hrs coz I was too exhausted to be on my feet by that time.

I was on the biggest loser kinda levels! LOL! I was determined and the stakes got higher when the number of people who didn’t believe I will be able to go through with it increased exponentially! I t was just my mom and aunt on my team, my aunt even joined me and shared the negativity with me so I didn’t feel alone it was us against them.

THE WEEK ONE WEIGH IN!: On day 8 we drove to the dispensary again and surely enough I dropped about 7.5 kgs! thats 16.5 pounds in one week! my aunt dropped about 5 kgs[11 lbs}. I was soo happy I cried a little! I had never in my whole entire life succeeded in loosing any weight! my hard work and terrible sunburn got paid!

I went back home looking forward to attacking week two! only to find my dad with a brand new weighing scale, he saw how dedicated I was and decided to support me, he even said that night that he saw a big change in my body! I was ecstatic, so after unboxing the scale he hoped on it first. The number that popped up there was WAAAY HIGHER than the one that popped up when I hopped on the scale at the dispensary 8 days ago!

The terrible twist: I hopped on the scale and I was just 1 kilo under my dad’s weight! YAP! the rugged dispensary scale was malfunctioning! I almost died, I went in my room cried so hard and didn’t want to deal with my weight ever again because I couldn’t believe how heavy i was! and for a week I was exited coz I though I was at a not so bad weight, I t was like going back to square ZERO!!

So I decided at that point I will give up and just continue the life of misery and ignoring my weight and pretend that it didn’t bother me!

Well since I promised this post will be as short as possible,I’ll say lets stop here and watch out for PART THREE!

Till then be strong!

**Gigi!**

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HOW TO LOSE UP TO 13 Kgs (29lbs) IN 30 DAYS!! [part 1]

PHOTO COURTESY: http://www.awazul.com

I remember it was exactly 2 days before august 1st 2014 I stayed up all night on google trying to find a loose-weight-fast regimen because after my second PALPITATIONS scare I was finally FED UP! of being MORBIDLY OBESE.

Remember those 5 THINGS YOU MUST DO BEFORE YOU START A WEIGHTLOSS JOURNEY! yes I did none of those! I just went on it like I was possessed, cold turkey I did no research, no preparations I just went all in. So I stumbled upon a blog about how to loose 15 kilos a month, I like id because the blogger himself tried it and lost 15 kilos and to top it off his family, friends and friends of his family were congratulating him on the comment section so there was no doubt the regimen was legit!

I lost 13 Kilos following this regimen! 7 of which I lost in the 1st week! as expected people kept asking me constantly how I did it on a daily basis! till this day they ask especially the ones who saw me doing it and witnessed the big change my body went through y’all I met my neck for the 1st time in ages! lol! it was a beautiful and emotional meeting I should say.

YES THATS ALL!  I cried like a baby on days 3! but I pushed through, week one is the toughest as you can see, expect a lot of yawning, however you can serve yourself some veggies whenever you get hungry. Drinking PLENTY of water deals with the hunger seamlessly! so I advice to keep your water bottle close at all times.

Lets continue to the remaining weeks for the regimen.

You can drink water or the juice with no added sugar or fix a bowl of raw veggie salad like the ones from week one whenever you are hungry.

As you must have noticed there is no red meat involved in this diet nor sugar, for the green tea use a tbsp of honey as a sweetener oh and no other kind of tea nor coffee!.

HOW ABOUT EXERCISES?

You are supposed to AT LEAST have a 30 minutes activity everyday! The regimen suggests a 30 minutes walk if you can’t pull anything else in, but if you can then do as much exercise as you can, I went above and beyond for this one you can read how in part two of this post where I go deep on my full experience on this programme and thus my great results!

Other Important rules are:

•  DRINK PLENTY OF WATER
•  HAVE AT LEAST A MINIMUM OF 8 HOURS OF SLEEP
•  SNACK ON VEGGIES WHENEVER HUNGRY DON’T STARVE YOURSELF!

you can read about my experience and how I achieved my results following this plan on PART 2  of this post! See you there!

**Gigi**

 

 

 

5 THINGS YOU MUST DO BEFORE YOU START A WEIGHTLOSS JOURNEY!

 

I bet it is safe to conclude that you are reading this post because you have been thinking about making a change and taking a step towards loosing those extra Kilos that have been bothering you. And for that you have made it through the 1st step for starting a weight-loss journey i.e realizing there is a problem and deciding to do something about it!.

So lets get on with some tips for a flawless start!

 1.IDENTIFY THE CAUSE OF YOUR WEIGHT GAIN:

•    Are you eating more than the recommended daily amount?
•    Do you live a sedentary lifestyle? i.e minimum physical activity
•    Do you have a medical condition that causes you to gain weight? e.g hypothyroidism

When you know the root of the problem then its much easier to address it, undo it and be successful.

2. EVALUATE YOUR CURRENT EATING HABITS

I believe that the commonest cause of weight gain is poor feeding habits such as 

• Skipping meals – Causing over eating/binging due to hunger.
• Eating till very late at night– leaving no time for digestion before going to bed.
• Large portion sizes– Huge plates.
• over snacking – Chocolates, potato crisps etc
• High calorie drinks- eg Soda, alcohol, milkshakes etc
• Take aways – 9 times out of 10 non healthy meals, deep fried, bread, sauces eg burgers, pizza, fries etc.

When I started my weight-loss journey about 2 years ago I realized the culprit of my never- slowing -down weight gain was my terrible eating habits which are all listed above except for large portion size so that was the 1st issue I addressed and I was successful in loosing a bunch of weight!

3.  EVALUATE YOUR PHYSICAL ACTIVITY/FITNESS LEVEL

• If you feel like a sumo player is sitting on your chest every time you try to do minor to minimum activities.
• If you look and feel like you have passed through a car wash after walking or even running for a few minutes!
• If you can not finish one sentence without breaking it into 3 coz you are out of breath.
• If you can’t bend to tie your shoe laces without feeling like your blood is going to ooze out your ears and hair follicles!
• If your hear your heart drumming like there is a rain dance in your chest every now and then.
• If your knees can’t support your weight meaning you can hardly afford a squat i.e you need to use your upper limbs to help you up a toilet seat, you can’t plank of do a few baby push ups THEN

You probably are not fit and you need to start working your way up to some physical exercises, and this could either be your cause of weight gain or a compounding factor.

4. GET A FULL HEALTH CHECK UP

This serves two purposes ONE: To rule out any health factors causing your weight gain eg hormonal imbalance. TWO: check if your body can handle physical workout to what extent. Some people have conditions which limit their performance in exercises of certain diet regimens so better safe than sorry!

5. RESEARCH AND CHOOSE A WEIGHTLOSS REGIMEN/DIET

I have put this one after getting a full check up because it will be a great opportunity to discuss with your doctor after the checkup which weightloss regimen is good according to your body’s condition. There are many regimens and since they can be confusing a Doctor’s advice is very much needed!

Now you are good to go! Just remember weightloss is not a sprint but a marathon! don’t rush rush, take time to make proper preparations because in this journey how you start has a lot to do with how you finish!.

All the best!

*Gigi*.

 

7 HABITS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ARE CAUSING YOU TO GAIN WEIGHT.

PHOTO COURTESY OF: http://www.massmedicalweightloss.com

   

Sometimes people may not be aware of the little bad habits that cause them to gain weight, we forget that little things do add up! ,”But I don’t even eat that much!” is a very common line I hear when people realize they’ve gained weight, we often forget that its not just about what you eat that can cause weight gain. Here are some few very common habits that can be causing you to gain weight.

1. EXCESSIVE LIQUID CALORIES INTAKE:

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   These are calories from drinks such as SODA, FRUIT JUICES with sugar added and yours truly ALCOHOL! The bad thing about liquid calories is that you don’t get full easily, and even if you do you can go urinate and provide space for more almost immediately! and therefore you may be consuming more calories than you do whilst eating a meal thus weight gain.

Solution: Swap the unhealthy drinks with healthier options such as diet soda, natural homemade fruit juice with no sugar added (or you can purchase sugar free brands e.g CERES) and finally light alcohol e.g light beer.

2. EATING OUT/TAKE AWAY/FAST FOODS

   9 times out of 10 you eat unhealthy meals when you go out to eat, also chances are you eat more than you should not just because usually the food is sooo tasty but because you pay for it directly! so you tend to want to have your money’s worth. This habit most likely causes you to gain weight because most of the meals on the menu are highly calorific thus not for eating regularly.

Solution: Cook your own meals! as hard as it may sound ,YOU CAN! You can prepare your own meals when you are free and refrigerate for the days you will be too busy to cook. or learn the to choose the healthiest meals on the menu! e.g Salads. But cooking is the best choice.

3. EATING AMNESIA

   Stands for eating without being aware of what or how much you are eating. This mostly happens whilst watching a movie, working or studying, mainly snacking! 15 minutes into an activity and you have remnants of 3 bags of crisps, 2 snicker bars etc.

Solution: Don’t carry around unnecessary unhealthy snacks! if you can’t handle it then guess what? you can make your own healthy snacks with less calories!

4. EATING LATE AT NIGHT

   The recommended time to eat dinner is before 2000hrs must many people do not follow that advice, eating later than that can cause weight gain as our bodies metabolic rate slows down around bed time and thus digestion of the meal you have eaten near bedtime will be affected and the energy from it instead of being utilized it will be stored as fat.

Solution: Make sure you have eaten your dinner before the clock hits 2000hrs

5. NOT SLEEPING LONG ENOUGH

PHOTO COURTESY: http://www.memecenter.com

   Simply it is like this, the recommended hours of sleep are 8, if you sleep less than that eg 5 hrs then your metabolism will automatically below, therefore you definitely will seek to get energy from sources like caffeine from coffee or foods rich in carbohydrate to keep you fired up and awake during the day, this will ultimately cause you to gain weight or not loose weight if you are trying.

solution: Try to get at least an 8 hours sleep every night.

6. EATING TOO QUICKLY.

[PHOTO COURTESY: http://www.wildblueberries.com]

   Well we know that our brains have a way of naturally making us stop eating when we are full enough, but this message takes about 20 minutes to be delivered! and therefore if you eat quIckly then you are most likely going to over eat because you don’t give your brain time to tell you to stop thus pack on some extra pounds.

Solution: Slow down!

7. LACK OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND LAZZINESS

Many people are very sedentary and they don’t even realize it! this causes your Body metabolic rate to be very low meaning that you wont be burning calories for energy to keep up with your activities. As a result any excess calories consumed are very effectively stored as fat making you gain weight.

   Solution : Be active! Incorporate some excercise in your weekly regimen at least and in a day try at least to take walks, you can dance if you like, garden, house chores etc.

If you stop these habits then I assure you that excess weight will fall off without I doubt for I have done it and I have seen many people do it too! So take my word for it and make that decision to start living a healthier lifestyle today!

Bonne chance!

**GIGI**