That was one of Karen’s reasons for wanting to lose weight
That and to be a healthier role model for her son
A busy mum, who works and studies Karen was always on the go. Never stopping to prioritise her health or herself.
She survived on a concoction of stress & grabbing what ever she could on the run, all washed down with copious amounts of coffee
This busy lifestyle resulted in weight gain, health declining and trying to juggle her busy life while her energy levels were constantly low.
So when we sat down and chatted it was obvious creating a bit of balance was important.
Karen joined the Ultimate Transformation program and for 6 months we addressed her habits and her food and combined this with structured weights training and cardio sessions.
It was important that whatever we implemented Karen could fit in into her life without it being a chore. If it became a stressful task it would not be sustainable for her
Like most; Karen wanted to know everything straight away. But she trusted the process and learnt and implemented one thing at a time.
We started by changing the things that would have the biggest effect and only when that was her new normal did we look at addressing the next thing.
Karen’s biggest hurdle was trying to get everything right. She would spend a good few hours meal prepping amazing foods for it to only last a few days. obviously she became frustrated with this and it started to become a chore. Remember; if it’s a chore it’s not sustainable
For meal prep to be a sustainable task it has to be Fast, Delicious & Nutritious. So we worked on developing this skill. Karen is the first to admit that this was one of the hardest things for her to learn
It wasn’t a skill she developed easily. It took trying different methods and sticking at that attempt for a few weeks to find what worked best for her. But she never quit, because her desire to be a healthy role model and her want to burn her ugly fat undies was stronger than her frustrations
Over the past 18 months Karen has learnt how to fuel her body so that she loses weight and feels fantastic and full of energy at the same time.
As for her training?
Twice a week she lifts heavy weights for 45 mins per session and attends 2 x 30 min cardio classes – that’s it.
A total of 2.5 hours in the gym a week
This makes sure it is not a chore for her and doesn’t become a stress in her life, but something that fits into and compliments her new lifestyle
It’s obvious from the photos, she is a new woman – and she is still getting smaller.
But what isn’t shown in the photos is the positive effect it also had on her families lifestyle.
Her 3 year old son Olly, talks about eating food to be strong like mum; how much of an amazing example is that.
The old Karen would have struggled to find energy to be active on weekends, now she enjoys and has plenty of energy to get out and about with her son and partner.
Commitment, Consistency & Persistence pay off if you play the long game
Karen’s top tips for anyone wanting to change their lifestyle and achieve permanent results are;
- Break everything down into small chunks; every mouthful first, then every meal then every day, then week. Increase the time frame as your good habits develop. Don’t try and achieve a good week in the beginning. You’ll fail, it hurts and everything will feel too hard.
- Consider everything that’s better than your usual choice a win. So a salad sandwich may not be compliant meal but it’s a better choice than fish and chips for example. That’s a win.
- Don’t try or expect that you’ll have everything perfect to begin with. Accept that you will probably never be perfect and the aim is only ever to be better than yourself yesterday.
- My biggest lesson so far is that perfection is neither attainable or sustainable. Just always strive to be better.
- Don’t ever let a bad mouthful or meal turn into writing off a whole day. Just make the next mouthful or meal and better.
- Trust your trainer 100%. Food doesn’t work alone, exercise doesn’t work alone. Trust the process and you will see results.
- If you crave something, have it! Depriving only makes the craving worse and the quantity bigger. In time you won’t need the stuff you crave, you’ll choose to have it for enjoyment.
- Educate yourself. Get a good understanding of your body and how and what food and exercise effect.
- Biggest thing of all – find something that drives you to strive. Without that it’ll be really hard. Get an emotional attachment to something that will get you out of bed. Make it something that really matters to help you through the bad days.
- Surround yourself with like minded people as much as possible.
