Lauren’s spectacular 15kg BeachFit journey! #114
“It’s now been 12 months since I started my #beachfit journey. I have completed both the #noexcuses and #nolimits with great success, and have also adapted the principals I learnt throughout both programs into my everyday life.
When I started my journey , I was borderline 80kg. Initially, my motivation was superficial – I was tired of being the ‘frumpy’ one at the office and hiding behind purposefully loose fitting pants. I also had a family wedding to attend in October, and wanted to be able to wear a nice dress on the day. So my end goal, I thought, was to just look ‘good’. I believed I was pretty fit and pretty healthy already and that I just had a couple of kilos to loose.
It only took a few days for me to realise that my motivation to lose weight was so much more than to improve how I looked on the outside. I had a lot of improvement to do internally, too.
I’m a regular gym-goer and have been since my teens, but I had begun treating my workouts as ‘punishment’ for eating crappy food or drinking too much wine the night before. On weekends particularly, I was overexercising and convinced myself it was fine to be exhausted all the time. I wasn’t seeing that skipping breakfast most days, eating whatever-I-could-find lunch on the run, and having huge disproportionate meals at dinner was actually making me put on weight. It was a vicious cycle and all I ever thought about was food, and how I could justify then counteract eating the next bag lollies.
It was a difficult moment for me on the program when I realised I hated my body and was starting to hate myself as a person too.
The #beachfit lifestyle has given me far more of a reward than just losing weight. I eat more frequently (I actually eat more now, than I did prior to beginning the program) and also understand portion sizes. I understand the importance of keeping hydrated. I am no longer intimidated by the weights room at the gym – in fact I spend most of my time in there. I have learnt to enjoy my workouts and have fun with them. I am braver with kitchen experiments and am not scared to cook from scratch. I don’t see food as a ‘reward’ now for doing something good, and I also don’t see it as ‘comfort’ when I’m having a challenging mental moment – I see it as fuel, petrol, and something to be enjoyed and appreciated wherever possible.
The #beachfit approach has taught me to respect my body, respect my mind, set short and long term goals for myself and open my mind to the fact that good food/good exercise are just the foundations for enjoying life. I’ve learnt many powerful life tools that I wish I’d known about (or been more open to) earlier in life. But perhaps we don’t learn these things until we’re ‘ready’ either.
I am so proud of the fitness and physical/mental health improvements I have achieved since starting the program. The weight loss (15 kilos to date) is just a bonus.
Thank you for popping up on my Facebook newsfeed when you did, you’ve honestly changed my life Kim.
Loz xxx”
