My name is Gizelle and I am 26 years old. Married to the most supportive husband and mother of a 7year old boy who steals my heart every day.
My journey isn’t really something out of the ordinary as my intention was never to lose weight but to feel better physically, mentally but most importantly emotionally.
I have always been a confident person regardless of what I weigh and how I felt in my clothes, I had self-love (okay, I thought I did) but being an emotional eater, you begin to realise that you were in actual fact never as confident as you thought you were and never loved yourself for who you are.
I hate a scale, I always did and always will. I never weighed myself because I thought ‘okay this is how you will be for the rest of your life, you are big-boned Gizelle’. I was just actually just tall because 1. Nobody is big boned 2. Only you can make a change for you.
Throughout my high school and primary school years and growing up around my family, I was never bullied about my weight but I would often be called ‘lekker dik’, or ‘you actually pretty for a big girl’. What’s a big girl I thought? Oh, probably the way I look is a big girl but in my heart I always felt small when hearing this.
The day I felt fat
April 2016, my wedding day my husband whispered in my ear when he met me half way down the aisle ‘oh you are so beautiful’. I cried, I held back the tears, but I cried, knowing that he wasn’t aware how big and how fat I felt in that wedding dress, I didn’t feel pretty, He would always tell me I’m so beautiful, even on my bad days.
A lot happened a few months leading up to my wedding and that lead me to eat, anything and everything. Oh did I mention I’m an emotional eater, when I’m sad I eat, when I cry, I eat, when I’m moody, I eat. It makes me feel better, happier, until I have to try on new clothes, it takes me down emotional lane 1000kmh.
Time for change
December 2016, we took a pledge to join the gym, I was at the gym before, but with the myth of, ‘hey, let’s eat this, we can gym it off tomorrow’ or ‘hey, you lost a kg, eat cake :)’, and because of this, I never really lost the weight I intended to before.
I have been on many supplements, meal replacements, all the quick hits with the hope to lose weight FAST. It didn’t work, it never works that way, nothing worth having comes easy.
No quick fixes
So from December 2016, I gymed, and gymed, and changed my eating habits, did Banting the first 4 months and that’s where I lost most of my water weight. This time working out was different, I was more focused, I was stable in my relationship, my job, my career and everything just felt like a breeze, it was easy for me to eat healthy because I loved life, I suddenly loved healthy food.
From spinning classes, to weight lifting, to Zumba classes, I tried everything, and enjoyed everything. There is days I would be so excited to gym, I couldn’t wait to get home and into my gym wear.
From getting home from a night out partying at 3am, to getting up at 3am to prep for your first 21km half marathon now, (it was a breeze) a lot has changed. 5 November 2017 marked my 2 month of belonging to a running club.
After 6months, I stepped onto the scale, and saw that it hit 92kg. 92KG!!! from where, how, what, when. All this ran through my head, I was never aware of my weight, that same day, I went back to my health passport I found in a box at home, it was a wellness day at work we did in early December 2016, my weight at that time was 122kg.
I still cheat, okay not cheat, I’m not dieting, I changed my lifestyle and often enjoy a treat but differently to the way I would do it before!
Today, my current weight is 87kg. I’m quite a tall female.
Nothing worth having comes easy, so bite through the sticky times, slide through the good times, and appreciate the achievements, big or small!
My top tips
Some inspirational tips that kept me going and still motivated on this journey:
- Start. Start today. Even if it’s small changes, just start.
- On your bad days, remember the good ones.
- Mind over matter, when your body feels like you cannot conquer another workout, or eat another salad, train your mind.
- Do it for you. Only you are the boss of your body, so take good care of it and take control.
- Drink at least 3-4litres of water a day, set a reminder on your phone to drink.
- Do it to feel better, not only physically but mentally too.
- Satisfying your cravings doesn’t make you a failure. You are human.
- Compare pictures if the scale has become your monster.
My eating plan
Different plans work for different people but if you are curious my daily eating plan would look something like this:
Breakfast: 2 boiled eggs, cucumber, tomato/oats with no sugar, no butter. Very simple, yet so filling. 🙂 Oh, don’t forget your green tea and move away from those creamy coffees and Lattes.
Snack: apple pieces with some peanut butter or slices pineapple 🙂 my favorite. / 3 provita with fish paste
Lunch: chicken salad /tuna salad/ 2 slices of rye bread with avo and cucumber (green fruit and veggies are magic) / chicken and butternut lasagne (yes, carbs are not my enemy, it has to be controlled)
Green tea!
Snack: rice cakes / a boiled egg/ apple with peanut butter / home popped, plain popcorn.
Supper: steak/chicken/ tuna with veggies or salad
When you feel hungry during the day, that would be your stomach sending messages to your brain to snack unhealthy foods. In this case I would drink water!! Or, have green tea 🙂
Best of luck on your journey!
Gizelle.
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