Today we chat to Veronica van den Heever who placed 1st in the Women’s Weight Loss Category of our Winter 2021 Sleekgeek 8-Week Transformation Challenge.
Give us a short history of your journey to health and fitness before the challenge.
In order to answer this, my second name should be “YO-YO” as it explains me for most of my life.
Although the past couple of years the weight increased slowly but surely mainly due to a low / no movement lifestyle and eating what ever I feel like, when ever I feel like it.
Medically, I was taking medicine for high blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetics. My doctor recommended that I see a dietician, and she set me goals of what she wants me to achieve. This was after the third check-up that my weight kept increasing.
What prompted you to join the Sleekgeek Transformation Challenge?
My sister, joined and did the 2020 Summer Challenge, and told me about it. Naturally, I was a bit weary of it, as my doctor recommended different path. My sister, then went one step further and for my birthday she entered me, as her buddy, for the 2021 New Year Challenge. At first, I thought our team (Thinit-to- winit) were totally nuts, with all the running, walking, exercises and healthy meals posts on our whatsapp group. Within 2 weeks, I started coming out off my shell and joined in the fun. I started walking and eating more healthy and placed in the top 50 for the New Years challenge. Directly afterwards I decided that I will continue my journey and entered the winter challenge, with the added responsibility as a co-team leader.
Give us a quick overview of the nutrition and eating plan that you followed during the challenge.
During the winter challenge I was extremely focused and strict with myself. Portion control and writing down everything I eat, was key, as I reviewed and tweaked it as the challenge continued.
I only bought healthy foods (green list) I like to eat, it included mainly unprocessed foods, although I allowed myself a couple of slightly less healthy items (orange and red list) as treats every week.
Over the weekends bulk prepared some cooked food for the coming week. It included food that are easy to heat up again, for when those food urges struck and an Americano or glass of water will not suffice.
The struggle for me is to eat slowly (still working on it), but I tried to eat at least one of each item per the healthy meal formula with every meal, some meals and days were easier than others.
The biggest success for me was that there was almost no unhealthy food in the house, and if I wanted to indulge in it, I had to go out and buy it. For example: I would walk to the shop instead of driving, and on route I would convince myself that I really don’t feel need the chocolate today and that strawberries will taste so much better, and I can have a more expensive chocolate on a later day.
Give us a quick overview of the training and exercise plan that you followed during the challenge.
Exercise has never been one off my strong points. I really don’t like doing it, but I do enjoy walking. It gives me time to get rid off all the cobwebs and think things through. My goal for the challenge was to walk at least 10,000 steps a day. As my health improved, and my heart rate come down and it became more difficult to get my heart rate going. I attempted running a bit, not my forte, my knees really do not like it. In the end, I challenged myself to walk at least an hour every day as fast as I can, improving my pace on a continuous basis. On the extremely cold days (and it included lockdown and rioting) indoor walking videos as well as Low impact Cardio workouts were great alternatives, to keep moving and stay warm.
If you could give 3 pieces of advice to future challengers, what would they be?
- Never give up, forget about what happened yesterday and focus on what you are doing TODAY !
- Just try and be 1% better everyday, it can be anything, like walking 10 steps further or eating one piece of chocolate less daily.
- Eat more non processed healthy foods YOU like to eat and experiment with food combinations and tastes.
Why should people enter the challenge?
Where do I start ?
Yes, it is only 56 day challenge, but it is 56 days where you lay the foundation of were you want to go health wise after the challenge.
The challenge daily journey lessons are not a 1 day thing for the challenge, it is lesson/habit to incorporate into your daily life, some days you will get everything right in perfect harmony and other days you may only get some of it right and it is OKAY !
The team spirit and support from the team, are incredible. You are surrounded virtually with a group of like minded people with similar goals. The team members encourages you to try something new, motivate you when you feel down / off and remind you to forget about that cheat meal and focus on the new day ahead of your. Without my team, family and friends my progress would not have even started, irrespective of the goals that my doctor have set for me.
Need to mention after my last check up, that (1) my doctor almost did not recognise me, (2) all 3 chronic conditions are within normal limits and my medication have been halved and I’m very close to reaching the goal weigh set for me.
The biggest reason to enter the challenge is to enter it for YOURSELF and no body else, although I had goals set for me by others, I had to find MY OWN GOALS, and create the building blocks that works for me. I’m still a work in progress, but I do have a bit more self confidence and I walk around with a smile on my face.
Want to be our next Success Story?
We run 3 challenges a year only – New Year, Winter and Summer.
Why can’t it be your chance to shine? Why can’t you be our next success story? Only one way to find out!
The Sleekgeek 8-Week Transformation Challenge will give you the 
focus, 
support, and 
tools that you need to stay on track and achieve amazing results.
The winners walk away with some incredible prizes worth R100,000!
You also get an accountability check-in system, brand new home workouts, nutrition plans, toolkits, printables, videos, email series, bonus resources, expert tips and more. – all online! You can find out more about how Sleekgeek’s 8-Week Transformation Challenge works over at www.sleekgeek.co.za/challenge
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