Yes, that’s right, I said it. All of the above may sound strange as most women right now will be thinking about ‘New Year, New me’, going on diets, and losing weight. Well, let me break it down for you simply.

SACK THE WORD DIET

To me, the word DIET should be banned! That one little word has too many negative thoughts and connotations around it. If you tell yourself you are on a diet, how does it make you feel? Restricted as when you want something you have told yourself you can’t have it. Deflated as you feel like you can’t enjoy a meal out? (when we could go out) – basically, the list is endless. How many times do you get annoyed ‘ I can’t have that as I’m on a diet’………..what a load of tosh! or EVEN WORSE! I’m on a diet and still not losing weight – there is something wrong with me! Drone, I hear that all the time.

The flip side isn’t great either. How many of you stress out because you are not on a diet. You feel like you don’t know where to turn. “I don’t know what to do so I need to go on a diet”. “I’m putting on weight because I’m not on a diet”. This one word either has us feeling like crap because you’re on it and feeling restricted or crap because you don’t know what to do. BAN IT, CHUCK IT OUT YOUR VOCAB – IT’S A SHIT WORD THAT DOESN’T HELP ANY OF US – And don’t even get me started when you have told your friends you are on a “diet” and they give you the eye-roll when you have a biscuit! Do one Skinny Sally with your judgy eyes!

So instead of the word diet – It is all about MAKING BETTER CHOICES. Use the 80% rule. 80% of the time make choices to eat foods that are nutritious and going to help towards your goals and 20% of the time you can choose to eat/drink what you bloody want. Just make sure not to overindulge in these types of foods as too much and they will hinder your progress. At the end of the day who cares if you eat cake – “let the gal eat cake if she wants to!” – Don’t get too excited – be mindful of the cake, I mean don’t go eating it every day. Whack that cake in your weekly “20% of non-nutritious foods” and bloody enjoy it guilt-free.  Be careful though – If you are not reaching your goals then you have probably underestimated your 20% (did you know that a third of us underestimate calorie intake on a daily basis by up to 1000 calories!) so the following week be more mindful – cut that piece of cake in half! GOT IT?

DON’T WISH TO LOSE WEIGHT

Say What? Yes, you heard – why are so many of us trying to ‘lose weight’? – and I get it, it is a term that has been drummed into so many of us. If you look at yourself in the mirror, how often have said you want to lose weight – but, just think about it – what is weight? I’ll tell you. Weight is a culmination of fat, water, muscle mass, and bone density. 

So many ‘diets’ focus on weight loss – ‘come and do my shitty plan for 30 days and lose weight’, erm sod off – what are you going to tell me to do? weigh out all my food and count 12 almonds to snack on? Ain’t nobody got time for that! Or tell me to eat 1000 calories (because clearly everyone loses weight on the same amount of calories, I think not, dumb ass) and don’t eat carbs? What a load of crap.  I could go on and on about this but basically, carbs retain a lot of water in your body so reducing the amount you eat within the first week-two weeks you will see a ‘weight loss’ but what you have done is lost mainly water – hence why after the initial loss you find it harder. Many restricted diets also tell you to not exercise – this is because they don’t give you enough energy to be able to exercise without the side effects of feeling dizzy, fainting. Over a period of time, these shitty diets are making you lose muscle mass, another HUGE factor in “weight loss”. Research has shown that losing weight too fast or not taking in enough calories for your body results in more muscle loss than fat loss. The more muscle we lose, the slower our metabolism becomes, the more tired we get and not to mention weaker – I don’t understand why anyone would want to be skinny, weak, and hungry?

In simple terms instead of ‘losing weight’ what you want to focus on doing is converting your fat into muscle, and making yourself feel strong and confident.

How do we do this? Eat nutritious food, watch your sugar intake, take in enough calories to give you the energy your body needs for your daily activity, focus on increasing your protein levels, (protein is the best source at building muscles) eat carbohydrates to give you energy, drink plenty of water and my all-time fave – lift weights!!! Lifting weights mixed with the right body exercise will be key to shaping you, making you feel fabulous, and helping you to build muscle, shape your figure, and making you feel strong and confident from within.

My body shaping strength classes have seen INSANE results so take the advice above and then come and join me LIVE SIX DAYS a week to lift weights and feel fabulous! Check out the link below and join me! I am not going to lie though, the classes are tough – but no-one achieved their goals properly without hard graft, dedication, and being pushed out of their comfort zone.

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE AND JOIN TODAY

Clo x

Oh and one last piece of advice – Don’t go setting yourself New Years resolutions you can’t stick too, or only stick at for a few weeks. If you don’t stick to them you only feel guilty and mad, and let’s face it – us women have enough emotions spinning in our heads at the best of times. Don’t add another shameful one to the mix! Just moderate and enjoy x