From a young age, I was blessed with an overactive thyroid (which impeded my health pretty badly) keeping me thin, allowing me to eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted.
It was when I was about 18 I got my first bout of Thyroiditis. After this, I realised I was actually putting on weight for the first time in my life. And after I had a kidney infection in late August 2011, this started to be more so.
In 3 years, I went from a (UK) size 6, to nearly 12. Considering I've -always- been tiny (I'm only 5ft1), this came as a huge shock to me.
Because of this, I was forced to rethink my lifestyle and the way I eat. The conversation popped up in the shout box the other day, and I had so much to say, so I figured I'd just dump it all here and answer questions as they come.
EXERCISE:
Now this is the obvious one. You need to lead at least a semi active lifestyle to lose weight. My preferred method of exercise is walking. It gets your heart pumping, burns calories, and you can do it with friends easily. I used to take evening walks across the town I lived in and back with a friend. We'd talk, laugh and it'd just generally be pretty nice.
You can obviously do harder exercise, but for anyone that doesn't usually undertake vigorous tasks, it could be a bit of a body shock. The main thing about dieting is moderation. And this is also true of exercising.
MEALS:
Before I go off on a rant about food itself, I'll talk a little about meals.
If you're having a meal with everything (meat, veg, staple food), the key thing to remember is portion size. I'm a massive carnivore, and that has been one of my downfalls when losing weight. But rather than having a meal that's say, 1/3 of the plate to each. Try having less meat and more vegetables. Staple foods are a huge part of any diet, but I found they helped me gain weight a lot easier, so be very careful of that.
Meal size is also important, but I eat a lot in general. Instead of having 3 large meals a day, I try to just have 5 smaller ones, spread throughout the day. Models often live like this.
I also replaced breakfast with a smoothie, which was amazing, really got me going in the mornings (due to the natural sugar being easier to digest than artificial ones), and made me feel a lot healthier in general. This isn't for everyone, but I'll throw it out there anyways. You can get a decent smoothie maker on amazon for about $35 USD.
FOOD:
The meals section was so large, as it's not so much what you eat, it's how much. Don't starve yourself by any means, but just make sure instead of troubling your body with 3 massive meals a day, have more smaller ones, more often.
Me and my family believe that animal fats are actually pretty good for you, but again moderation is key. The human body has evolved to eat animal fat, and deals with it itself, there's no need for you to go out of your way and remove as much as possible from the foods you eat.
Saying this, it's always a good idea to try and get reduced fat versions of food in general, everything in moderation.
I've found since moving back to my Dad's, that curries are excellent for weight loss. They're pretty light, and generally quite filling if you use the right ingredients.
If you need to bulk up a meal without say, having a massive portion of rice or a jacket potato, try just frying up a squash in a little butter and dunking that with it. Squash is pretty tasteless and easy to digest.
SNACKING:
This is something I've struggled with a lot. I've tried to keep to one rule though: If I need to snack, I'll have a cracker, a piece of toast, or something like that. Fibre is excellent for snacking, so anything wholegrain is always a good way to go. Many people recommend celery, but I've gotta say I'm not a fan, generally anything low fat, high in fibre is a good way to go.
EATING:
Here's a key one, chew your food. I mean really mash it up. Not only does it make it easier to digest, it also means you take longer eating, as well as fill up more.
Eat slowly, there's no rush, enjoy your food, taste it. The human body generally reflexes to make you feel full after 20 minutes of eating anyway. Make sure you have a glass of water or something when you eat, as your body isn't as good as you think it is, sometimes it can confuse hunger and thirst, so just be careful.
If you slip up, don't beat yourself up about it, it happens.
So yeah, I hope this wasn't too hard for you all to read, if you have any questions, just post them here and I'll try to reply best as I can!!
It was when I was about 18 I got my first bout of Thyroiditis. After this, I realised I was actually putting on weight for the first time in my life. And after I had a kidney infection in late August 2011, this started to be more so.
In 3 years, I went from a (UK) size 6, to nearly 12. Considering I've -always- been tiny (I'm only 5ft1), this came as a huge shock to me.
Because of this, I was forced to rethink my lifestyle and the way I eat. The conversation popped up in the shout box the other day, and I had so much to say, so I figured I'd just dump it all here and answer questions as they come.
EXERCISE:
Now this is the obvious one. You need to lead at least a semi active lifestyle to lose weight. My preferred method of exercise is walking. It gets your heart pumping, burns calories, and you can do it with friends easily. I used to take evening walks across the town I lived in and back with a friend. We'd talk, laugh and it'd just generally be pretty nice.
You can obviously do harder exercise, but for anyone that doesn't usually undertake vigorous tasks, it could be a bit of a body shock. The main thing about dieting is moderation. And this is also true of exercising.
MEALS:
Before I go off on a rant about food itself, I'll talk a little about meals.
If you're having a meal with everything (meat, veg, staple food), the key thing to remember is portion size. I'm a massive carnivore, and that has been one of my downfalls when losing weight. But rather than having a meal that's say, 1/3 of the plate to each. Try having less meat and more vegetables. Staple foods are a huge part of any diet, but I found they helped me gain weight a lot easier, so be very careful of that.
Meal size is also important, but I eat a lot in general. Instead of having 3 large meals a day, I try to just have 5 smaller ones, spread throughout the day. Models often live like this.
I also replaced breakfast with a smoothie, which was amazing, really got me going in the mornings (due to the natural sugar being easier to digest than artificial ones), and made me feel a lot healthier in general. This isn't for everyone, but I'll throw it out there anyways. You can get a decent smoothie maker on amazon for about $35 USD.
FOOD:
The meals section was so large, as it's not so much what you eat, it's how much. Don't starve yourself by any means, but just make sure instead of troubling your body with 3 massive meals a day, have more smaller ones, more often.
Me and my family believe that animal fats are actually pretty good for you, but again moderation is key. The human body has evolved to eat animal fat, and deals with it itself, there's no need for you to go out of your way and remove as much as possible from the foods you eat.
Saying this, it's always a good idea to try and get reduced fat versions of food in general, everything in moderation.
I've found since moving back to my Dad's, that curries are excellent for weight loss. They're pretty light, and generally quite filling if you use the right ingredients.
If you need to bulk up a meal without say, having a massive portion of rice or a jacket potato, try just frying up a squash in a little butter and dunking that with it. Squash is pretty tasteless and easy to digest.
SNACKING:
This is something I've struggled with a lot. I've tried to keep to one rule though: If I need to snack, I'll have a cracker, a piece of toast, or something like that. Fibre is excellent for snacking, so anything wholegrain is always a good way to go. Many people recommend celery, but I've gotta say I'm not a fan, generally anything low fat, high in fibre is a good way to go.
EATING:
Here's a key one, chew your food. I mean really mash it up. Not only does it make it easier to digest, it also means you take longer eating, as well as fill up more.
Eat slowly, there's no rush, enjoy your food, taste it. The human body generally reflexes to make you feel full after 20 minutes of eating anyway. Make sure you have a glass of water or something when you eat, as your body isn't as good as you think it is, sometimes it can confuse hunger and thirst, so just be careful.
If you slip up, don't beat yourself up about it, it happens.
So yeah, I hope this wasn't too hard for you all to read, if you have any questions, just post them here and I'll try to reply best as I can!!
So uh. I write
