How I lost 10KG in 12 WEEKS and kept it off | 5 Simple Tips to Start!

This was me at my heaviest. I wasn't ever truly happy with the way I looked, but one day I didn't recognize my body. My usual sizes didn't fit me anymore, so I got more and more frustrated at myself for letting it get to this point. Fast forward and this is me today. 10 kilos lighter and I'm feeling the strongest and healthiest I've ever felt in my life. I think it's so important to look at why most diets fail rather than jumping straight into what exercises to do or meal planning for the week. Your experience may be different from mine, but I always failed my diets when I gave in to quote-unquote bad food like sugary snacks, bubble teas, chips, anything. When you indulge in bad food, usually it feels pretty good at first, but then it follows with this chain of emotions that you usually bring upon yourself like self-pity, guilt, disappointment and even self-forgiveness. When you start a diet, usually either consciously or subconsciously, you have an idea of what foods you should be saying no to and usually those are the foods that you really enjoy. So a diet for me was always a constant test of my willpower to not eat those delicious foods, but the longer I go without the food that makes me happy, the less happy I'll feel for one. Maybe one day I will crave it a lot and then give in, therefore failing my diet. You get the wave of emotions, the cycle repeats, but then your patience starts to run thin for yourself. So how do we stop food from calling our name on our weakest day? Since when did food become a hundred percent no bad food and a hundred percent food straight from the ground? How do we not get tempted by all the food around us? Now that I'm on the other side, I recognize how those internal conversations kept me and potentially many others in a very vicious loop. So in today's video, I'm going to be sharing my five tips to ease yourself into your weight loss journey and lead this healthy and balanced lifestyle that everybody talks about. One of the biggest challenges that I didn't know I needed to face at the start of this weight loss journey is actually emotional eating. I tend to turn to food when I'm feeling stressed, accomplished, in need of comfort, or even when I'm bored. And while there's nothing inherently wrong with enjoying food, it can become a problem when it becomes a coping mechanism. Breaking out of this has been difficult and it's taken a lot of mental fortitude to overcome my dependence on food to feel good. I thought that if I could stop the cycle of cravings and just break that entirely, then maybe I can actually be successful at my diet for once. And that's when I discovered this book by Janine Roth. Breaking Free From Emotional Eating contains practical tips and strategies for overcoming emotional eating. And I love that the tips are all taught through the experiences and reflections of people who are also going through the same struggles. One of the most important things I've learned is to stop using food as a reward. Instead of celebrating a productive day at work with a massive meal or a sugary snack, I try to find other ways of rewarding myself, like through giving myself the free time to do anything that I wanted, even if it's doomscrolling, even if it's reading a book, as long as it's not food-related. Something else I've realized is that if I stop putting my favorite foods on a pedestal, I actually end up thinking about it less and therefore craving it less. Don't think about elephants. What are you thinking about? Elephants. Another strategy has been to practice mindfulness and self-awareness when it comes to my eating habits and my emotions. When I turn to food for comfort, I just like to take a moment and pause to check in with myself. Am I really hungry or am I feeling stressed? If it's the latter, then I try to find other ways to cope, like journaling, maybe that will help, or even talking to my partner about how I'm feeling. This book really pulled me out of this tunnel vision with food and I started to realize just really how manipulative it can be. It's time to get started without those cravings holding you back. Links down below, you won't regret it. If you want to learn more about how your body stores fat and other tips for accelerating your weight loss goals, then keep on watching. When dieting, I always focus on cutting calories and increasing my cardio. But I realized that there's another really important factor to consider, and that is insulin. Insulin is a hormone that helps our bodies to store energy from the food that we eat. When we eat, our bodies release insulin to help move that energy into our cells. But if our bodies are constantly bombarded with food, our insulin levels can remain elevated, which can make it harder for us to burn fat or enter fat burning zone. Insulin also spikes depending on what types of foods you eat. So instead of opting for a carb-heavy meal that can spike your insulin and then cause a sugar crash or a food coma, try and find nutrient-dense foods that will keep your insulin low and steady. To be honest, I was never really one for diets, and the word diet can mean so many things nowadays. If you look it up on Google, you'll find two meanings. One refers to the types of foods and drinks that a person consumes regularly, and the other refers to a temporary reduction of food and drink, usually for the purpose of losing weight. The idea of restricting myself and calorie counting just seems so exhausting for one and unsustainable. I just wanted to eat whatever I wanted and still be skinny. And that leads us to our next tip, which is intermittent fasting. I think some people might view intermittent fasting as some sort of diet that's on the same playing field as these diets, but it's more of a long-term diet that doesn't actually limit the amount of food or the types of foods that you can have. Instead, it's just a little bit more restrictive in terms of when you can eat. So if I can still have ice cream, bubble tea, and all those great things, but I just need to have them within a certain time of the day, then that's a pretty good trait. Anyway, so I gave it a go and I set my eating window between 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. every day. The idea is to limit the amount of time that your body is producing insulin. And to be honest, at first I was skeptical. After understanding a little bit more about insulin, it sort of makes sense to keep it around only for a portion of the day rather than sporadically throughout the day. By sticking to my eating window and allowing myself to eat whatever I wanted within that time frame, I found that I was able to satisfy my cravings in moderation without feeling deprived. And because I was only eating during a limited window of time, I found that I wasn't constantly thinking about food. Intermittent fasting has truly been a game-changer for me. You can eat the same thing, but if you just timed it differently, it could be the difference between you continuing to put on weight or losing weight. I would recommend starting off this journey with more of a stronger focus on the nutritional value of food rather than the numerical value of food, like through calories. You want to set yourself up for success. And while calorie counting is a very easy and common way of tracking the amount of food that you've had, I feel like it's quite easy to lose sight of what is actually good for your body. Not all calories are made equal. So it can be misleading if you just relied on the number to determine what you can and can't eat. Especially when we're busy and on the go, I feel like it's quite easy to lose sight and pick convenience over health. I still remember when I used to choose fast food for most meals, and I would still feel very good about it. It was a cheaper, faster, more convenient option, and it still fit within my calorie limit. So I convinced myself I was going to be losing weight even though I was eating KFC every day. But then I would experience all sorts of fatigue because the food I was eating wasn't nourishing my body. And that's why I would recommend starting off your journey with more of a focus on nutrition rather than calorie counting. It's more aligned with your long-term health goals anyway, and it's good to get some practice in for making those decisions. So that would look like paying more attention to things like fiber, protein, healthy fats, and generally making sure that you're getting a good balance of everything is much more sustainable and important for your long-term health. The great thing about this method is that it allows for so much flexibility and variety in your diet. You can still have fast food. Just have it in moderation. But more importantly, focus on things that will make you feel your best. Of course, this doesn't mean that calorie counting is not useful or that it doesn't work. It definitely works. I just don't think it's very suitable as a daily measure to maintain your health over the long term. Even for me, calorie counting put me into a scarcity mindset, and I started to make very poor decisions with my food. So I'd urge you to focus on what you're fueling your body with rather than calorie counting. One thing that has been key to my weight loss journey is the art of showing up and the power of a routine. When we make healthy habits part of our routine, it's more likely to stick with us over the long term. Of course, building a routine isn't easy. It takes time and effort to build new habits, and sometimes we're going to fall back onto our old patterns. And that's why I found this book, Atomic Habits by James Clear, to be incredibly helpful. Clear's approach to habit formation emphasizes the importance of small incremental changes that will add up over time. On days where going to the gym seems extremely far-fetched, just by simply putting on my leggings changes that from, I don't really feel like it today to I need to move my body. There's just something about outfits and how they can just really put you into another headspace. And then my next goal is to simply rock up to the gym. Just get there. That's my next goal. The point is to not look too far ahead. Just focus on what's next that will help you towards getting to where you need to be. Because when I look back, just a small habit like wearing leggings, it's the difference between going and not going to the gym, which is huge! Can you imagine the amount of progress you'll make to anything that you do if you just mastered the art of showing up and the power of a routine? And of course, there are still days where I slip up or fall off track, whether it's starting my day with OxyShred or putting on my leggings, maybe even preparing my leggings the night before or prioritizing sleep. These habits have become an integral part of my daily routine and setting myself up for making better decisions. I hope that these tips are helpful for you and that you feel inspired and motivated for your weight loss journey. It will take some time, but if you implement each of these steps and get good at them, you're moving forward with the best mindset possible and the best environment for you to thrive without your cravings holding you back. I'd also really love to know your thoughts on my tips. Did you learn anything new? Are you already implementing any of these? I'd love to know down in the comment box below. I will be checking them out. And thank you so much for watching. I'll see you in my next one. If you enjoyed today's video, then you won't want to miss this one.