The Shrinking Wife's Tips For Staying Motivated

Cynara aka 'The Shrinking Wife' has lost 11.4kgs in 11 weeks so far!*

When Rev asked me to guest blog for Revs Fitness I was pretty honoured and also wondering what in the world will I write about – what is it that I have to share about my journey that could be relevant or helpful for others who need to or want to lose large numbers of kilos? 

Well let’s start at the beginning. I have been a YO-YO-er since I was 17.  Gaining and losing weight over and over again, never losing everything that I gained.  It only got worse after kids until last summer I hit a maximum of 108.9kg.  Life was about covering up, about hiding away and not drawing attention to myself.  I had tried and failed at every diet program out there.  At the end of the day I just didn’t have the ability to control my will power over food – I was a food addict. 

​This year (Feb 2016) I chose to take drastic measures to stop this cycle and overcome the addiction for once and for all and had the gastric sleeve surgery.

Now some may think of this as an easy way out but I am here to tell you it is just a tool just like any other diet and exercise program this tool isn’t designed to do the work for you – you have to work the tool.  Yes, initially people who have been sleeved lose massive amounts of weight however if the core issues aren’t addressed after 6-12 months sleevers are able to start gaining the weight back by abusing the sleeve or not exercising. 

As soon as my surgeon gave me the all clear one week after surgery I started walking 3kms 4-5 times a week.  As soon as he gave me the all clear to exercise more rigorously at 3 months I signed up to the 6 week challenge with Revs Fitness.  As soon as Revel checked in with me around 4-5 weeks of the challenge I signed up for 12 months worth of training.  Why? Why did I make that jump from 6 weeks to 12 months so easily – because I know I have to. 

After having the sleeve done I know I can lose bulk weight but I also know losing weight isn’t the only thing you need to look good.  Properly defined muscle tone is important to getting your sexy back. How else are you really going to have killer curves?  I could lose the weight without exercise but I would have been saggy skin and bones – that’s not the look I am after. 

Most people don’t think about signing up to outdoor group training at the end of Autumn and then train throughout winter outdoors and yes even I was thinking I was crazy.  What I was looking for was a connection with a trainer – I didn’t want to just go to a gym and be a number.  I needed someone to notice if I was turning up, pushing me harder to correct my form or go deeper because they know I can push further and I found that with Revel. 

In the last 11 weeks I have lost 11.4kg, (I have lost 34.4kg since the very start of this journey) but better than the number on the scales I have seen massive changes to my entire shape, my waist has come in significantly, my back muscles are becoming defined and my legs have completely changed shape with all the toning and cardio intervals. 

So what are my biggest tips to staying motivated and achieving your goals?

1. Understand your WHY – Why do you want to lose weight, tone up or be fitter.  For years I wasn’t motivated because I felt the reason I had to lose weight was society had labelled me as fat – I had not made that transition to actually want to do it for me.  Once I discovered my WHY everything has flowed a lot better.
2. Make exercise fit into your schedule not the other way around.  Assess your situation and look for a trainer that fits into your life.  I knew I could work out in the evenings or early mornings. What I loved about Revs Fitness is that there were multiple class times to choose from (sure gyms have group fitness too but I didn’t always want to do Body Attack or Body Balance or see a different trainer each time that had no invested interest in me) I love HITT Training and with Rev I can do 4-6 HITT Training sessions a week!
3. Work out what you want to achieve each week as a minimum.  As a minimum I want to achieve 4 workouts.  At a maximum I would like to do 6 and a home workout/run.  This way if I miss one workout I don’t feel like a failure because I have still achieved my minimum goal set for each week.
4. Find a healthy balanced attitude to food.  Understand portion control – ok ok I know this is a lot easier for me now but there is still times I feel my food addiction come back with my food choices.  Portion control in today’s society where dining out requires finishing a meal that could easily feed you for several nights.  I use a portion control bowl and plate now to serve up my daily meals.  This helps drill in the visual of how big my meals should be – which then is ingrained into my mind when we go out for dinner. 
5. Do anything you can to make things easier for you.  Layout your exercise gear the night before, set your alarm a little earlier to give you enough time to wake up, arrive at class 15 minutes early to make sure you are relaxed and focused on what you need to do.  I make sure my exercise clothes are washed very regularly and before I go to bed everything is ready to go.  My alarm goes off at 5.30am for morning classes, I leave home just after 6am and yes I get to class too early but if I leave it too long I may just end up back in bed because I have had too much time to think about it and talk myself out of going.  So just get up, get ready and get in the car before you have a chance to think!

Hopefully you have found one thing that has resonated with you.  If you are looking to start your journey focus on doing one new thing, build yourself up to do it well then add another goal  i.e if you don’t feel you can make a full lifestyle change start with one thing.  Go along to 3 fitness classes per week and focus just on that, then once you have that mastered start by cutting out unnecessary calories out of your diet like soft drink, master that then add the next thing.  Small changes done daily will add up.

​At the end of the day believe in YOU and you CAN do anything.  ​

​Written by "The Shrinking Wife"

Follow her journey by liking her Facebook Page below

*Results will vary from person to person