What is one of the first things most people do when they feel they need to lose some weight?
They join a gym. Or insert any other kind of fitness activity you like here.
Because exercise is what helps you to lose weight right?
Wrong.
Four weeks after a normal and healthy birth with my second child, I was given the go ahead to resume my usual exercise regime of spin classes, boot camps and weight training on the compound I lived on in Saudi Arabia.
And from this moment on, after my initial and immediate post labour weight loss, my weight steadily began to climb up to my highest weight ever 3.5 years later. This was when I finally decided to do something serious about it.
Even in the months prior to me staring this particular game plan, I was training way harder than I have in the last 18 months of my current body transformation. I even thought a self imposed 30 consecutive days of spin class challenge would shift some kilos but it didn’t at all. In fact in made me eat more, which set me back in my fat loss goals.
Ever heard these sayings? “You can’t outrun a bad diet” or “Abs are made in the kitchen”? It’s true! Fitness has its place in a healthy lifestyle, but not when you begin your weight loss journey. This is when it can be counter productive, with you working out and eating back your calories and then some!
It takes way too much exercise to work off that cookie we had with our morning coffee.
If you’ve had success with weight loss in the past when you have been exercising, it’s only because you had also made some dietary changes at the same time. Some of us find it more encouraging to stick to a healthier diet when we know how hard we worked out at the gym, but it’s not always the case as studies have proven that exercise can reduce self control too.
Robyn Law is an Australian living in the Middle East, raising her family abroad. Passionate about self-transformation and living “her best life!” Find her at robynjlaw.com