HOW I LOST 5kg/11lb DURING LOCKDOWN

I FINALLY GOT MY ROUTINE RIGHT IN 5 WEEKS AND GOT MY BODY BACK!

The first few days of lockdown were a nightmare - I was getting tired and lazy. Taking midday naps with my nephew. Any excuse to not workout. I was feeling weak and tired, unable to get work done. It wasn't ideal that my lockdown started with 2 weeks of self-isolation either.

As teachers the one thing that massively changed for a lot of us when we started working from home was the lack of movement we were used to while teaching. Whether it be teaching a class of 30, running back and forth from the staffroom to photocopy or being on duty, teachers are always running around (well most of us!) so I was slowly losing out on the calories I was burning off on a daily basis as a teacher too.

So eventually I came to my senses. I woke up one morning and decided to start working out, change my diet and change my life..

Day 1 failed, I couldn't get myself to do everything in one day. So I decided to make slow changes. This brings me to my first rule in week 1..

1: INTRODUCE SMALL CHANGES TO YOUR DAILY ROUTINE

Since I couldn't get myself to do it all at once. I decided to start with one thing on day 1, once I'd mastered it I would move onto the next. I started with drinking 2 litres of water every day. This meant I had a bottle of water attached to me at all times.

Drinking water helps boost your metabolism, cleanse your body of waste, and acts as an appetite suppressant. I started off with gulping 1 litre before every meal. Drinking more water also helps your body stop retaining water, leading you to drop those extra pounds of water weight.

In addition to this I would start my day off with hot water with lemon and ginger. This one drink every morning proves to have several health benefits. The lemon helps as a detoxifying agent and has anti-inflammatory properties to help fight the common cold (perfect to keep Covid-19 away). Once I could do both of these things without fail, everyday, I moved onto introducing the next change to my daily routine...

2: INTERMITTENT FASTING

This was the best thing for me during lockdown. I'm sure a lot of you find that having access to food 24/7 was tough, especially if you're someone like me with no self-control. Intermittent fasting meant that I was limited to eating in an 8 hour period, which meant I was fasting for 16 hours. I started with my fast time being 7pm to 11am the next morning. Sometimes it shifted half an hour & it was a struggle to start off with. Eventually I was never hungry past 7pm and didn't feel hungry again until 12pm the next day. For people who find that they don't have time to make specific meals 3x a day - this would be the ideal option for a weight loss diet.

Intermittent fasting has several benefits not only to support weight and body fat loss, but it can also help with increasing fat burning and lowering blood insulin and sugar levels. I also felt an increase in energy, mental clarity and levels of concentration.

3: YOGA

You probably heard this before, and if you haven't I can say it with 100% certainty. YOGA is the best form of exercise for any man or woman to live a longer, healthier life. You can be a gym enthusiast or a workout god/goddess, but there is nothing like yoga to help you with grounding, toning and mental stability.

People associate yoga with meditation, and it isn't wrong to do so. But there are different types of yoga which can help with weight loss and toning as well as creating mental stability. Hot yoga is probably the most preferred form for weight loss. During lockdown it took me a while to start up, so during my 3rd week I decided to commit myself to 10 minutes a day - nothing more, nothing less - just 10 minutes at some point during the day.

I used an app called Down Dog Yoga app (see the logo for the image @downdog) for some consistency and started with intermediate level routines. A few weeks later I was doing advanced Hatha yoga for 20 minutes. Nowadays I've up'd my time to 30 minutes of Hatha yoga working on focused parts of my body, for example to reduce back fat and tone up my back muscles I chose the 'Chest and Shoulder Stretches' option, which had more of these stretches mixed into the routine. You can purchase a KG Physio Yoga mat off amazon for just £24.

4: MEAL REPLACEMENT SMOOTHIES & REPLACING CARBS

Even though my intermittent fasting combined with yoga was going well, I had to start making some changes to my diet during the 8 hours of eating - to see faster results. So week 4 I decided to replace one of my meals with a smoothie. I made this a breakfast smoothie with fruits and veggies, flax and chia seeds combined. This would be my pre or post workout smoothie in the morning (follow @thesmoothieguy on IG for detox and weight loss smoothie recipes).

Flax seeds (Organic Flax Seeds 1kg) are rich in omega-3 fatty acids and fibre, which have been shown to have many more potential health benefits. They can be used to improve digestive health, lower blood pressure and bad cholesterol, reduce the risk of cancer and may benefit people with diabetes. Chia seeds (Sevenhills Wholefoods Raw Chia Seeds 1kg) do have lots of fiber, because of this they promote a feeling of fullness, and so might prevent the overeating that contributes to weight gain. But not a lot of evidence to date supports the idea that downing chia seeds will slim your waistline.

At this point I also had to find ways to replace carbs in my meals. So I decided to have a carb cut off point during my 8-hour eating period later on in the day. I then decided to purchase Cous-cous, Quinoa and Bulghar Wheat (Duru Fine Bulgar 1kg) to replace my the rice that I had at lunch times. This meant I could still enjoy the Ceylon-Tamil vegetable curries which were high in nutrients and not have to worry about the carbs it came with from the white rice.

5: FIND YOUR WORKOUT BUDDY & INSTRUCTOR

At this point everything was going well and I needed to up my game by finding a workout to follow. Again I wasn't able to commit several hours a day to working out, but I wanted to start building my muscles and core strength even more. At this point I found Chloe Ting (@chloe_t) who is a 34-year old female instructor from Borneo. She created some great 10/15 minute workout routines on YouTube and I was confident that her routines also produced results because she had a Community Page with tonnes of satisfied people sharing their progress. I also use this amazing waist trainer WIN MAX Waist Trainer during my yoga and workout sessions - I feel like its helped me lose fat around my stomach area, which is a great feeling!

Even though I was on a good routine, there were days where I couldn't get myself to start the workout or I'd find a reason to not stick to routine. It was nice to have.a workout buddy to turn to at this point. On sunny days we'd I'd bike it down to the park and meet her for an hour long workout in the sun. The difference in working out outdoors is great! Try it one day if you haven't yet done so.

That was my first 5 weeks and now I'm continuing my routine with slight changes, but I've managed to lose 6-7kg since lockdown started and I feel so much more stronger, mentally and physically. I also went out of my way to purchase a RENPHO Bluetooth Body Fat Scale which help me track my body fat reduction throughout this period. I have one cheat night where I have some wine or comfort food, but this just means I'm a lot more strict on my fast days.

When I was unsure about how to start making changes, someone close to me sent me a link for a discussion hosted by 'Joe Rogan - How To Work Out Smarter' (recommend watching this fully), and he motivated me to start making these small changes everyday which eventually got me to where I am now. Best part is that these are changes I'll continue to stick to throughout my lifetime and I see no reason not to with all the health benefits it comes with

Remember, it all comes down to small wins everyday which means a lifestyle change and gradual success to achieve results!

If you're struggling to make changes I highly recommend trying this method of making small changes to your daily routine. If you need support or advice drop me a message. Equally if you have more ideas to share please subscribe & comment below. Good luck!