I’m not saying this is a magical cure that will make you drop weight within a couple of days, maybe not even in a couple of weeks, but you WILL feel better, and you WILL look fitter if you follow all or even some of these. I’m not trying to push all this information on you, but I do have a lot of people asking me, so I thought I’d make you guys a list. Remember to be consistent this isn’t a one week mission.
Lift weights, I used to do Spinning, 30 minute abs classes, step and strength classes followed by working out with light weights on machines. I could even run 10km/h on the treadmill for 60 minutes. I would switch this around and stay in the gym for hours, without really seeing much result. I mean, yes I did tighten up, and yes my conditioning become a lot better, but it took me months to really see any result and it was minimal. Then, I started doing heavy weights after moving to Thailand. After around two months, I started seeing a body I had never seen before. Visible muscles and I was stronger than ever. This was so new and exciting and it soon became a lifestyle. I know it’s hard to get started but if you want someone to kick your butt in the beginning, Thailand has many affordable options for a private trainer. I also started up with one, using Bodycore Thailand. They have a 10 session deal, and definitely know what they are talking about.
Green tea in the morning, why? Read my last blog post about the health benefits of green tea.
Cut the alcohol When I first moved to Thailand I moved into a house with a bunch on 18-20 year old girls, all European and Scandinavian luk kruengs and we would party around 3 days a week. We were young ok… don’t blame us. I would still go to the gym and train with my trainer after… luckily he would cut me some slack and we started around 2 pm so this wasn’t a problem. But I could have definitely progressed a lot more both aesthetically and strength wise if I didn’t. Now that I drink maybe every second week or less, I’m definitely seeing more results and all in all feel a lot better. I hate being hung over, it ruins me for DAYS. I live with this Norwegian rule in my head that always makes me go overboard when I drink, it goes something along the lines of it being a waste to drink unless you’re getting wasted.
Count your calories!!! This one is so important, and is enough to already start seeing a huge difference. I know it’s boring and it takes time, but really, you will find it worth it. I’m not saying that this is something you should do everyday for the rest of your life because I sure know that I won’t, but, while you are trying to get your dream body for the beach or removing those few inches on your waist that came with the everyday binge of pizza and candies (we’ve all been there…)then you have to. It’s so easy to think that you are eating healthy or the right amount of calories, but you will be pretty shocked once you try counting. It’s always either too much or too little.There are also different ratios of carbs, fat and proteins you can follow and these are great to follow while counting calories. I use this amazing app called Myfitnesspal and it’s so easy to put your daily intake on it.You could estimate too, but it’s better to actually use a scale. Who knows exactly how 100 grams of chicken after it’s cooked looks like? Unless you’ve been counting earlier. After a while you kind of get the hang of it.. I also use this app by my old trainer Vishal, called Cals & macros and it’s just perfect for calculating how much you should eat to maintain, gain or for weight loss. You should use this app (or something similar) to estimate what you need to consume, otherwise you are going to put a ridiculously low number and lose lots of weight in a couple of days, just to gain it again in a second. I’ve lost 3kgs in around 4 weeks of cutting, and I haven’t felt hungry or sad at all about my eating. I’ve just cut the crap and substituted it with proper food instead. Again remember to be consistent. You can’t just do this for a week and then start eating your maintenance calories. You will most likely gain the weight back this way.
Cook at home. It’s so much easier to count calories when you cook at home. You have to count in the fats and added fried stuff into the equation as well and I find it hard when a restaurant cooks it. It’s totally fine to eat out as well, don’t get sad. It’s just easier to drop weight knowing what goes in. Otherwise, if you don’t mind spending some extra money and want your meals planned and calories counted, use Healthbox then there’s no excuse! I found that it saved me lots of time.
High protein diet, I always make sure to get lots of protein, I eat around 1+g pr lbs of bodyweight. This might just be me, but I feel like my body is a lot firmer with enough protein intake. I’ve tried working out without the protein, and I feel my body gets soggy. I use the Thai brand Dymatize, and can recommend the whey strawberry flavour. I’ve recently tried out MusclePharm Chocolate peanut butter as well, and this is now one of my favourites.
Move around. Download a workout app. For those days you can’t be bothered to hit the gym, or is too busy with work, or even if you want an extra workout on top of your workout, tabata is amazing. It only takes around 4 minutes of your time, and makes you pretty tired. Me and Tom tries to do Tabata together as often as we can as a little extra workout or when we think we have over eaten, hehe. I also just downloaded this app called Seven, it’s free and gives you a pretty good seven minute home workout that you can easily do if you have a yoga mat and a chair. It gets easy after a while but then you can just add weights. You can also buy more workout programs from them, but I thought 2,5 usd is a bit harsh…
Eat salads. You can eat SO much salad and it still won’t be much over 100 calories. I love to add crispy salad, tomatoes, red onions, corn and bell pepper. You can top it with chicken breast to get your daily protein intake. But don’t be one of those idiots who puts fried chicken, or lots of cheese or dressing on the salad. If you do have to add cheese to be able to eat the salad, make sure you weigh it. If you don’t bother weighing it all the time, just find out how much is in one tbsp. I got one from Emborg with the lowest amount of calories possible and I still can’t put more than 20 grams in the salad, if I want my calories to be right. I’m not saying you can’t eat cheese, just eat it in moderation. Otherwise you could have eaten pretty much anything else and had the salad on the side. I do want to add one thing though, I find it ridiculous how all these products with lower calories are so expensive. If I wasn’t on a diet I would choose the normal option, not because I think it tastes better, but because I don’t want to pay double the price unless I absolutely have to. Talk about trying to help people out…
Buy healthy snacks. Before I would always snack on cookies and chips, I love chips, after my one week exchange program in Riga, I was called the snack girl, that’s how bad it is. I know I have to work extra hard if I want to eat that bag of chips, because I know, it WILL be a whole bag once I get started. If you do get hungry throughout the day, get carrots with dip, you can use greek yogurt and powder, or even low-fat sour cream if the rest of your day wasn’t high on fats. Fruits and berries are also delicious and high on vitamins and antioxidants, and so easy for us here in Thailand to find. Another snack I usually have and that I get full on is 0% fat yoghurt and oats. It’s super delicious. I use the yoghurt from Meiji, available at every seven eleven. Almonds is also a great substitute for chips, but trying to lose weight, you gotta be careful as they are really high on fats and calories.
Actually follow this. Don’t follow it and then add some unhealthy stuff on the side, that doesn’t help. I used to get a healthbox meal plan where I had everything counted for and I had someone ask me “is it guaranteed weight loss” I mean, it’s not going to happen within one day, but yes, you will lose weights if you cut your calories to the right amount for weight loss and stick to that. It’s not going to help you if you cheat yourself and have the healthy meals PLUS a bag of chips or a burger at McDonald’s. I get so annoyed at people that say they eat so little but still gain so much, No you don’t eat too little. It’s impossible that you keep gaining weight if you under eat. Just think about it. It might be that your portions are small, but the food you choose is sky-high in calories… or you’re just fooling yourself.
Will you be joining me to get your dream body? I’m only on it until the 20th of September, then I’m off to a 3 week binge in the US and Europe. Hopefully I’ll find a gym here… or I’ll be back as a lump and will need you guys to lecture me.
-A
