FROM A BMI OF 30 TO 20 IN 6 MONTHS!
Sam has had an issue with her weight for as long as she can remember. Although very fit and strong, her weight has always led her to believe that she was unable to lose weight, no matter what diets she tried.
For the past 9 months, I have coached Sam and directed her onto the right pathway with her exercise, sleep and eating habits.
The results have been outstanding and as a result, with a reduction of 10 on her BMI, Sam is the October client of the month.
GUT HEALTH & WHOLE GRAINS
The immediate action was to eliminate foods that were causing issues with Sam’s gut health. As a result, wheat was omitted from the diet.
Wheat has been associated with gut permeability due to the peptides in gluten, namely gliadin, which causes a variety of health issues. In addition, wheat has a high glycemic index rating which is bad news for maintaining a healthy weight.
Sam’s diet consisted of a high percentage of whole grains including wheat. As she ate lots of whole grain carbohydrates and exercised, she was demoralised and disillusioned as her weight steadily increased over the years believing that her diet was good.
DIET
After 1 week of going wheat free and reducing her intake of other grains, Sam’s body weight started to reduce. In addition, her energy levels increased and she no longer had bloating or stomach pains after eating. There was no mention of calorie restrictions.
Additional organic protein and healthy fats were added to her diet. Sam consumed small portions of brown and wild rice and gluten free porridge for her macronutrient allowance of carbohydrates plus increasing her intake of fresh organic vegetables.
Sam is a Pescatarian which helps with the protein intake. Consideration was given to limit the days of fish consumed due to heavy metal toxicity found in large wild fish. I introduced supplements to help her obtain enough Omega 3 fatty acids to ensure good health.
The elimination of wheat was extended to all gluten free wheat products.
FITNESS
Sam’s fitness regime was revamped. Her programme was unbalanced and heavily influenced by long cardio workouts. These long workouts consumed large amounts of time during the week, making her tired and finding exercise stressful to fit in.
We introduced some resistance training plus high intensity interval workouts with boxing and tabata training. This helped to stimulate her body to build muscle, use up excess fat stores and create a positive training mindset where there was a new workout every time she trained. Sam did revisit some of the workouts to test her fitness and strength levels. This was to show progression and encouraged her to persevere with the programme.
CIRCADIUM RHYTHM
Next area of development was to ensure that Sam structured her day of eating and sleeping.
Firstly, Sam started intermittent fasting. She began with a 12 hour fast and she built up to 14 hours over the course of 2 months. Sam currently fasts daily between 14 and 16 hours.
There are many reasons why fasting is good for your health. Fasting allows your digestive system a rest. The body undergoes stress when digesting food and extracting the nutrients. This causes oxidation and free radical damage and unnecessary prolonged periods of eating raises insulin levels in the blood. As a result, fasting may help with the prevention of Type 2 Diabetes. It also means you consume fewer calories through the day enabling a calorie reduction. Intermittent Fasting has shown to reduce inflammation in the body. It improves metabolic features that develops brain health. It may also help prevent Alzheimer’s Disease and extend your life span.
I also looked at Sam’s sleeping patterns which had been erratic for as long as she could remember. I introduced some guidelines to help her sleep. As well as intermittent fasting, her last intake of food and drink was to be consumed by 8pm every night. Sam was asked to go to bed at a similar time and not to consume any caffeinated drinks after 1pm including dark chocolate.
All lights were to be dimmed in the evening with no overhead lighting and to have a bedroom free of phones, tablets, tv’s and computers.
Wifi was to be switched off at night to reduce any possible EMF effect on her sleep.
Sam now wakes up in the morning feeling refreshed. She has more energy throughout the day and is able to be more active and productive.
NEXT GOAL
Currently, Sam has no immediate goal. She is happy settling into her new healthy lifestyle which has seen her drop 25kgs in 6 months and enjoy her workouts.
Sam mainly exercises outside. She enjoys cycling and roller blading but has recently joined a local gym to develop her strength. The classes she attends are continue to keep her motivated and is currently considering a 10k fun run next September having never ran in her adulthood.
The only downside to Sam’s fun run idea is that I have agreed to run alongside for the duration.
Best get my running shoes out of the garage!
Well done Sam.