How I’ve kept in shape over the years

in #health7 years ago (edited)

How I’ve kept in shape over the years

I can’t say I have ever lost a huge amount of weight ever in my life, so I won’t tell you my ‘weight loss success story’ because I have always been slim. I come across so many ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures of people who lost 20, 30 or more kilograms, and they get recognition and praise from everyone. They ask how they did it, what diet they follow. Since age 15 I have pretty much maintained the same weight, around 47kg. No one ever asked me how I maintain my weight. You can say it’s genetics for sure, but I wouldn’t look like this if I ate fast food all day long.

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Since my teenage years I have been conscious about my weight and scared of putting on weight. So I have been eating healthy (to the best of my knowledge at the time) ever since I remember. I was a vegetarian from age 16 to 30, mostly on a calorie restricting diet (not eating to full satiety). I decided to be a vegetarian not just because I thought it healthy but because I hated death and wanted nothing to do with it. I was convinced I would never go back to being a carnivore. What for? I didn’t need meat, my bloodwork was good and I was healthy. I also believed it was going to be good for me health-wise not to consume any meat or fish, and that I’d be able to maintain a slim figure easier eating mainly vegetables and fruits. There were times when I went overbroad a little, not eating almost anything for months on going too skinny. But I always got back to my normal shape after a while.

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I started running in my early 20s, doing up to 15 km regularly and winning a few half marathons but my knees took the toll and I had to stop. Then I did high intensity workouts (HIIT) at home, those helped me shape up and build some muscle. I followed YouTube workouts mostly by Zuzka Light and Shawn T. I did these every day for about an hour.
When I moved to England at 30 I became a vegan. I realized it’s not just meat consumption that hurts animals, but also eating dairy products. I read a lot about the subject, found research that said it was good for people to quit dairy and I went on with it for about 8 months. I lost weight, lost my monthly period, and I got weak. I was eating my usual volume but restricting all these food groups was obviously not working for me, however I kept it on until I went backpacking in Asia. Suddenly I didn’t have a choice, if I wanted to eat I couldn’t avoid meat. I remember my first bite into a meatball after 15 years, I though the world would fall apart or I would at least throw up but nothing happened. It wasn’t so bad. So I started eating meat again, and continued with it when I got back after 9 months of travel and I gained some strength.

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At age 32 I met my husband Peter and he introduced me to working out at the gym. My mind was set to hate it. I felt self-conscious at the gym, I didn’t know what all those big machines were for and everyone there was probably thinking: what is this skinny girl doing here, she hasn’t seen weights in her life. But I stuck to it, Peter showed me around, and I realized I enjoy it more than HIIT. It was more intense than HIIT and results were showing after just a few months. We went to the gym 5x a week rain or shine. I also became a personal trainer recently, completing a course with thetrainingroom.com and I am about to start coaching people.

I knew I needed protein for muscle growth, so I started eating protein powder. Sticking to the same schedule since then, I eat meat 1-2x a week and 2 scoops of protein powder a day and working out 5x a week with the occasional cardio session thrown in when I can’t do anything else because all my muscles hurt.
I feel and look my best now, at 35. Yes I am slim and petite, but I have muscles and I am strong. Working out has helped me be more confident in life. I still watch what I eat and I never ever eat junk food (that would undermine all the work I do at the gym), but I am happy with the way I look.

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I keep seeing questions like these online: Is this food fattening, does that food help you loose weight? If you want the truth, no food is fattening or slimming. You won’t magically loose weight if you eat a cucumber. Rather than asking questions of this sort and overcomplicating things, I follow these rules:

  • Quality: eat low carb healthy foods with high nutritional value. Watch the macronutrients; your meal should contain slow carbs rather quicks (no sugar/flour, junk food/drink), fats should be unsaturated (fish oils, olives, etc), and high quality proteins (grilled rather than processed meat)
  • Quantity: do not overeat, eat with modesty
  • Timing: don’t eat big dinners and no desserts
  • Sport: Do any sport you like regularly, and stick to it. But remember, your figure depends 80% on your diet and 20% on working out. I am not suggesting you shouldn’t workout, on the contrary, moving is essential, but the most important thing is to watch your food. You can workout all you want if you eat junk, or you can stay away from working out and eat healthy, either way you’re not going to see much improvement.
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You are strong woman

Yes I am! You can't really tell when you look at me, only when you see me at the gym working out

Now i'm following you to see this pretty and strong body @peterveronika

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Keep up the good work and original content, everyone appreciates it!

I don't get how you can have so many likes when you did everything wrong over 10 years and did not even exercise before. You definitely didn't know what it is to get in shape so your title 'How I’ve kept in shape over the years' is very bad choice. You might go to gym now and learn how to do it but you did not keep in shape over the years. You are just slim girl, that's it. We have very nice girls in Czech Republic and the problem is that slim girls boast above the fat girls. I do not like that. I guess you write a book now because you thing you are a master! Good luck

Thanks for reading my post! You get upvoted more if you promote your posts to increase visibility. Have a peek in our wallet and see how we promote ours.
As for the title of my post, I have kept in shape all my adult life with exercising - I ran a lot from my early 20s, then did HIIT as I mention in it, and with diet. There is nothing wrong with someone being a vegetarian (is that what you meant when you said i did 'everything wrong'?) Everyone needs to find the diet or way of eating that fits them the most, for some people vegetarianism will be the way.
I disagree with your statement of me being 'just a slim girl'. (Slim woman maybe :)). I have worked hard to stay in shape all my adult life, that's how I am still the same weight as at 16.
Lastly, I don't mean to boast over anyone, I'd like to help and inspire people who read this article. I am not a master at anything and I am not better than other people, all I did was wrote a post about how I have stayed in shape :).
Please let me know if you need any help with getting in shape, I'd be happy to give you some tips, maybe help set up a diet plan!

Thanks but definitely do NOT need any help from someone who is 'just slim' but is brainwashing others! There's a lot of people in the world like you, unfortunately 👎

Haha sure, whatever you think works for you 😉

It’s really hard to control your craving for junk food and limited at dinner. Great to see you could do it.wish to have control like you.👍

Do you eat most of your meals at home? A good tip would be not to have any junk food in the house, that way you won't be tempted. Having a cup of tea or coffee after a meal can also reduce cravings, try it. Also maybe shift your main meal of the day to lunch and have just a 'snack size' dinner. Use a smaller plate, that way if you have a small amount of food on it, you can trick your brain into thinking it's more

Thanks for the tip @peterveronika. I do have cup of tea at night after dinner. Trying to control my diet but just because it’s winter here so feel more hungry at night😛

Excellent post.

Just because you didn't lose a lot of weight, as some people do, is not bad at all! Most people who spectacularly lose a ton of weight, will just put it all back on within a few years! Their "before and after" photos are impressive, but the "before and after and then much later" photos, showing how they gained it all back again, would be something else!

Yet your experience – how you could stay slim in a world where everyone else is fat – is far more valuable! It shows what works, long-term. Your experience is much more important (scientifically) than the "I lost a ton of weight - look at me" experiences which teach us nothing new.

Thank you for your comment! Yes it's true a lot of people experience the jojo effect, they loose weight dieting and then put it back on when they go back to their old ways of eating. They need to change their lifestyle for good to keep their weight off. Fortunatly there are people who manage it too.
I think what works most for me to be conscious about what I eat, when and how much, and work out regularly :)

Don't be afraid to increase the weight, build up those sexy female muscles. Please don't supplement on testosterone.

Thank you, I am always trying to add more weight. I would never take testosterno for sure!

You are an Ectomorph like me, you are going to need to focus on eating more medium sized meals

Hey Veronika!
First of all, congratulations on your achievements! I'm doing a lot of sports on my own and appreciate the spirit :-)

Now I have a little advice for your regarding your booster strategy. Are you aware of the fact that SBD is traded at a price of $2.40USD currently? I'm telling you that since I saw that you bought a considerable amount of upvotes for this article spending ~47 SBD which means: $112 USD!

Your article is at less than $95 right now (from which only 75% are going to be yours), so you're going to lose money.

If I were you, I'd skip the services and start making money here :-) Your content is definitely worth it. This is just a little advice from someone who cares about this place and the community...

Steem on!
Marly -

Thanks for the advice! We are really just trying different things to see what works best to add some value to our posts. What do you mean exactly when you say You'd skip the services and start making money here?

You're welcome! :-)

We are really just trying different things to see what works best to add some value to our posts.

Well right now the added value is attention, since your blog posts are more visible in a trending position. Yet, you're paying a tremendously high price for that attention which is actually a straw fire. Once you stop promoting the posts, the visibility will get down to zero.

What do you mean exactly when you say You'd skip the services and start making money here?

According to the maths, currently you're losing money. Actually the Steem blockchain is designed to give value back to content creators and reward both creation (authors) and attention (curators). Vote trading services are trying to exploit the system, take that value away from creators and drain the reward pool in order to fill their own pockets. You just stepped into the trap :-)

From my own experience (1.5 years on Steemit) I recommend new users to focus on a healthy growth of their blogs: find your niche, interact with like-minded people of the community, produce outstanding content that responds to their demand, earn money.

Best of luck :-)

Thank you for your post, very inspiring! There was a time when I put a lot of focus on weights. I didn't really know what I was doing and would just turn to Google your Youtube. It wasn't until I really understood that the key is getting the diet under control and figured out that everything else will fall into place. As you said diet is key!

Thank you! I did the same thing when I was younger, just watching youtube videos and listening to silly advice of people who didn't knowmuch about healthy eating themselves.
I think everyone needs to find what works for them the best, and I am glad you found the best way for you.

Interesting. You don't see these stories very often where a vegetarian or vegan decides to return to meat eating, even if its only a couple times a week. Great to see strong couples!

Thank you! I'd never thought I'd be returning to eating meat either, but I actually feel healthier this way, eating it sometimes.

Wow you're really in good shape. Your post gives so much impact to me.

Thank you! I am happy we could inspire you!

I am pleased to see that the first 3 points you made were about nutrition. It is difficult but also very possible to eat healthy. You are not only gonna look good but you will look good for much longer. You will interrupt diseases associated with aging processes.
Thanks for inspiring many.

Yes totally! Eating healthy you'll age much slower. And it's just a matter of getting used to it, once you make a habit out of it, eating healthy will come naturally

Yes, healthy food is the key to maintain your body weight and stay healthy. It is really difficult to avoid junk food, specially for people who work long hours and usually grab a burger and chips at lunch time in McDonald's next door . I usually prepare salads or cook something simple to take to work for lunch. An yoga also helps to keep in shape
Keep up the good work Veronika and Peter, congrats

This post received a 14% upvote from @morwhale team thanks to @peterveronika! For more information, click here! , TeamMorocco! .

Bravo, the hardest job, it's work on yourself.

Thank you!

I liked your article

How it turned in shape over the years
Let me share in your article from my point of view that man lives and remains when he distanced himself from hatred and anger remains happy as long as his heart beats with love and compassion and forgives and forgives
good greeting sasa good

Hi Sasagood, we don't completely understand your comment, you may want to rephrase it. Thanks for reading our post!

Exercise is very important for every human body, Thank you.

I agree :)

Sure! Thank you so much, or your looking very good sister.

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Congratulation
Amazing keep going on God bless yOu

Thank you for the encouragement! We will keep going until we physically can, once you get into working out you can't really stop :)

are you living now in thailand? is in last photo your husband? you are in super shape in your 35 :)

We're living in Poland at the moment, we were just traveling in Thailand, it's my favourite country, we go back there every time we can :).
Yes it's my husband in the last photo. Thanks for the compliment!

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This Post has Resteemd and upvoted by Steemit Viral Good Luck !

I really like ur post.. so helpful for me :-D @ peterveronika! !

Thank you, we are always happy if we can help someone!

Whether youre on diet

Sorry, what do you mean?

It's nice to live a healthy life.

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