“Let us bust the myth of physical inactivity and obesity. You cannot outrun a bad diet,” 

British Journal of Sports Medicine

If life FAQs were a thing, this question would be on my list: How did you lose the baby weight?

Before I delve into answering the question, I must say something very important: if one is focused wholly on “regaining” the pre-baby body or losing weight in order to “earn” the right to feel sexy then my friend, beware. That is a treacherous road to poor self-esteem and low self-worth. Speaking from experience, it’s a tough road to return from too. Remember that right in this moment, as you are, you are worthy. When you choose to attach your worth to things outside of your intrinsic value, you give away what is yours just so you can hustle to get it back. The goal is always wholeness, not perfection. We can locate the things we desire like health and weight-loss within that paradigm.

Now to answer the weightloss question:

Figuring things out after my first baby was a rollercoaster. (I wrote about it here). I chose to lose weight for a number of reasons including the fact that I have scoliosis and when I carry more than my healthy weight, my back hurts something awful. I figured out what worked for my body eventually. It took me almost a year of trial and error and what the hell is happening moments to get there. No sooner had I arrived than I fell pregnant again. This time though, I didn’t have to reinvent the wheel. I had figured out that, for my body at least, there were and are no shortcuts. I had to make the lifestyle choice to eat clean and to incorporate short workout sessions regularly into my life. Over the course of that ongoing journey, eating clean has been responsible for most of the results. If I had to put a number to it, I would attribute 80% of my weight loss to it. Working out for 20 to 30 minutes a day every couple of days closed the 20% gap by tightening and fine-tuning the physique.

Eating clean means different things to different people and this is just the definition I came across that closely describes what it means to me.

Clean eating means “eating real, whole, unprocessed foods as close to their natural state as possible most of the time”

Clean & Delicious Youtube Channel

It is not a diet. It is a long-term relationship with food. One in which our better choices simply outnumber the ones that are less so. It’s not about perfection or getting it “right” 100% of the time. That is an unsustainable endeavor in my experience. In the same way that, in my experience, the results of starvation diets are unsustainable. It is just about filling up on wholesome, less processed food more often than not. Things like brown carbs, roasted or steamed veggies, roasting rather than frying, fruits, nuts, and less sugar all-round.

What I have learnt is that our bodies are hard-wired to try and ensure their own survival. Starvation diets cause an immediate drop in weight. Your body’s management system recognizes that as scarcity. It is a crisis. It needs to kick in and ensure your survival. So as soon as food becomes available again it stores reserves to get it through the next famine. Reserves are stored as fat. That is why quick losses tend to lead to quickly regaining the weight lost and sometimes more. Besides science, life is just too short to starve by choice.

The downside of clean eating in this way is that it takes time and consistency to lose weight. It is not instant. It happens slowly. The upside is losing the weight this way also means that a few poor food choices have no effect.

For the lucky few, maintaining a healthy weight is in their genes. I am not one of them. For folks like me, there is no magic quick fix. It’s as easy and as difficult as eating clean, exercising, and consistency.

We will be sharing regular tips, ideas, and general information on eating clean to make it a little easier for anyone looking to try it.

In the meantime, here is a video from a qualified nutritionist explaining 12 weight loss mistakes that I found incredibly helpful on my own journey.