Single mum Dani shares her top tips after dropping 24kgs!
After packing on close to 25kg during her first pregnancy, Dani struggled to lose weight. With her second pregnancy, she gained even more weight and was really unhappy with herself.
She tried every diet known to man and even resorted to medication from her GP. Whilst she did initially lose weight, after she stopped taking the medication the weight was back within 12 months.
Dani found The Healthy Mummy on Facebook by chance in 2017. She says, “I felt a glimmer of hope as I read through the real-life testimonials and saw flashbacks and transformation posts in the Private Support Group.
I admit I was sceptical when I signed up. Very sceptical. But I was willing to try anything! Fast forward 6 months and to a lot of shock to me and my family and friends I dropped 24 kg!”
Dani has lost another four kilo’s and has maintained her weight for a year.
‘The Healthy Mummy works! It honestly does! It is NOT a diet. I still had my sweet snacks and pasta and pizza (I must have been Italian in a former life as I LOVE pizza and pasta a little too much) and I still lost weight!
The Healthy Mummy has taught me so much about the proper way to fuel my body and love myself again and I have discovered a new found love of exercise (I was a couch potato for 10 years!) It’s not about the weight that I have lost any more, it’s about how AMAZING I am feeling these days! I feel healthy and energetic…. and happy.”
Dani’s MY TOP TIPS TO LIVE BY:
BREATHE!
“Starting a journey is never ever easy. You have programmed your body and your brain into the lifestyle that you are living but the thing is, YOU HAVE CHOSEN TO CHANGE. Keyword… CHOSEN.
It’s a choice. You have a wish to change, you choose to join, and it’s really up to YOU to implement changes. It can be overwhelming for sure, but it really doesn’t have to be! BREATHE and first calculate your BMI and go from there.”
SMALL CHANGES
“You need to start making small changes first. Small changes can be to eat regular meals and cut back on refined sugars. It’s a good place to start and the hub recipes will help you there! USE THEM! They are designed so that you don’t feel like you are missing out on anything.
The sweets are there, the pastas are there, you won’t feel like you are dieting. Even if you only use the hub recipes a few times a week to start, you are using them. You don’t have to go hell for leather straight into it. You can ease yourself.”
EXERCISE
- “Make exercise a priority! Set times/days to do it and JUST COMMIT and do it! Be accountable. Make a plan and stick to it! Set a time/day to exercise and just DO IT! Push yourself, NO EXCUSES!
- Keep a workout diary. Record how you felt before working out, activity, duration & how you felt afterward. If you need motivation, look through your previous workouts and remember how they make you feel amazing afterward.
- Squeeze exercise into your daily life. If you catch a bus, get off a few stops early and walk the rest of the way, take the stairs instead of elevators or escalators, do squats when you are hanging out the laundry, calf raises when doing the washing up, wall sits when waiting for blender/ kettle/ microwave.
- Consider exercise as YOU time. You are working on YOU, focusing on YOU, improving YOU. YOU deserve it.
- Set your alarm for earlier than the kids wake up, do a quick morning workout in peace! It’s a great way to start the day
- If you have a dog… Walk it! Your dog will love you, you will love it and walking is great exercise! We don’t do it enough, if you have a Fitbit/health tracker…. use it. Try to do your steps- 10000 a day is recommended. The average office worker does half that.”
MEAL PLANNING / PREPPING & BUDGETING
- “Meal prepping can be a little overwhelming, to begin with, unless you are some kind of seasoned chef! So start slowly!! Baby steps! Cook double recipe one night and freeze half.
- Set aside a couple of hours on the weekend to do some snack prep for the week. Cook and refrigerate/freeze your snacks until you need them! Having healthy snacks prepped is pretty important! When you have healthy snacks readily available you won’t reach for the processed snack foods that pack on the weight!!! Also, a lifesaver when it comes to packing school lunches!!!
- Repeat meals! Saves time and money because you buy in bulk. Make an extra serve at dinner and have for lunch the next day.
- Buy in bulk – when you see an ingredient that you know you use regularly or cheap meat… buy in bulk! Pantry staples have a long shelf life, and freeze your meat! Write the date on your what that your freeze so you know freezer life.
- Eat at home! It saves so much money! And if you are craving a “take away” meal… fake it with one of the Healthy Mummy options! They are brilliant! And quick!!!
- Buy in season and local for fresh produce. Find your local farmers market and use it! Not only are you supporting local businesses but you know your produce is FRESH! And they have awesome bargains throughout the day.
- Don’t be afraid to buy frozen. It’s snap frozen so holds all the essential vitamins and minerals you would find from it fresh. When on sale – buy in bulk! It’s a perfectly good option for buying fresh.
- Write a weekly budget. Record all expenses and see where your money actually goes and that way you can work out how to save effectively.
- Cheat Meals occasionally are ok! You have to live! If you have dinner out with friends/partner etc, just go and enjoy yourself! By not restricting yourself so heavily, then it’s sustainable. It’s a lifestyle change. You want to have fun!
- Be flexible. If your night’s meal is a pre-prepped freezer meal but you are craving another Healthy Mummy meal… just leave the frozen one alone and make whatever you are craving! Have fun with your meal plan.”
WATER
- “As you all know we should be having at least two litres of water a day. If you are struggling to do this, set reminders on your phone! Set an alarm for every two hours, when the alarm rings drink a 500 ml glass of water. Just down it! Eight hours – there is your two litres! Make water your best friend!”
APP / SUPPORT GROUPS
- “Spend some time familiarising yourself with the Healthy Mummy App. Check out the workouts, go through the recipes the more you look at the App the more you will want to use it!!! Record your meals, record your water! Set reminders with the coach! It’s a fantastic tool!
- Immerse yourself in the Healthy Mummy Community Groups! The support is unbelievable within the groups, I have never experienced anything like it before. it really is women empowering women. It’s beautiful! “
SELF:
- “Take progress photos!! You don’t have to share them if you don’t want to, but they are a wonderful way to track your progress as sometimes it is hard for us to see it, but when we make comparisons with previous photos the progress becomes very clear.
- Don’t doubt yourself or self-hate. It’s not easy to start, but YOU STARTED. Remember we all have our off days. Just pick yourself up and remember we are human. Tomorrow you smash your goals.
- Try to get enough sleep, sleep is so important for muscle recovery, mental health and metabolism.
- Every mistake or “fall off the wagon” is a learning curb. Don’t beat yourself up about it, it’s not a fail. Learn from it. Why did it happen? Was there a trigger? Try to work out how to not let it happen again.
- Set achievable goals and realistic expectations weekly. For example, rather than saying I am going to commit to exercising 5 times this week when you know time is a factor, commit yourself to three times a week. If you manage to squeeze more in consider yourself an overachiever that week and give yourself a pat on the back or an extra reward that week. Build your goals whenever you have been consistently smashing them. If you set unrealistic goals you will obviously struggle to reach them and will ultimately feel a sense of fail even though you should be proud you were trying! So… PLEASE! Realistic/Achievable goals!
- Don’t weigh yourself daily. Your body fluctuates so much this will do your head in. Also when you do your weigh ins… weigh yourself at the same time of day every weigh in. Your body weighs less in the morning than at night.
- Measure weekly! The scales might not budge, they can be totally evil sometimes! Make the tape measure your friend!
- Reward yourself!!! Your brain recognises reward systems and will start recognising that the behaviour you are rewarding, for example, exercise, is worthwhile doing. It increases the odds that the routine will become a habit. Over time, the motivation becomes intrinsic as the brain starts to associate sweat and pain with the surge of endorphins (the good chemicals your brain releases that are responsible for that I feel freaking amazeballs rush you get after a good workout session). Once your brain recognises the workout as a reward, you won’t need the treat.
- Believe in yourself! You want this, you CAN do this! Be determined. Make yourself a priority!!! Self-love goes a long way! Every day look in the mirror and tell yourself three positive things about yourself.”
“YOU DESERVE TO BE HAPPY AND HEALTHY!!!”
Join our 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge today and change your life!
Our 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge is an affordable, customisable program designed to help mums reach their weight loss goals and tackle their health.
Our 28 Day Challenge entails:
- 28 days of at home exercise routines (no gym needed) – with video instruction
- Customisable and breastfeeding friendly meal plans
- Time-efficient exercises for busy mums – under 30 mins
- Challenge combines Pilates exercises with interval and circuit training (HIIT)
- Suitable for basic to advanced fitness levels
- Home to thousands of EASY-TO-MAKE recipes!
To find out more on the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge click here.