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#74 - How I lost 50 lbs
1.6k Plays1 year ago
This is me.
A mum of 3 kids. Nothing special.
And Dya know what, this photo doesn’t even come close to portraying the transformation that has happened to me in these short few years.
The photo on the left was October 2017. I was in the middle of painful physio to recover from a pelvic injury during childbirth. A walk that used to take me 10 minutes was now taking 30 minutes.
My confidence was low, and although I was so delighted with my beautiful little family, I had lost myself along the way.
I’d spent from age 23-31 having babies and building a home that I never even stopped to figure out who I was.
So I started on my journey to lose some weight, genuinely just wanting to be skinnier and look better.
Now that has been some journey!! I am a big believer in the Universe laying the path down in front of you and all you need to do is take action. One step at a time.
And that’s what I did.
In this episode I share all of the lessons that I have learned along the way.
Music by LiQWYD Free download: hypeddit.com/link/xxtopb Promoted by FreeMusicPromo / @freemusicpromo1
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Transcript
Introduction and Journey Overview
00:00:08
Speaker
Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the podcast. so In today's solo episode, I'm going to talk a little bit about my fat loss journey. Now, anyone who's been listening for a while, I have a few episodes here on my journey where I go into it in a little bit more depth. If you go back to the very first episode, you'll get a really in-depth summary of my background. and my journey and myself as a person and you'll learn a lot about me from that. I also have other episodes where I discuss my journey with alcohol, my anxiety story and so if you scroll back through the podcast you'll find all of those episodes in detail and I probably have talked a good bit about my own weight loss journey as well
00:00:49
Speaker
But I thought I'd just do a little refresher, fresh perspective, little recap on it. So I'm hoping this episode will be short and to the point, but
Sustainable Weight Loss
00:00:57
Speaker
we'll see how we go. First of all, yes, I have lost over 50 pounds now when, and I often share these photos on social media. And I think the one thing that I always say that I just want to make so clear when it comes to these photos is that my starting photo is October 2017. So that's 17, 18, 19. a six, and I don't know, I had to count that. It's like, you know, after I had my last child, he's six and a half. So it's ah it's six and a half years ago. So that transformation happened over a long space of time. I reached like my after photo, if you like, or, you know, when I kind of was, got to the stage where I was like, I'm there was probably 2020.
00:01:44
Speaker
twenty 2021. So we're talking kind of three or four years. So it it doesn't have to take three or four years for you. It doesn't have to take six years or whatever. to lose the weight that you want to lose or to you know get into the shape that you want to get. But it will take time and you're not going to go from a size 16 down to a size 10 in the space of 12 weeks. It's just not going to happen. It's definitely, yeah and it's definitely not going to happen in a healthy way. I am the queen of s slow and steady. I firmly believe that the slow and steady approach is the only approach. It's the only way to do it that's actually going to last and anything that's worth keeping takes time.
Childhood Challenges with Confidence
00:02:24
Speaker
And without sounding like a cliche, it is very much about the journey. That is the fulfilling part, the destination. And what you learn about health and fitness as you you go on that journey and weight loss and strength and whatever, it's a never ending journey. There is no destination. I think it's the most exciting and empowering thing ever. And this is why I love fitness so much because it is never ending. And you get to learn. There's always new things to learn. There's always new things to learn about yourself. And when you reach your goal, it's really fulfilling. But then it's like, what next? What else can I learn? What else can I achieve? What else can I do? And that is why I love fitness so much. But basically,
00:03:12
Speaker
My starting point, i had like growing up, I was not a sporty kid at all. I was terrified of team sports. A little bit terrified of being hurt, very terrified of being laughed at. And yeah my self-confidence was so low that I couldn't actually handle the pressure of team sports. And it's on it's really only on reflection, looking back, that I realized that now. but and So it wasn't a sporty kid. as a teacher as my mum had me in ballet and and I did modern dance as well so i did I did dance from when I was three until I was 18 so I suppose
College Weight Gain and Lifestyle Changes
00:03:47
Speaker
probably pretty okay at it. Then once I finished school I just stopped doing it and then as ah as a person in college then life became about the weekends, about drinking and
00:04:00
Speaker
soizing going out socialising and yet my diet wouldn't have been particularly good. but It wasn't particularly bad, but it's just yeah typical student life and typical busy life, spending a lot of time on buses, commuting and just ah commuting, studying, going out with my friends at the weekend, working a part-time job and doing that on repeat for a long time. So as a kid, I was never overweight and even as a teenager, I was never overweight. I started to put on a little bit of weight through college like most people do because again, sitting, studying, drinking, socializing, eating, all of that. So like I was quite a skinny kid up until... I went to college then I kind of filled out a little bit like that food alcohol but still very inactive and you know so I would have been the person that would have got the bus two stops rather than walk it and then I suppose as I became a young adult then my anxiety then when I had issues with anxiety and panic attacks and it really took a knock to my self-confidence and my self-belief in what I could do and even I remember like in the height of my anxiety you know walking down main street
00:05:04
Speaker
in the town was a huge deal for me because I would be terrified that I would suddenly feel out of body and that I need to sit down and so prevented me from doing a lot of things for a long time and I'm not going to go down that road when I hear my anxiety story go to the anxiety story episode and you will hear all about it and thankfully all of that side of my past has made me so much stronger, so much more self aware, and so much more excited for life. So whole different side of things. But I suppose when I actually started to put on a little bit of weight would have been after I started having kids. So I had my first child when I was 23.
00:05:41
Speaker
And I had my last child when I was 31. So I don't, I don't have like 10 kids or anything. I've got three children, but my twenties were spread out by having babies and just, you know, in between raising them and all that. So it's, I would, I didn't really get into fitness until ah about 20. The end of 2015.
Fitness Discovery and Holistic Living
00:06:03
Speaker
So I was, what was I, what age was I at that stage? Jesus. 29, 29. So it was about 29 when I started getting into fitness. And if I'm being completely honest, I started on my journey because I wanted to lose some weight and I just wanted to be skinnier and look better. Genuinely. That's what I wanted. And I discovered Kayla Itzness on Instagram.
00:06:28
Speaker
and she's, for anyone who doesn't know, she's an Australian fitness, she's an Australian online coach, basically. and She was probably the the first experience I ever had of of seeing an online coach back in those days. and And I looked at her and I thought, wow, but it wasn't just the way she initially it was the way she looked I was like oh my god I'd love to have that body I'd love to you know I'd love to look like that and so I was you know of course start the usual dieting you know and and what do what do I need to do so I kind of bought her book and I was you know following her and started doing her workout programs at home which were amazing it was my first introduction to fitness and
00:07:07
Speaker
What I learned very quickly from her was the holistic lifestyle that she led. She didn't drink alcohol and that doesn't mean that people can't drink alcohol, of course they can. But she didn't drink alcohol and she ate good quality whole foods. She didn't deprive ah deprive herself of anything either and this balanced lifestyle, but she was active and she enjoyed it and she made it look fun. And I was like, wow. I was like this. It it was like the something clicked in my head and I was like, this is not a diet. Like I had, I remember being
00:07:42
Speaker
19 years old, and like I said, had started filling out a little bit during college. I still was not overweight, but being at Weight Watchers, thinking I was overweight, and you know Weight Watchers, Slimming World, all of these things through the years when I really didn't have a whole lot of body fat on my body. But when when I was introduced to her, I was like, this is a lifestyle. And I don't know, I don't know whether I just wasn't ready to make a lifestyle change, but then I think it might've been October, November, 2015. I was like, wow, okay. This is the, I started stepping into this identity a little bit and doing these homework ads. I loved them. Loved them started becoming part of this online community and connecting with women all over the world through Instagram. Now there wasn't reels or anything at this stage. So this was just all done through posts and.
00:08:30
Speaker
there was an online community and it was fantastic. So I had started my journey and I, all through 2016, I felt amazing. I was losing weight, I was feeling healthier, more energy. It was just a really, really empowering time
Pregnancy, Fitness Challenges, and Restarting
00:08:43
Speaker
for me. And then early 2017, I found out I was pregnant with Kai, my smallest. and And so that put ah kind of a pin in everything. Now, my goal was I wanted to have an act of healthy pregnancy. It didn't go that way. I wasn't particularly sick, but I was not. I couldn't. I was very uncomfortable and very low in energy, and I found it very difficult to exercise and train. And if I'm quite honest, I just didn't, I didn't exercise through that pregnancy. And it's funny now, I look back, I'm like, if I was where I am now,
00:09:16
Speaker
it would be so different and I would push myself to do a certain amount of movement and strength training through the pregnancy. It it would have it would have saved me so much heartache afterwards. But you know that obviously hindsight is a nice powerful gift. but and So after my pregnancy, i had gain I gained a lot of weight on that last pregnancy. I ate what I wanted. I found I couldn't really eat kind of flavour some foods. I kind of went off fruit like most vegetables like anything you know like and I love curries and you know things like the fragrances I just I couldn't deal with it so it was like plain pasta and like toast and you know so a lot of kind of starchy carbohydrates not a whole lot of flavour to things but I gained quite a lot away because I was really an act of ate quite a lot and funny at the time I didn't think I had gained that much weight through the pregnancy but I did and then after I had him I I ended up injured so I had him and I was okay for about a week afterwards and then I woke up one morning and I literally could not move my legs without excruciating pain in my pubic bone and it took a while to get to the bottom of it but I discovered that yeah I had inflamed the joint in my pubic bone. I didn't know we had a joint in our pubic bone, we do by the way, and it is inflamed
00:10:29
Speaker
obviously through the trauma of giving birth to that giant baby and I think I had obviously overdone it having two other kids at the time overdone it the the first few days afterwards but I ended up on crutches and having to do physio and really starting from scratch and I remember being feeling really low and really down and like it was like this is my starting point I was like I have so far to go to get back to that empowering feeling but I was determined and I remember going for a walk ah like in our neighbourhood and just around the corner to the secondary school where my son now goes to school which is literally a six or seven minute walk and it took I'd say about 40 minutes to get there. I remember my friend walking around at me and it was literally baby steps
00:11:13
Speaker
for me to walk that far, but I was so determined. And i so it took time time, lots of physio, but I got there and I got back to my home workouts and it was amazing. I started back on on this journey and I think it was, in a way, it was quite empowering for me to have been at such a starting point, you know, so low confidence-wise. feeling very back to square one, you know, heaviest I've ever been, and injured and immobile and having to start there. Like, it I think to take myself from there to where I got to, and where I am now, has been the most empowering thing for me. So those photos that I do share those before photos, that is me.
00:11:56
Speaker
starting fresh end of 2017, small baby to small kids as well and injured low starting point and it's amazing photos don't show all of that. Since then then I just got back to my Kayla It'sness workouts and that lifestyle and eating well and moving my body and whatever that meant and I had small kids so I was doing home workouts on my kitchen floor not you really using weights at this stage And they used to do it with me or you'll crawl all over me and it was really good for them to
CrossFit and Mindset Transformation
00:12:26
Speaker
see me exercise and we used to get out walking and it was great. And then in May 2019, I was introduced to to CrossFit. And wow, like that was going into the gym being shown how to lift heavy weights.
00:12:40
Speaker
And I was like, what is this? What is this? Where has this been all my life? And this is where another fundamental shift happened in my mindset. Whereas when I was at home, yes, I had realized it was about a lifestyle and it was about cooking healthy foods and it was moving your body and sharing this with your kids. but I still very much wanted to look a certain way. And I don't think there's anything wrong with saying that. It's okay to start a journey and want to look good in your clothes or to you know look good when you see yourself in a photograph. And there's still a certain point ah to that. But I walked into the CrossFit gym and you leave your ego at the door. This is not about being good at things. There are no mirrors in a CrossFit gym and you go in and you lift heavy weights and you see all these tiny people beside you that are able to lift like enormous weights and you're like, what the fuck is going on here?
00:13:29
Speaker
and people swinging from bars and doing handstand push-ups. And I'm like, I need to do this. i like But I was like, I still very much had a fixed mindset. And I was like, oh well, i I would never be able to do that. But that's so how how are they doing that? That's amazing. And so I threw myself head first in. I was addicted. Just realizing, you know even like learning how to deadlift and slowly building up the weight and like surprising myself at how much weight I could actually lift. and One thing after that, it just built my confidence, that confidence that I didn't have since I was very small. I built it up so slowly that it was like, wow, I just did that. What else can I do? What else can I do to the point that but when I left CrossFit, I was able to do pull ups. I was able to do handstand pushups. I was able to deadlift 80 kilos. And when I was sitting at about 60 kilos in weight myself, I was able to run. I was never able to run.
00:14:26
Speaker
So what CrossFit did for me, and I no longer do CrossFit now. I quite enjoy doing my own thing in the gym, focusing on my strengths, but that's because now I, you know, as a personal trainer, I know what I'm doing. I have personal goals. I like that for my personal time, but at that time CrossFit gave me everything. It gave me the coaches that I needed to show me how to do things properly. It gave me the confidence to, it was like, what else can I do?
Empowerment Through Fitness
00:14:56
Speaker
It, it gave me my growth mindset and ah like I'll be forever grateful for that. And that's what led me then down the path of, you know, qualifying as a personal trainer and pursuing this. It's, it's, it's spilled over into every aspect of my life. It wasn't just what can I, what can I do in the gym? It's like, hold on a second. What else am I limiting myself in? What else can I do in my life? That was a real game changer.
00:15:25
Speaker
So basically, in relation to this whole weight loss journey and this fitness journey and this health journey that I've been on, it has been some journey. I'm a big believer that the universe lays the path in front of you. And all you need to do is take action one step at a time. And that's what I did. So if you have a goal that seems so far out of reach, like I actually, where I am now in my life, I wasn't able to visualize that in October, 2017. I had no desire or or no conscious thoughts about wanting to change my whole life, my career, anything like that. This all very happened one step at a time. But what I did was I i stepped out of my comfort zone and I found that fire inside me. ah some I found that thing that lit me up and I just started stepping towards it one step at a time.
00:16:23
Speaker
And one step at a time, this is what I learned. I learned I don't need to restrict to lose weight. That was huge. That making small changes and quite often just crowding out the less good stuff with the more nutritious stuff is enough. I learned that strong looks so much better naked than skinny. If you're chasing skinny, you're going to be chasing it for the rest of your life. your Skinny might be what you think you're looking for, but what you're actually looking for is strong. those pictures that you see or those people that you see that you want to have a similar body composition to, they are not skinny, they are strong, and that's the difference. And a big misconception here is quite often people will think, but I don't want to get bulky. Women do not get bulky lifting weights.
00:17:06
Speaker
unless they're taking steroids. Okay, so that is the most important thing to remember. It's going to make you look tighter, it's going to make you look smaller, it's going to give you that quote unquote skinny look that you're striving for. I learned how to nourish and fuel my body. That was a big thing. I learned that it's not about taking things away. It's food, your food is your fuel. And from looking at Kayla Itzenes and looking at that lifestyle that she was selling, now maybe I've just been sold a lifestyle on Instagram, but at the time I bought into it. And it was Eating good quality foods literally shines out of you. Your energy you're your energy levels, your mood, your everything about you stems from what you put into your body to fuel yourself. You literally are what you eat. And that doesn't that is not meant in like a shameful way to punish yourself if you're not eating in a way that you think is good. It's just in a way to to be like, okay,
00:18:03
Speaker
Maybe I can add a little bit more fuel in here. And what happens is when you start adding things in, adding in things that your body's using for fuel or for energy, you're going to feel fuller. You're not going to need as many cookies. You're not going to need as much shit because you don't have space from all the good food that you're having. I learned just how much I loved walking and hiking and what it does for my mind, my stress and my energy. This was a huge one for me because like I said, coming from someone who suffered with chronic anxiety and and was afraid to, like I remember I used to be afraid to go walking anyway where anywhere where there wasn't at like a bench nearby where I could sit and regroup if I needed to, if I was to have a panic attack.
Strength Training and Personal Growth
00:18:47
Speaker
So to go from that to discovering walking and hiking and how much
00:18:54
Speaker
It means to me and how much I connect with myself and with nature, what it does for my mind, my soul, my energy, my stress, everything. What, that was amazing. I learned how much I love lifting heavy shit. Like did not know that that was something I loved. So anyone who's like, you know, Oh, I hate exercise. I want to lose weight or, you know, if you've been trying to lose weight over and over again, and and you're not succeeding, it just means you need to try something new. You need to try a new angle. don't be afraid to fail. I was afraid to to fail since childhood, since I was afraid to do team sports, I was afraid. But
00:19:30
Speaker
I managed to step out of it on this journey and I discovered so many things like lifting heavy shit that I really enjoy doing and you'll surprise yourself too. And it might, it won't be the same as my journey. It, you know, it might be similar, but you'll find what you love and don't just don't just stick with doing the same gym workout program if you fucking hate it. Go and find something you do enjoy. There's so much out there. So many classes, so many styles of training. There's just so many avenues you can go down. I learned that it's damn empowering to challenge yourself with strength training. I didn't realize how much strength training would be a map for life that you have to challenge yourself.
00:20:16
Speaker
that's how you grow. and i love I felt so empowered that I could challenge myself in that way. from someone who genuinely like I genuinely thought of myself as a weak person and as yeah as someone who wasn't as emotionally strong and as mentally strong or as physically strong as most people, I would have put myself in the bottom like the bottom percent. And that probably, you know, it stems from childhood, obviously, but it also stems, I think, from my battle with anxiety as well, that I did feel weak because of it. And strength training healed me, it really did, along with obviously, you know, the therapy and all the stuff that has to go with it. But strength training healed me, it healed my self confidence.
00:21:00
Speaker
and it empowered me. And I'm getting even emotional thinking about
Coaching Philosophy and Empowerment
00:21:04
Speaker
it. And this is why I love what I do because I love seeing but and helping women empower themselves. And I don't do it, they do it. And when they do it for themselves and I'm there to just help, it's the most empowering thing. It's the most fulfilling thing that you'll ever feel in your whole life. I learned that what you learn on this journey of losing weight spills over to all areas of your life. you know, the importance of habits, the showing up for yourself, the believing in yourself, the consistency, the simplicity of it. We over complicate everything. Life is so fucking complicated these days. It's so simple. It's not easy. Change is not easy. But it's simple. And when we simplify it,
00:21:51
Speaker
Everything changes. I learned the discipline you learn in the gym spills over to all areas of your life. Showing up for yourself, pushing yourself, not quitting when things get difficult. not overdoing things because then you end up out and injured but knowing knowing that sweet spot, learning that sweet spot of pushing yourself to growth but not to overwhelm or you know over training. Same goes in life with stress levels. Certain amount of stress to push forward in your career, to push forward in whatever aspect of life that you're pushing forward in.
00:22:27
Speaker
You know, there's it's okay to put a certain put your foot in the gas a certain amount. The problem is a lot of us don't know when to take our foot off and get that balance right. And I take i think the gym teaches you that. And the discipline is just fucking showing up for yourself, regardless of how you feel. And I learned to slow down and listen to myself more. That was huge. Instead of rushing through life, actually slowing down. How do you feel? What do you want? And the busier you get in your careers, the more children you have, the more it all kind of gets entangled in this really busy fucking lifestyle. I get it. I get it. I'm living it. But it's learning to slow down, even if that's your five minutes before bedtime, but that you create that reflection space for yourself or you listen to yourself. I do this in my training. That's my alone time.
00:23:21
Speaker
I listen to myself there. I do, when I go walking, I try and make that my alone time. I don't always get out ah by myself, but when I can, I will. My before bed, and when I first get up in the morning, both of those times in my alone time, where I listen to myself and I slow down. And then throughout the day, if I'm rushing, rushing, rushing, I will try and slow. If if I notice myself, you know, my chest is tight or notice myself getting a little bit flustered and overwhelmed, I i will literally physically slow down. take some deep breaths and just regroup throughout the day. it's just It's such a simple act that so many of us don't do and this journey has taught me that. Anyway that's just a bit about me for anyone who's new here and basically this whole journey that I've been on is what I based base my whole coaching philosophy about. So yes I went and I qualified as a personal trainer, a nutrition coach and a health coach
00:24:17
Speaker
And I do believe that my teaching background, you know, 15 years teaching experience gives me alas of a lot of skills and a lot of insight into how to communicate with people and to help them empower themselves. But really, it's my journey. it's My journey is what created my whole coaching service. it like it my My business is my baby. like It's my soul. like It's everything. It's how I see the world. It's how I live my life. like It could not be more authentic. and I believe in it so much. I believe in my coaching philosophy so much, and I'm so excited about it. If you would like to start your journey and you want a little bit of help and support,
00:25:08
Speaker
please do reach out to me. You can find me on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, at Hamilton. I'm not at Hamilton, I'm at Kate Hamilton Health. My email is katehamiltonhealth at gmail dot.com and just reach out to me. Ask questions. there's There's always a link in my bio there to apply for coaching. If you'd like to be coached by myself or my wonderful coaches, Lindsay and Charlotte, who are very much on the same buzz as me. So we are just one community of freaking amazing women. like I love my clients so much and what we're achieving and what we're building is just something special. I'm going to finish it out there. Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. and As always, please do like, please do share on your stories or in your WhatsApp groups, tag me if you're sharing in the stories. Leave a review and make sure that you're subscribed to the podcast. and I will talk to you all soon on the next episode.