A Healthier Me: Gaining Weight & Trying Out New Things

If you’ve been around for the last 7 months you will know I have been on a journey to become a healthier me. Meaning I completely changed my eating habits and lifestyle habits too. I have been updating and documenting my changes on my blog since the time I started and its so crazy to go back and see how far I have come in such a short amount of time. It’s rare I go into much personal detail on my blog anymore, just for privacy reasons but something like this I am more than happy to share with the world in hopes it inspires others to change their lives.

Creating a healthier me has always been more than just outward appearances, its about changing my everyday habits into healthier ones. And really changing the way I view my body and the food I eat. So, I thought I would give another update to share where I am at now, 7 months (nearly 8) into my new lifestyle.

I DID SOMETHING FOR THE FIRST TIME

Going to the gym has only been something I have been doing for the last 3-4 months. Like many other people, the gym always felt like such an intimidating place, and it still does sometimes. I tend to go to the gym and do cardio there, because it’s getting far too cold to be doing running outside now.

Recently I went to the gym with my brother. He is all about lifting weights and has even won and taken part in some strong men competitions. I knew he would be the best person to help teach me the ropes when it comes to lifting weights. I lifted weights in the gym and even squatted 50kg. That probably doesn’t sound like alot, but for me it is. It’s more than how much I lifted but the fact I felt confident enough to do it.

I was so proud of myself. I can’t wait to do more weight lifting now I know what I’m doing!

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I GAINED WEIGHT

One thing I always told myself when I first started this was that I wasn’t going to get hung up on how much I weighed. After years of obsessing over my body weight and being upset if the scale showed I gained 1lb I knew I couldn’t go into this new lifestyle change with this mindset.

Over the last 2 weeks my online coach decided it was time for me to have a maintenance week. When you eat in a calorie deficit for so long, your body becomes used to it. It’s no longer a shock to your system. And after 7 months of eating that way, my body has become used to it and I wasn’t really losing weight anymore. So for 2 weeks I ate at my maintenance calories. Which is about 400 calories more each day. It sounds silly but I really struggled to add more food to my diet over those 2 weeks. My body became so used to eating the amount of calories I was eating that it didn’t need more. So adding more food to everyday was a struggle.

Naturally after I had finished the 2 weeks I weighed myself and saw I gained weight. But here’s the funny thing. I took a photo of my physique that morning and compared it to a picture of when I weighed less. I am smaller now that I weigh more than I was when I weighed less. And honestly I needed to be reminded of that. We can get so caught up in the numbers on the scale when actually they are not a true representation of us. I am at a point now though, that even if I weighed more and looked heavier from previous photos I wouldn’t stress or worry over it. It’s taken alot to get to that point.

Here is the photo! On the left I weighed less and on the right I weigh more. But clearly you can see that I am smaller. Proving that weight isn’t everything we think it is.

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FITNESS GOALS

Recently I hit one of my fitness goals, and I can’t believe I actually did it. Ever since I started running again I always wanted to be able to run 5km without stopping. And I DID IT! I had no intention of even doing it when I got to the gym, but I just felt like it was time. I have wanted to do it for the longest time, but never felt ready. Honestly, I needed a test to see what my fitness levels were like. If you think it was easy, make no mistake it wasn’t easy at all. It was probably one of the hardest, both mentally and physically things I have ever done. The feeling though when I finished it was unexplainable.

When I first started running again in April and wanting to become a healthier me, I could barely run 2km without needing to stop every couple of minutes. And now I’m running for 37 minutes without stopping? I couldn’t believe it. It felt like such an amazing milestone to hit. Now I just need to find what my next big goal is!

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PHYSIQUE UPDATE

I always like to add a physique update to these posts, as its important that I show the progress I am making. This is for you and for myself. I always like to remind myself how far I have come! To become a healthier me, I have to keep reminding myself of how far I have come.

It’s actually very surreal to me to see the picture of me on the left. I hardly remember what it felt like being that size. I look back at photos of myself from the beginning of the year and I am unrecognisable. It really doesn’t take long to completely change your life. So if you have been thinking of doing it, see this post as your sign. If I can, so can you.

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Did you enjoy the new a healthier me update? Thank you so much for the support and encouragement you send my way each time I post an update. Are you on your own health and fitness journey? I’d love to hear about it.

Olivia x 
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