I’m super proud of everyone I’ve worked with as an online coach so far this year, from improved gym numbers across the board to finding greater freedom with their food choices to, of course, incredible self-confidence and body image changes too.
Laura and I have been working together on a weight loss programme for six weeks now and, based on her menstrual cycle, decided in this last week to half her training volume and take calories back up to maintenance.
Now, having personally struggled with body confidence when gaining weight, I know how [insert a better word than “scary” haha] the idea of increasing calories when you’re trying to lose weight can feel.
And yet, the reasons we did it were sound – injury risk tends to go up and recoverability and energy (and mood) tend to go down in the (late) luteal phase – plus, Laura had anyway been losing weight at a quicker rate than projected and (perhaps because) she’d been training with increasing intensity each week. It was time for a break.
And do you know what happened?
Laura managed to get more time with her dog, go to social events, eat more food and (from what I’ve heard!) enjoy it and guess what? Her average weight has not changed week on week.
Two things happened here.
First, by being accountable to me with how her training and diet and experience of both were going, we were able to figure out what Laura needed to have energy for life and for work and to still lose weight.
Second, Laura trusted the process, so that, even though more food sounded scary, we actually could show through experience and data how much she can eat, based on how much she moves, to maintain whatever weight she decides feels best for her.
Next week, we return to new movements and new micro-goals from a place of rest and contentment and, clearly, meaningful results.
There are levels to sustainable and healthy weight loss, and I’m in awe of how Laura’s tackled them.
