How She Did It In Just 12 Months
Rebel Wilson the Aussi comic actress who rose to fame being known for her iconic Pitch Perfect character Fat Amy, decided that 2020 was going to be her ‘Year of Health’.
She went on to lose almost 80lb of bodyweight and shared her journey on her Instagram account.
Celebrity weight loss tactics can often be questionable at best. Take Kim Kardashian for example, who just this week claimed to lose 16lb in three weeks by eating only tomatoes to fit into a dress!!! I placed that last phrase in italics in the hope that you can tell how hard I am rolling my eyes at this fact. She is a woman that has unlimited resources, just buy a damn dress that fits her beautiful hourglass body instead of having to shrink herself to fit into something. Sigh!!We Need To Talk About Kim Kardashians Extreme Met Gala Crash Diet
Or Do We?emmacolseynicholls.medium.com
These types of weight-loss tactics, or borderline eating disorders we DONT need to be celebrated, as they can be incredibly damaging to young influential fans that follow her every footstep.
Come on Kim, do better.
Moving onto Rebel, her health journey is something I want to write about. As a coach, I love so much about the way Rebel approached her health improvements. From her reasons why she went down this journey to how she went about it and working around the theme of health first approach.
The Why
First off let’s look at the reason why she wanted to lose weight as I believe this is a huge part of anyone’s weight loss journey. To know why you want to lose weight, and not just some surface-level why (i.e to fit into a bloody dress), but a deep-rooted reason(to prioritise your health for longevity).
During her interview with the BBC Rebel says
“I want the message to be about health, and not some weird beauty standard”
At the age of 40, she had been experiencing fertility issues, which the doctor had advised could be related to her weight. This became one of the driving factors that brought about her 2020 ‘Year Of Health’.
It was more than just how she looked. In fact, she loved how she looked when she was bigger, she was already confident in her body and who she was, she was already successful, she had already ‘made it’, but she knew that deep inside some of the emotional eating behaviours that she had (like eating a tub of ice cream each night) was not really all that healthy.
The How — Physically, Nutritionally & Emotionally
“My goal was never to be skinny,” she explained. “I don’t focus too much on the numbers. I still look like me. I love being curvy and I’m still super curvy but just a healthier version. That was my goal.” she told People.
As we get into the how of her journey, I feel it’s important to remind you that we are all indeed different. There is no one right way when it comes to weight loss. Take from these ideas what you can, apply them to your life and notice how you feel and what works for you.
Here are the steps she took as she explained on an Instagram live that she did in November 2020:
Walking
Her biggest secret to weight loss was just walking. She would aim to walk for an hour a day.
I think people underestimate the power of a simple walk when it comes to weight loss. Many studies on walking have shown it can significantly increase fat loss.
Rebel talks about how walking is safe, it’s free and anyone can get started. She would stick on a podcast or a motivational audiobook and head out the door. It’s become her favourite thing to do.
Other Training
Her other training consisted of interval training, though not her favourite and then also lifting weights. She especially loves the feeling of strength and empowerment that lifting weights brings.
In all, she was training 6 days per week, but some of those days were just walking.
High Protein Diet
What she found worked well for her was upping her protein intake. It cause her to eat more mindfully, slow down and noticed how full she felt when she was eating. Making smarter food swaps without being too drastic. She was mainly vegetarian before but would now opt for chicken, and salmon when eating out and have lots of vegan protein smoothies at home too.
Water
Aiming for around 2–3l a day she would notice just how much more energy she would have too.
Embrace Imperfection
One of the key things I heard her talk about in many videos and articles was that she wasn’t perfect along the way. She wasn’t super strict, didn’t completely cut out anything and she really worked on balancing health with some of the fun things too, and I really love this approach.
If it’s ever going to be sustainable it has to be balanced.
Accountability
This was behind her decision of making her health journey public on social media because she wanted some external accountability to support her with sticking to her goals.
Breaking The Cycle Of Emotional Eating
She wanted to be free from the emotional side of her weight and the emotional eating that had become her own personal vice.
Doing this work doesn’t mean the emotional triggers have gone away, the old patterns still come up. But she is now so much more aware of them and is better able to manage them.
She came to realise that those behaviours were about leaving herself to last, not valuing herself or treating herself with the love and respect that she truly deserves.
Purge emotional writing was a powerful tool that helped her with this. She explains that this is about cleansing yourself of emotions by writing them down, get them all out onto paper. It’s being able to process emotions instead of eating to try and numb them, this was a big part of being able to break the cycle.
Conclusion
What really stands out for me as a coach, and why this time she has been able to maintain the weight so far, is that she hit the trifecta of what it takes to achieve weight loss. It takes changes physically, nutritionally and emotionally.
To create a calorie deficit through movement and food, but also eating the right foods to balance your body hormonally. Then also shifting the mindset and managing emotional eating patterns too.
She also approached her journey from a place of self-care rather than a place of self-loathing. You cannot hate yourself healthy, it just doesn’t work.
“You have been criticizing yourself for years and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.” — Louise Hay
Rebel Wilson was already an incredible role model, talented and successful and it’s beautiful to see her sharing her journey openly, honestly and in a way that can inspire more women to improve their health for the benefits of being healthier and happier and not just trying to fit into a dress for an event.
She also gave herself a year to work on this, and which I’m sure is ongoing too, rather than just another crash diet that would see her bounding back.
Though rebel has had the time and the resources to be able to make this significant change to her health, I hope this article serves to show what can be possible with some fairly straightforward strategies.
What’s your biggest takeaway from Rebels’ weight loss journey? Let me know in the comments
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