My Weight loss Journey as a Dietitian
Written By Nadia Fathinia
I have previously written about my journey with my body image and disordered eating – if you haven’t read that blog post yet, it is probably important context (but also not essential) - click here to check it out. Long story short: I likely had undiagnosed anorexia nervosa, was eating way too little and exercising way too much.
Although my relationship with food had improved a lot since then, in the pursuit of improving it I also gained a lot of weight. My heaviest I was about 79kg (I am 165cm). For me, at 79kg I felt uncomfortable. A few things that contributed to this: I was eating too many sweets, having too many big weekends and not moving my body enough. These all seem like obvious things to fix, but considering I was just coming out of a period where I wouldn’t allow myself to do those things or I would beat myself up if I failed to be perfect, eating those desserts or skipping those workouts was the right thing at the time for me.
Once I decided it was time to lose some weight, boy did I struggle. I knew exactly what to do (it’s my job so I knew all the steps), but executing them was really tough. I think part of me was scared that I would go back to my old ways. I dreaded going to the gym because I used to torture myself there. I didn't know how to reduce sweets without completely cutting them out. And that restriction in the past led to me binging on a whole family pack of MnMs and then repeating the cycle. It was all or nothing and I didn’t know how to navigate they grey.
Then I thought, what if I didn’t try to lose weight? It sounds counterintuitive that not focusing on weight loss may lead to weight loss, but... Once I shifted my focus from weight loss to health improvement, it felt less daunting to do it perfectly and I was able to better manage the ‘grey space’ that is health. I finally lost weight by changing how I thought:
® Instead of thinking of the gym as a means for weight loss, I started thinking about how strong I could become. 0 days per week has now turned into 4-5/week, and I can now barbell squat my body weight, whereas before I could only squat 40kg.
® Instead of restricting my sweets, I focused on getting my nutrients through fruit first, and maybe pairing it with a little bit of chocolate if I felt like it. Fruit a few times a week turned into twice a day and I became more mindful of it I actually wanted a sweet or not.
® Instead of sitting on my phone after work to destress, I would go for a walk with my partner and debrief about our days. Extra movement went from 0 to over 100 minutes per week and we definitely became closer.
It was a lot of little changes that happened over time. Probably would have been easier if I was seeing a dietitian... after all they do say doctors are the worst patients. I could help hundreds of people but not myself?? Make it make sense! Any who, I got there in the end and my health journey is still going. Allowing some flexibility meant that my process was slower but didn’t make my day to day too difficult to manage.
After going from 55kg to 79kg, over the past 2 years I am now down to 70kg and have increased my muscle mass by 2kg in 6 months. But really, the numbers are just a side effect. My real achievements are:
· Better cardiovascular health (I used to only be able to run 800m, now I can run 10km)
· Improved strength (upped the weights and reps across the board at the gym)
· Better nutrition (higher fibre and micronutrients, lower added sugar)
· Better sleep
· Better bowels
At the end of the day, your loved ones won’t remember you for your body or your number on the scale. They will remember your laugh, your actions, your words and your achievements.
Written by Nadia Fathinia ( Accredited Practising Dietitian)
If the pursuit of your dream body is a nightmare then it’s not really a dream body
If you have any questions about Nadia’s weight loss journey, please feel free to reach out to Nadia Directly on diet2@wardnutrition.health. Or if you would like some help with your own journey, email admin@wardnutrition.health, call 5343 1919, or book an appointment online here.