How to Lose Weight and Get In Great Shape During The Coronavirus Quarantine.
Worried About Gaining Weight During Coronavirus Quarantine?
I have never seen as much conversation online about losing weight, not gaining weight, and getting fit, as I have recently around the Coronavirus Quarantine situation. More people are concerned that they’ll gain a ton of weight during quarantine/work from home time than they are around the holiday season.
I get it. Perhaps it’s because none of us know when the quarantine/stay at home situation will be loosened. So we don’t know when our lives will get back to some degree of “normalcy”.
Here’s the thing. Why make that a contingency? Why not just accept that things are the way they are now- and assume it’s going to be a while, and adjust and adapt NOW? Why waste time bitching and moaning about it? What’s the point of lamenting about how much you miss the gym? Why whine that now you have to cook your meals?
Look at this as an opportunity. Because it is an opportunity.
It's time to change your perspective on the Coronavirus Quarantine.
This is a crazy time of uncertainty– but it truly is an opportunity. I’ll publish another blog post about this coming up- but when I look back on my life, all of the ROUGHEST TIMES I’ve endured have produced the greatest changes and transformations in me. And – because I have weathered a lot of storms in the past, guess what? Stuff like Coronavirus Quarantine and job losses and economic concerns don’t phase me. I’ve been here. I’ve come out of other tsunamis of change, and I was and am better for it.
Stop looking at all you’ve lost and think about the OPPORTUNITY HERE.
If you have been on a fitness journey for a while– stop bitching about not having your gym. Learn to get creative with your workouts- working out from home can be just as killer as the gym, trust me. And – sure- you miss your fit-friends and your spin class and yoga- and they miss you- but perhaps the solitude you have now will give you time to start focusing on self-care and stress reduction. We all can benefit from SLOWING DOWN in our lives and just being STILL and QUIET.
Why not finally adopt that practice of meditation you’ve read so much about? You have TIME.
For those that haven’t been on a fitness journey before– stop thinking that it’s just because you are “stuck at home” that you have a threat of gaining weight. If you are worried about THAT, it is an indicator that you are an emotional eater or a binge eater perhaps or that you have issues controlling yourself around food (you are not alone!!!! At all!!)– that’s an issue you WANT TO learn to deal with because doing so will enable you to succeed in the future- regardless of your environment.
So- no matter what– having extra TIME and perhaps more SOLITUDE- is a good thing. Embrace it because it can work in your favor. Don’t you want that?
I’ve said to my friends and family that I’m using this time when I can’t go out with friends, can’t take clients out to eat, can’t go on vacation etc. to pretend I’ve registered myself at a fabulous exclusive fitness resort. You know the ones we read celebrities go to- where they are only fed fit/healthy meals that are in a specific diet/caloric range and they are literally “forced” to diet because they have zero control over the environment.
Hmm. Kind of like all of us to some degree in the quarantine situation. You no longer can say “Oh it’s so hard at work to stick to a diet when there’s always birthday cake for someone or someone’s kid selling Girl Scout Cookies” or, “I always have to entertain clients and it’s hard to not participate in the good food“- guess what, you are home alone and no one will pressure you to eat BADLY.
Embrace it.
Quit your bitchin and start LIFTING.
DIET FIRST. Clean up your thinking about DIET.
I heard for years, probably decades, how important your diet is for losing weight. And the truth is, after I’d been “into fitness” for a while, I got cocky — it’s easy to do. You get to that point where you think you are a level above the average consumer who is eating at McDonald’s every day or going to happy hour with their work friends (in non-coronavirus times of course)- and you KNOW BETTER. To some degree, you do. You know a lot of INFORMATION. Big whoop.
My biggest mistake in the past was paying way too much attention to the irrelevant diet factoids- and obsessing about them, and ignoring the most basic but most important diet facts.
I talk about the HUGE WAKE-UP CALL I had around the holidays in 2019 about Caloric Deficit – in this 3-part series- CLICK HERE TO LISTEN. It’s a good amount of time but worth it trust me, because if you can wrap your head around why you’ve failed in the past (focused on the wrong things) and how you can succeed in the future (focus on the right things)- then all that’s left to do is a develop a plan and follow it. (If that didn’t do it for you- here is another series I did on the similar issue at hand for so many women- I address all the bitching that women do about losing weight and all that the don’t do- that they need to do in order to get past the plateau and start dropping pounds: CLICK HERE to dive in.)
So, hopefully you’ve listened to that series where I talked in great detail about the importance of CALORIE DEFICIT ABOVE ALL ELSE.
Let me save you months of wasted time. If you do nothing else during this quarantine time, if you ONLY count calories and ensure you stay at or under your caloric deficit window- you will drop pounds.
Don’t delude yourself with all the bullshit that’s out there about “being in starvation mode”- name one person you know who was eating nothing and stayed super fat. I can reference several times when I got very very thin- one time was during mono- I couldn’t keep food of any kind down for like 3 weeks. And it took a while to be able to eat a reasonable amount of food when I was better. Did I “store fat”? NOPE. I lost a ton of weight. Damaged my kidneys too because I was dehydrated AF.
When you’ve been super sick for a long time and throwing up- do you gain weight? Nope. This whole “your body will go into starvation mode and hold on to fat” is a lie I followed for way too long. It’s really an excuse to EAT. We like to EAT. I LOVE TO EAT. And it’s because I love to eat that if I want to lose weight, I need to BE ON A DIET.
You want to lose weight? You need to DIET. But wait- before you bounce off this blog post, you owe it to yourself to keep reading. Trust me.
People have bashed dieting for so long- even saying “oh you can’t say the word DIET without the word DIE in it!” – I choose to say you can’t say the word diet without the word TIDE in it- and TIDE is a detergent used for cleaning so let’s CLEAN UP YOUR MINDSET ABOUT DIETING shall we?
Dieting is a STRATEGY. That’s all. Dieting doesn’t have to be about sending you into a time period of sheer denial of all pleasurable food and drink.
Dieting is a strategy you employ to trick your mind…yea, just keep your mindset in the right STATE….so you STAY THE PATH– because the only way to lose weight is to 1) get into a caloric deficit and 2) stay in a caloric deficit for a set amount of time (staying the path) – thus losing weight and then moving into maintenance mode.
DID YOU READ THAT– we are not supposed to be dieting year-round!! Far from it. But how many of you ladies find yourself saying “I’ve been dieting FOREVER and it doesn’t work!”– if you have been at it forever you have not been DIETING. You haven’t been doing a DIET.
Why Clean Eating Is NOT a Way to Lose Weight.
Let me summarize why a lot of people THINK they are dieting but aren’t. You see this photo above? Most would look at this and say this lady is eating healthy- she probably has a delicious healthy protein bowl topped with fruit and granola and some mint leaves, all organic of course.
She’s eating perfectly right?
Maybe.
But if this is an afternoon SNACK (and if you want to read why I am now definitely NOT for snacking – READ THIS POST— A great jumpstart to your weight loss plan- stop snacking), and then this lady had an epic whole foods breakfast and a lovely sushi dinner– she could STILL- potentially (not guaranteed) – be NOT losing weight or maybe even gaining weight.
What?? Gasp!! Yea. NEWSFLASH: you can gain weight eating all “whole foods”. you can gain weight being vegan. you can gain weight doing the Mediterranean Diet. you can gain weight eating like the Japanese do. you can gain weight…even if you only shop at Whole Foods.
If you eat too much, OF ANYTHING, and do it consistently- you’ll either stay at the same weight (that’s been my jam the past several years) or you’ll GAIN WEIGHT.
Here is the GREAT NEWS: ALTERNATIVELY– if you eat LESS (i.e. in a caloric deficit) OF ANYTHING, and do it consistently- you’ll LOSE weight.
like magic!
Only not. It’s science. It’s simply listening to science, and applying a strategy to get to a plan to achieve a desired result.
Change your mindset about DIET. You need to be on a diet, a calorically reduced diet if you want to lose weight.
And guess what- just like we say about the coronavirus quarantine– if everyone would just suck it up and stay home- like REALLY STAY HOME– the faster we all REALLY STAY HOME AND ISOLATE= the faster we can get back to life as we kind of knew it.
With weight loss- the sooner you understand that you GOTTA DIET– and that means dealing with some hunger pangs and not immediately stuffing your face to quell the hunger pangs (news flash: you won’t starve and you won’t die)–and the sooner you just DO IT- (start today whether it’s Sunday or Wednesday or Friday- who cares?) – the sooner you will LOSE WEIGHT!! Cut your calories to a reasonable caloric deficit– DIET LIKE YOU MEAN IT for x amount of time so you can get back to life as you once knew it— soon!! (and yes I’ll do a whole post on how to transition from diet mode to maintenance mode because that phase is just as hard as dieting….don’t kid yourself, but it’s so worth it!!!!)
Don’t worry about carbs. Don’t go keto. Don’t “just cut out packaged foods”. Don’t “just focus on eating more fruits and vegetables.”- these are all lines I hear all the time from the perpetual “I can’t lose weight” whiny women. I was one of them. Not now. I’m down 3lbs already in my first week.
IF YOU WANT ME TO HELP YOU, fill out the contact me form= I’m happy to make workout and diet recommendations and help you get into a caloric deficit plan.
How to choose the best workout program for you, in order to lose weight.
Want to know a secret?
People tend to obsess a lot when it comes to fitness. About their diet and nutrition- and about workouts. They fall for (Like I did in the past) all the myths floating around in the media about the ultimately perfect workout — when to do it (fasted first thing in the morning or mid-day after a perfectly balanced carb/protein/fat meal) or at night blah blah blah), how long to do it, and what kind of workout is “optimal for fat loss”.
Guess what?
All workouts can be great for getting you healthy.
If you focus so hard on getting your diet right- as stated above– then you have the beautiful opportunity to choose from all the billions of different movement options out there–simple or complex– based on what you LIKE, not based on what some douchebag trainer (that’s not a dig on trainers at all but there are some who think they know all things better than ANYONE and that’s never true) said is “optimal”.
Guess what- you can even start losing weight BY WALKING. Yea walking. In fact one of my top recommendations for anyone reading this post ESPECIALLY during this quarantine time- TRY TO GET 10K STEPS IN A DAY. My man and I do that and we go for a power walk, even inside the interior halls of our apartment community when it’s raining like today — every day. It’s fantastic exercise.
If you love kickboxing don’t let anyone tell you it’s too much cardio and that you should only do strength training. If you love Yoga- go crazy with yoga. The key is- find workouts you ENJOY. That’s what’ll keep you doing it when you are tired and don’t “feel like it” and again — if you DIET LIKE A BOSS, the workouts are frosting on the imaginary cupcake here.
Check out this post I wrote with my TOP 10 BEST HOME WORKOUT RECOMMENDATIONS AND MY TOP 20 BEST HOME GYM EQUIPMENT RECOMMENDATIONS— because during Coronavirus Quarantine– we gotta sweat at home right? Again, use the contact me form, as I’m a Beachbody Coach and happy to help you pick a program that you’ll love and I can help you get yourself on a killer caloric deficit plan that lets you have 1-2 cheat days a week and still lose weight– it’s what I’m doing.
LET ME BE CLEAR. Both with diet and workouts- yes- down the road if you want to level up and say, compete in fitness or if have specific aesthetic goals or want to hit a crazy enviable body fat percentage– that’s when you level up your DIET (probably start paying attention to MACROS and such- eating more protein maybe manipulating carbs etc.) and your TRAINING– to achieve more specific goals.
What I’ve shared in this post is about making getting to our goal weight ACHIEVABLE vs. being this elusive dream. By no means do I suggest that we can’t level up once we get into a weight loss groove– like anything we can always IMPROVE.
What am I doing RIGHT NOW to lose weight during coronavirus quarantine?
Right now I am doing the diet plan I developed after listening to Jordan Syatt’s YouTube videos on caloric deficit. (Listen to my podcast interview with him HERE)
My weight loss goal is to hit 138 pounds as that was the last weight I remember where I felt REALLY GOOD. I have been guessing that I’m 20-25lbs overweight for the past year or so- just based on where I can pinch fat and how much thicker my core region is. A lot of people think I am fitter than I am- remember I was unable to work out last year in any consistent manner from June 2019-January 2020 due to chronic headaches and migraines. (click here to read how I got past that nightmare) During that time I lost a lot of muscle and gained fat. I just recently started weighing myself this week – and I was 2lbs less than I was when I was weighed at my neurologist’s office)– then I was 161 and earlier this week I was 159, yesterday I was 158. So I’m down 3lbs, 20 to go– !!
I plan to keep weighing myself daily and to share my views of the scale on social media– as a transparency and accountability measure because for the first time in a WHILE- I REALLY FEEL I WILL HIT MY GOAL. Knowing what I know NOW about caloric deficit and how I have NOT been in a caloric deficit- I now KNOW I can do what I need to do from a diet perspective and nail this. Let’s do it together!!
I aim for 1600 calories daily and I am CURRENTLY doing a plan where I use 2 MRP Shakes (meal replacement shakes) a day- one snack in between (normally not a fan of snacking but when really dieting like this and using MRP shakes, you almost need to snack) and then dinner. I cycle my calories– so some days I do 1600 calories and some days I do 1400 calories. Starting next week I’ll be integrating again- one cleanse/24-hour fast a week (I use cleanse support tools from Isagenix like Collagen Bone Broth and this 10 calorie all natural energy drink during my 24-hour fast plus their cleanse product– I’m a rep for the brand so if you want to order just PM Me using the contact form). By cycling my calories and doing a cleanse day – that lets me have a cheat day on Fridays where I do 2500 calories- bam! I can drink adult beverages, have pasta or pizza whatever– sometimes I don’t use all 2500 calories on Friday so I move the extra to Saturdays. This is how you make DIETING WORK FOR YOU. When I’m on a low calorie day I just remind myself of Blueberry Cucumber Martinis on Friday night with wings on Saturday….it works. 😉
For workouts I am taking things in a new direction. I’ve always done best when I train with a trainer but since we are quarantined, no can do. Who cares? What I am doing is also changing my workout at home thing. I rejoined Beachbody- not only as a customer but as a coach because I think other than Cathe Friedrich they have the best workouts online- some seriously tough training. And for the first time EVER I am going all in and doing a PROGRAM– before I used to always mix and match- I have never done a full on PROGRAM. Right now I chose LIFT4 and I’m doing that for the next 60 days– you LIFT hard and heavy every other day and on the off days I’m doing cardio workouts or yoga of choice.
I’m fired up actually.
So-= what other questions can I answer? MOST IMPORTANTLY who is ready to join me??
I encourage you to contact me if you want me to help you customize a Caloric Deficit plan with calorie cycling that lets you have weekly cheat days– and I can make workout recommendations and nutrition product recommendations – like I’m using- to help. Further– join my free FB accountability group for women: A YEAR OF YOU FIRST. Isn’t it about time??