Eleanor Neale's weight loss journey has resonated with many, inspiring others to embark on their own paths to healthy eating and sustainable living. Her story is a testament to the power of hard work, dedication, and a holistic approach to wellness.
The Beginning: Self-Doubt and the Desire for Change
Like many, Eleanor Neale began feeling self-doubtful and impatient as she struggled to see any visible progress, becoming discouraged quickly. Prior to beginning, Eleanor was extremely overweight and didn't know where or how to begin losing weight.
Small Steps, Big Impact: Eleanor's Approach
Eleanor’s weight loss journey started slowly and with small steps over time. She began with mindful eating - decreasing portion sizes and cutting back on junk food consumption - followed by regular walks and eventually running. Eleanor avoided fad diets or counting calories by fueling her body with nutritious food sources instead.
Eating Habits: Fueling the Body with Nutritious Foods
Eleanor focused on eating nutritious, protein-rich meals while keeping calorie intake relatively low and cutting down sugar intake. A main problem is that people eat too little during the day and then eat bigger portions at dinner. Most often, dinner is made up of food that is high in sugar and/or is processed. My advice is to eat at least 2 healthy, balanced meals during working hours and plan for 1 to 2 snacks to avoid being super hungry at dinnertime.
Exercise Regime: From Walking to More Intense Workouts
Eleanor Neale’s exercise program was instrumental to her successful weight loss journey. She committed herself to go walking regularly for shorter distances at first and gradually increased this by increasing distance gradually over time. Eleanor also focused on simple exercises like squats, lunges, and planks in her routines. As Eleanor began seeing results, her motivation increased to work harder and strive for more drastic changes. She also began devoting more time to her exercise.
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Celebrating Success: A Journey of Appreciation
Eleanor celebrated her success, which resulted in the weight loss of sixty pounds, to this day. Through her journey, she discovered an appreciation for simple, healthy living which included susttainable lifestyle choices. And within just a few months, she had already experienced remarkable improvements, both physically and mentally. She had successfully lost weight and was beginning to regain her confidence in herself. Eleanor Neale’s incredible weight loss before and after story was inspiring for many, sposoring otthers to find their own journey to healthy eatting an living they can sustain long-term.
Overcoming Challenges and Maintaining Motivation
At times, it was frustrating when it seemed that there were no results, no matter how healthy she was eating or how hard she was training. It didn’t help that the scale didn’t seem to be on her side either. I realized with the help of my social media friends that sometimes you need to take a step back and appreciate how far you have come. Even something small as not binge-eating or being able to exercise an extra 15 minutes without feeling as if you are not going to make it is something to be proud of.
Social Media as a Tool for Support and Accountability
In this day and age, social media is a powerful tool that can be utilized in positive ways to aid you in your weight loss journey. Social media has provided me with a community of people who not only supports me, but also holds me for my results. Since I built up a loyal and supportive online community, I am confident that I am able to help others achieve their dreams and change their lifestyle for the better. My first social media success. I received so many good comments and feedback from friends and people I had never met before. I got over 500 likes across my social media accounts. This is when my followers started to pay attention and take me a bit more seriously. I realised how getting support through social media and creating a new community during my journey was important. I don’t have the opportunity to see my family very often so I feel like I have created a new family and friends through social media.
Long-Term Sustainability and the Importance of Consistency
A sustainable weight loss and body transformation journey takes time; ideally up to a year depending on your starting point and how much weight you have to lose. Don’t wait until you have reached your final goal to start appreciating and loving who you are. Unfortunately, losing weight is a long process and trying to do it quickly won’t do you any favours. Quick fixes and fad diets are temporary solutions. We have all probably tried a quick fix at least once. I have done many of them, failed, and put all the weight (and some extra) back on again. Give yourself plenty of time to be consistent. A successful entrepreneur once said, “Simple things done consistently and over time leads to amazing results.” To me, this is the BEST approach, always. I thought that I could eat peanut butter and bread while training for a marathon; overindulging (even though I was training hard at the time) leads to putting weight back on. It is good to be mindful that it is a long journey and its ups and downs. I have made mistakes, so will you.
The Importance of Understanding Your Relationship with Food
When people ask me to give them advice on losing weight, I first try to understand where they are coming from and what triggers them to eat food that isn’t good for them. The reason for this is because I first needed to understand my relationship with food before I was able to change my eating habits.
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Meal Preparation and Planning
For the first two years of my journey, I used to train about 4 to 5 times a week. This year, I have been exercising twice a day, 6 days a week. You can see that I don’t have the time in the week to prepare and cook meals, so I take Sundays to do this. A lot of people struggle to cook their own meals for lunch and/or dinner, so they end up buying meals and/or snacks from a deli or whatever place is most convenient that day. I used to be like that. I would buy my meals every day from the canteen. I have been in the workforce for 21 years, and until 2014, I was too lazy to prepare and bring my own lunch to work. In September 2014, I started to cook my own lunch every day. I didn’t have a choice, as I was a fulltime student; my tiny budget didn’t allow me to buy food every day. One of my favourite dish back in 2014 that I learned from my instructor :home made mince meat pizza. the base is made of mince meat and topped with aubergine cheese onions and tomatoes.
Healthy Eating Tips for Success
It won’t be smooth sailing at first, and going forward, you learn what food works best for you. Remember that natural ingredients are always best: veggies, fruit, lean and fresh meat, fish, nuts and whole grains. Try to always substitute unhealthy food with healthier versions. That way it doesn’t look like you are trying to restrict yourself too much and you can enjoy the changes you are making in your life. For this rule, you need to eat as healthy as you can during the week, and then you can have a cheat meal or two (no more!) on the weekend. For the first two years of my weight loss journey, I would stick as closely as I could to “eating clean” from Monday to Friday and then have treats on the weekend. There were times that I overindulged on the weekends especially when I was training for marathons, thinking that the exercise would burn it off anyways. home made protein healthy muffins used to be for my week ends. Although all the ingredients fit into my program I would have them in the week end so that i had something nice to look forward.
Seeking Professional Guidance
There is no harm in reaching out for help and working with a professional who will design a personal plan that is adapted to your needs. There isn’t a perfect, one-size-fits-all “diet” or lifestyle out there for everyone. Even though I am a certified personal trainer, I have always worked with a professional for guidance and motivation. If it is hard to find the motivation to pick up a sport and stick to it by yourself, doing it with someone else will motivate you. There are a million reasons to cancel a training session, but if there is someone else that does the activity with you, then it is a bit more difficult to cancel, as you would let that other person down, too. This is why I love competing, because it gives me a goal to work towards and keeps me further motivated to train every day of the week.
The Power of Team Building and Support
Up until I completed my second Hell & back race with a group, I hadn’t realised how powerful team building was. Crossing that finish line with my co-workers whom I consider as my friends at this stage, was magical. It took the whole Hell & Back experience to another level. We get along really well and we are close at the office but this event brought us even closer. During the toughest challenges and obstacles, we all stuck together as a team. Although my first Race was very special to me since I had never done such a tough obstacles race before, the second one will always have a special place in my heart. The Hell & Back Titan is shorter in distance -7km, compared to the Apollo which was 12 km. Both races are difficult regardless of the distance. One of the new obstacles was the sack race which brought us way back to the time we were kids. We all had a grin on our faces when we were hopping and laughing in our sacks. It’s only a short distance but it can be quite intense. I was out of breath afterwards. Thank God I wasn’t the only one. After seeing the child’s game we weren’t expecting it to be so difficult. Everyone was taken by surprise and felt how tough it actually was. One of our favourite moments is when Xav ended up stuck in the mud for about 10 minutes, to be fair at that stage we were all exhausted. It took 4 strong men to help him out of the swamp☺ When asking him if he was fine, as we started getting worried, he replied with his famous Xav quote ’’Well guys, I am stuck’’. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures to illustrate this memorable moment however the thought of it will always be stuck in my mind. “The Hell &Back was an amazing experience altogether. I had certainly foreseen the physical exertion and knew we were going to have fun (yes, we are big kids rolling in the mud). Still, I had underestimated the team spirit that bound us for four hours. Sure, we had said we would help each other, but we really stuck together as one through hell, which is why we all made it back with huge banana smiles across our faces. It was all about pushing, waiting, helping, pulling, dragging and motivating. And all these “little” things only made the whole experience even better for me, tripling the amount of fun I had as I didn’t miss a single slip/fall/splash of my teammates. Alienor really summed up the feelings we all had during the event and after crossing the finish line. The term “team building” has become a buzzword in recent years, and has many meanings. In terms of corporate development, team-building exercises are important not only for the immediate experience of the activities performed by the team, but also for the group, communication and bonding skills that result. Team-building programmes provide realistic experiences that empower individuals to contribute to common goals. The main goals of team-building are to improve productivity and motivation. Taking employees out of the office helps groups break down political and personal barriers, eliminate distractions, and have fun.
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