People just don't want to know the truth about my transformation!

[camillarizzoli]

Last year after I developed a chronic health problem I decided to do a lot of research into health, nutrition and so on to try and cure myself as doctors told me to basically adjust to life with constant illness and just take tablets for the rest of my life. It was a lot of trial and error but over time I found that some things really do work and that it is simple really although it did require me to change my lifestyle completely. It really came down to eating really healthy, all home cooked food, loads of veggies, giving up drinking, reducing stress, exercising 5 days a week, getting plenty of sleep, water, down time, and meditation. After sticking with the program for about 12 weeks my health improved, I lost weight, my skin glowed and I felt alive for the first time since my early 20's. It has been great and the results really do motivate me to keep it up. My transformation is noticed by my friends and workmates and many of them have asked me what I did but when I tell them their faces fall and their eyes glaze over its like they just don't want to know. Its annoying for me because it was hard work but everyone seems to want to think it was a medication, or a supplement or shake diet or that I've had work done when it was really just changing the way I live from top to bottom. I feel like they don't really want to know the truth because its just to hard to really change your lifestyle and it is but once you do it you really would never go back because it feels so great. I woner if without my health problems if I would ever have bothered so maybe that is a big motivator.

Why are people so reluctant to make these fundamental changes to their lives, why does everyone seem to want a quick fix and then roll their eyes at anyone who does make the change?

Again everyone is assuming I must be going on and on about my weight loss in real life, I don't I really don't. I think I might come over as preachy in my writing but please remember I am upset about a real life situation.

I was a bit mean to Ginger but I do think she needs to sort herself out, I don't think she's looking after herself well enough.

My right foot, I do the exact same as you, the excat same detail and only say more if pressed. People can really do as they please but they do ask. I am fine with having a break from the diet, not a big mac cause I don't eat meat but I enjoy the odd slice of cake now and then!

I'm not a self imposed guru, why are you projecting on to me like this?

I for one am hugely interested and want the nitty gritty (no not the comb. Starts scratching)

1. How much sleep were you on before? What now? What changed? Sleep with / without night light. Black out curtains. How long before do you stop social media tv etc bedtime drink?
2. What exercise do you do 5x a week and where. Swim? Jog? Sit ups? How long for? What do the kids do?
3. How much is your weekly shop? Are your kids eating the same? Is it low carbing or raw food or recipes? Where from and what basic tools eg slow cooker did you need? Smoothie maker?
4. How long before all the above became habit/routine?
5. When did you first notice energy/physical changes?
6. If you could only do ONE of the things wt a time which would you pick first? What's made the buggest impact?
7. What are the kids doing whilst you meditate? How did you learn/ what resources did you use?

Many thanks in advance and well done you Xxx

Biggest not buggest

Getting Figgy with it: Here is what I did in breif!

1. I used to stay up late to get things done and maybe slept 4 -6 hours it was eratic all over the place, now I get 8 hours most nights.
2. I do yoga, and body resistance exercise turn about most days at home and cardio about 4 times a week just brisk walking outside or swimming for about an hour.
3. Weekly shop is about £100 or their abouts, My diet is vegetarian, lots of salads and uncooked fruit and veg but dinners are cooked. The main thing is lots of veggies and all cooked from scratch. I have a decent blender but I just use the hob and oven for cooking.
4. It took a couple of months to become a habit maybe.
5. I saw some benefits right away but it was a bit at a time and then after 12 weeks I realised wasn't getting sick anymore and was looking and feeling much better than I had in ages.
6. I think getting more sleep was the first step because being well rested made it easier to do everything else, meditation was also a big part of getting into the right mental state to make changes.
7. I learned TM at a workshop last year, that was the most I spent, it cost about £95. I ususally do it before the kids are up and then again later in the day when I get minute to myself.

Its super basic and cheap, as for the TM yes that cost a bit but if you google mantra meditation its the same thing and you can learn from video on youtube.

Oh sorry I missed some of what you asked for:
I usually get up to exercise when they are asleep or do it when my husband can mind them.
I do use black out binds in my bedroom and normally I am not really on the PC at night. I try to read in bed for a while before sleep. My kids eat more of less the same as me with the odd adjustment. My husband eats meat so he has the odd steak or bit of fish but he is happy to eat what we have most of the time.

A here, OP might sound a little holy-ier than though in here writing but i'd prefer to listen to OP than the language and tone of Gingers response.
Ginger, absolutely no need to slate the OP. Couldn't you use less offensive language and put your point accross without sounding like a right sour,bitchy, slightly jealous, sarky, immature, over the top, uptight poster.

hey maybe lay off the caffine and a bit of a diet change might calm you down.

Thank you. I need to get off my kindle and sleep Am stuck in a cosleeping ebf sahm rut whereby my exercise is running after the kids and my 'me' time is erm..now. But I am not doing myself any favours...
Do youhave complete blackout for sleep and are you cooking several times for diff members of the family? Ooh and how old are you (general guide I am in my early 40s Thanks again.

X-post

Figgy I am late 30's so in your age range. It can be tough stopping reading and put the light out but its make all the difference. I'm should be in bed now. I remember why I stay off the pc at night now!

cam i forgot to say well done on making those changes. if you are sure you are not preachy in rl, i can only assume your friends and workmates are only interested in quick fixes. if they're in their 30s they still are young enough to feel invincible. maybe you could start a blog on this? i would read it!

Ginger I am sorry you feel so bad about yourself and your health that you have to be so nasty to someone you have never met. I hope you can make some positive changes in your life, I am sure if you work on improving your health that you might less emotionally reactive. Even if you can't do it for yourself, do it for your baby. They deserve a stable, healthy mother who can help them to grow up healthy and well adjusted.

You come across as incredibly angry and hostile.

You get 8 hours sleep a night but didn't before because you needed to get things done. When are you getting those things done now? Bearing in mind that you are also taking an additional hour a day to exercise? (at least, I notice you are doing some in house exercise every day and some hour long out of the house stuff - where are the kids when you do this?)

Do you work?

How old are your children? Do they have activities that require taxi drivers/ chauffeurs? Do they wake in the night? (Am guessing not as you get a straight 8, and they are still asleep when you get up to do your in hiuse exercise?)

Does your husband work regular hours?

I did lol out loud at the holier than thou goji berry response, but am genuinely interested in how your lifestyle could work for someone with waking children, a husband that leaves the house at 6am, and who works ft with kids activities every night until 9.45pm.

I'm so used to making sure everyone else is getting their sleep and their exercise and that I can afford to pay for it, that I am generally too bollocksed to look after myself.

Saying 'get more sleep and less stress' is easier than doing it. As you appear to have done it, I am interested in how - what did you do to eliminate the list of 'stuff' to free up the time to exercise and sleep? In the margins around work?

I disagree that people glaze over because they 'know' already. I don't think they do know and/or don't want to know that its simple. There are loads of people who will take coke to feel clean alert and sharp but won't walk to work or just eat three good meals a day to get the same permanent effect. I know all this but was able to.forget it for three or four years perfectly easily.. even to be in denial about how often I went 'oh hummus and crisps.will do tonight'. I remember once when I had relearnt this telling an overweight flatmate that I was getting a real high on eating good mixed salads and she was really angry and said 'its not that don't be so stupid' before trying to feed me biscuits. Which is obv. what she did to herself say 'it can't be that obvious' and then eat crap.

It can sound pious but its really just sense isn't it. Well done though its harder than people think to get good habits.

What illness do you have?

It is fun, mind, to say 'I skin pop to keep my skin tight to my bones' in a sort of hollow whisper then say 'and my eyes are getting bigger' in a thin faraway voice as you stare past them and then quietly walk away.

op has already been asked chipping :)

isn't saying - for some reason

i would like to know too

Well, OP might find it too identifying to say what illness she has, depending on what it is.

I think OP that the posters saying that your workmates are just pissed off because it isn't a "quick fix" that they can access themselves have the right idea. People do generally understand the concept that sleeping enough, eating only good things, no alcohol or smoking and clean living will be beneficial - but most people don't want to do that. Most people want to live their lives the way they always have, but find a magic "pill" or "cure" to avoid the effects of their lifestyles. They don't want to have to change their lifestyle.

An e.g. - I changed my way of eating about 15 years ago now, to avoid certain foods that upset my digestion, including wheat and tomatoes and a few others. My IBS symptoms disappeared, my acid reflux went, my migraines reduced hugely - I felt heaps better. Didn't lose weight but just looked and felt better (lost the baggy black sacks under my eyes too!).
My sister asked - I told her what I'd done - she still has IBS, still has acid reflux, still has bad skin and huge baggy black sacks under her eyes - but she won't change her diet because it's too hard for her. She "can't" give up bread, apparently. So she resents my change, because underneath she feels - I don't know, weak? guilty? angry? - that she can't make it herself.
We've had a few discussions about it but nothing changes while she won't "deprive" herself of the foods she enjoys too much, that might be hurting her.

You mentioned upthread that your reply lasts a minute, that's really long. Like someone else said just say diet and exercise.

A few years ago I lost a few stone with a low carb plan. A woman in work constantly hounded me for answers to how I did it. But when I'd tell her agreed t ask again the next time as if she didn't know. She didn't listen because it was boring. So the next time she asked I just said I'll email you the plan. And every time after that I just said that and nothing else. She eventually left me alone.

Try something like that. If people talk btw let them.

lol at better health , I'm a 24 year old ex British champion in my sport, I enjoy a happy healthy lifestyle, it's taken a swerve with a 25week old baby admittedly. My mental health is also in good order, guranteed if people stood us next to eachother it wouldn't be you they'd think looked better . now that's smug!!

Good grief, why so mean to the OP?

Wow quite a few posters being harsh here.

OP, i have a friend who has done something similar. I admit that i have now blocked her feeds on Facebook as i can read no more... and not only is the information there on her daily routine, they now include a photo of her wearing the smallest bikini or the wearing shorts sized up for a 4 year old...

And god forbid someone ask how it is that she is looking so good.......... its attention seeking behaviour. People just ask to be polite, expecting a short brief answer, not a long schpiel on your new lifestyle and changes.

Yes i am happy for her, she looks great and clearly feels good. But we don't all want to know about it all the time and in such detail.....

I got told I had mental health issues in a round about way .