Diana Kaldoja

With Christmas just, a few short weeks away our minds are occupied with shopping, Christmas parties, plans for the big day, and of course all the delicious food and drink that comes with it. As women we are also bombarded with countless adverts for diets, gyms, and faddy shake-diets that all promise to help us “drop a dress size before Christmas”. This combined with the dreaded New Year’s resolutions that we are expected to make, puts an undue amount of pressure on us to fit into our jeans, or that sparkly little Christmas party number, can often make the most wonderful time of the year seem a little daunting.

But amongst all these diets that promise us the world, and fitness regimes that tell us we will resemble a supermodel after just six weeks, there is very little focus on our underlying health. After all, the key to a true transformation is something that is sustainable and that can become a part of our lifestyles, not just a quick fix option. We have become lazy in our pursuit of the perfect figure, and we have forgotten that being skinny doesn’t necessarily equate to being healthy, and we give little thought to what negative side affects crash dieting might have on our overall health.

These radical steps to lose those kilos- shakes, Atkins diets, 50:20 diets, pills, and nutrition plans written by a personal trainer with no formal nutrition-related education- are all counterproductive. Yes, you may lose weight in the short term, but the moment you switch back to a more normal lifestyle, the pounds will come creeping back on. Furthermore, many of these plans are designed just to make money, and often lack the basic nutritional requirements that you need. These are all short-term solutions, but they are in no way sustainable unless you are prepared to spend the rest of your life drinking shakes and avoiding your favourite foods. This results in something called yo-yo dieting where an individuals weight fluctuates quickly and considerably, as well as being detrimental to the individual’s health. Furthermore, we look to personal trainers and individuals who try to coach us about nutrition, when it is often not the best type of advice we could be getting. As a certified lifestyle coach, I know that realistically, no one gets long terms results from advice. Rather they need to block these outside influences and focus on what works for them and in sync with their lives and desires.

We need to change the way we approach our health and we need to accept that for a long-lasting solution to weight problems, you need to be prepared to ditch the quick-fix schemes. You can only truly achieve lasting results through making effective changes to not just your diet and your exercise regime, but to every aspect of your lifestyle.

You need to start by setting realistic goals for yourself, so you can map your progress. Aiming to lose 10kg in a week, or become a size eight overnight is unrealistic and by chasing that dream, you are just setting yourself up for failure. This is where lifestyle coaching comes in. A lifestyle coach will help you figure out what your personal goals are, give you the reality check that you need, and together you can plan out all the milestones that you need to reach to achieve your goal. This plan will include lifestyle changes in general, a review of your dietary habits, and a tailor-made exercise plan that is completely in-sync with you and your hectic schedule.

The true way to make serious changes in improving your health and weight, is by making lots of little but important changes. The combination of these, together with your new outlook attained through lifestyle coaching will help you succeed. Remember that the key to success is making changes throughout every area of your life. You do not need to make drastic decisions or commitments, but rather with my help we can make the adjustments that are needed in each area of your life, that when combined, will result in you becoming the best version of yourself that you can be.

If you are unhappy with your weight, or are feeling low, tired, or lacking the get up and go that you need to make some positive changes sooner rather than later. Ditch the crash diets and the faddy exercise programmes and look to change yourself from the inside out, for the better, and for the long-term.

Diana Kaldoja is a fitness and lifestyle coach and she also run W2W Personal Training Studio which is a women only studio. The W2W focus is to create a cosy, non-judgemental space that offers training, nutritional education and motivational support for those who are looking to change their lives.