Nerissa Shea
@nerissashea_fitness
2009.
Second Year of College. BIG PARTYING YEAR. I had a ball! So, what did my diet look like in 2009? It mainly consisted of chicken fillet rolls, quick meals like oven lasagnas, sometimes just blocks of cheese? I had a weird obsession with just eating cheese. Basically, sweet fu** all nutrient-dense food and a LOT of convenience food. A LOT OF BOOZE. 'Sesh Nazz' was well and truly alive and kicking at this time in my life. We are talking PINTS, VODKA & RED BULL, WKD, you name it, we drank it and it wasn’t just once a week! I was doing a Performing Arts degree so #tbh, the only reason I didn’t put on a few more pounds was due to the fact we were still dancing nearly every day and I was still competing. I’d say I fluctuated between 1500 – 3000 calories on any given day, so my weekly DAILY average could easily have been in and around 2500. At a guess… So let's say about 2500 a day. No resistance training & a good bit of cardio. I probably weighed about 9 stone? Maybe? Didn’t weigh me so honestly, haven’t a scooby. Bearing in mind I am 5ft by the way. I used to say 5ft. 1 but I’ve come to terms with the fact I was just lying to myself. 2012. The big 21st Birthday Bash. You may be fooled into thinking I look and feel great here. But do not be fooled. There were quite a few months of torture before that picture was taken and I mean, TORTURE. I decided I wanted to lose weight for my 21st. So, as most of us tend to do when we have been bombarded with diet culture gimmicks and had very little/no knowledge surrounding adequate nutrition, I googled – ‘Supplements that aid Weight Loss’. FU**. I became obsessed with the fact that these green tea tablets I was taking were working when I was just in an INSANE CALORIE DEFICIT. We are talking a smoothie in the morning and a small dinner every evening with a weight watchers ice cream for dessert. I went to bed hungry EVERY NIGHT just hoping I’d fall asleep so I could wake up the next day and be able to have my breakfast. This often led to a HUGE BINGE whenever I had a few drinks, I literally COULD NOT STOP MYSELF, and then I would punish myself on a Monday. I also psychotically forced myself to cycle with a plastic bag every day! Like #WTF? Along with dancing & swimming & doing just cardio in the gym. I had a completely distorted view of my body and, despite losing a lot of weight, I still saw the same person in the mirror every day.
No matter how many people COMPLIMENTED me saying ‘you look so thin’. Which, back in the day, was a compliment. I KNOW I was under 7.5 stone here because I weighed myself religiously and absolutely punished myself that day if it was over that mark. My daily calorie intake was probably about 1000 – 1200. 2021. I don’ even know where to start here. All I can say is I owe all my happiness to education. Education around Training. Education around Nutrition. Now, this bit** IS HAPPY and STRONG and DEFINITELY NOT HUNGRY. Mindset is everything when it comes to diet & exercise, but it is not enough to just tell yourself, 'oh, I need to lose weight, or I need to exercise more.' I love the cleaning car analogy that people use. If someone cleans your car for you, how long does it stay clean? Probably not too long. If you teach yourself how to clean it, it’ll probably stay cleaner for longer but more importantly, when it gets dirty again, YOU KNOW HOW TO CLEAN IT. The same goes for Nutrition & Exercise and along with a myriad of reasons as to why I do not give meal plans (main one being I am not Qualified, few personal Trainers are unless they have undergone extensive study in that area). No one learns anything from a 6 WEEK DIET PLAN. You rebound and then end up just doing the same thing over and over again, yo-yo dieting for what feels like an eternity. We've all heard Albert Einstein's famous line: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Education is Empowerment. With everything. Research Energy Balance & Calorie Intake. Use a calorie calculator and take it from there. Track or Intuitively Eat. Fuel your body with good nutritious food but know that food does not have a moral compass so stop treating chocolate like the enemy. Train SMARTER not HARDER. Resistance Training for a list of reasons (post on this to come later) - Trust me & thank me later. Weight Training 3 x a week, GAME CHANGER. Become more active overall. The gym is not for burning calories. The gym is where you build some muscle which will benefit your overall health in many ways. Enjoy your food, enjoy your training and ENJOY YOUR LIFE. What do I eat in a day? Has absolutely no bearing on the point of this post and also shouldn’t have an impact on your day. We are all so different which is why I don’t do them posts or videos. Just know that I probably average out anywhere between 1800 – 2000 calories per day – I say that NOT to tell YOU what to eat, I am on maintenance and my body composition is completely different, so what I do should not impact what YOU DO. I state this merely to prove the point that I don’t go to bed hungry anymore. I don’t punish myself with exercise, I train because I love it, I enjoy it and I get super-empowered from resistance training. I quite enjoy deadlifting my body weight, quite the buzz must say. I weigh about… 8 stone?? Maybe?? Don’t really weigh me anymore. Unless you are a Jockey or a Boxer, does it really matter how much gravitational force you place on the earth?? If you want to educate yourself, just make sure you are getting your information from a reliable source and not someone who is telling you that carbs are evil and that you need to do ab workouts to get a six-pack.
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