Weight loss story from @itsmisssantos

Ariete Santos is an actor, presenter and a cast member from BKChatLDN. She shares her weightloss story with us and mentions that eating the correct food was the main driver to her journey

I was struggling to lose my post pregnancy weight, I thought I would snap back eventually but 8 months later I still had my baby weight. I wasn’t happy so I decided to do something about it I started to take my diet a lot more serious and joined the gym.

I decided at first to get a personal trainer to push me to the best of my ability. I remember struggling to push 65kg when I started gym a couple weeks later I was pushing 200kg…”mind over matter” I realised my body was stronger than I thought but personal training did help me reach certain targets which then I stuck too and then later build myself.
I do gym, track and home workouts. I usually do home workouts when I don’t have time to go to the gym so there are no excuses. There are a lot of exercises you can do at home you can easily find them online or there’s DVD’s like Insanity which is what I usually did. I couldn’t keep up at first but I carried on doing them in my own pace and eventually started to catch up with the pace but I like mixing up my workout I felt it kept me motivated, sometimes doing the same thing everyday can get boring and you can start to lose motivation so mix it up.
Despite this, most of my training is in the gym. I would usually do a plan focusing on different parts of the body so one day I will do a fully body cardio work out, (sprint intervals was one of my favourite workouts) another day I would focus on legs & glutes etc. Joining classes in your gym is also another way to keep yourself motivated and lose weight especially if you don’t like to work out on your own, box fitness was one of my favourite classes. Track is something that I also did if you want to lose weight especially sprints / running track worked the best for me. Time yourself and compete with your time or join a track fitness group.
 
Food is EVERYTHING 70% of my weight loss was eating the correct food and it was definitely the hardest part of my journey, however, I never starved myself or just ate salads! I ate the right portions the right carbs right time just healthier options in general.  I love food so I knew that if I didn’t start eating something that I enjoyed eating I wouldn’t keep up with the diet so I replaced things that i liked with healthier options i.e. I love rice and pasta so I replaced them with brown pasta and brown rice, replaced normal potatoes with sweet potatoes, reduced my carbs and added more salad on my plate. You have to choose foods that you enjoy eating but healthier options because you don’t want it to be just a temporary diet you want it to be a lifestyle so experiment with different recipes & enjoy the food you’re eating it will make things so much easier. I stayed away from fry ups and reduced my sugar taking also.




Water is your best friend so try and drink 2l a day & try not to eat anything heavy past 8pm. I would eat every 3/4hrs & I always ate heavier meals early & the more the day progressed the less I ate. I also took at the time a protein shake (herbal life) which I recommend usually took it after gym training. I lost 35 pounds and my stomach fat within 5 months of training and eating healthy, a gradual change. I am happy with the weight loss and have been able to maintain it, if you think losing weight is hard trust me maintaining can be just as hard at times so please remember It’s not a temporary diet it’s not exercise it’s a lifestyle. Tailor and plan your weekly/daily diet plan to make sure you’re eating things you don’t mind eating don’t JUST eat things you hate you wont be able to maintain it in the long run, if you don’t like the gym go swimming try out different workouts and then stick to the ones you enjoy doing. 
I’m on the journey in toning up now so please check out some of my videos and my full detailed diet plan on my youtube page Ariete Santos.

Everyone body is different so it’s important to always be in competition with yourself and not with everyone else as some of us may lose weight faster than others & stay committed… It’s not how you start your journey it’s how you end it. Stay focused stay committed