Are you trapped in that cycle where you restrict through the week only to binge on weekends?

Perhaps you keep trying fad diets only to gain all the weight back a few weeks later?

Or, maybe you feel like you eat SO well when you’re in your routine at home, but then as soon as you travel you overeat and come back feeling 5 kgs heavier, bloated and bleh?

Often, this can happen from having an ‘all or nothing’ mindset - and it can be hard to get out of. I used to be there in my early 20s and it wasn’t fun! I found it so hard to be consistent with my healthy habits over the weekends or when I went away.

This pattern that never brings steady, long term weight loss and maintenance OR allows you to enjoy life.

This episode will help you with my very best tips to help YOU find balance, keep up your healthy habits up consistently, week after week and get rid of that all or nothing, binge/restrict, yo-yo dieting loop so that you CAN find that food freedom and see steady, sustainable RESULTS!

 

Links:

Download my FREE eBook with 4 15 minute meals: click here

Start your weight loss, gut healing and anti-inflammatory journey now with my 3 Week Body Reset

Continue your journey and figuring out YOUR own balance in the Health with Bec Tribe

Explore my free recipes & website: Click here 

Follow me on instagram: @health_with_bec

Read This Episode:

In this episode, I'm going to be giving you 6 of my best tips for how you can really learn to stay consistent with your healthy habits, because it's consistency that will bring you the results that you're after in terms of your weight loss and your fitness and it is so common for people to be in the cycle where they feel like they have to go all-in or do nothing at all and stay stuck in that binge/ restrict cycle. 

I used to be there in my late teens to early twenties and I always reflect on this and this is what I teach in my programs to women and they're getting amazing results, but I always try to reflect on the key things that have helped me over the last 10 years find my balance, especially when I'm traveling. I think about it even more because when I used to travel and I'm in Melbourne at the moment, I used to be all-or-nothing, meaning I would travel and not binge, but I would just let go of the gym, I would eat out at every meal, I wouldn't be as conscious and I would just think to myself - oh I'll just get back on track when I get home! 

Now I've really found my travel bug as a lot of you would know if you follow me at @health_with_bec and I've realised even more how I have found that balance and I'm always trying to reflect on the tips and really what I've done to get here and even though you can't learn everything in one podcast, I really hope you get value out of this. 

So I'm just going to really talk about 6 of the key, vital things that you can implement into your life if you really want to stop that binge/ restrict, all-or-nothing cycle so that you can get to the weekends and not binge and not wake up on Monday feeling like crap and feeling like you have to constantly restrict each week. So you can go on holidays and still enjoy yourself, but eat with a bit of balance too, so that you actually get home and you don't feel like you're 20 steps behind.

Before I get started, I always like to remind you that if you're enjoying this podcast, it would mean the absolute world to me if you left me a really quick rating and review on Apple Podcasts. I'm just going to quickly read out the latest one for you just to really thank this woman who left it …

So this one was left on Saturday and it's from ‘JenBear71’. This one's quite wild and it's exactly why I do what I do, she has said - “After years of yo-yo dieting, using all the fad diets, wasting lots of money and trying to navigate through the mountains of health and wellness noise that's available, I hand on my heart, having come across Bec's approach and teaching, it has been the best thing ever. I've only been with Bec for nearly two months, but already steady and realistic changes are happening. I've started listening to her podcast, Body Bites with Bec, started from Episode one (currently up to Episode 41) and it's been a game changer. My biggest AHA moment to date has been from Episode one. Bec spoke about how you lose weight, should be the way that you maintain it. Right then, in that moment, I pulled over in the car, played the podcast back and listened to that statement three more times, wrote it down on the back of a receipt I had in the car, and when I got home, wrote it on a post-it note that's still stuck on my bathroom mirror. (Just a side note, I love this tip. I say this to my members all the time to do that!) Whilst only being a couple of months into Bec’s eating plans, these podcasts have answered so many of my early questions, providing me the confidence to know what I am doing is super good for my body. For me, using all the available resources really means I am set up for long term success to completely understand how this way of eating is beneficial for long term health and wellness, without the need to restrict living and enjoy life”. 

Thank you so much Jen Bear for that review and that is quite random because so much of what she has just said is exactly what I'm going to be helping you with in this podcast. I read each and every one of your reviews and it really helps other women find me and in turn helps them change their lives and stop that yo-yo dieting that can keep you really stuck.

So, Tip #1 - Can you see yourself doing it forever? Do you enjoy it? Now, this is exactly what Jen Bear just said in her review and that really stuck with her. If you really want to change your eating habits, lose weight, keep the weight off and finally stop that binge/ restrict cycle that always keeps you feeling good for a bit, crap for a bit, good for a week, crap for a bit - let's say you're following a diet and you're trying to cut calories … usually that's being done in a way that you don't enjoy. It can be from cutting your calories too low. It can be from following a fad diet, but the most common thing is cutting your calories too low and really believing that dieting has to be boring, restrictive and makes you feel starving all the time. 

It's not your fault that it makes you feel that way because there are so many fad diets out there that are full of pre-packaged foods, they make you eat too little, they don't educate you how to live life at the same time and they aren't enjoyable. We're not to blame for believing that weight loss has to be hard because that's what most programs are like out there, but it's been proven over and over again that so many women and men regain the weight that they lose after dieting and this is also why people are always on the yo-yo dieting bandwagon.

One of the biggest reasons is that people don't enjoy it. They might have amazing willpower and they might kick through the hunger pains and they say to themselves - I want to do this because it's going to get me good results but then what happens is that they stop the diet. They haven't enjoyed themselves at all, so they want to rebel. They go straight back to their normal life, which is a life that set them up to have to go on a diet in the first place. Meaning, that woman might have gained weight from doing certain habits or couldn't lose weight from doing certain habits with what she was doing, then she's followed a program that's caused her to lose weight. She didn't enjoy it at all and it didn't teach her how to actually build it into her lifestyle. So then when she stops that diet, she will go back to her past habits that weren't serving her before and she'll regain the weight. 

My best piece of advice here is to really ask yourself with the diet plan that you have chosen or with the approach that you have chosen to reach your goals this year - can you see yourself doing it forever? Is it enjoyable enough to see yourself doing it week after week? If the answer is no, it is not the right diet for you. You might see results in a week or two, but 90% of the time, women regain the weight they lose after dieting. So if you really are keen to stop the binge/ restrict, on again/ off again cycle, that is one of the best questions to ask yourself. 

Even when you are following an eating plan, let's say it's mine, I truly believe that there is no point in eating food that you don't enjoy. Most people are foodies like me and life's too short to eat boring food. There are so many meals and ways to cook things that can be enjoyable and fit in with your life. I show this to women every single day and every single week. So there is no point eating steamed broccoli and chicken or salmon and rice if you don't enjoy it, there are so many other ways to enjoy food.

Let's say you join my programs - if there is a meal that you don't like in the 3 Week Body Reset or the Health with Bec Tribe plans, please know that you can switch them around. I want every single day for women to be a taste sensation. I want them to look forward to breakfast, lunch, their snack and dinner, and the weekends because if you are enjoying what you are doing day after day, that is what is going to make you keep it up. That's what's going to make you not rebel. That is what is going to give you long term results because you get long term results from doing consistent things every single day and the best way to do that is to follow something that you enjoy and to follow something that you can see yourself doing in the long term. So, can you see yourself doing it forever? If not, you will just give up and keep repeating your past cycles.  

Tip #2 is to think of the feeling after and try to really take your focus off calories and weight loss. This is one of the biggest things that I hear from women all the time who do the 3 Week Body Reset, join the Health with Bec Tribe and end up quitting the yo-yo dieting and seeing long term success. By that I mean, they can stick with the approach for at least six months or more and yes, they'll have slip-ups along the way, but they get straight back on track and they lose weight slowly and gradually, that's what I mean by long term success. One of the things that they all say to me is that they really went into this thinking of the long game for once, and actually really focusing on all of the other benefits they were feeling aside from weight loss. 

A lot of them said that they didn't even weigh themselves each week. Some people say they weigh themselves once a month, but most people really say that they just go off how their clothes are feeling, some people measure themselves and they really just get addicted to this lifestyle. When you choose the right way of eating, and of course not everyone listening is going to join my programs or be on my programs, but when I say the right way of eating, I mean the right way of eating for your body - that makes you feel good, energised, free of the bloat and that helps you lose weight slowly. 

Now, when you think of all of those things, losing the bloat, losing your arthritis pain, maybe not getting headaches anymore, having stable hormones and stable moods and far more energy for your kids, that feeling is addictive and when you get used to feeling good, as soon as you eat something that makes you feel crap, it actually reminds you of how good it makes you feel to feel good and that's a really addictive feeling. 

So this is what tip number two is all about - always think of the feeling after you eat food and how it makes you feel aside from weight loss. If you take the focus off weight loss and really focus on everything else, whatever the key thing is for you - for some women, it's not wanting to bloat anymore or finally going to the toilet regularly, having so much energy to run around with their kids, waking up in the morning finally feeling refreshed, or sleeping better … when you focus on those things, you do want to keep it up consistently and you don't want to stop that lifestyle and then not get back on track. When you're still learning and you're still trying to find your balance when you start a new eating plan, it is so normal to go away for a weekend, go on a holiday or reach the weekend and still fall back into old habits and have what I call slip-ups, but that is completely normal. 

Let's say you do that and then you get really bloated or you do that and it makes your energy really bad the next day, that only makes you want to get back on track faster, rather than continuing with the routine of eating the foods that you're eating to make you feel gross and it actually will make you quite addicted to eating this way or at least eating the way that you're eating 80% of the time. That really helps you get back on track fast after you feel off, rather than letting it go for another week, two, three, four weeks when you're just focusing on the calories and your weight and you're not focusing on how food makes you feel. When you really start to focus on all the other things that is key for long term progress and to stay consistent.  

Tip #3 is not to cut your calories too low. As I always say, to lose weight, you do need to be in a calorie deficit, but how many calories should you cut your calories by per day? We don't want it to be too low. We want it to be obviously less than your weight maintenance amount, that's also called your TDEE, but we don't want it to be too low because if it's too low, you will feel starving all through the week and that is one thing that can absolutely make you rebel and binge all weekend or rebel and binge when you go on a holiday. So you want to find the perfect balance for you with what your calorie deficit should be. 

Now, the first thing that I always teach women to do is to start with an amount that's just an estimate. You can go online and use a calorie calculator to give you a number that you should follow, which asks for your height, your weight and your activity level and you want to be eating about 500 calories less than your weight maintenance amount, no more than 500 calories less. I would always say anywhere between 300 to 500 calories less than your weight maintenance amount, which is your TDEE, is a good amount to do five or six days of the week, always 80% of the time. I would never want anyone to aim to be in a calorie deficit for seven days of the week, because as you know, I'm all about the 80/ 20 life and that is what also brings you sustainable success as well, because it makes you want to stay on track.

So you can still absolutely lose weight if you're not in a calorie deficit every single day of the week, it is about how your calories average out throughout the whole week. So start with that and I really hold women's hands through this process in my program as well. The 3 Week Body Reset and the Health with Bec Tribe is set at a weight loss amount that is the amount that works for the average woman. Of course, it can't suit everyone, but then I educate them how to very easily remove or add food so that it meets their calories more precisely without them having to use a calorie calculator. So all the guesswork is done for you, but tip number three is just a reminder to not cut them too low.

Anything less than 300 to 500 calories more than your TDEE is going to be too low for you. It is just a calculator and we are not machines. We are not robots. We are humans and we all have different metabolisms. We all lose weight at different rates. We all have different things going on in our bodies. So use that as your starting point and then you can assess how hungry you are. Are you not? Are you actually too full? Maybe that means that the calories that you're setting yourself per day are a little bit too high for your body in particular? 

So you want to figure out an amount week after week that you're in a calorie deficit but that you're not feeling too hungry and that you're not feeling too full as well, and week after week, you will find this balance yourself. I say this to women all the time. You can't find the answers for your own body in just a week or two. It can take months and it's just all about trial and error to figure out what works for your body, but the thing that I really wanted to drill in here is to absolutely not count your calories too low. You'll know if the calorie deficit that you have set yourself is too low for yourself if you are feeling starving all the time and you're thinking about food all the time. 

I could go off on another tangent here though, because it's not just the amount of calories that you're eating that will determine how hungry you feel. It's also about the quality of the calories you're eating and if I could talk for hours and hours I would, because this is a very important point that I wasn't actually going to mention in this, but as a side note, you've got to make sure that the calories you’re eating are the most filling type as well. 

So when I build meals for myself and for everyone that joins my programs, every single meal is designed in a way to keep their blood sugars low and to keep them as full as possible throughout the day because when you're eating In a calorie deficit, we want to avoid hunger. I want you to stay on track, so I really try to make sure every single meal has protein, healthy fats, fiber, and is bulked up with lots of vegetables. So you're still eating high volume and large meals too and that is one of the secrets behind why women lose weight without the hunger with my programs and that's something that I wanted to mention as well. 

So don't cut your calories down too low and make sure the quality of the calories are full of things that are making you feel full and if you're thinking, what is that? How do I do that? That's why I'm here! You can keep bingeing my podcast and listening to it for ages if you want, and trying to figure it out yourself, or you could join my programs and learn for yourself because it's just done for you. 

I do all of the hard work for you so that your meals are perfectly balanced and you're staying in a calorie deficit without you having to do any of the guest work. You can also explore the free recipes on my website to get a feel for what they are and you could start cooking with them and I've also got a great freebie as well with 4x 15 minute dinners, so you could cook them for four nights and then maybe choose a few recipes on my website and get a feel for my approach in that way too.

For far more information on calories and how to work out how many you need and whether I believe in apps or not, when you should use calorie counting apps and so much more about calories. I do have an amazing episode - Episode #120: Is calorie counting & using the apps ACTUALLY useful? What are the pros and cons?

I'm just going to say it again - so make sure you're not in a calorie deficit every single day of the week. You do want to have 20% of the time where you are really enjoying yourself. Now this 20% of the time you want to like, it's so important to make sure that you're doing the things that you enjoy and eating the foods that you really enjoy - going out for dinner with your friends, enjoying a glass of wine, enjoying your favourite ice cream occasionally, that absolutely can fit into your life when you start to aim for that 80/ 20 life, where you're really trying to be as healthy as you can and in a calorie deficit for 80% of the time, let's say it's Monday to Friday and then you leave the weekend where you actually do let yourself enjoy yourself. 

This is so important because this is really what makes you want to stay on track with the lifestyle that you've chosen for yourself to reach your goals week after week. If you restrict yourself too much and you try to be “perfect” every single day of the week, it won't last for long and it will backfire and it's not really teaching you how to eat when you do go out for dinner or when you do go on a holiday and when you don't have access to a kitchen to cook healthy meals all the time. The reason the 80/ 20 approach works is because it does make you want to stay consistent, but it's so much more than that and this is quite hard to say because there's no specific formula. 

Women just learn week after week that the 80/ 20 life works for them, but one of the reasons is from them just actually doing it and seeing how their body responds. Now, let me explain that - so, let's say women do my 3 Week Body Reset or women do any kind of diet plan and that diet plan that they do, it allows you to have meals out and educates you how to eat out without going too OTT, but it does allow you to follow the 80/ 20 approach … what happens is that women get to the end of the 3 Week Body Reset, or they do the 3 Week Body Reset and then they join the Tribe and then they give me this feedback a few months later, but  they do let themselves have some alcohol or a couple of meals out or a 3-day holiday and they look back and think - oh my god, I've lost weight and I still lost weight whilst eating out or I still lost weight while having 2 cupcakes on the weekend and 3 glasses of champagne and the way that you learn this is actually just trusting in it and seeing what happens with your body. 

This is what I've done over the years and this is the only way to teach women and for women to teach themselves, is to just actually do it and then when you look back, you can reflect and think - my god, I just ate that and I still lost weight or I went on a one week holiday and I followed the principles, but not perfectly. I was 50% good and 50% bad, but I've remained weight and that's part of their learning journey too.  So my point here is that the 80/ 20 approach, where you're letting yourself not be obsessed with being in a calorie deficit and going out and enjoying life, it works because it makes you want to stay on track, but it also works because you can truly can still lose weight whilst not being perfect 20% of the time. 

Think about it - anything that you achieve in life, I'm sure you're not doing perfectly every single day. For instance, my business has grown a lot, but I have every Sunday off and most Saturdays off. There are some days where I don't get as much done as other days. There are some days that I've made some huge mistakes that have put me back, but the trajectory is that I've still grown and that's the exact same with your weight loss journey. You're not meant to be perfect all the time and it's not until you get into it and trust that perfection isn't the answer, it's not until you do that, that you can then look back and think - I actually did get results and I ate out and oh my god, that shows that I can do that and now I'm not going to fear it anymore. 

So the longer you do this for week after week, what happens is that you don't go out for a dinner and then have some chips or a glass of wine and think to yourself - oh my god, I've completely ruined my healthy efforts, I'm going to just give up, binge all weekend and start again on Monday, because that's the habit and that's what so many women are trapped in. So the more that you allow yourself to be in that calorie deficit and aim to be as good as you can 80% of the time, and really give yourself permission to just enjoy yourself for 20% of the time, it works in so many clever ways and then what happens is that when you do get to a period of your life where you go on a holiday, or you go traveling like I am now … when you've done that for long enough where let's say we're thinking of it on a week to week by week basis, and you're trying to be in a calorie deficit following your healthy habits, five or six days of the week, but then you're still giving yourself permission to have some treat meals a few times over the weekend. When you do that for long enough and you realise that your body can handle it, you are teaching your body to know that it's okay to eat with balance and eat out when you go on a holiday and then when you get on a holiday, this is like a whole different topic and I have done podcast episodes on how I maintain my balance specifically on holidays - Episode #110: Tips For Eating With Balance When Travelling, but I truly believe when I really think back on the last 10 years, it’s about what you do for a year or two or three or four or five. It's about what you do in your lifestyle before you even get to that holiday that makes sense. 

I can give you all the tips about what to do on your holiday, but I truly believe it's how you actually set your life up before the holiday even comes and every single tip that I've been speaking about in this podcast,  helps you with that because what I'm trying to help you do through this podcast, and far more specifically in my programs, where I take all of the guesswork away from you, is really learn how to lose and maintain weight and feel great whilst enjoying it, whilst not feeling starving, whilst being able to eat out and go to restaurants, whilst being able to get takeaway, whilst just not feeling hungry all the time. 

Oh, and when you're thinking about tip #2 about thinking of the feeling after and taking the focus off the scales, when you get to the holiday, when you really go through all these tips and you're like, I know how good this way of eating makes me feel because it makes me feel energised and it keeps my bloat away, I never feel hungry, I've been eating out at home and I haven't been gaining weight. Basically what I'm saying is when you set up a lifestyle for yourself, that is enjoyable enough for you to just do week after week, you will eventually travel and go to holidays and you just won't feel like rebelling from your regular life because if your regular life doesn't include hunger and restriction and fad diets, why would you want to rebel from what you're doing?

This is so key and when I reflect back, this is exactly why I can now eat with balance when I'm traveling because I just eat very similar over there. Obviously it changes depending on the country that I'm in, but I eat very similar here to how I eat at home and that is because I've totally got rid of that rebellious mindset, because at home I'm not restricting anymore. I'm not cutting my calories so extremely low and believing that weight loss has to mean boring food and feeling starving. I've really discovered this approach for myself and that's why I'm just so passionate to teach women about it because it's so freeing when you do really understand that reaching and maintaining your balanced weight can be enjoyable and you can live life at the same time and that it is totally possible to not feel hungry whilst doing so. I used to overeat on holidays and then get back and feel so gross and feel like I had to restrict myself.  

Now the next thing I want to talk about really quickly because I always plan to do short episodes but there's just so much to say with every single point and I get very passionate, but I want to talk about exercise quickly too and exercise is extremely similar to what I've been speaking about with eating … 

This goes back to my tip #1 - so with exercise, if you can't see yourself doing it at least three or four days of the week after week, you won't keep it up and I truly believe that there's no point, doing something that you're not going to keep up because you'll just fall back into your old habits and I will say this like a broken record, it is the small steps and the constant consistency and dedication that will get you results.

One of the best pieces of advice that I can give with exercise, and I've got a few other episodes on this - Episode #124: All your questions about EXERCISE answered! Weight training, fat burning, mistakes and more & Episode #131: 7 simple tips to stay motivated and consistent with exercise and see the results you’re after! but super quickly, one of the best pieces of advice I can give to do something consistently is to  do exercise that you can see yourself doing even on the days that you don't feel like it. So find exercise that you can do even when you feel tired, even when you feel really unmotivated because the reality is that a lot of us feel tired a lot of the time. A lot of us suffer from insomnia. A lot of us go through periods where we just feel really unmotivated. A lot of us don't feel motivated for many days. Motivation is something that not many of us actually have. The people that get results and stay consistent are the people that actually have dedication and quite often motivation follows action. 

So what I mean by that is like every time I go to the gym or go for a walk, I'm not super motivated in a way, but I'm dedicated because I know how good it makes me feel after and I know that as soon as I just start and I take that first step, the motivation follows once I start the action. What I've started to do, and this is why I am now so consistent with my exercise when I travel, because when I used to travel, I used to just not exercise at all. I always love walking, but I used to never go to the gym. I would think to myself -  nah, I'm going to have a break and I'll get back into it when I get home, but that's because I used to think that exercise had to be a long run, or smashing myself in the gym, otherwise there's no point but, that's absolutely not true. 

About 70% of the time with my exercise, especially last year, because I suffered from quite a bit of insomnia last year, with just far too much stress that was unavoidable in my life with lots of things that went on. So when I get a bit overwhelmed and stressed it affects my sleep and it's far better this year, thank god, but I still wanted to keep my exercise up consistently because I want to keep the habit going always and I love how it makes me feel after. 

AlI I do at the gym when I'm feeling tired and this is pretty much all I do when I travel, because naturally for some reason when I travel, I just don't feel as motivated to exercise for some reason, but all I do is I go for a walk, whether it's outside or not, or on the treadmill, and then I'll literally just say to myself - I'm just going to do three weight machines. I'm going to do a machine that works my quads, my hamstrings, and my stomach, then the next day I'll do the same thing, but I'll work my shoulders, my back and my biceps. I'll try to alternate between three really heavy weights on my arms and then the next day I'll do three heavy weights on my legs and that's something that I was able to keep up with last year, even though I was so tired and guess what happened? I could still look a lot more toned and fit if I was going to do a little bit more, but I feel strong and confident in my body and I can feel it is changing and has changed since what it was five years ago and that's because I've stayed so consistent with my weights and I've made it as easy as I possibly can. 

Now, that might not sound like an enjoyable thing to you. I also really love Pilates. So I go to Pilates twice a week, but some weeks, for instance, this week because I've been away, I haven't booked Pilates classes. So all I'm doing is those gym sessions. Also sometimes at home, depending on my energy levels, I'll do one or two cardio sessions on the step machine. I talk a lot more about what I do for exercise in other podcast episodes, but my point here is to find at least one form of exercise that you can do 50 to 60 to 70% of your days, that you can go to even when you feel crap, because that is what you'll keep up with even when you travel or even on the weekend or even when you feel tired. 

Of course, it's important to have the 80/ 20 rule with exercise too. I have days where I don't do a thing. For instance, over the weekend I had a few late nights. I didn't exercise at all on Friday, Saturday or Sunday but through the week, most days, 80% of the time, I will do some sort of movement and what I said with tip #2, think of the feeling after, always think of the feeling after with exercise. Even when you don't feel like going, try to just go for 10 minutes or a 15 minute walk, or just do something tiny because if you are really looking to form consistent habits and stop that all-or-nothing cycle, one of the biggest key things that you need to do is form consistent habits, and it's very easy to lose the dedication to continue with your habits. 

Let's say you go on a one or two week holiday and you don't do any exercise at all, or you completely get rid of your healthy eating habits. It can then be quite hard to get back on track with those habits. So if you are really looking for long term habits that you can keep up so that you can see long term results, it's actually really important to keep up with that habit. Tell your brain that you're still doing it. So even if you feel like it's nothing, even if it is just a 10 minute walk on the treadmill and you think - oh my god, this isn't even burning any calories … trust me, it is better than nothing because it's still practicing that habit in your brain. It's still keeping it going, so that when you get back from your holiday, you will keep that habit up. 

Like I keep saying, it is the consistent habits that bring results. So that is key, even if it's something small, still go, still show up, still do something tiny because it's the small things that add up and also like I said in tip #1, can you see yourself doing it forever? Do you enjoy it? You're not going to get results unless you do it every single week. Try different exercise classes, try different things, find what you enjoy. Of course you can mix it up. Like I said, I do with what I do in the gym with the weights. I also do Pilates and I also love long walks and I also love going on the step machine to do some cardio but just when I have the energy, but on those days I'll just eat a little bit more so it’s not the be-all-and-end-all. 

If you really try to follow everything that I've said in this podcast, and I'll keep saying as well, if you have done my programs or if you're doing my programs, all the guesswork is taken away for you, but if you really try to do all the tips that I have talked about in this podcast, and you're doing this week after week, and you are seeing that you’re still getting results, even though some days you're going to the gym and you're doing 10 minutes of exercise or just 15 minutes of weights and you're still getting results, even though you went out for three dinners over the weekend, or you're still getting results even though you had a few drinks over the weekend, when you do this week after week, and you're really conscious about reflecting and listening to how your body feels, you will see that you're gradually getting results.

You will learn over time that weight loss and healthy eating and weight maintenance can be enjoyable. So what happens is that you do get to that holiday or that long weekend away with your friends and you don't actually feel like rebelling from your life and overindulging and completely quitting all of your exercise because you have built a life for yourself that you actually enjoy, that brings you results, but also makes you feel really good and tastes really good. 

So that's how I've really found my balance over the last 10 years now. There's obviously a lot more to it, but I really tried to think of the biggest key things that have helped me and as an overarching theme, it's absolutely the fact that I really now eat through the week in a way that keeps me full and satisfied and I enjoy every single meal. I enjoy every single time I go to the gym so that when I get to the weekend, I don't feel like rebelling. When I get to holidays, I don't feel like rebelling and you might be thinking - Bec, why are you even talking about this because you look like you're healthy?

I need to remind you all the time that I look like I'm a healthy weight because I try really hard. So I follow all the processes and the approach that I teach women for weight loss, because I believe and it's so true, the way you lose weight should be the way that you keep it off. It's still hard to remain a healthy weight, but I don’t find it hard in a way because I'm following the approach that I'm now teaching women - that's really tasty and amazing, but I have to stay super conscious. I don't have a fast metabolism. I found out that I had a slow thyroid in my early twenties, and that's why I'm so passionate about teaching women about weight loss, because I have to work really hard to maintain a weight that I feel happy at. 

So I hope you got lots out of this episode. I'm just going to wrap up these tips again for you - 

Tip #1 - Can you see yourself doing it forever and do you enjoy it? Whatever diet you're about to follow, can you see yourself doing it in the long term and are you enjoying yourself?  

Tip #2 - Really think about all the other ways that your eating choices are making you feel, apart from just calories and weight loss. When you really take the focus off the scales and you think of the long game and you're really focusing on the fact that you're not bloated anymore and you've got more energy, that can really help you stay on track as well and give up that all-or-nothing cycle.

Tip #3 -  Don't cut calories too low. You do need to cut them a little bit, but you don't want to cut them too low that you're starving all the time, because then that will set up the binge/ restrict cycle every single week and then you will likely overeat on holidays as well.

Tip #4 - Make sure you're not in that calorie deficit a hundred percent of the time. You still want to eat at a weight maintenance level 20% of the time. So it's really important to not be in that calorie deficit 100% of the time, you need to enjoy life and eat healthy at your weight maintenance level, enjoy food out 20% of the time.  

Tip #5 - Really trying to figure out exercise that you enjoy, even when you don't feel like it. So when you do get to holidays, you still do it. Even if you don't feel like exercising, just keep the habit consistent because you can lose habits quite quickly in your mind. So even if it's just a 10 minute walk or just one body part that you work in the gym. I actually did that yesterday, I was really tired yesterday, but I did a 15 minute walk on the treadmill, I did the squat machine and I just exhausted my quads and then I thought - okay, I'm done. I couldn't do any more, but that was still me keeping that habit going and it's better than nothing because if you want long term results, one of the best things you can do is keep that habit consistent. 

Tip #6 - Week after week, when you do this, you realise that you can live a healthy, enjoyable life and it does stop you eventually from overeating, bingeing and rebelling on the weekend or on holidays.

Finding your balance in this way takes time, so be patient with yourself. If you've listened to this episode and you're about to go on a holiday or you're going on a holiday in a month and you're really trying your best a lot of weekends coming up and you don't follow everything that I've said and you do overeat and you do feel crap, don't worry! This takes time. It really does take time for you to find your balance and you will find it eventually, but if you try to do everything that I've said in this podcast, week after week, and as long as you are reflecting on how you feel after that huge binge or after that holiday, because reflection is key, all it is just another lesson for you to improve next time you get to that weekend or that holiday.  

So nothing's ever a failure. It's always a lesson and I really hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please share the love. If there is someone that you know that would benefit from this podcast, it would mean the world if you just took a screenshot and sent it to them. Even better, take a screenshot and share it in your Instagram story and tag me at @health_with_bec, that would mean the absolute world. Finally, make sure you subscribe to this podcast, so you don't miss any future episodes and please leave me a rating review on Apple Podcasts if you haven't already.