Mum of 2, Carly, Lost 35kgs. See How She Did It

"I lost 35 kgs. 110 kgs to 75 kgs over 18 months.

Juggling two little boys under 2 years old doesn't leave much time for healthy choices for Mummy and the In Shape Mummy Health Shake is such an easy solution to get all the goodness I need to keep going and breastfeed too! It is delicious, gives me energy and has helped shift the weight after my babies.

My older son is 20 months and I didn't get the chance to lose the weight gained whilst carrying him before I was pregnant again with baby #2. I easily gained 40kgs across the two pregnancies and no thanks to terrible pelvic pain in pregnancy #2 I wasn't able to keep active.

Now that my second son is here and the pelvic pain has gone I have stuck to replacing breakfast and a snack with my shake and walking every morning for the duration of the morning sleep. Some days I will do a second shorter walk during his nap.

I no longer crave sugary foods as the shake sets me up for the day with its magical satisfying ingredients!

The shake has become even more of a must since returning to work! If I thought I was busy before, life just got a whole lot busier!

I tell all my friends about In Shape Mummy because easy weight loss doesn't need to be a secret!"

Carly

I think the really important first point to make is how did I put on all the weight to start. That was by not keeping active and eating the wrong foods during my pregnancy. 

 

I had two babies fairly close together and pretty quickly put on 40 kilos over that time. I had pretty severe pelvic pain and struggled to keep active definitely during my second pregnancy. I am the first to admit I ate far too many sugary foods during my pregnancy.

 
In Shape Mummy Health Shakes helped me cut out sugary foods from my diet because they have that sweet taste without all the bad stuff in it.

So I was definitely was drinking a shake every single morning to start my day and as a snack as well. I tend to save my second shake of the day for after dinner when I was really feeling like I need something sweet. It's the perfect low calorie yummy option to have in the evening. 
 
My favorite flavors are  Chocolate Brownie and Caramel Fudge. 

 

 

How I Started my Weight Loss Journey 

First I had to set a why. Why am I doing this? I think it's really important to understand why you're doing it and have a really clear purpose. 

 

My why is that I believe that I will live a longer and happier and healthier life if I'm in a healthier weight range. So keeping that wide top of mind is really something that helps me through. I remind myself all the time when it might seem hard that there is a far bigger goal and purpose as to why I'm putting in all this effort and why I'm trying to shift this unhealthy weight.

 

 

Step Goals

To kick it off I had to set myself some goals and I found that for me mentally the best way was going to be setting realistic goals. 

 

 I didn't say I'm going to lose 40 kilos because that would have been far too overwhelming. I set myself step goals so initially I wanted to lose ten kilos, my next goal was another ten kilos and then my next goal was eight kilos and so on. 

 

I had what what I call step goals and every time I achieved a step goal it was a big celebration for me and you know i'd obviously give myself a huge paid on the back at the time.

 

My First 10 Kilos

I'll talk you through the example of my first step goal, which was my first 10 kilos at the time I was 40 kilos overweight. 

 

I was very uncomfortable. My feet would get sore. It was just not a good news story for me. So I set some little targets.

 

I basically cut out all sugar and alcohol and tried to focus on non-processed foods.

 

And I walked as much as I could with a sleeping baby in the pram. I would also walk to the supermarket if there was something to be picked up. I would walk to the doctor's surgery. I'd try and avoid using the car at all costs. 

 

So I just kept as active as possible as much as my body would allow because I was still in that recovery mode post having a baby and sure enough within not too long at all. 

 

I actually lost ten kilos just by stripping out that sugar. And of course, the In Shape Mummy Health Shake was a huge help during that time because it does have that that sweet taste without all the bad stuff in it. So I definitely was drinking that every single morning to start my day, and then generally as a second snack as well throughout the day.

 

How Do I Stay Motivated?

Something I get asked all the time is how do I stay motivated to keep going when there's so much weight to lose and.

 

I just refer back having a clear purpose and having clear goals or step goals as I call them is my. That's my superpower. It's my purpose. It helps me to stay on track and it keeps me focused on the end goal. 

 

But I will say just like everyone I've had setbacks along the way. You know, over sort of three or four month period in that summer Christmas break. I had other various set backs which made it really, really tricky to stay motivated and to stay positive and actually put on four kilos. Over that time I'll admit I was probably eating my feelings and I think that a lot of people do that. But just like I had done at the start. I set myself a date to start. I set myself.

 

My purpose reminded myself again and I got back on the bandwagon and I got really clear on what my goals were again. Call it a come to Jesus moment and just reminded myself. Hey, you know how to do this. You've done this before you've had a fun Christmas. You've had a fun break, but let's get back on the bandwagon and healthy eating doesn't mean that you don't have fun. I still get to have fun with my friends. I might opt to meet up with them for a walk rather than drinks or a dinner out when I'm in a really focused mind state. 

 

But having that those clear goals and having a clear why and a clear purpose really is the superpower to keep you motivated.

 

Weight Loss Plateau

So as I've gotten closer and closer to a healthier weight range as you'd expect, it gets harder to lose the weight, so I've had to up the ante with the exercise along the way, so my first ten kilos I pretty much lost. Just by walking the next ten kilos I started to do some body weight exercises as well as walking, and then in addition to that I bought a spin bike during lockdown and I used that a lot. 

 

And then most recently I've actually started doing some circuit style training actually in a gym setting, and you know, having access to heavier weights and able to really up the ante. But obviously you know it's dependent on where you're at and your fitness levels. 

 

I lost nearly 20 kilos just by walking and with some body weights at home. So you know everyone's got access to that and you can absolutely do it too.

 

The eating regime is a big one. I start my day every day with an In Shape Mummy Health Shake and I have all sorts of different things that I add to the shake. 

 

My favorite flavors are caramel and chock brownie, and so I've always got a couple of those tubs in the cupboard. 

 

I'll add oats or cheer seeds, so always add a bit of grains. And then I prefer almond milk. So I add almond milk as well some blueberries or some raspberries. I've always got loads of those in the freezer. I buy them in the big multipacks. I add a big handful of spinach as well and just some extra water to make it a really big smoothie to make it last longer. I blitz that up and I have that every morning and I absolutely love it. I've been drinking the shakes for well. 

Three years really, but this most recent you Weight Loss journey has been 18 months and yeah, I've drank the shakes all throughout my pregnancies and all throughout my Weight Loss journey and they're absolutely so so yummy. Yeah, i don't know if I'll ever get sick of them. I certainly don't appear to be getting sick of them anytime soon. I crave them every single day.

 

So throughout the day it's about sticking to those healthy portions. So if you imagine a normal medium size plate, if you imagine one quarter protein, one quarter whole grains and then one half of nonstarchy veggies pretty much if you stick to that then you're eating what your body needs and I think that's a really key message. Eating what your body needs is so important. Nourish your body. Don't focus on something that's going to give you a short hit. You need something that's going to help you get through the day and that's actually going to nourish your body. So that's being something that I've really focused on. Certainly in my last step goal and that's really helped me a lot. 

In between the sort of three main meals of the day, I'll have a snack that might be a small amount of mixed nuts. It might be piece of fruit, it might be some high protein yogurt might be celery sticks with some peanut butter. There's lots of different options that I sort of tend to go for during those snack breaks. Of course, the in-shape mummy shake is also a snack, but I tend to save my second shake of the day for you after dinner when you're really feeling like you need something sweet. That's when I tend to have my second shake, and it's a perfect lowcalorie yummy option to have in the evening. 

So I hope that's helped you to get on your weight journey or your journey to better health. Lisa, the founder of Inshaped Mummy, is a huge support. She's a huge advocate and I have no doubt that she'd be willing to help you just like she's helped me all the way through. So a big thank you to Lisa. You've been a massive support and good luck to everyone and all the best.

 

Breakfast

• I start my day with an In Shape Mummy Health Shake. I've been doing this every day for over 18 months.  
• I have the chocolate brownie and caramel fudge flavours which I absolutely love.
• I mix it with frozen fruit. My freezer is stocked full of frozen fruit. You can buy lots of different easily prepared frozen fruits from the freezer section in the supermarket.
• I also have oats, chia and flaxseeds all really easily available in my cupboard, always stocked so I have lots of different flavours. And then I've always got lots of almond milk to make my smoothies with.

Food for the rest of the day

• The food for the rest of the day is also really important.
• Luckily the shake stops me from craving sugary foods like I used to crave. 
• I wouldn't call myself a sweet tooth anymore which is amazing.
• I think there must be something in the shake that stops sugary cravings.
• I try to have a lot of protein. And green leafy veggies.
• And I watch my portion sizes.
• I make sure I'm reaching for foods that are going to give me energy for longer rather than quick boosts of energy that don't last me throughout the day.
• I've got 2 little boys under 2 and I really need to have as much energy as I can.

Dinner

• Dinners are always a huge amount of salad or cooked greens with about a fist size of meat. 

Lunch

• Lunch options: 
• Tuna salad
• Sandwiches (curried egg or ham and salad are my go-to's)
• Salad wraps
• In Shape Mummy Health Shake (If I am going out for dinner or a celebration I have 2 shakes a day to reduce my overall calorie intake for the day).

Snacks

• Snack options:
• Boiled eggs (I always have a basket in the fridge ready to go)
• Apples
• Pears
• Dried fruit
• Corn thins & peanut butter
• Carrot, cucumber & hummus
• Greek yoghurt & oats with honey
• Popcorn and kiwi fruit
• Peanut butter on apple with a sprinkle of cinnamon
• Cucumber and ricotta
• Vita weat and hummus
• High protein yogurt and flaxseed meal
• Vita weat and tuna in spring water 
• Salted Caramel Protein Bites Snacks from In Shape Mummy

Drinks

• I don't drink milky drinks like coffee or hot chocolate either which I think makes a huge difference in having more space for better snacks!

Exercise

• I always make sure I fit in some exercise each day. Even if it's just a 30 minute round trip to the supermarket to grab some milk for my toddler. Or a walk to day care or to the doctor. Wherever we need to go I try and make it a walk rather than a drive.
• The only exercise I did while losing the first 20 kgs was walking.
• I wasn't doing anything else other than walking. I wasn't feeling ready to do anything else.
• After I lost the first 20 kgs, I felt stronger and my body was feeling better and I was able to fit in other types of exercise
• Later on 10 kgs I jumped on a spin bike (I bought one for home) as well as some bodyweight workouts I found online.  This was all easy to do in front of my TV. Then was I was feeling stronger I started going to the gym.

Mindset

• My biggest piece of advice is to wait for no one.
• Don't wait for your partner to be on the journey with you or to have a friend to exercise with.
• It's your individual focus and purpose that will get you there.
• You really can't rely on anyone else to make it happen.
• It's a non-negotiable for me to stay active and be a healthy weight.
• I have to consider my own health to be able to provide my kids the best future with me in it, free of aches and ailments!