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Those of you who read this blog regularly know about my struggles with weight loss and my journey to a balanced healthy life. I often follow people who inspire me or intrigue me with their success journeys. However, Rebel Wilson and her Year of Health weight loss strategy didn’t get on my radar until recently.
At first, I thought she was just another celebrity who did a detox and would epically regain all the weight. However, on Instagram, she painted a completely different story, and I realized she would succeed.
Table of contents
On December 1, 2020, Rebel went live on Instagram and spoke candidly for an hour about her “Year of Health” journey. It was one of the most authentic and honest accounts of a weight loss journey that I had ever seen, especially from a celebrity.
If you are looking to start your weight loss journey or struggling to complete one, I highly recommend you follow her; she’s unapologetic and real about her journey, and one of the biggest takeaways I got from that live talk was you don’t have to be perfect. Most of my bad habits are the same as everyone else in our position.
Dream it.
The Quest to Live a Healthy Lifestyle
When I started my weight loss journey, I was labelled “Morbidly Obese.” Even now, after losing almost 50 pounds, I am still being labelled Obese. What is different about my weight loss journey this time is very similar to Rebel’s Journey, and I wanted to share with you all why her very succinct and balanced approach to losing weight and why it is one we all should adopt.
Plan it.
Self Assessment and Discovery Before Weight Loss
Rebel herself spoke about the vicious weight loss cycle of going hard on a diet, turning to an emotional trigger that takes us off it and then feeling horrible about it. A cycle that many obese people repeat over and over. We ask ourselves, “How do I break out of this yo-yo dieting?”
Rebel’s Commitment and “Year of Health” Resolution
To begin a successful healthy lifestyle, I agree 100% with Rebel’s description. You have first to realize your current situation and understand the negative behaviours you are repeating, what you are eating and why this bad behaviour is not serving you.
Seek Medical Discussion and Supervision
Another factor in Rebel’s weight loss success is that she did it under the guide of medical supervision. By reaching out to doctors, she could get the guidance she needed to address poor nutrition and manage a balanced weight loss approach.
Seeking medical advice is one significant factor in my approach too. I am on the Dr. Poon Metabolic diet run here in Ontario, and Rebel started her journey at Viva Myer in Austria. Her detox from sugar began there, but it was the commitment she made after that detox to go through a year of health that led to her success.
Both of our approaches involve a high protein diet and increased physical activity. However, Rebel shared the third part of a balanced lifestyle, mental and emotional well being.
Live it.
How did Rebel Wilson Lose Weight?
After understanding her nutritional issues of eating way too many carbs and her repeated destructive behaviours, Rebel began to realize that weight loss is more than just going on a diet. Something that I also have been trying to explain.
Rebel Wilson’s Triangle of Health
As Rebel discussed on IGTV, her weight loss is like a triangle of health with three essential parts.
- Nutrition
- Physical; and
- Mental & Emotional
1. Nutrition and Diet
Rebel realized her sweet tooth, and lousy eating was something she needed to get a handle on. She did this with a High Protein Diet. Something I have come to recognize is imperative for a person of my weight and body type to form successful weight loss.
I am not a medical professional, so like Rebel, I won’t go into details, but removing the sugar and carbs from my diet did invoke a fat-burning mode that I needed to drop significant pounds. The thing is, as she mentions and as I have come to realize, this doesn’t mean you can’t eat.
High Protein Diet Does Not Mean You Can’t Eat Anything.
Following a high protein diet pushes you towards a more balanced approach to losing weight and inevitably finding a healthy balanced lifestyle to follow because nutrition is just one of the pieces to a healthy balanced lifestyle.
For me, removing all the sugar and bad carbs from my diet forced me to learn how to eat correctly and moved me to a more balanced, clean eating approach to nutrition.
I don’t feel deprived, and I’m not dreaming about sugar all the time. When I do have a treat or something with carbs, it doesn’t send me on a tailspin anymore. I’m learning to remove the crap out of my diet and find an overall balanced eating approach.
Read More: How to Start a Healthy Lifestyle and Stick to It
2. Physical
Rebel talked about the Physical first, and I don’t know if that was the order of her journey, but I’m sharing it second because in my own experience the nutrition was number 1 and remains the most crucial pillar of weight loss. In my opinion, at the bottom of the triangle, the Physical and Mental pillars balance out the Healthy Triangle.
Rebel spoke fondly of her love of just walking to get her exercise in. It’s a place anyone can start with just going out and walking for 30 minutes to an hour a day. Eventually, as you progress through your health journey, like us, you’ll come to realize the importance of the following physical activities.
- Walking
- Interval Training
- Strength Training
As you move through your journey, you’ll find the activities you love to do most. But I found myself shaking my head a lot when Rebel discussed her love for walking and hiking.
3. Mental
The third pillar in Rebel Wilson’s Triangle of Health is Mental, and this is where I think most diets and weight loss attempts fail. Facing the emotional side of the weight is a big part of the success of breaking unhealthy behaviours.
Again I found myself nodding in agreement as Rebel spoke about how these behaviours don’t disappear. The difference when you are on a “year of health” journey is that you learn to manage them so that they are not getting the best of you every day.
I was so proud of Rebel when she talked about her emotional issues of being overweight and sharing how she carried the excess weight almost as a shield. She got a little choked up talking about self-love.
Self Love is essential in your weight loss journeys. We owe it to ourselves to value and be optimistic about what we deserve. Treat yourself with love and keep repeating this to break those emotional patterns.
The Balanced Approach of Rebel Wilson’s Weight Loss
“Don’t Define Yourself by a Number,” she said. This statement is where I realized just how balanced her thinking about her weight loss journey is. She didn’t aspire to be super thin or a specific size; she gave herself a healthy goal, and she just shifted her habits to work towards it.
Read more: Best Goal Planners to Help You Achieve Your Dreams
There were several helpful tips that Rebel shared throughout her Live message that resonated with me. One was a trick she learned from Dr. Sadeghi’s book Within called Purge Emotional Writing. You take a blank paper and, for 12 minutes, write out all your feelings. Use that space to write down some things you are grateful for as well. When completed, dispose of the paper.
Things Rebel Wilson Can Teach You About Weight Loss
- It’s not a perfect road
- Focus on the balance of the Health Triangle
- Follow a high protein diet and curb bad eating habits
- Walking is excellent for physical activity
- Don’t let people in your life keep you from finding what’s right for you
- Find a way to love and treat yourself with compassion
- Be a better version of yourself
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Gosh, this is beautiful! I really think it’s all about balance and long-term sustainability and it’s so much easier when you have a patient, uplifted mindset about it. One of the things I’ve been doing aside from trying to find joy in exercise and stay off the scale is drink spring water. We get ours from Cedar Springs & we love it. It’s been such a blessing.
Yes I’m learning in my own journey that the mindfulness part, and the story I tell myself in my head are very important. I just loved her balanced and calm approach to it all.