Many people may know the name Emmy Medders, as she made headlines around the world for her incredible weight loss. But what are the secrets to her success? We chatted with Medders about her new book, ‘The Ultramarathon Diet: Discover the Incredible Results of Eating Fewer Meals Per Day’, which reveals her top tips on how to shed the pounds.
Conscious Eating And Avoiding Cravings
As the daughter of a dairy farmer, spending her childhood surrounded by delicious, nutritious food probably helped Emmy develop a taste for healthy living. The 48-year-old entrepreneur attributes her incredible weight loss to the fact that she never felt restricted when it came to food, even though she ate modestly. That sense of freedom, combined with her natural curiosity about how food works in the body, helped her to identify the root of her problems.
“I always felt that what I ate didn’t make much difference, as long as I ate plenty. But after undergoing several medical tests and discovering that my body wasn’t recognizing certain foods as fuel, it started to dawn on me that there was something wrong”, she says. Following a brief consultation with her doctor, Medders decided to change her lifestyle in a drastic way, cutting out all the foods she thought her body didn’t need – including dairy, wheat, and sugar – and replacing them with healthier options.
This ‘clean’ diet allowed her to lose nearly 30 kilograms in six months, and she credits much of that weight loss to conscious eating and avoiding cravings. She also tries to stay motivated by setting small challenges – such as eating an apple a day or buying a pair of shoes – for herself, which helps her stay focused on her goals.
The Importance Of Movement
Medders stresses the importance of movement when it comes to losing weight. She says that when you combine exercise with a healthy diet, the pounds will start to come off quickly. Even though she cut out most of the foods she usually eats, she also tried to up her fruit and vegetable intake, in order to provide her body with the vitamins and nutrients it needs to function at its best. This, in turn, helped her to shed the pounds.
“I’ve always been a believer in getting the body moving. Even when I was a child, I remember my mum would always try to get me to jump around a bit, or go on walks with her. Because it’s something that makes you feel better, it could be a way of shedding off those pesky pounds”, she says.
Focus On The Positive
When you’re losing a significant amount of weight, it’s normal to feel nervous about what others might say about you or your appearance. But Medders says that it’s important not to let that negative energy get the better of you. Instead, surround yourself with positive people who you knows will tell you how amazing you look, and what a positive impact your weight loss is going to have on your life.
“I chose to focus on the positives. I knew that once I started losing weight, there would be plenty of people who’d be excited to tell me how great I looked, and how much my weight loss had meant to them. So, rather than letting the opinions of others get to me, I chose to focus on all the positive things that I knew would come from this change”, she says.
With her diet and exercise strategies, along with the support of her friends and family, Medders was able to lose nearly 30 kilograms in 6 months, which meant she could finally fit into her favourite designer dresses. Since then, she’s maintained her weight loss, and even managed to shed off another 13 kilograms. And rather than focusing on how much she’s lost, she now credits her amazing results to the fact that she measures her progress in terms of inches rather than pounds.
Eat What You Want
When you start losing weight, it’s easy to want to cut out certain foods that you know are bad for you. But as Medders points out, if you want to lose weight, you should be focusing on the foods that you enjoy eating. By restricting yourself to only a selection of foods, you’re likely to end up sabotaging your weight loss efforts. Trying to force yourself to eat healthy foods that you don’t like, will inevitably result in you either giving up on the diet altogether, or sabotaging your results by sneaking unhealthy foods – which you know you shouldn’t be eating at all. If you want to lose weight, you should be looking at food as fuel for your body, not as a punishment for being greedy or bad.
Eating What You Need
One of the greatest things about Medders’ weight loss is that she seems to have finally found the right combination of foods to suit her body’s needs. When she cut out dairy, wheat, and sugar, she was able to reduce her calorie intake by more than half, and replace those calories with healthier food options. This, in turn, helped her to lose weight and keep it off.
When it comes to our bodies, it’s crucial that we eat the right foods for the functions we need. If we eat foods that aren’t compatible with our bodies, it can cause us a great deal of physical discomfort and even damage. For example, eating a lot of sugar without any nutritional value can cause our bodies to become dependent on it. That’s why it’s so important to be conscious about what kinds of food we eat and how much of it we consume, especially when losing weight. When we get too used to eating certain foods and don’t eat what our bodies are demanding, it can cause serious problems – both short and long term.
For instance, if you’ve been consuming a lot of sugar and processed foods without any nutritional value, then it’s likely that your body doesn’t function at its best. With the right nutritionist advice and a suitable diet, you might find that your sugar cravings disappear and you start to feel fuller for longer. That fuller feeling, combined with the low calorie intake, might actually help you to lose weight.
Take Breaks When You Need Them
When you’re trying to lose weight, it’s important to understand that it’s a difficult task and you’re bound to hit a few stumbling blocks. We’ve all been there, where even though we’ve been following the ‘right’ diet and doing the ‘right’ exercises, the pounds just don’t seem to be coming off. In those cases, it’s important to take a step back and examine what’s going on, before jumping back into another diet or exercise routine. When we’re busy trying to ‘fix’ what’s wrong, it’s often because we don’t stop to consider the fact that our bodies are constantly changing and evolving, even as we speak. Our hormone balance, for example, can completely alter the way we feel, and what kinds of foods we crave. That’s why it’s so important to take regular breaks and allow yourself to enjoy life how you choose to enjoy it, rather than punishing yourself for having certain foods and missing out on others. This will help you to stay committed to your diet and exercise routines, and allow you to reach your full potential – both mentally and physically.
In summary, Emmy Medders’ incredible weight loss is proof that proper nutrition and the right lifestyle change can still result in outstanding results. And what a result it is! Whether you’re interested in following in her footsteps, or just want to lose weight yourself, you can learn a lot from her story.