Healthy living

Owner of Trove Wellness, Shield ambassador and fitfluencer, Juanita Khumalo, on getting healthy and fit – even if you’re a beginner.

- JESE-CHE-LILLIENFELDT

GET YOUR MIND RIGHT

Adopting a healthy lifestyle is a mental process, an act of self-love. Considering it takes two to four years to put on a noticeable amount of weight, it’s unfair of you to give your body a matter of months, or even weeks, to snap back to what it used to be. Of course, it’s possible to lose a drastic amount of weight and you’ll probably see the results quickly, but that’s neither sustainable nor would I recommend it due to the high level of risk involved. Although the average person who’s dieting loses half a kilogram per week, you should only use this as a benchmark because how much weight you can shift depends on your genes and your lifestyle. Make small changes. Let’s say you usually consume six teaspoons of sugar per day. Try to reduce that amount to three teaspoons per day.

MENTAL STRATEGIES

• Eat mindfully and intuitively – it doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing.

• Ask yourself: what emotions or feelings cause you to overeat?

• What’s your relationship with food, i.e. what do you associate with it?

• Don’t think of food as good or bad. It only reinforces guilt.

YOUR DIET