Laura Thompson, part time school warden, full time mom.
40-year-old, Laura Thompson works as a part time school warden and a full-time mom. She has managed to achieve this amazing weight loss while keeping up with her busy lifestyle. She found that at the start of 2020 that she was extremely stuck in a rut, in a bad place health wise, physically, every way. She is a mom of two small children, full of energy, always active and always wanting to do something. As the country headed into lockdown 1 last year, she made it a priority to get the children outside for exercise and activity. The bikes would be out, scooters, the whole lot but she found that she would be leaning against a fence, a wall or a tree watching the children playing, being kids. She would see other families and parents with their children, and they would be chasing after them and playing games and Laura would have no energy to do the same. She knew it was important for the children to get out and exercise, but she put herself on the back foot, she did not realize how important it was for herself to stay active and to have fun with the children, which might be the case for a lot of busy parents. Like most people, she was worried about everyone looking at her not being able to keep up with the children when really, she knew that everyone around her had other things to be worrying about. But it’s just the way your head goes when your head isn’t in the right place. Laura knew that it wasn’t going to be a quick fix, but she took those baby steps and found her feet and her stride.
Laura quickly began to see changes in herself even in the first month of her programme, she reported feeling like a new person. Sleeping better, having bundles of energy, and even chasing the children around the place when before she had to sit out, and miss out on the fun. The programme also had a massive effect on her mental health which a lot of people also report. As we know exercise releases all the good hormones in the body, and that you will always feel good after some exercise. Along with losing nearly two and a half stone with both lockdowns thrown into the mix this year, she has also lost 7 inches around her waist area. She was really surprised at how quickly she started to feel better about herself which was a big positive for her personally. They say it is like a bug, once you start incorporating more exercise into your daily life and begin to see these changes so quickly, you are hooked and are eager to keep pushing and improving to see even more.
If reading Laura’s story has inspired you to start on your weight-loss journey or maybe just to shift that extra weight you cannot seem to lose, a good place to start is to look at your calorie intake. Broadly speaking, weight loss is achieved by creating a calorie deficit, which basically means the number of calories a person consumes in a day is smaller than the number of calories they burn, or energy output is greater than energy input. In saying this, it is important to understand how this number is calculated for an individual. Each person needs a certain number of calories for the body to perform all its daily functions, before thinking about the calories needed for exercise and other activities, this is known as your basal metabolic rate and it is calculated based on different factors such as age, gender, and activity level. Understanding how many calories an individual’s body burns per day and what to do to increase daily calorie burn is the key to success.
