Do you have a stressful job, but you’re still looking to lose some weight? Here’s how to drop a dress size with a busy career, so you can meet your goals.
As coaches who work with women in their 40s and 50s, one of the most common struggles we see is those trying to balance a busy career with fitness goals. We can’t tell you how many women we have spoken to who come home after days of back-to-back meetings and end up eating unhealthy treats and snacks.
This can quickly lead to extra pounds creeping on around your middle area, especially for women over 40, whose changing hormones already make it easier to gain weight.
This leaves many women choosing their clothes to cover up problem areas. And that’s never a nice place to be for anyone!
Luckily, there is a way to balance a busy career with your fitness goals so you can drop 1-2 dress sizes in 12 weeks, fit into all your favourite clothes and feel incredible wearing anything you like. All without sacrificing your career in the process.
In our recent podcast episode, we reveal our top strategies which have helped thousands of women over 40 to drop a dress size with a busy career. Here’s what we recommend.
The problems of having a busy career
Here are some of the common pain points for women over forty with a busy career. Helping to identify your root causes of these issues can help you to find solutions to your problems.
Lack of time and energy
If you don’t have the time and energy to travel to and from a gym, slimming groups or to cook multiple meals from scratch every night, you’re not alone.
High stress levels
Having high stress levels elevates cortisol and triggers the Weight Gain Triangle. If not careful, this can cause leptin resistance, insulin resistance and thyroid deregulation. It can also lead to stress eating.
An unpredictable schedule
Meetings can run over or constantly appear in your calendar. Maybe you’re often have to move things around at a moment’s notice, making it hard to stick to a schedule. Or maybe you’re regularly working late and have many weeks a year that are extra busy.
Work travel
Maybe you’re not always able to cook from scratch or are in control of food choices. In these instances, you’re often faced with work events with lots of alcohol and food.
What’s the solution to drop a dress size with a busy career?
You need to find a diet which is:
Time-efficient
A diet which gets good results from the minimum possible time and effort! You need a lifestyle which can be specific to women in their 40s and 50s, and work optimally with your changing body and hormones.
Flexible
It’s helpful to find a diet with no rigid plan, which can work on the go and when travelling, and has food that works for you and your family.
Keeps stress and cortisol levels low
You need workouts that don’t over stress the body, and have no extreme approaches with nutrition. It helps to find a lifestyle which actively manages stress levels with mindset work, and helps you manage your life and schedule to reduce stress as much as possible.
What to avoid
Here’s what to avoid when looking for a diet approach.
Exercise
Avoid gym classes. These mean you need to commute to and from the gym and aren’t specific for women over 40 with already high stress levels. Avoid running, as it’s high impact, and can be highly stressful on the body. This can work to maintain weight for someone who’s already slim, but is not effective to lose weight or tone up over 40.
Nutrition
Avoid slimming groups, as they waste 30 mins commuting each way just to weigh yourself! Plus try to avoid meal plan diets where you’re cooking different meals from scratch for EVERY meal, which is very time-consuming. Plus, most importantly, low calorie diet or shakes are not to be touched. They are very low calorie options, which can spike cortisol levels and triggers the weight gain triangle, and can also be very inflexible.
Here’s what we find works best for women over 40
Exercise
Opt for LIST training (low-impact strength training). This keeps stress on the body low and you can see great results with just three 30 minute sessions a week. Also, manage your step count to burn a few more calories without elevating cortisol levels.
Nutrition
Try our Hormonally Balanced Eating approach. Eat the right amount for you of the 3 key nutrients, which are calories, fibre and protein. Your nutrition should be specific to you, very flexible and mean you can still enjoy meals out, alcohol and a few treats.
Mindset
This is perhaps the most important part for those with busy careers. You need a diet which proactively reduces stress levels daily. We do this using the Stress Shield, which is a daily mindset routine that, in 5-10 minutes a day, prevents stress levels getting too high and avoids triggering the weight gain triangle and stress eating.
Our Trinity Transformation program contains all of these and more. We’ve helped thousands of women over forty to see the results they deserve in just a few months. You can find out more here.