Links from Episode  5 – Aishah

Aishah on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/ieesha_thefitlife/

Project FineApple – www.projectfineapple.co.uk

Roberto 0:03
Welcome to the secrets of weight loss podcast, if this is your first time listening Well hello, I’m Roberto, your host and a once morbidly obese man, I used to weigh 23 and a half stone, I lost 10 stone of and I’ve kept it off for over 10 years. And that’s kind of where the podcasts come from. Because everyone always asked me, How do you lose your weight? And when I tell them, they go, Oh, wow, that’s impressive. I don’t think I could do that. I wanted to find out how other people have lost their weight successfully, and kept it off. Because if they can do it, then so can you. And it’s about finding something that works for you. I’ve had so many lovely messages from people about ideas they’ve heard on the podcast and things they hadn’t thought about or tried. And you might find something there as well. So make sure you have a listen to the other episodes that are out there. And hit subscribe also, so you don’t miss a future episode. And of course, you can always get in touch with me. I love hearing from you. I’m on Facebook and Instagram, just search Roberto presents. This week’s episode involves a brilliant, inspirational weight loss story from a lady who started gaining weight due to the pressures of life, discovered a medical issue which made it harder for her to lose weight, got called things like baby Hippo by family members and much more. But she’s turned it around lost eight stone, and is now helping others get fit and find that right mindset with her own podcast and website.

Roberto 1:16
But how did she do it? That’s the question. We’ll meet Aishah in a moment, and I can’t wait for you to hear her story. Obviously, everything Aishah talks about are her own experiences and opinions and not those of the secrets of weight loss podcast or myself, you’ll be able to read a fully transcribed version of this episode, and find links to the things that Aishah talks about on our website, which is the secrets of weight loss.com. So without further ado, let’s meet Aishah the secrets of weight loss podcast. So Aishah, welcome to the podcast. Let’s start the way we always do. What did you weigh at your heaviest?

Aishah 1:51
So that was 260 pounds, which is 18 stones and eight pounds?

Aishah 1:56
And what do you weigh now?

Aishah 1:59
10 stones? On a good day

Roberto 2:01
you’ve lost eight stone that is absolutely brilliant. How does that make you feel?

Aishah 2:05
like a different person all together?

Roberto 2:07
You’ve basically shed a person

Aishah 2:09
Yeah, like my best friend is just over seven and a half stone. And I’ve lost eight and a half. So it’s like I’ve lost her as a person, which is crazy.

Roberto 2:19
It’s just mental when you put it that way, isn’t it?

Aishah 2:21
Yeah. Is it?

Roberto 2:23
How does that eight stone weight loss translate into dress sizes?

Aishah 2:26
So I mean, I obviously never wore dresses when I was a bigger girl because why would I but my trousers used to be a size 20. And now they’re a size 10. I did a post actually a couple of days ago where I managed to put both of my legs in one trouser leg. And I call it my mermaid picture.

Roberto 2:46
I’ve done one of those with a T shirt as well. I found an old t shirt of mine. When I was fat, I thought was hilarious. It said wide load on it. Like on the back of a truck. And I could get basically two of me into that T shirt is brilliant. It’s such a great feeling though, isn’t it?

Aishah 3:00
It’s mental is like becoming a totally different person.

Roberto 3:03
Why didn’t you wear dresses, then explain that one to me when you’re big.

Aishah 3:07
I mean, I knew I was big. And I just knew that I looked ridiculous. And don’t get me wrong. I know there there are women who are size 18-20, who love to wear dresses and are really, really happy with their bodies. And that’s fine. But I wasn’t, I think it’s fine if you’re happy with the way you look, then you wear what you want and you don’t care what anyone thinks. But I did feel uncomfortable in my own skin. So I would always be in the black trackies and black hoodies anything that I felt would kind of camouflage me. So there was no way I was gonna wear a dress ever.

Roberto 3:43
I see. So let’s get into this then. It has to get big to start with?

Aishah 3:47
I think it was a combination of things. It was overeating. eating my feelings. I never really said how I felt I’d keep a lot of things in. And that led to eating a lot more than I should have. I had a really bad breakup at uni, which just made me binge. I had cancer scare and I didn’t tell anyone about it. So I just decided right I’m going to do if I’m going to I didn’t know at this point. But I thought if I’m going to die anyway who gives a crap and I just ate anything can everything under the sun. And I also had polycystic ovaries, which I didn’t know about. But I did actually have which meant that my body has more testosterone than a normal woman, not as much as a man. But I’ve got more testosterone and less oestrogen. And it means that I have to work harder to lose weight and I have to consume less calories in order to lose the same amount of weight. So although on a normal day, I wasn’t eating more than what you’d think reasonable. My body just was like What are you doing and it was just packing on the pounds.

Roberto 5:00
I suppose it’s a vicious circle as well, isn’t it because you see yourself that size, you’re not happy with that size that upsets you. So you then go and eat,

Aishah 5:07
it upsets you, you go and eat, and then you’ve got those moments where you’re like, Okay, I can do this. But everything around you is a quick fix. So I don’t know if you remember Atkins was huge. And I think now it’s kind of keto, or semi Atkins, or whatever you want to call it. But back then Atkins was absolutely everywhere. So I went on Atkins, I lost half a stone in a week, but it’s not sustainable. And eventually, I put it back on I tried the Master Cleanse, which was absolutely horrendous. tried it. I think I got through three days. hated it.

Roberto 5:42
What is the Master Cleanse? I’ve never heard of that one.

Aishah 5:46
I think that’s more an American thing. It’s basically, if I remember correctly, it was golden syrup, lemon, cayenne pepper in water mix together. And that’s all you have all day, every day for two weeks, you can’t consume food. You just have that?

Roberto 6:01
Wow,

Aishah 6:02
I got through three days.

Roberto 6:03
It does sound very extreme. Where did you get this from?

Aishah 6:07
I don’t know. I don’t know who did it. I think it was one of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. And I was like, I must try this.

Roberto 6:12
So there was a whole string of failed fad diets. on your journey.

Aishah 6:18
Yeah. And I remember my mum and my auntie dragging me to Slimming World. Because back in the day, they tried it and it worked for them. But it wasn’t working for me. And partly because the women at that time who were running the group, were larger ladies. And I couldn’t understand why they were telling me what to do. Because as far as I’m concerned, practice what you preach. So I’d already shut off from them. And then the whole Red Day Green Day by our products, that wasn’t for me. And to me, it just in my head it was this is commercial, I don’t want to get involved. So I went for a couple of months for them. And then I just stopped going.

Roberto 6:59
So before we get into what actually worked for you. What was it that made you want to lose weight then? Because obviously you knew you were big? And you tried little bits and pieces. But what what was the final thing that said, right, I need to do something serious here.

Aishah 7:12
I work up, this is literally what happened. I woke up one morning, and I thought I don’t want to live like this anymore. This is not the life that I want. This is not the life that I envisaged. There’s so many things I want to do. But my confidence is holding me back and I am literally the only person alive who can do anything about it. So what am I waiting for? Literally, I just woke up. And that was a thought. And then that’s how it all began.

Roberto 7:37
That was a great thing to have to start with. That’s just crazy. Wow, can you can you take me through what you might have eaten on a on an average day when you were big.

Aishah 7:48
I’d have toast for breakfast. And when I say toast, I mean three or four slices of toast with butter and Marmite and maybe jam for good measure with a cup of tea with sugar. And then at lunchtime, I probably have maybe a fish finger sandwich or a chicken sandwich. And that would have ketchup or Mayo or cheese or a combination of all three. Who knows. And probably the same for dinner. And I think there was when I was at uni, and I was being a real lazy cow. There’d be days where I just have a whole box of cereal throughout the day. It could be Cheerios, it could be crunchy, not. And it wasn’t their recommended small baby portion size. It was a proper bowl of cereal. Three four times in one day. It wasn’t good. It wasn’t good time.

Roberto 8:39
Back then, obviously. You didn’t know anything about food. You just ate what you wanted.

Aishah 8:44
Yeah, basically,

Roberto 8:46
I suppose I suppose now though. You’ve lost all this weight you you know a lot more about food?

Aishah 8:50
Absolutely. Yes, I see food in a completely different way now. I appreciate it for what it is. I appreciate the fact that it’s fueling My body is providing me energy. It’s more of what is it giving to me what’s nutritionally is it doing me any good?

Roberto 9:07
And that I suppose is something you’ve just learned throughout your journey? Yeah. Now I’ve seen a picture of you and your brother. He was big as one and you’ve both lost an incredible amount of weight. Did you inspire him? Did he inspire you?

Aishah 9:19
So I started my actual what I call my actual weight loss in July 2018. And by October 2018, he’d seen that I had not given up like normal. I do one two weeks, a month, maybe three and then stop. But this time I’d actually carried on and he could see that I lost weight. And then he decided okay, if she can do it, so can I. So he went to my PT at the time, and he joined with him. And then he started his weight loss journey in October of 2018.

Roberto 9:49
Wow. And you both now look absolutely brilliant. You’ve both stuck to it and look fantastic.

Aishah 9:54
Thank you.

Roberto 9:55
You said just then that you had a PT a personal trainer was that one of the things You decided to go and do when you had that moment of right? I need to change my life.

Aishah 10:05
Yeah. So that morning that I woke up with that newfound kind of invigoration I got my laptop out. And I’m one of those people whose laptop is literally next to their bed. So I literally picked it up, open it up, looked at pts close by to me, got in touch with a few of them. And essentially, I interviewed them. Which sounds weird.

Roberto 10:27
I love that though, why not? A PT is a very personal thing. You’ve got to get on with the PT. And you’ve got to see what what results they’ve had with other clients and things like that is brilliant that you interviewed them.

Aishah 10:38
I mean, it was more than because Id woken up with this newfound kind of direction, I wanted to make sure that they were on the same page as me. And I know there are a lot of pts out there who try and offer you a quick fix, or slash your calories and tell you right, you’re only having this and you’re only having that and I didn’t want that. Because I’m quite stubborn as a person, I’m only going to do what I believe. Or if it makes sense to me, I will do it. And I knew for myself in order for this to stick, it needed to be a lifestyle choice and a lifestyle change. Which is why I’ve never called it a diet because for me, it’s a life. It’s my new life. And this particular coach, Philip Perry, I, I messaged him, we were communicating via email. And I said to him, right, I want to lose 100 pounds, I plucked this figure out of the air, I wanna lose 100 pounds. Can we do that, but I want to lose it sustainably and I gave him my whole spiel. And he said, right, if you want to lose 100 pounds in a month, it’s not going to happen. I’m not going to offer you any skinny tees, skinny coffee, skinny jobs, tablets, nothing, you’re going to do it, you’re going to do it the right way. And forget the 100 pounds, we’re going to lose one pound at a time. And that, for me was the most profound thing any human has ever said to me. And it was forget about the big goal. Let’s just worry about one pound, we’ll lose that pound. And then we’ll lose another. And I thought oh my god, we’re always chasing this huge number. And it seems so far away that along the way we give up we think you know what, it’s too far away. We’re going to burn that off. But with him it was right. You want to lose 100 pounds fine. That’s that’s what you’ve said in your mind. No problem. Let’s just look at the first 10. And out of that first 10. Let’s lose one. And suddenly, it wasn’t a struggle anymore.

Roberto 12:29
What a brilliant way of thinking about it. Because you’re so right we we all set these, well, say when you’re trying to lose weight, you set this big goal of I want to lose 2, 3, 4 stone. And after after a week of not losing anything you get disheartened. You’re like, Oh, this is rubbish. I’m not doing this anymore. What a great way of thinking about it one pound at a time. Yeah. So what were you doing with your PT, and with your food that worked for you then the that you started seeing results.

Aishah 12:54
So with my PT, it wasn’t just the fact that I thought I needed him. It’s because I was scared that I would go into a gym and people would judge me. And in my head, I thought if I walk into a gym with a personal trainer, they’ll know that I’m serious. And I’m actually there to do something we say again,

Roberto 13:14
I didn’t go to the gym, I hated going to the gym on my own as a big guy, because I didn’t know what I was doing. And B i looked stupid in sports shorts and T shirts being the size I was everything was really tight. And I felt really self conscious about it and hated it. So what a great idea to do that go with someone else, especially a PT.

Aishah 13:32
Well, I thought number one, he knows what he’s talking about. And number two, he’s gonna push me as human beings, we don’t want to put ourselves in uncomfortable situations, we don’t want to do anything out of our comfort zone. A PT doesn’t care, he will push you within safety limits, so you don’t break your back. But if you think you can only do 12 reps, he’ll make sure you do 15. And I need that I need someone to push me. So I would train with him twice a week, for an hour at a time. And food wise it was just at that time initially, let’s just slowly slowly cut out the bad stuff. Let’s not eliminate anything, because you’re going to want it more. If I say no to you, you’re going to want it more. So let’s try and swap it for something else. Or if you want to have it, maybe have it near the end of the week or have it as a tree or trying to figure out ways where I could still have what I want, but in a more controlled way where I’ve actually thought about it first so

Roberto 14:31
you weren’t counting calories as such, then

Aishah 14:33
not at the beginning. Definitely not because to me at the time, I was still quite stubborn in the sense that oh, I don’t need to worry about that. If I just start eating healthier, the weight will drop off. And that’s not what happened which is then why I found out or try to find out what was going on inside. Which led to three four months of conversations with my GP, going for blood tests and finding out that I I have got polycystic ovaries, which means that I do need to eliminate or reduce certain foods. Because my body just doesn’t like them. And when I started doing that, and tracking my calories, then it just kind of

Roberto 15:17
So at the beginning, then you were seeing a personal trainer you’re working out you were you were cutting bad things out of your diet, but the weight wasn’t really coming off.

Aishah 15:24
It was it was a lot slower than I had anticipated, or I had envisaged. So I got to, I think in six months time, I’d dropped 45 pounds, which isn’t bad. It’s not bad. It’s a good, it’s a good number. But then I hit I hit a stall. I was at 215 for about three months. And for the life of me, I could not figure out what was going wrong. Which is then when I thought okay, right, I need to adjust certain things to account for the polycystic ovaries. But I also need to figure out what am I actually consuming? Because calories is just calories in versus calories out, you’re going to burn a certain number. What are you putting in, and then I figured out okay, calorie deficit. And I started tracking my calories on My Fitness Pal. And I realised actually everything I’m burning, I’m consuming pretty much around the same. And if I want to lose and get out of this slump, I’m gonna have to cut the calories a bit more. And I did that, and then it started up again. It was that simple.

Roberto 16:31
So what was it then that kept you motivated during this period where you weren’t losing any weight? Because for a lot of people to get to get stuck in that place? would have been like, Ah, this is rubbish, nothing’s working. I’m just gonna give up it. I’m not doing this anymore. How did you keep motivated?

Aishah 16:48
So I started my Instagram account once I’d lost 20 pounds. And at that point, then I was okay, I’m going to document every 10 pounds, and see how it goes. So whenever I’d have that moment of self doubt, or moment of frustration, I’d look back at the pictures. And I think, right, this is where you were 45 pounds ago. Do we want to go back here? No. How hard? Have we worked in the last six months? Do we want that work and that money to go to waste? No. So we’re just going to keep pushing, we’re going to keep trying, we’re going to change something, we’re going to try and figure this out. Because we do not give up. And it was just pushing myself. Because I’d seen how far I’d come I noticed the changes within myself where I was a bit more confident I was a bit more confident when the clothes I was wearing. And I thought I definitely don’t want to go back there. Even if I’m stuck here for now. That’s okay. But we just don’t want to go back.

Roberto 17:41
It was that feeling then of Yeah, I’ve lost this weight now. And I like how I feel I could feel even better if I carry on going. Exactly. One of the best things I remember was losing loads of weight and actually being able to go shopping in a normal clothes shop and picking up clothes, picking something up off a hanger and going, I can actually buy this and wear it now. I haven’t got to order clothes online and wait for them.

Aishah 18:02
Absolutely. I was always one of those girls who’s like, I don’t want to go shopping. I don’t like shopping. I can’t be bothered. My Auntie’s love shopping. So they’d be like, oh, come shopping with us. And I would know that there’s no way I’m gonna find my size. What’s the point? But I wouldn’t say that I just said, I don’t want to today or no, you guys go, I can’t be bothered. Whereas now, you need to drag me out of the bloody shops.

Roberto 18:29
The way it should be. I love that brilliant. Was there anyone back when you were fat that pointed out that your weight was not good for you or that you needed to lose weight?

Aishah 18:39
Absolutely, everyone. Obviously people can’t see me. I’m Asian and Asian in the Asian culture slash community. When you go to weddings, or funerals or any function where there’s 100, 200,300 Asians in a room, you’ve got the Asian aunties. And they’ll look at all the girls. Oh, Isn’t she beautiful? Isn’t she lovely? And then they’ll come to you the fat one and they’ll say you’ve got a lovely face. For Asian Auntie’s. They’ll never call you fat. This is the word they’ll use. healthy. Oh, you look healthy. And we all know what that means. Within within ourselves. We know that means you’re fat. I thought right. Okay, and I would ignore them and carry on living my life. And one of my Auntie’s bribed me or tried to. With shopping. She said, okay, for every single pound, you lose, I will give you a physical pound. And I will buy you a whole new wardrobe, new shoes, new makeup, new everything. She was willing to spend 1000s of pounds. If I would just lose some weight. And I didn’t do it. I was that stubborn. I was like, No, I can’t do it. I won’t do it. I’ve got big bones. You know, all the excuses come out. I’ve got wide hips. I’ve got big bones. My Nan would tell me Oh, yeah, yeah, she’s big boned. Leave her alone. worry about it just feeding into my excuses. I think my mom, like she was always worried about like my health and the size of me. I had certain family members Call me baby Hippo or baby elephant, to try and to see if that would trigger something because they tried the nicey nicey approach. They thought maybe that would get me angry and give me the vigour to do something, and it didn’t. Until it until it clicked in here, it just,

Roberto 20:29
that’s a really important thing, you’ve got to want to do it for yourself, my, my grandpa was exactly the same. He tried to bribe me all kinds of things to make me lose that weight. And I would lose a little bit of weight. And he’d be like, Alright, you’ve lost a bit, you can have it great. And then I go and put it back on again, until it actually clicks, as you say, in your brain, and that you really want to do it, you’re never gonna do it. Never try and lose weight for someone else for another reason, it’s got to be because you want to do it, because it just won’t happen. Otherwise,

Aishah 20:56
anything you do in life, you have to do for yourself, because that’s the only way it’s going to stick. And it’s the only way you’re going to make yourself happy. There’s no point trying to make other people happy when you yourself are sad on the inside.

Roberto 21:06
So, I’m just gonna go backwards a bit here. You had your personal trainer, you were looking after your diet. And then you hit that stop. What worked after that, that helped you carry on going, you said he started counting calories? Did you just carry on with your personal trainer for the exercise? Or was there something else that helped you lose that weight.

Aishah 21:23
So with the exercise, I felt like I needed to change it up a bit. So I started taking combat hit classes twice a week at the gym near work, which was basically a combination of half an hour of hit circuits or something, and then half an hour of essentially like glove and pad work combinations and things like that, which I really, really enjoyed. So I would do weight training twice a week, and I would do combat hit twice a week. So I upped my training sessions. And I religiously started tracking my calories. And the way I did it, which I try and implore everyone to do for at least two three weeks. Don’t I’m not saying do it for life. But at least two three weeks actually weigh your food. Don’t just say oh yeah, I had chicken salad, actually, when you’re making the chicken. So this is what I do. When I when I do meal prep on a Sunday. I’ll then batch it out. So I’ll get my containers and I’ll weigh 200 grammes of cooked chicken and put it in each container. 100 grammes of cooked couscous, then I know what I’m consuming, I’m not just guessing my calories, I’m actually looking at what it what it actually is, how many calories is it and what are my protein macros. And that’s what so when I hit that 215 Mark, that’s what I did other than went away my food, I’m going to log it on, if I’m putting a teaspoon of honey in my tea, I need to know what that teaspoon of honey is worth calories wise. Because the number of times we don’t write down our liquid calories is where we go wrong. The coffees, the teas, the cokes, the gin and tonics, all those things that we pretend we didn’t have, it all adds up. And also

Roberto 23:06
you don’t realise how many calories can be in a coffee shop drink. For example, by the time they put in some syrups and you have milk and maybe even a cream on top. That’s that’s a decent little meal, right? They’re

Aishah 23:18
absolutely they’re easily three 400 calories. And so when I do when I do go out with my friends, I’ll make sure I order a coconut milk latte with sugar free vanilla syrup, because I know it will be around 100 120 calories instead of 345 100 calories.

Roberto 23:34
I always thought coconut milk was a bit more a bit more fatty.

Aishah 23:37
So, I tried alman milk, I tried oat milk, and I tried coconut milk. And I for me coconut milk gave me the sweetness that I needed in my in my coffee. And it gave me that when I have tea, I still have blue top whole milk because you can’t you can’t beat normal milk and a cup of tea. You just can’t. But with my coffee, I’ll use coconut milk or if I make iced coffees in the summer coconut milk

Roberto 24:01
so you don’t cut out all your fat then for example, with the milk

Aishah 24:05
Oh, no, no, no, I still have cheese. I still, but I changed, so I’ll still have what I want, but I’ll have less of it. So I know I’m only going to have maybe three cups of tea in the week. Why compromise the flavour? You know, I’m going to eat cheese. Why compromise on the type of cheese that I want? Because I’m not going to have it every day. I’ll have it maybe two two times in the week. Things like that. The things that give you a bit of joy, at least have what you want.

Roberto 24:32
I suppose it’s just the amount isn’t it? Really don’t don’t overdo it at the end of the day. Yeah. You mentioned meal prep in there. Do you do you religiously meal prep all your meals or

Aishah 24:43
so I’ll do meal prep on a Sunday, which will get me through to maybe Wednesday, Thursday. And then so I basically meal prep twice a week. And for my family it’s quite boring because I’ll just batch cook or whatever. Be in and out of that kitchen within one hour. Really? Oh, yeah, absolutely. I think for my Instagram followers, they will Oh, you know, don’t have time. I just don’t have the time I was like, right, we’re gonna time this. So I timed The minute I walked into the kitchen, cut the chicken, cook the chicken, weighed it, prepped it, did the curse, curse, wipe all the surfaces down, wash all the pans, put everything in the fridge one hour and 15 minutes. I said write anyone who’s got any excuses, five meals one hour, 15 minutes. You don’t you’re telling me you don’t have an hour and 15 minutes.

Roberto 25:35
And you’ve got all your decent meal sorted. You’ve done it an hour and 15. Do you have the same thing every week, though? Or do you mix it up? Lots of little recipes to go to

Aishah 25:45
Rightm so, I mentioned that I, I’ve changed my view of food. To me it’s fuel, essentially. So I’ll change the seasonings. But I know every single day for lunch, I am having chicken. And I’m either having couscous or salad with that chicken. I know that for a fact, unless my brothers decided to cook, in which case Hallelujah, because then I didn’t have to do it. But But other than that, yeah, I know, I’m gonna have chicken, I’m gonna have cousco Quinoaus, or maybe sweet potato, the carb is gonna change, but the protein will always be chicken. And I’ll just change the spices that I’ve used just to change the flavour. Other than that, it’s really simple because I don’t want to be in there for hours and hours. Nobody does.

Aishah 26:29
Do you still track your calories now then?

Aishah 26:31
So I do two weeks on two weeks off. So by that I mean so maybe the first two weeks of the month, I’ll use the app, and I’ll track everything. And then the next two weeks. I’ll just eat intuitively so I because because I’ve been doing it for so long, I can look at a piece of chicken and guesstimate roughly within 10 grammes plus or minus how much it is. So I don’t need to track all the time, I can go out with my friends and have a meal and roughly know how much has gone on to that plate. So I don’t necessarily track all the time now. So I’ll do two weeks on two weeks off, just to kind of keep in, keep in check as it were.

Roberto 27:11
So along your journey, you’ve been able to obviously learn about food or the calories. What do you do to spoil yourself? Do you spoil yourself? Obviously, you mentioned about having blue top milk there. Ya little rebel. But do you ever have like ice cream or chocolate bars and things like that?

Aishah 27:30
Absolutely. And I think once I when I first started this, I said to myself, right, you, you’re doing this to change your lifestyle. And eventually, once you’ve hit your goal, you can then start eating what you want again. But for those first two years, or just shy of two years, they took me to get to my 100 pound goal. I was quite strict. I was the girl that would go out and have eggs with the side of eggs because she didn’t want the toast. Or I was going to have a side salad for the the starter and then a main salad for the main. I literally was the girl who had salad with salad or eggs with eggs. Wow. Yeah. And I was fine with that. I was happy with that if anyone had a problem with it as far as I was concerned, that’s your problem. I’m doing this for myself. But once I’d hit my 100 pounds, I thought right? What do I want to incorporate into my life so that I don’t miss these things. So I now have dark chocolate like 80 90% dark chocolate. I’ll have that maybe five times a week if I’m honest with you. Just a little cue tube. Yeah, two cubes of the lindt or the lindt because it’s quite bitter. I don’t really want to have more than two. Yeah, so lean options hot chocolate is a lifesaver because it’s only 40 calories but you get that sweet hit. I What else do I have ice cream but you know you can get Halo top you can get the whole tub for like 350 cows I

Roberto 29:00
love this whole I love ice cream and it’s the one thing I really missed when I was losing weight and I love the fact that there now there’s so many different ice creams that are like because you say 350 cows or a tub not I want to sit there any cold tub but at the same time we just get that ice cream hit that I’m like Ah yeah, that’s good.

Aishah 29:16
Absolutely.

Roberto 29:17
So how do you keep fit on the exercise side now? Do you still have a personal trainer or have you learned more about your body on what works for you?

Aishah 29:25
I’ve definitely learned more about my body and what works for me I know hands down I am not a cardio God. I can’t be there hours I never have even when I started off with Coach. I never like we did 10 minutes of cardio just to warm up at the beginning. And then 10 minutes at the end to cool down. Everything else was weight training.

Roberto 29:44
I find cardio so boring. I don’t know how people can do 40 minutes an hour on a on a bicycle. I know that like for hats off. If that works for you. It’s great.

Aishah 29:53
But I’m no cause I’m just not it’s not that’s not my lifestyle. It’s not for me. I’d rather go For a 45 minute walk in the park or, you know, wherever, like somewhere there’s a bit of scenery. Or if I’ve got a good playlist on I don’t mind, I can walk hours on end. But if I’ve gone to the gym, I’m there to train, I’m there to do weight training. I’m there to practice my lifts, my squats, all these things, I want to focus on those. And I think a lot of women especially fail to realise that by lifting weights, you are not going to become a bulky man, you just you’re not, unless that’s what you’re focusing and training to do, unless you want to do comps, you’re not going to do that.

Roberto 30:34
That is one of the things I get a lot. I’m a personal trainer as well. And women all the time say to me, I don’t want to put a load on muscle. I don’t want to have this this man like body, it’s like you won’t you just need to be lifting some weights because it’s really good at boosting your metabolism. Exactly. So what do you do down the gym, then

Aishah 30:50
I, I follow like a weights programme. So I’ll do I always do kind of full body things I don’t really isolate as such. So if I’ve done an hour and 15 minutes, I’ll start off with legs. I’ll then move on to arms, core glutes and some finishes at the end. But yeah, I’ll I try and do the same exercises, because then I can work on progressive overload. So if I’ve, if I know I’ve started off at 60 kilos on a high bar back squat, then I know Okay, I’m going to try and increase the reps. And when I’ve hit a certain rep range, then I’m going to drop down and add more weight on. And now for me it’s more body comp, while I was losing weight, it was okay, let’s try different different things get all the muscles going. But now it’s less of Let’s lose weight because I don’t want to I’m happy where I am now. You get some more body composition, what do I want my composition to look like? And what do I need to do to get that going. So that’s what I’m working on now. And because I’m so interested in it, and it’s a big part of my life, I’m doing a personal training level for to get all the knowledge and do all those things. Because I love it that much. It’s not. It’s not a pain. For me, it’s not a task or a job is something I love.

Roberto 32:05
That’s exactly why I did here as well. I wanted to learn more about the body. And it was only It was only when I started losing weight and actually felt good about myself. I was like, actually, I really enjoy learning about the body. And I want to know what else it can do. And I want to help other people have this feeling of Yeah, it’s fantastic losing weight, you can do it.

Aishah 32:22
I’ve just felt so good. I want other people to feel this good.

Roberto 32:25
And that is brilliant. And it’s such a lovely thing as well, because I speak to a lot of people who who struggle with weight loss, and they don’t know where to turn or what to do. And when you can offer them some advice or some help. And you see them succeeding as well. It’s just such a great feeling. Is there is there any one thing you can pinpoint? That is the best thing about shedding all this weight?

Roberto 32:47
The confidence

Aishah 32:47
Yeah, by a mile.

Roberto 32:49
what what does this confidence helped you achieve?

Aishah 32:52
Just to talk to people meet people do things I wouldn’t normally do it literally when I say to people, I’m an I’m a totally different person. They’re like, Oh, no, you’re just you’re just you with the confidence on like, actually, no, I don’t even recognise who that person is. or was. Because I’m doing thing which I never would have done before. I go out of my way to talk to people, I will like talk to people in the gym and like, encourage them. And if people ask me questions, I’m not just going to be like, Oh my God, please leave me alone. Like, actually, I’ll actually have a conversation I’ll go out. I never used to go on nights out. So now I go out with my mates actually have mates, which sounds really sad, but it’s true. I didn’t I didn’t have friends before. But I do now. I’m dating now. And I’m confident, I don’t try and pander to anyone’s ego. I’ve actually found who I am. And I know what I like and what I don’t like, and I’m I’m alright with that. And if people don’t like it, that’s their problem. I’ve also got that newfound attitude of I like what I like and you like what you like, I’m happy with you living the way you’re living. As long as you’re not trying to impose anything on me. We’re good. But if you want to throw things at me, No, thanks. Bye.

Aishah 34:03
I love that way of thinking. Brilliant. So what would you say if you could sum up? What is your one secret to weight loss?

Roberto 34:10
Do it, do it for yourself. The secret is you do it for you. Once you’ve pinpointed your why. Hold on to it, write it down, write it on your mirror. Wherever you wake up in the morning that one morning you’re going to wake up and think I can’t be bothered. Look at your why. Get yourself off the bed and get out the door and do what you have to do. Find your why. That is the secret.

Roberto 34:33
Aishah, it’s been absolutely brilliant talking to you. I love your secret that is fantastic. Because you’ve gone a step further as well Haven’t you you set up something yourself to help people lose weight.

Aishah 34:43
Yeah, so I was getting lots and lots of questions on Instagram about how I’m losing it or how I’ve lost it and how they can lose it and I thought well if I can help more people. Why don’t I try doing that and then that’s where project fine Apple came about. It was fine apple. I want you to feel fine, like looking fine is great, you want to look fine, but you want to feel fine. It’s about that feeling. So for me is that if I can give that feeling to you, I want you to have that. And that’s what that’s where it’s come about to help you keep you accountable and get you going. Because you sometimes you need the direction. Sometimes you need someone to be like, okay, you want to do this, I’ll help you get off the ground and create a habit and a lifestyle change. And then you can kind of nourish that yourself. So it’s that kind of push of accountability you need at the beginning of your journey.

Roberto 35:34
And you’ve got a podcast about this and a website as well, right?

Aishah 35:37
Yeah, yeah. The podcast is the fine Apple show on Spotify. Yeah, and it’s just it’s not always about weight loss. But it can be about anything, can everything that we did one on men’s mental health, perception winning or anything? Can everything

Roberto 35:55
so it’s the fine Apple show. Get it from wherever you get your podcasts? Yeah. And what’s the website?

Aishah 36:01
www.projectfineapple.co.uk

Roberto 36:05
thank you so much for your time today. Good luck with your personal training course and your weight loss journey is absolutely incredible top work.

Aishah 36:13
Thanks for having me on.

Roberto 36:14
Thank you for joining us as well. Make sure you hit subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode. And of course, if you missed anything that Aishah was talking about the links her podcast her website. You can find all the details on our website. The secrets of weight loss calm the secrets of weight loss.