Businesswoman An used to have an average body: 1.62 m tall, 52 kg and measurements of 80-63-94. She wasn’t able to keep a good figure due to her unhealthy lifestyle.
According to An, because her cooking skill was poor, she often ate outside, with a lot of alcohol and bar snacks to bring home.
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Bui Hong An with a waist of 60 cm. Picture courtesy of An |
In 2022, her weight rose to 55 kg, and her waist was nearly 70 cm. An gets sick easily and often suffers from digestive disorders.
Worried about her health and body, she started to look at scientific dieting methods, determined to improve herself.
Instead of doing trendy diets where weight loss is guaranteed in a month or quicker, An chose to follow more sustainable methods. After some experimenting, she found the Eat Clean method to be the most suitable, as it did not require her to starve or restrict her diet.
“Eat clean” focuses on eating food that does not require much processing, such as fruits, vegetables, and cereals. This method helps improve health and keep the natural flavors of food.
Alongside the Eat Clean diet, she also does intermittent fasting on a cycle depending on her progress.
Intermittent fasting means eating and fasting in cycles. This method allows the body to completely digest food while restricting calorie intake.
Usually, the method follows a pattern of eating for the first 6-8 hours of the day, then fasting for the remaining 16-18 hours. This stimulates the body to convert glucose-based energy to ketone-based energy – reducing stress, risk of cancer, and obesity, and increasing lifespan.
A study published by the New England Journal of Medicine in late 2021 suggests that intermittent fasting reduces stress and cancer risk, increases obesity, increases longevity, and aiding weight loss.
Every morning, An would drink a cup of vegetable juice such as celery with apple; kudzu powder, or chlorophyll mixed with warm water to cleanse the body.
Her breakfast consists of oats, nut milk, fruit, and salad. She avoids noodles and bread because of their high carb content and little to no fiber. Her lunch and dinner are 4-5 hours apart and provide her with enough fiber, protein, carbs, and good fats.
Besides intermittent fasting, she also eats in a specific order, starting with meat and vegetables and ending with carbs to quickly make her feel full. This is an effective weight loss method that has been recommended by many nutrition experts.
According to Dr. Truong Hong Son, director of the Vietnam Institute of Applied Medicine, eating vegetables first will stimulate the digestive system into action. This stimulation is not too harsh because vegetables contain a lot of fiber and are not too dry or hard.
If you eat rice and meat first, it will cause the stomach lining to secrete a lot of gastric juice to digest dry and hard foods – leading to stomach pain.
“As such, developing the habit of eating vegetables first will benefit the digestive system as well as the way our body absorbs food,” Dr. Son said. Moreover, he suggested that eating vegetables on an empty stomach will make you feel full quicker – allowing you to better control fat and sugar consumption.
An buys a lot of fruits and vegetables, especially fruits like avocados, bananas, oranges, dragon fruits, pineapples, and apples, as well as green vegetables like cabbages and broccoli.
She also eats a variety of nuts, uses olive oil for cooking, and supplements her body with omega-3 to supply herself with good fat.
The most difficult part of this journey was maintaining her new lifestyle and giving up old habits after 20 years.
“Many think eating like that is suffering, but to me, I must keep my spirits high. As such, I often have 1-2 meals each week where I eat whatever I want so I can be more comfortable, yet still manage to keep my dieting progress,” she said.
Besides going on a diet, An also exercise for 15-30 minutes daily. After three months, her body changed for the better: her weight dropped from 54 kg to 50 kg, her waist from 67 cm to 60 cm, her lower abdomen reduced to 72 cm, her buttocks, thighs, and body became firmer, and her overall body fat decreased. Her health has also improved, leading to better mental health and sleep.
She said that her priority is to be beautiful, healthy, and rejuvenated, so she is determined to get all four groups of essential nutrients in her meals.
She advises people not to lose weight by fasting, or cutting down on carbs and fat but to listen to the body to find the appropriate diet
