I completely transformed by body by eating MORE and exercising less
A body confidence coach shared how she transformed her body without dieting after years of restrictive eating and over-exercising.
Giulia Halkier, 35, from Vancouver, Canada, has more than 110,000 followers on TikTok, where she shares advice on how to overcome negative body image and limiting beliefs.
In a recent videoshe posted before-and-after bikini photos of herself, explaining that she unintentionally lost weight after she gave up dieting and high-intensity interval training (HIIT).
“I bet you wouldn’t believe my body looked like this due to chronic restrictions, dieting, HIIT training, and intermittent fasting,” she said, pointing to a photo of herself at the height of her weight loss struggles in 2018.
Giulia Halkier, 35, of Vancouver, Canada, transformed her body without dieting after years of restrictive eating and over-exercising. She is pictured in 2018 (L) and 2022 (R)
“I bet you wouldn’t believe my body looked like this due to chronic restrictions, dieting, HIIT training and intermittent fasting,” she said in a recent TikTok video
The body confidence coach said she lost weight unintentionally after she stopped dieting and high-intensity interval training (HIIT)
‘That’s right. I followed all the things I felt the diet industry was teaching us to do, thinking it would make me feel physically fit and love my body, and it just took me to a really bad place.”
Halkier explained that her exhausting workouts and cycle of restrictive eating and binge eating put pressure on her body and even made her gain weight.
“No matter what diet I did, what nutrition plan I did, what doctor I saw, no one could help me figure out what was going on here because normally my body doesn’t look like it,” she said.
Halkier recalled being so upset about her appearance that she cried herself to sleep. She finally decided that she needed to learn another way to take care of her body.
After following weight loss plans all her life, she stopped dieting and intermittent fasting. She focused on eating full meals, including breakfast, without counting calories.
“I learned how to overcome my fear of food,” she explained. “I had so many rules about food, so much anxiety about getting a certain amount of food on my plate, so much anxiety about carbs that it literally made my mind sick, and it held me.”
As for her workout routine, she stopped HIIT training and started walking instead, giving her body much-needed rest. Once she felt better, she slowly incorporated Pilates and strength training into her routine.
“If I had trouble sleeping or if my energy was low, it meant I was doing too much, so it became a very delicate dance of what feels good,” she said.
Halkier explained that her exhausting workouts and cycle of restrictive eating and binge eating put a strain on her body and even made her gain weight
Halkier stopped dieting and intermittent fasting. She focused on eating full meals, without counting calories. She also stopped her grueling workouts and started walking instead
“I was so surprised that changing these four things changed my life and my body. No more HIIT training, no more dieting. Most people wouldn’t believe this,” she said
Not only did she reduce her physical stress, but she also learned how to curb the negative thoughts and limiting beliefs she had about her body that were affecting her mental health.
“The beliefs you have about yourself, the thoughts you have about yourself and your body and your eating and your exercise are just as important in determining what your body looks like,” she urged. “This isn’t just law of attraction BS.”
Studies show that negative self-talk can increase stress, which affects your health and well-being, according to the Mayo clinic.
Pointing to the more recent bikini photo of herself, Halkier said she now eats normally, drinks alcohol, works out four times a week and does light strength training. She no longer counts calories and no longer weighs herself.
“These things went against everything I was taught!” she added in the caption. “I was so surprised that changing these four things changed my life and my body. No more HIIT training, no more dieting. Most people wouldn’t believe this.
“Restriction and dieting only took me further and further away from the body and life I wanted. I thought losing weight was the secret to being happy with my body, but that wasn’t the case. Being obsessed with weight loss has only brought me misery.”