Ten weeks to top form

Amelia magazine's interview with Jane Haglund and Karin Franzén Bohman.

Many people who want help with diet and exercise feel alone in their situation and have difficulty finding the motivation. And lack of motivation is a common reason why the dream of reaching a health goal is shattered, often before you have even started.

- "Even if you go to a PT for help, you only get help when you meet, and many people need more support," says Karin Franzén Bohman. She has a background as a sports teacher and is a PT and dietary advisor. Together with a colleague, she has created the service Bodily, with diet and exercise programs and a community where members help each other.

"It's about breaking old habits and creating new, healthier habits!"

- It's about making a lifestyle change, breaking old habits and routines and creating new ones through a new way of thinking about your health. I created the program "The Changer", a ten-week program that includes both exercise and a fairly clear diet plan. It's often said that it takes 33 days to break old habits and then 33 days to create new ones. So 10 weeks is a good start.

Does everyone succeed in making a lifestyle change?

- If you decide to follow the program fully, you will get results, regardless of your age or exercise habits. People who have, or have previously had, a problematic relationship with their body, diet and exercise should tell us so that we can make an individual assessment of how we set up the program so that it can be followed in a healthy way. I get particularly excited about those who have had life-changing results, such as getting rid of IBS after years of struggle or becoming pain-free from osteoarthritis. Or how people have changed their mindset from 'starving themselves into shape' to 'eating themselves into shape'.

"I sleep better now!"

Jane Haglund, 41, followed the Bodily The Changer exercise and diet program and went from being unfit to feeling stronger and more fit than ever. Here she talks about her health journey.

"I have always loved working out and identified with a healthy lifestyle. Then came the injuries and pregnancies and I didn't exercise for years. When the doctor told me I was overweight and at risk of type 2 diabetes, it was a rude awakening. One of the big reasons I hadn't exercised was that I suffered from diastasis after the pregnancies. My abdominal muscles had not healed after giving birth, I had no control over my body and my back hurt just from running a few kilometers. Since I am an all or nothing person, I basically stopped exercising completely. In December 2019, I operated on my diastasis, then a long recovery was required, but in December 2020 I was able to start running a little lightly. But then everything felt heavy, and I was also extremely busy with work, family and house projects.

"I was in danger of getting diabetes 2! It was a wake-up call!"

One day I got a challenge that I initially refused. Karin, who I got to know superficially 15 years ago when we worked out at the same gym, got in touch. We have been following each other on social media, and now she wondered if I wanted to run her newly launched diet and exercise program. After thinking about it, I thought I could join the training part. It felt more complicated with the food because my husband does all the cooking at home. But then I decided to go for it wholeheartedly.

I had fallen into a vicious cycle where I was tired and didn't eat proper snacks. I often ended up with quick fixes of sweets and chips.

Already after four weeks there was a huge difference in my body. But the biggest difference was almost mental - I felt so much more alert and slept better."

"Minus 15 kilos and lower resting heart rate"

Jane's results:

Weight: -15 kg.
Resting heart rate: -15 beats/minute.
Push-ups: 35 (when she started she could do 7).
Plank: 4 minutes (when she started she could do 45 seconds).

How I've trained:

"I have been doing two to three exercises every day. They take 5-10 minutes. In addition, I've been doing abdominal exercises every other day and HIIT twice a week. In the HIIT sessions, I have used battleropes, among other things. It was so heavy in the beginning, but now when I look at the videos I took of myself, it's an incredible difference."

How I've been eating:

"I gave up all sugar and wheat flour. The first two weeks were really hard - but I was incredibly motivated. After the first ten weeks of the program, I jumped on a five-week continuation, and then I was able to start with a little sugar sometimes. I love baking with the kids and want to be able to enjoy it."

Jane's 3 tips for change:

1. Follow a set program. Then you don't have to think so much, just do it. It's been really nice for me to have everything handed to me on a silver platter. My job requires me to make a lot of decisions every day. So it's very nice to sometimes just do what someone else tells me to do.
   
   
2. Invite the kids to training. When I ran my battleropes, I attached boat ramps to the children so that they could join in if they wanted to. Often they realized when I had been running for a while that they wanted to, and then it was great that I had already prepared, so I did not have to interrupt my training.
   
   
3. Don't wait for motivation. Don't think that it will always appear, sometimes it doesn't and then it takes determination to just get it done. Then it's good to have removed all the thresholds you can. If work permits, change into workout clothes first thing in the morning so you have one less threshold (and excuse) at lunchtime.

The food that gets results

The basic idea of the program is to eat often, well and properly - with slightly less carbohydrates than usual. After ten weeks, you can expect to be fitter and firmer!

" The basic idea is that the body learns to use fat as fuel instead of carbohydrates," explains dietician Karin Franzén Bohman, who designed the program.

- "To achieve this, we cut down on carbohydrates, but it's important not to eliminate them completely. For example, we eat vegetables, some fruits and sweet potatoes," she explains.

Plan your meals like this:

You eat six meals each day, with two to four hours between meals. Lunch and dinner plus four snacks, of which breakfast is one (in this program, breakfast is called a snack). The short time between meals allows you to reduce the portion size. Instead of counting calories or weighing the food, use the palm of your hand to measure the size of the portion. A serving of protein should be about the size of your palm (don't count your fingers), both in terms of surface area and thickness. A serving of carbohydrates is like your whole hand with splayed fingers.

Article written by: Kristina Lager