We meet the women who turned pandemic panic into power, resetting their relationships with their bodies along the way
Did the start of lockdown derail your good intentions to eat healthily and take regular exercise? You’re not alone: research by King’s College London confirms around half of us put on weight during lockdown. The struggle was real: how to keep active with exercise reduced to one hour a day? How to fight the temptation to comfort eat when anxiety levels were spiking? And yet for some women a change in circumstances was just the nudge they needed to turn around their lifestyles and discover a new body in the process…
Sibel Osman, 47 Corporate property manager
“I’ve lost a stone of body fat”
“I’m someone who aspires to have a beautiful physique: muscular, well defined. I’ve been working towards that goal for a while, so when lockdown hit my world fell apart. Then I just thought ‘No way, I’m not going backwards’. So, I went online and bought every bit of equipment I could fit in my house. I bought battle ropes, medicine balls, kettlebells, dumbbells, and even an agility ladder! I sourced some online cardio classes to raise my fitness and accessed a boxing coach via Zoom. My goal was to lose fat but not muscle, so my naturopath, Leyla, helped me up my game. I focussed on post-workout proteins, and rebalanced my hormones via diet and supplements. Leyla crafted me an eating plan that would let me achieve fat loss and maintain my workouts. Before lockdown, I’d go to the gym but I realise now how little of my time there was actually spent working out. At home, I’ve been able to really ramp up my game. There’s nothing stopping me and nothing to distract me. Now, I train for two or three hours a day. I’ve lost 6kg of body fat, and I can see where my body shape has changed. I have actual dips up the side of my stomach where my abs are forming. I feel so powerful and awake: there’s no lethargy and my mind is firing. I also feel kind of invincible, which in a global pandemic is a good place to be, right?!”
