Strictly star Ola Jordan's 4 simple changes that saw her drop 3 dress sizes
When former Strictly Come Dancing star Ola Jordan uploaded a picture of her weight gain to Instagram last summer, she knew it would be the start of something big.
The dancer put on weight whilst pregnant with daughter Ella, two, and struggled to lose it when lockdown hit, leaving her and husband James Jordan at home drinking wine and eating chocolate.
Previously the pair had always enjoyed working out at the gym together. But exhausted from looking after a newborn, they stopped going.
At 5ft 3ins, Ola, 40, weighed 11st 9lbs with a BMI of 28.8 - just over a point off what the NHS classes as clinically obese.
With nothing to wear that fit, Ola stopped attending glitzy events with James, preferring to stay at home with a glass of wine.
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At her heaviest, Ola weight 11st 9lbs (olajordan/Instagram)
She dropped three dress sizes in four months (olajordan/Instagram)She told Hello! : "I felt disgusting if I'm honest. We went on holiday to Tenerife in the summer and I didn't want to be in photos. There are a few pictures of me and I look awful; I wore the baggiest clothes I could find. I wasn't happy. I wanted to do something about it.
"The truth was, whilst I was overjoyed to be a mum, I was very unhappy with the way I looked and whilst I was smiling on the outside, I was struggling with my size."
Revealing how their portion sizes had gotten out of control, the couple would often eat big meals at Beefeater, or have fish and chips for lunch followed by curry for dinner. On top of that, Ola found herself snacking on food she prepared for Ella.
It was a frank conversation with her doctor that finally sparked the change.
Ola shared a video of herself before her weight loss (Instagram)
Ola and James Jordan have rediscovered their sex drives after shedding 7st between them (Instagram)Ola said: "I went to see my fertility doctor earlier this year to discuss if and when I might be able to try for another baby. They told me my chances would be greatly increased if I was a bit healthier, I knew at that point I needed to get fit and it was a real motivator for me. It was time to make a change."
Since then, Ola has lost 3 Stone 6 lbs and has dropped from a size 14 to a size six, with seven inches lost from her waist.
And she resolutely avoided fad diets and trends, preferring to make four simple changes.
Firstly, she started listing what she ate, comparing her diet before to her current one. This enabled her to keep track of calories and to understand how much she really was eating before.
Ola's BMI was just one point off what the NHS classes as obese (Instagram)
Ola lost seven inches from her waist (Instagram)James said that at one point, he was consuming as many as 5,000 calories a day when the average man needs just 2,500.
Secondly, she refused to cut anything out. Ola still enjoys a couple of glasses of Prosecco and won't deny herself a bit of what she fancies.
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"To be honest with you, we eat everything. I'm not cutting any food groups out. Nowadays you get all kinds of fad diets, but I'd say I eat everything," she explained.
The third thing she did was to look at the timing of her meals. Before, Ola and James would wait until Ella was in bed before sitting down to dinner at 9pm. Now, they eat at 5pm, giving their body hours to digest the food and burn the calories before bed time.
Ola and James are proud parents to daughter Ella (ITV)And the final change was exercise. But instead of spending hours on the dance floor, James and Ola followed their own 15-minute Dance Shred programme, which combines dance with walkouts, planks, burpees and ab workouts.
They do it five times a week at home, usually once Ella is in bed, and it's made a big difference.
Ola added: "I would say everything fits me now in my wardrobe. That's amazing. We did two shows this December and I was able to fit in my dancing costumes again which felt so good. It's just nice to be back to ourselves. We are not trying to be something we are not, we just wanted to get back to our old selves."
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