Beauty & Balance

This Woman Gave Up Her Restrictive Diet and Intense Exercise Regimen–and Feels Happier and Stronger Than Ever

Personal trainer Courtney Black used to pretty much live on veggies and kill herself doing tiring workouts. No surprise, her diet and food regimen made her “unhealthy, unhappy, and angry.”

Less than three years of deciding to eat more and switching up her exercise routine, the UK resident took to Instagram to share a few transformation photos and explain how her decision to stop restricting her food intake and overdo it at the gym has now made her “happy and healthy.” 

In the left photo, Black describes her diet at the time: yogurt for breakfast; a protein shake, chicken breast and veggies for lunch and extra veggies if she got hungry later. She gave up sugar, alcohol and cheat meals, and her workouts were incredibly exhaustive.

#TransformationTuesday In the left picture- my daily diet consisted of: 1️⃣Fage yoghurt for breakfast, a protein shake, a chicken breast and veg for lunch, then if I was hungry I’d have another bag of steam veg. I wouldn’t eat fruit as it had too much sugar , wouldn’t drink alcohol and wouldn’t have any sort of cheat meal. My workouts consisted of: 2️⃣ Minimum 1k calories burned on a treadmill and then some abs, I would make sure I burned more than I ate… the outcome? 3️⃣ unhappy, unhealthy, faint, food deprived, angry, bad relationships. In the right picture (just under 3 years later). A typical day food is: 1️⃣Oats with banana and protein, post workout shake, chicken rice and veg, fish sweet pot and veg, fish/ chicken etc with just veg and then snacks of almonds, rice cakes, protein bar etc. Workouts? 2️⃣ I do still do cardio! Usually either a little bit of HIIT or some LIIS (not every day), trying all different weight lifting (high rep, low rep strength, etc). Outcome: 3️⃣ healthy ✅ happy ✅ STRONG ✅ ?? want to get strong with me? Lean out? Loose weight? Whatever your goal my online plan will help! Check my website!

A post shared by Courtney Black (@courtneydblack) on

“I would make sure I burned more than I ate,” she said, writing that she wouldn’t get off the treadmill until she torched at least a thousand calories. As a result, she was “unhappy, unhealthy, faint, food deprived, angry, [and in] bad relationships,” Black wrote.

Now, her revamped meal plan consists of oats with banana and protein; a post-workout shake, chicken, rice and veggies; and fish, sweet potatoes and veggies. She also snacks on almonds, rice cakes, protein bars, and other whole, satisfying foods. While she still does some cardio, she’s incorporated HIIT and weight lifting, among other workouts.

“Outcome: healthy, happy [and] strong,” she wrote.

Most body transformations shared on social media focus on losing weight. Black’s post shows how finding the right balance for your body so you feel great is a positive body transformation too.

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