How Blake Lively says she lost weight for “The Shallows”
August 20, 2016 Ashley 0 Comments
If you have to have your near naked bod on display for strangers for 90 minutes, you want to be in shape.
And in shape was exactly what Blake Lively was for her scantily clad role in “The Shallows”.
Which, of course, begs the question, “Mmmkay. How’d you do it? When you just had a baby?”
(Witchcraft? Sorcery? Black Magic crafted by Hogwarts’ secret research team?)
There’s no reason to gossip about this girl’s body tweaking tips. Because, while I’m sure she kept an epic exercise routine, she was quick to admit that this was all about diet. What surprised me, though, was what she changed about her eating habits to accomplish such somatic supremacy. According to Blake, it was simple elimination. Specifically, she cut out gluten and soy.
Now, I found this interesting because I’m no silver screen vixen. But I am in the best shape of my life. And, while I don’t indulge in gluten either, I do enjoy my soy. In fact, I have it every single day in milk, creamer, and tofu form. And, I’ve never looked better, weighed less, or felt more energetic in my life than I do now on my plant based diet that – in part – comprises soy. So what gives? Why would the same thing that actually helps people like me lose weight – be the weight gain (or weight loss wall) culprit for starlets?
Well, the truth is, it may not be at all.
And I’m not necessarily calling Miss Lively a liar either. What I’m hinting at is this peripheral kinda sorta phenomenon that happens anytime you go on an elimination diet with a goal in mind. Granted, some “foods” (like salty, fatty, sugary processed slop that’s got zero nutritional value) is exactly what we need to lose in order to lose weight. Not arguing that. However, the reason why many seemingly weird elimination diets end up being successful on a massive weight-loss scale, is merely because they cultivate the practice of willpower. See, when you cut certain things from your diet that you deem to be detrimental on some level (even if they’re not necessarily so bad for you), it gets easier to say no to or turn down the things that are. So when Blake cut stuff like soy or gluten, while they may not have been the culprit, that abstemious circuitry in her brain that was able to say “no” was probably easier to access than the one that tends to give in a bit more as she’s passed the Kraft snack table in the past. It’s like they say – whatever you do, whatever you practice habitually – begins to come more naturally as you ritualistically stick with it. Including willpower. And I can actually vouch for this. In a way, switching to a vegan diet was kind of an elimination diet in itself. I was eliminating anything that had come from animals. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get porky on a pork free diet. You totally can. That’s why there’s another facet to making an elimination diet work well:
Having a positive goal in mind.
(Like being able to look scorchy hot at the most unforgiving angles.)
For Blake, being able to turn heads in a bikini (which, let’s be honest, she does anyway), was her end game. And, while I can’t speak for her, I can say that when I myself have a driving finish line prize in mind (versus just reluctantly doing it out of obligation), I’m far more succesful. Much like Lively, I wanted to feel lively and look great – in whatever I was wearing. It was a positive motivator to make the hard work worth it. So that helped a great deal in helping me reach my own weight loss goals. Now that I was getting proficient at excising some of the stuff that I felt was bad, I kind of wanted to avoid all the stuff that was bad. My innumerable vices began to go, one by one. (Save for Starbucks.) Why? Well, aside from the fact that it was getting easier to “just say no” like an educated D.A.R.E. student (thanks to daily practice), I had a reward coming for me. I had something that I wanted. That meant that, vegan or not, this fatty cashew ice cream wasn’t part of my dietary itinerary. What’s more, the practice of focusing on a goal also amplifies. When I began, the aim was vanity. Once I attained the look that I wanted, however, I realize how addicted I was to that drive. And that’s when I set new goals – like competing in races, and training in martial arts. That’s when the real magic happens.
On the contrary, during those weeks when I have a lapse of willpower, start stress eating, and make less healthy choices overall, I find a kinda destructive domino effect ensues. That’s when other facets of my food regimen begin to crumble. Because once you start cheating on one part of your diet, it gets easier to cheat on the others. Or overeat. Or forego workouts. You get the idea.
So, even though this practice doesn’t necessarily succeed because of the specific nosh you nix, that’s no reason to eliminate elimination diets as a possible weight loss option. Because, if nada else, it definitely sets the wrecking ball to your indulgent bad habits in motion. And having a weight loss trophy on the other side to focus on helps keep that ball swinging. In sum: sure, ejecting healthless eats from your life is wise and will help you lose weight. But the real secret behind adding a minus sign to your diet’s that a little bit of willpower (plus positive goal focus) go together like bougie cheese and a fine wine.
(Which, incidentally, are probably two great starter picks for dietary elimination.)