Rebel Wilson Says These 7 Things Helped Her Get Healthy and Lose 55 Pounds This Year
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
One of her most popular characters is named "Fat Amy" in the movie Pitch Perfect—one of many reasons Rebel Wilson admits that weight has been a battle for herself for about 20 years. Her size was part of her "comedic persona," the actress and comedian said, and she found herself on a bit of a weight roller coaster since she was about 20; losing a few kilos, then gaining them back.
This year, though, a lot changed.
"I know it's been a pretty sh*t year," Wilson admitted, but despite the global pandemic and all that comes with it, she was determined to make the days count. In the past, she's had the Year of Fun and the Year of Love, and Wilson entered 2020 determined to make it the Year of Health. She had decided to not prioritize work as much—and prioritize herself and her well-being instead, citing her 40th birthday this year as an inspiration. Wilson started at around 220 pounds, and recently hit her goal weight of 165 pounds. To share what she learned along the way, Wilson took to Instagram Live on Tuesday night.
"I don't really do Lives a lot, but I really felt like having a chat with everyone," Wilson said. "I know I've been posting a lot of photos and little things lately, but...it's good to have a chat with you guys because I'm very grateful for all of you."
While we've all witnessed the physical transformation, Wilson said the biggest changes occurred internally.
"The mental and kind of emotional side turned out to be the biggest thing for me," she said, noting that it was clutch to pinpoint the emotional reasons she was turning to food. (These included times of happiness, sadness, celebration, depression and more, according to Wilson.)
Throughout the hour-long Live, Wilson shared what worked for her—in hopes it might help others who were in a similar circumstance to how she felt a year ago.
Related: Rebel Wilson Shows Off Her Progress After Sharing Weight Loss Goal
"I'm not a medical professional...I can only talk from my own personal experience and try to share some tips," Wilson said. "There's no one book or right product or right thing you can buy; you can just learn little tidbits about what works for you."
Instagram / @rebelwilson
7 Secrets That Helped Rebel Wilson Lose Weight and Get Healthy
1. Be okay with imperfection.
Wilson isn't always restrictive or working out "like a beast." Instead, she aims to "attack health at all angles" and give herself grace if she takes a day off or eats something not fitting within the framework of her Mayr Method diet plan.
2. Nail down your "why."
Wilson's "why" was to get healthy before freezing her eggs to potentially have children later.
3. Get real with yourself.
At the start of 2020, Wilson wrote a letter to herself to make the commitment to her health feel more tangible. (FYI, we have some helpful tips for setting weight-loss goals you can actually achieve!)
4. Find your favorite way to get fit.
She gets the majority of her activity from walking. "That is free, it's safe," Wilson said. She'll put on a podcast or book and just walk around whatever town she's in. Six out of seven days each week, Wilson aims to do 60 minutes of exercise (walking or working with one of her personal trainers). One day per week is for rest. Wilson has also gone on Instagram to show off how she gets an on-the-go arm workout with a vodka bottle!
5. Dial in your nutrition.
"You can't outtrain a bad diet, which is something I should have known but didn't really know until this year," Wilson said. She used to eat fast food several times a week as a kid, or would think one tough workout gave her the green light to eat 3,000 or 4,000 calories that day. During the Year of Health, her goal was to stick to 1,500 calories or less when losing weight, and now that she's in maintenance mode, Wilson's adjusted up to 2,000 to 2,500 calories per day. After some experimentation, Wilson discovered that she feels best on a high-protein diet. She doesn't "eat clean" every day, but concentrates on how her body feels after she consumes everything she does—and aims to eat everything mindfully.
6. Love yourself.
"I'm a very confident, skilled, accomplished person, but I still suffer from having low self-worth and just not loving myself," she said. Purge emotional writing was massively helpful, Wilson said. She sets a 12-minute timer, then writes down all of her emotions so they're not being held within—then ends with one to five things she's grateful for that day.
7. Try meditation.
If she feels stressed out, Wilson flips open a meditation app (here are five we love here at EatingWell!) to "come back into her body."
"Guys, get out there, walk, walk walk. Drink water, find out what foods are best to fuel your body, and if you're like me and suffer from emotional eating, look into that and how you can help yourself in that area," Wilson concluded. Fit Amy indeed.
