At age 21, Helena Hara scaled at 14th and mainly wore size 20 clothes. She ate takeaways up to four times a week and snacked on chocolate and crisps. At the time, her boyfriend, [now-ex], haunted her with words as she would never lose weight and that it would just never happen.
But seven years after, Helena decided it was time to change as she realized she was in a toxic environment.
Just as she ditched her ex, the Wirral, Merseyside-based also ditched unhealthy foods and said she turned her life around. Helena has now swapped pastries, crisps, and pizza for fish, fruit, and protein shakes. While changing her diet, Helena also started going to the gym every day to get active. So far, the weight has fallen off her.
Helena is now a size six and she’s happier than ever.
“I realized I was in a toxic environment, I was looking at a picture of a woman’s body on Instagram, and [my ex] told me I would never be thin and it would just never happen. At this time, I just had started taking my social media profiles seriously and I was starting to gain a lot of followers. It was around this time to lose weight, but I felt like he didn’t want me to lose any weight.”
“I got quite negative, he wasn’t happy and he became an obstruction to me, I just needed to get out of the relationship.”
Helena added: “I feel like when you are in a negative situation, it makes you a negative person, and because I was unhappy, I turned to food and emotional eating. It was my comfort, and because I wasn’t able to do much, it was what I turned to.” Thankfully, she’s working on keeping a healthy mindset and a positive attitude while helping other women who struggle with body image.
Currently, Helena goes to the gym 5 to 6 times a week and counts her calories and macros.
Her family has since noticed the change in her emotionally, especially as she’s much more positive about life compared to how negative she used to be. “I did this for me; after being told I would never be thin, I made the gym a huge part of my life and changed my eating habits. I lost all my confidence, and leaving him helped me get my life together in the way I needed to.”
Interestingly, Helena’s ex messaged her until last year, and he attested to how much she has changed physically.
However, the influencer says she has struggled with her relationship with food but has now learned how to balance her diet without restricting herself. “Before, I would snack all the time; I would always have food nearby, whether it be chocolate, crisps, cakes, McDonald’s, anything that was bad. But now, I am so much more active, doing a lot of weight training and building up my muscle. I have lost five stone, but I have a lot of muscle weight now. It is nothing like before, but I don’t restrict myself. I just try and eat a lot cleaner.”
Helena concluded, saying she gives herself 2,300 calories daily, in line with building muscle & maintaining a slender physique.
