Monday 18 March 2013

365 days of Weight Loss

Today marks 365 days of weight loss.


















Over the last year I've lost 19kgs and in total 24.

So many people have asked me how I did it, but as soon as I joke 'healthy eating & exercise, who would have thought it!' they just lose interest. I'm certain my terrible joke wasn't the cause of this. People seem to think that there should be some quick & easy way to instantly drop weight and simply aren't interested in learning about how to do it safely & consistently. Personally I didn't want a quick fix, I wanted it to come off properly. I didn't want it to bounce back on again after a few months, nor did I want to have excess skin flapping about.

24/03/2012 At a Twin Peaks themed birthday party


15/03/2013 Out to dinner at Shinbashi Yakiniku




















If you'd told me a year ago I would lose another 20kgs, I would have laughed. I'd spent four years overweight and miserable as a direct result of the weight gain. I mostly only left the house to go to work, and occasionally to see friends who I'd seen regularly over the years. I lost contact with a great many people, and stopped going to local metal gigs because I was simply too embarrassed for my old friends to see how much weight I'd piled on.

What a sad state of affairs. Surprisingly this didn't motivate me to lose weight, thinking about it all just made me sadder. A year ago I found out three of my good friends were really trying to be healthy & lose weight, and they were starting to be successful. I panicked. I didn't want to be the fattest one! It was on, just like that, a switch flipped in my head. This is probably one of the stupidest, vainest reasons to lose weight but it worked for me, so I'm not complaining.

Every day I log every calorie I eat & drink (My Fitness Pal) & try and estimate the ones burnt exercising (I love my Garmin). After a few months I started 12WBT. I had always known the basic facts of weight loss, and didn't need the support of others, however, I did need recipes. Almost every single one was delicious, and most were simple & easy to prepare. After about 3-4months I lost motivation for exercise, which I had been doing 5-6 days a week (jogging & wii zumba). This was about 1 month into 12WBT, so I ate my 1200 calories per day, and actually lost 2kgs per week while this apathy lasted. When I wasn't exercising I didn't need to eat as much. I'd often eat 1300-1400 on days of vigorous exercise. What I learnt was that you just have to be smart about it, if you don't exercise, be extra careful with your food. It's also ok to have bad days every now and then, it's ok to mess up, ultimately you're only delaying success by a day (this is something a good friend told me).

I don't feel like I've given up anything for this weight loss either, I'm just more sensible. Instead of fast food take out 4-5 times a week it's now maybe once a month. We make delicious, healthy food at home, so we don't even miss the take out, and now when we get it, it's mostly disappointing. We also decided we'd rather frequent locally owned restaurants rather than support huge international corporations like McDonalds. We still eat out at nice restaurants once or twice a month, where the quality of the food is better, and I also make sure to allocate more calories to that meal and try and do extra exercise to accommodate this treat.

I cannot believe how much better I feel now that I'm not fat. I feel amazing, healthy, fit, more energetic & motivated, and everything is just easier. I feel like saying 'thin' or 'average' doesn't really encompass the feeling of where I'm at right now, maybe in a few years when I've forgotten just how awful life was I'll be able to say 'thin' but right now the only way to describe how I feel is 'not fat'. It's a triumphant feeling.