How I lost about 15kg in 2008

If you are reading this, my guess is that you may have read a good number of articles that have a title related to this. Anyway I am not going to type away saying, “Oh when you apply these ten easy steps, you’ll become like Agbani Darego in a month”. No I can’t promise that, far from that. Rather what I am going to do is to tell you a couple of things that I have done to lose weight (yes I have had weight loss battles too) and keep the weight off! In 2008 I went through a dramatic weight loss journey that I didn’t document quite well, so I am sorry that most of this article will based mainly on what I can remember. I didn’t even take before and after photos, I just had to dig through my old photos to simply compare. However, I did go through this weight loss journey that a lot of people thought I was seriously ill by the time I reached my weight loss goal!! Lol!!

Ever since I realized that being fat was not the best, I had this strong desire to be skinny. I wanted people’s description of me to have “slim” or “skinny” in their sentences, ha ha!! So I sort all kinds of ways to achieve that. I tried different forms of exercise, diets and so on, none of these helped. One day, I was watching the story of Yoanna House, talking about her weight loss journey on “The Style Network”, she said something that really struck me. She said “….at that point I realized that I had to change my life style”. I was like, BINGO!! THAT’S IT! I HAVE TO CHANGE MY LIFESTYLE!! So here are couple of things I did to shed some flabbiness!!! Enjoy!

1.       The first thing I did was to get professional help: I met my friend who is a dietician. She was working in University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu at that time. I asked her to educate me on the healthiest way to lose weight. The first thing she did was to calculate my body mass index (BMI) to determine if I was obese or not. It turned out that I was not obese but almost on the verge of becoming overweight. I’ve forgotten what the result of the calculation was, but based on that, she drew up a seven day diet plan based on my BMI, my food likes and dislikes. I promised to follow the plan to the letter.

2.       I developed an exercise routine: apart from the diet, I decided to incorporate an exercise routine that will be fun and keep me motivated. I went to a CD and DVD shop in Agbani Road, Enugu and got this aerobics CD titled “Health and Fitness Pro: Total body burn”. I said to myself,  “This should be fun” lol!!

3.       I set a reasonable achievable goal: One of the things that my dietician friend told me was that, I should not think that I will lose weight in ten days. This was accumulated weight from, like “baby fat” days. So don’t expect to lose all of it in a week. It will take time. For some weeks, you may not even notice any difference, but the truth is that as long as you are doing what you need to do, you will get there. My dietician also gave me advice on how to set a reasonable goal. If I remember correctly, she advised that I should try to lose about ten kilos in four months. Eventually I lost about 15kg in four months!! This does not have to be your goal, you can meet your dietician to give you a reasonable goal based on the lifestyle you want to embrace.

4.       Psyche up yourself: This may sound crazy but as much as going on a weight loss journey is a physical thing, it is also a psychological process. Many a times, we do not make it in our weight loss journey because we do not prepare ourselves psychologically. You need to take at least two weeks to tell yourself, your mind and body, what you are about to do. If possible tell a family member or a friend, let them know that you need their support. In my time, I told my dietician who is also a very close friend of mine, and she was very supportive.

5.       I prayed about it: Some people may say, “Nigerians, must we spiritualize everything!!?” Well my answer is, Yes!! Lol!! If you have had a battle with weight loss, you must have realized that it is a REAL BATTLE! You just can’t stop going to the fridge to see what’s in there, you just can’t stop eating junk food, you just can’t stop eating even when your tummy is hurting, you just can’t stop waking up in the middle of the night for a midnight snack, you just can’t STOP!!! Pheww! So what do you do when you realize that something is beyond your control? You pray about it and ask God for help. Get inspiring scriptures like, Philippians 4: 13 that says “I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me” , 1 Corinthians 9: 27 “….but I discipline my body and bring it into subjection” Oh yes and so many others!!

As you may know, there are a lot of other things to know about weight loss but I am sure that this is a good start. If you have a question, a tip or even "a before and after" weight loss story, feel free to share it with us here by putting it in the comment box below.

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