My Weight Loss Journey!

 

When you are younger and a woman, your first and foremost priority in life is staying thin!

And like all others my age I dieted, starved, worked out and somehow or the other managed to keep my weight exactly where I wanted it.

As time passed by I packed a few unnecessary pounds and more and frankly it didn’t really bother me. like any person with high self esteem and zero tolerance of other peoples opinion my pounds didn’t bother me as I knew I was healthy and doing fine on the exercise front so as long as I was ok with my weight it was cool.

However late last year I went in for my normal checkups and where my tests were all good I did get a super stern lecture from the doc on the importance of losing weight and going into my mid 40s how the extra pounds could affect my future health.

Quite a few late night comprehensive researches later I realized that if I wanted to ensure my long term health I did need to ensure I lost some of the KGs and I embarked on a Medically supervised diet that helped me lose 15 KGs over a period of 5 months (and still going)

Read on for the diet and my own recommendations.

 

The Diet

The diet is essentially just 800 calories per day (female. For the men its 1200) and within that bracket I was allowed to eat what I wanted.

No cheat days.

 

Now the first thing I did was refer to my cell phones health app and see how good or bad the calorie count was. I basically own a Samsung and I must say it has the easiest and best health app out there. Tried my daughter’s apple heath app which is nowhere near the Samsung. Every kind of food including our local brand of biscuits etc. have their calorie count included. It has been extremely rare for me to refer to google over the course of the last few months for a food item because its calories were not listed in the Samsung Health app.

 

The Experience

Ok so when you hear 800 calories a shiver of fear is likely to pass over you! It gave me more than a few shivers I assure you but I went about the entire thing with reasonable discipline and quite a lot of planning.

So my recommendations and practical advice for anyone doing the same is as under

• Do not so much as put a single morsel of food in your mouth without logging it in your app and I mean not even so much as a berry! Log everything you eat.
• Ensure you are having 10 to 14 glasses of water so you are well hydrated and the more water you drink the better your chances of feeling less hungry or facing bowl problems.
• Get your Zzzzzzs. If you don’t get your sleep you are likely to overeat! I don’t know the science behind it I just know that’s how it was for me.
• Be smart about your food choices. Give up on sugar, soft drinks and sweets immediately and do not look back. If you have a really sweet tooth have a date or two as that’s super healthy, nutritious and satisfactory. You can read all about how I curbed my sweet tooth here
• Do not count your proteins, fibers or carbs! Eat what you like smartly and aim at 750 calories per day so even if you are a few over you are still well within 800
• Eat smart! Count every calorie! And look and research your options before every meal. For example a breakfast of separate tea with milk with a slice of brown bread and a tablespoon worth of butter, marmalade or cream cheese is under 200 calories! Yea you heard that right! Look it up if you don’t believe me. For me that’s a pretty decent breakfast! A lunch of an omelet and a small roti is 250 calories! And viola I have more than 400 calories for dinner. Now if that isn’t sufficient for you then grab a plate of salad as that’s under 50 calories for a raddish and a carrot and a cucumber and you will be full to the brim before you get to the food part ensuring you are going to bed without starving through the day.
• Again I’ll say be smart with our food choices. Try to skip lunch and eat an apple (80 cals.) or a guava (60 cals.) or have a glass of milk (200 cals.) instead. Now if you are going to a dinner or lunch, plan your day around it. Are you likely to be able to eat your 800 calories during the lunch and be ok till breakfast the next day? Usually if I got invited out id starve all day and eat when I’m out. Doing that meant I didn’t succumb to social pressure and break my diet. But I was also super careful. I would survey everything on the table and decide what to eat and check my calories and portions before ordering or filling my plate ensuring I’m within the 800 calorie limit. Again be smart! I would never hesitate in asking my hostess what she was serving in dessert so I could determine if I wanted to eat less during the meal and save calories for some dessert. Also I decided what I wanted to eat and what I wanted to skip before putting food on my plate.
• And my final but most important tip. Do not give in to the temptation of just having a spoonful here or there thinking its ok. Do not eat anything without logging it first and NEVER try to count your calories mentally. Log. Log. Log!
• Lastly do not take cheat meals or days! I took a break from my diet every 4 weeks with 2 days of relaxation where I would eat what I wanted, didn’t over eat but didn’t overdo it either and usually had planned in advance how I wanted to eat on the relaxed day. Usually to celebrate a 3 to 4 KG weight loss!

So here it is! My weight loss journey. I’m still going strong as I want to lose another 9 KGs. And I feel healthier, more alert and certainly happier! Can’t wait to reach my goal and get myself a new wardrobe 😉