Hey dear Steemians,
I was overweight since I am a kid and tried to lose weight for a while. Not to look fabulous for social media photos or to fit in that skinny jeans, no! Just to feel free, able to express myself in an authentic way and to do outdoor activities and sport I love without breathing like a locomotive in full speed.
Like probably most of those who want to get rid of their pounds I tried a lot of diets. Just to gain twice as much as I lost in the end. Yeah, that's very motivating...
After a traumatic experience I went up to 112 kg and one day I decided: Wow, this is definately NOT me! I need to do something to feel like myself again and stop this self-sabotage!
So I found my own way in starting reaching my dream weight without being hungry, only eating soup and exercise like 24/7 and therefore being nasty as heck to my fellow human beings as this torture was sometimes even worse than my weight. And besides the fact that most diets are super unhealthy it's of course absolutely motivating to sip on your soup while others somehow seem to intentionally eat the best freaking foods in town like pizza, waffles, lasagne and all that stuff. And In the end you only gain extra weight for starving your body and the eating all the unhealthy stuff at once because you're just frustrated like a kid at the supermarket that wants some candy but mom says no.
Sometimes I also thought about throwing myself on the ground rolling around and screaming to my classmates and friends why on earth they need to eat all the best stuff while I eat the same broth for a week now. But then the last spark of humanity in my starving brain told me:“Uhm, honey...That was YOUR decision, not theirs...“ And after my eye already started to twitch, quietly added: „Just saying...“
But as I knew that voice inside me was right, I tried to keep cool. And when they asked me how my soup was while taking a big bite of their @&$%§*! extra cheese pizza I answered tensed up but with a smile (that must have looked creepy as hell for sure as I was hypoglycaemic while they were having the dinner of their life): „GREAT, IT'S THE BEST SOUP EVER!!!“
Well, as this became more and more like a comedy show than a real working weight loss process, Istopped that madness and decided to do it MY way, instead of reading all the trahsy „How to lose 127435892 pounds in 2 days“ magazines.
I don't know if my way works for everybody and I reccommend you to make sure it's ok with your health condition before giving it a try. But I simply want to motivate you. I always thought I would NEVER lose weight as I was overwheight since I am a kid and only gained more and more. So my message is: If I can do it and lose 34 kg in 1,5 years without being hungry or an emotional wreck, you can do it to!
But remember: Never do it for anybody else! We don't need to be slim to be beautiful! I just did it to be more healthy and especially to be able to live the way I feel, so my body and soul are aligned. And as I love to hike, dance, ride my bike, swim and do other sporty activities, I felt like I needed to gain a weight that supports that lifestyle.
Please keep in mind that this is only my experience and does not replace a visit at a docot's office or a health coach.
So here is what I did to lose 34 kg:
1. I ate HCLF (high carb low fat)
Buckwheat, zucchini, spinach and marinated soy chunks with herbs and spices. I just LOVE buckwheat!
This is not a vegan propaganda post, don't worry. I just mention it so you get an authentic insight in what I did to lose so much weight.
I was vegetarian for a while before I decided to go vegan. And when I did so, I felt verry happy and my body very well resonated with the idea of HCLF. And so it became my way of eating. You don't need to be a vegan to eat HCLF. It only means that about 80 percent of your daily calories come from carbohydrates (in the best case healthy ones like potatoes, lentils, rice, whole grain noodles etc.), 10 percent proteins and 10 percent (healthy) fats like from avocados, nuts, or oils with unsaturated fatty acids. I often made it a 70/20/10 diet, as I did a lot of sports and activities and so needed the extra proteins.
I tried to ban unhealthy carbohydrates such as wheat and sugar as much as I could (but of course I allowed myself to eat that from time to time) as it has lots of calories and dosen't keep you sated for a long time so you tend to eat soon again and your daily caloric requirement is easily overstepped while still feeling hungry.
Just a quick example: 100 gramms of white bread have about 265 calories. For this amount of calories you can eat about 350 gramms of potatoes. So for 300 gramms of bread you can eat about a kilo of potatoes. And gues what keeps you full for a longer time.
There are healthy and unhealthy carbohydrates. Ones that keep you sated for many hours and those who leave you hungry again after a short while. Counting all of them would be way too much information for just one post. So inform yourself with some good books or trustworthy websites or ask a health coach.
The next thing I did was stop eating fried things (Yeah I know, Boo...) and to turn from unhealthy fats to healthy ones like avocados, nuts, seeds, coconut oil, and other healthy oils.
Instead of regular sugar I started using birch sugar as it has many, many health benefits, about 40 % less calories, dosen't cause tooth decay but even keeps bacteria away (yes, it's true!) and it only raises the blood sugar level a little bit which keeps you from getting hungry again soon.
And the best thing about having a (healthy) HCLF diet for me is: I was never ever hungry. I ate a lot of very yummy things and not only soup!
But why am I able to eat that much, without gaining weight? I once read that western people tend to get 40 to even more (!!) percent of their calories of their daily requirements from fats! Mostly unhealthy ones. But as fats don't make you full and have lots of calories (1 tablespoon rapeseed oil = 124 calories) we need to eat a lot of extra calories to feel sated which easily ends up in having twice as much calories as needed a day.
But how can you check the balance between carbohydrates, proteins and fats? I used a very good app that helped me A LOT to get a sense of what it means to eat healthy, how much calories something has and if my diet is the way I wish it to be:
2. The „Cronometer“ App
The app also shows you all the nutrition facts of your food and motivates you to eat healthy!
This app is simply brilliant. You can make your own profile with your personal data such as weight, goal and how much calories you need.
Everyday you can add what you ate and it calculates the calories and nutrition facts. You can also add your daily activities and sports and the app shows in some very nicely done diagramms how much calories you consumed, how much of it are carbohydrates, proteins, fats and alcohol and how much calories you burnt with your activities. It also tells you if you reached your daily goal, if you still have calories left and can allow you some extra snacks and how much deficite you have.
It even shows you how much percent of the required daily vitamins and minerals you consumed!
If you ate something that isn't yet listed, you can simply add it to the app!
Cronometer is like a great food diary that tells you all the details you need to know PLUS you get a very good and easy insight in how you nurish yourself and what it means to have a good diet.
Check out Cronometer! I love it!
3. Find a sport you like!
Discovering nature and the coast by bike with my loved husband - my absolute passion!
I know, there are probably a lot of people who hate doing sport. But I am sure they only think about jogging, going to the gym or stuff like that.
I, for exaple, love to go outside and discover the world. So I started to ride my bike and hike a lot. I also went swimming and dancing. And all of them became my passion! I just love doing adventurous hiking or bike tours, go swimming (luckily I live by the coast) and dance. And I don't even attend a dancing course. I simply go to a lot of rave parties and dance to Psytrance and other great music at home. And it burns more calories than I expected while being SO much fun! Party to lose weight – isn't that cool?!
Sport dosen't have to be a torture. It can even be a lot of fun as you see!
Just think about things like:
Bouldering (there are a lot of cool boulderin halls), badminton, hoolahoop, jumping on a trampoline, cheerleading, canoeing, hockey... There are so many really cool and funny sports out there! Check them out and find the one(s) that fit you the most!
4. Use every oportunity to move
I love dancing!
You want to meet your friends downtown? Take your bike instead your car!
When you clean the dishes, turn on the music and dance!
Take the stairs instead the elevator!
Go grocery shopping without your car but walk. Carrying your bags is also great for your arm muscles!
You need a break from doing homework/studying/doing your everyday's things? Do some yoga or simply move your body a bit!
Whenever you can choose between taking the car/bus/tram or simply walk or take the bike – just do the sporty alternative!
5. Some things I also did
I ate whenever I was hungry! With getting a better and better feeling for your body and a healthy nutrition, you become more and more aware of if your are really hungry or just have the munchies. And whenever I was hungry I ate. Even if it was in the middle of the night. And I ALWAYS ate until I was sated, which is absolutely possible when you eat mostly healthy.
I asked myself why I gained so much weight. There are often other reasons than just eating too many candies. If you want to lose weight and keep it away from coming back, you need to understand your behaviour, the backgrounds of your eating habits and the fact that your body is your temple. If you want a healthy life, you can't eat donuts, ice cream and pizza everyday. By strengthening the bond between your body and soul, this becomes so much easier. A very powerfull tool that helped me so, so much: Meditation!
Start to love yourself! Count all the things you like about yourself and start caring for you and your body in a loving way. If you truly love and want to do good to yourself, you will stop only eating junk food all the time as this is no self-love at all. Of course life is not about permitting you everything! It's totally okay to eat some pizza, cake or chocolate from time to time. Just don't let it become your main source of calories but start seeing it as something to enjoy and something special.
I asked m husband to be my supporter. Whenever I had a weak day and had bad cravings for sugar and stuff like that, my husband reminded me in a loving way about my self-love and goals. Ask someone to be your weight-loss-buddy. It can help a lot to stay on track. And it's great to have someone to call or talk to and just be honest and simply say: „Today it's very hard for me to stay strong!“
Reward yourself from time to time. Every milestone on my weight loss I rewarded myself with something beautiful. Try to not reward yourself with junk food as you can easily make it a bad habbit, or it can easily bring you to eat unhealthy stuff whenever you feel you need to be rewarded in other situations (after a hard day, a stressy meeting, after your car broke...). Try to reward you with something positive such as new clothes, when your old ones become too big. Or a wonderful concert, watching a movie in a cinema or doing another fun activity.
Do some photos from time to time as we tend to not really see how our body changes. When I looked through my old photos, I was surprised how much my body actually had changed!