Last year, after spending a month in Zambia on an expedition, as you would expect, I lost quite a bit of weight. Unfortunately, due to a shortage of all the beloved food from home, I, not only put all this weight back on, but am now heavier than I was before I left. Eventually, I stopped caring about the way I looked and let myself go; inevitably leading to where I am today: in a battle with my weight and my happiness. Personally, weight loss has been a dreadful experience, where I have come to hate the way I look and actually feel that this has increased my temper and has caused me to act out in frustration where I wouldn’t normally do so.
The decision to lose weight came at the start of the year, not because of a resolution, but for a family wedding. Perhaps, it is this ‘goal’, this ‘deadline’ that has caused so much aggravation with weight loss. At the beginning of the challenge, I didn’t lose weight at all. Despite my efforts with exercise (which I loathe) and with diet change, it took me three weeks before I lost any weight – even then it was only a pound! A pound…after three weeks – I was willing to give up already. Nevertheless, I decided to see the positives: I was finally making progress and this was great news. Pleased with myself, I carried on exercising and ‘dieting’. When it came to the next weigh-in, I had lost another two pounds, success! But then two weeks after that, I put on 4.4 pounds – I was in shock. It was just so obscure that I could lose weight and then without even noticing put it all back on again. I felt like all my efforts had been wasted, this rollercoaster of restricted diets and joint aches and pains was just never ending. Thus came my last resort. A meal plan, 3 meals a day, no carbohydrates, no chocolate, just pure protein and veg…oh with a protein shake. One that was designed as a meal replacement, for weight loss, not for muscle enhancing (thank God)!
To my delight, after just one week of this diet plan (and exercise), I lost 4.4 pounds! I was back on track, and continued to lose weight. It was brilliant and I finally felt like I could be at peace with my body, it just took determination.
My advice to anyone trying to lose weight, is to just never give up. You’d only be setting yourself back weeks of work.