Up and Down 50KGs

It’s been a long time since my last fitness update 😊 Wondering why? It’s the sinusoidal life. Mid-December 2019, I was down to 83kgs / 183lbs from 153kgs / 337lbs. I decided to give a small break and enjoy the end-of-year festivities 😊 The small break ended up being a long one going through the COVID and various uncertainties that came with it. I put all the weight and got back to 151kgs / 333lbs.

What did I learn?

The obvious disclaimer is that this is my take and my experience. However, here is how I’m interpreting what I have gone through. After losing the weight, I was socially pressured by my family and friends to take it easy and go into moderation. Remember, back then, I mainly ate one meal a day with an intermittent fasting approach. “You can’t do this all your life!?” or “This is not manageable” are examples of arguments I hear every day. Combined with the fact that I hit my goal, I decided to give moderation a try. That’s when life reminded me that old habits don’t die but go dormant. With that said, there is newer a single culprit. There is definitely a good level of stress contributed by COVID and various uncertainties that came with it. However, sometimes it is just about that tipping point? I’m not an expert in addiction and disorder, but I’m more than happy to label myself as a food addict with a severe eating disorder. As you wouldn’t offer a glass of wine to a recovered alcoholic, please do not offer me homemade profiteroles even to sample. I have learned that this is where I am now, and even if my way of counteracting this habit might sound crazy, it is working for me.

I might have sounded a little offensive, but I firmly believe that we are not taking eating disorders or addiction as seriously as other addictions. We should! Don’t get me started with obesity and health stats.

Something else that I have learned during this time is that doing some type of sports in a self-competitive fashion is what anchors me to healthy eating. Like habits being chained to each other, essentially triggering each other, when I stop intentionally moving, I stop eating healthy. Nowadays, even if I have a random cheat day, I never cheat on cardio. That helps me get back on track with dieting.

Where are we at now?

I started dieting back again beginning of April 2021. Since then, I have lost 47kgs / 104lbs in 13 months down to 104kgs / 229lbs. I did exactly what I did the last time 😊 and I have actually gone through my own blog posts about losing weight the last time to replicate the process. I started cutting starchy, sugary food, focusing on natural foods and meat. I started indoor cycling until 110kgs / 242lbs and recently switched to running.

The Plan

I will keep eating one meal a day. I do not count calories, but I eyeball it around 2000 calories and a nice balance of protein/fat/carbs. I’m running 40 minutes around 140hrm for two days every three days. I will be taking it easy till I lose some weight. By the way, feel free to get in touch on Strava 😉

Hit me up on Twitter or LinkedIn if you have any questions or you would like me to cover a specific area of my journey on the blog 😉 I would love to share 💖