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My Weight Loss Journey: What Works & What Fails 🍽️🌿🧘🏻♀️
A few years ago, I lost 20 kg in 6 months, reaching a BMI of 19. I was working with a personal trainer, I had a fitness routine, my nutrition was strict, and my body fat was at around 19%.
That was when I looked my best — and then I let it go.
In the past two years, I gained back 10 kg. I look fine, but the standard that had been reached is very far.
Some people accept themselves at a new weight, and that's fine if it works for you. It doesn't work for me. There's always a voice in my head nagging me and reminding me that I've strayed from my path.
I don't want to only accept my body. I want to enjoy my body. 🧘♀️
I embarked on a fresh weight loss journey recently. It was time to review:
what had worked for me the first time
what approaches to dieting had failed
and what worked but cannot be repeated now as my personal circumstances have changed.
In the past, what really boosted my weight loss efforts was water fasting for 24 hours or more. My longest fast was 72 hours. I fasted quite frequently over 6 months, as well as after reaching my goal weight for maintenance.
Unfortunately, I found that fasting, though effective, is unsustainable for me in the long run. It often led to eating more the next day. I ended up sabotaging my efforts. You can call it a "cheat day" but it's still counterproductive.
As for personal circumstances that have changed, I now take medication that needs to be taken with food, so fasting longer than 24 hours is out of question anyway.
I've briefly considered intermittent fasting. The problem is that I attend a lot of meetings and business events, which can be at any time of the day—in other words, there is no routine.
Food and drinks are always offered. I'm capable of not touching the food (germaphobia), but I might drink something that has calories, which would break the IF. I don't want this to be at the forefront of my mind when I'm closing business deals.
Another thing I remember is that in the 6 months I was losing weight the last time, walking was my only exercise. I only started working with a personal trainer after reaching my goal weight.
When I started exercising, I became hungrier. Dealing with that hunger was harder than when I was eating much less but not exercising. People often report they've actually gained weight after starting at the gym - this is why.
I took into account my previous experience with weight loss when I kickstarted my weight loss journey this month.
For now, I decided to simply reduce the amount of food. No fasting, no additional exercise, and especially no strenuous exercise. Also, no overthinking about calories, including not counting calories. I need this mental space to focus on other matters.
Extremely important: no cheat days.
This approach has been going well. I've dropped some weight and I look better.
More importantly, I realized that I had simply become used to a lot of food, and I don't actually need that much.
This weight loss journey has been easy to maintain, and might be viable in the long run.
Most of all, I'm learning to accept that to reach and maintain my goal weight, I literally can't have my cake and eat it too.
I feel that this is the crux of the inability to lose weight in most people. We're wired to look for the easy way out, workarounds, shortcuts, and cheat codes.
For most people, it was easier to maintain weight when we were younger, and when that ability vanishes, we dislike to acknowledge that the situation has changed. That we're different now. But those times are gone, and I need to do what works today, even if it takes a lot more effort.
what's stopping you? go get it, period 👑
Monolithe - 2021
© Denis Garnier
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