As of today, It’s been almost a year since that time in May
when I decided I would go and make an effort to lose the post pregnancy weight
that I had gained. It started as a simple vengeance thing: a relative called me
out and said that she hardly recognized me after not seeing me for 5 years
because I had become so fat. Those were her exact words. You can imagine how
livid I was inside of me. I wanted to crush that woman. She was so fat, and her
kids were fat too, and she had the guts to tell me that.
I went home that night, totally frustrated, pissed off at
her, but even more pissed off at myself for allowing myself to get to that
point of fatness. I kept asking myself again and again: how the fuck did I get
here? Why did I let myself get so fat?
I remember how it started out: I lost so much weight after
giving birth. I fit into most of my old clothes just 2 months after giving
birth, except for the ones that hugged my hips. My hips had expanded so much
and this frustrated me. I could fit into my old dresses, old fitted tops, but
not my hipster pants. I was so disappointed that I decided I might as well just
enjoy myself since it does not look like I will go back to my pre-pregnancy
self. Wrong move.
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| me on the extreme left, at my fattest |
That was where it all began. For months on end, I just ate
and ate and ate like a man. It went
on until my husband started making comments that I should take care of myself.
It went on until friends started to say I looked different. It went on and on
until one day that bloody relative of ours called me out.
For one whole week, I did nothing but research on what I
would do. I had tried Zumba and though that helped a bit, my eating habits made
damage to any weight loss. I tried cutting carbs but that backfired too. I knew
I could not repeat these things, so I had to research and finally, during that
whole week of researching, I found the answer: calorie cycling.
It sounded complicated at first, but I went on and gave it a
try. I told some friends about it and one of my good health buff friends, Mark
T, told me I was on the right track. Losing weight, he said, is 80% diet and
20% exercise, so what you eat will make or break you. It was then that I realized
why I had failed before: I put in so much of the 20% that I made myself tired
and hungry, and being so hungry offset all the work I had put into working out.
I started my calorie cycling diet and on the first week
alone, without depriving myself of anything, I had lost 1.5 kilos. By the end
of the month I had lost a total of 5 kilos. I was on a roll, but it didn’t stop
there. I realized that aside from losing weight, I needed to have a total
lifestyle change. Yes, it is good to eat, yes you should enjoy yourself every
now and then, but I knew I had to change my health goals over all. I had to not
just lose weight, but keep it off and maintain a healthy lifestyle. From then
on, I promised myself I would make an effort to exercise. A nice officemate of
mine, who is one of the fastest runners I know told me this: “yes, it’s good to
lose weight, but you need to tone that shit”. And tone I did.
Since then, my officemate became a good friend who inspired
me to run and stick to it (I even adapted his running schedule). I started
running 3k last November and since then I have progressed to the 10k that I
run, every Tuesdays and Thursdays. It was not easy at first, I found myself
walking most of the time but in the end, it all worked out for me.
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| me as of two weeks ago |
Today I am 4
pounds below my goal weight and I have no item of clothing from my past that
does not fit me. Save for my hips that apparently, will never go back to its
old self, I have learned to work on what I can and accept what I can’t. The
goal now is just to be healthy and stay healthy.
For more info on calorie cycling, visit
www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm
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