Prologue: I started writing my weight loss memoir a long time ago but wanted to hit my target 59kg before I release my memoir to the public but I’m still 67kg and far from my target, so I figure if I can’t share my success then I can share my struggles.
For
as long as I can remember, I have always been weight conscious. I mean, I started using brassiere at 9 years
old, menstruating at 10 years and of course I was way bigger than my class
mates. I couldn’t play ten-te during break time. I couldn’t jump or skip ropes
because I was afraid something else will jump…my breast and everyone will
notice. I covered up mostly, wearing a cardigan in the hope that it could hide
what is now famously referred to as ASSET. Interestingly
in retrospect, I don’t think I was gynormous compared to my mates but because
they were mostly flat-chested children, I kinda look like a giant in
comparison. So my weight loss journey started from way back. I sort of figured
that if I could get my weight down, my breast could go down with it. But on the
contrary it went bigger and so did the hips. O boy, did I hate them.At
the university, I ate little, took several slimming teas which was expensive at
the time and did other things I heard could help me lose weight including
drinking urine to intermittent fasting. In my 300L I took a picture with a
group of friends and when I saw the 5 by 6 inches hard copy picture, it
suddenly dawn on me that I wasn’t fat and I was flummoxed. I can remember
thinking to myself that why have I been stressing myself if I wasn’t even fat.Anyway
I forgot all about weight watching afterwards because there was no need to.
Post University:
I was preoccupied with getting a good job and a good husband. As the two were not forthcoming, fasting was my new normal hence I couldn’t add weight.
After marriage:
Now I have entered into my rest. Once upon a time, when milo tea looks like colored water but now I can afford to make my milo tea look like molten lava. The Lord is good. Then I progressively went from 60kg to 75kg and that’s when I knew there is fire on the mountain.
After one:
I was very weight conscious during my first pregnancy and thankfully I had a lepa female doctor who has had 4 children and was coaching me on how not-to-eat for two but eat healthy. The doctor also gave tips of how to lose all pregnancy fat after delivery; namely no eating of swallow in the 1st 3 months post natal plus inclusion of fruits and vegetables in my diet and it worked. I was 65kg before preggie and 75kg as at 3rd trimester and I went back to 60kg in about three months post –natal. Phew! That was easy.
Me before marriage
Me 3 months after my first child as you can see, I didn't quite change. I lost the weight as soon as I put to bed.
After 2:
The effort to revert back to 60/65kg after my
second child became a tug of war. Even 2years after my 2nd child I
was still oscillating between 75kg and 70kg. So what gives? What happened to my
magic formula that I used after my first child? Well, I now have a 19 months
old girl that eats golden morn, rice and other solids and sometimes in feeding
her, a spoon or two goes inside my mouth as well (mo n jeun omo kinda thingy). At
other times, when she eats by herself and has left over, I just devour the
almost half full bowl of carbohydrate cereal. And at other times, I just enjoy
the taste of the cereal and help myself to a bowl or two. I cannot come and
kill myself kinda thingy ojarey.The
calories add up. Then unlike when you had just one baby that you can just place
in a baby cot while you do your aerobics, you now have an infant and a toddler
who disturbs your exercise routines. Most of the time, it is a struggle and a
struggle I keep losing.
Frustrations:
Then you see celebs go back to shape in less
than 3 months and you’re still battling with weight loss, two years after. You buy
slim tea, meal replacement and nothing seems to work, your weight increases
each time you mount on the scale. You weigh more than you were at your 3rd
trimester. Efforts are not yielding, I look in the mirror and I don’t like the
big bloated woman I see. I worry because I have done this before and frustrated
I aint winning. I also live in an area where phcn might do their worst and we
are out of electricity for 3 months, 5 days, 3 days and therefore preserving what
is inside the fridge becomes paramount. Packaged salads rots and has to be
thrown away, you want to salvage your stew and soup and therefore compelled to
eat swallow that you don’t intend to eat just so the soups don’t go bad.
Fitfam
meals can also be expensive. A litre of hollandia yogurt goes for N500 while a
litre of greek yogurt costs N3500. A 1kg of chia seeds can be as high as N7000
(almost half price of a bag of rice) and the list goes on. Little wonder it is
easier to get fat than to remain lepa shandy. And one is not all that buoyant
or liquid to spend on plants and fruits.
Sometimes
malaria also knocks me down and all planned diet are ditched to swallow carbs
that will give me energy to recuperate well. After you are back on your feet
with added weight, you just want to give up the fight. Women will understand
this better. Sometimes our contraceptives also aid weight gain and in spite of our
best efforts we are just stuck with this extra flesh you want gone.
Realization:
I follow many fitfam pages on instagram and stumble
on ways to lose weight fast; keto diet, intermittent fasting, egg diet, oat
diet, apple cider vinegar miracle, aerobics and all-what-nots. I tried them
all, with positive results but not sustainable. At the end of the day I stuck
with calorie-counting/intermittent fasting. Even at that, I still struggle
because I bake cakes for my children for regular and school snacks, and boy my sponge
cakes are out of this world. I could finish a 12-inches pan size in a sitting
but I don’t. That’s how tempting my cake is. What I do is to quickly dice them
up after baking and pack them up into the fridge or make cup cakes that I can
resist. I am still not within my target weight but
weight loss journey is not a dash. It takes time. And it’s perfectly okay to
have days when you just swallow the chocolate and eat your cucumber later. Last
Easter I followed an advice to count my blessings not my calories and I saw the
results in extra kg.An average woman needs to eat about 2000 calories per
day to maintain, and 1500 calories to lose
one pound of weight per week but I target eating 1000 calories per day. So let’s say, I had eba for
brunch, I reckon that to be about 700 calories in total so I know I can’t eat
anything high in calorie again for that day. It’s either I go for salad or
settle for my home-made granola (nobody does granola better than I do by the
way) which could be like 500 calories. So in total, I have consumed 1100
calories for that day and that’s all. I just drink water heavily so my stomach
is full.
In
the past I used to buy a dress that was one size smaller than my size and
target slimming down enough to fit into the dress but it didn’t quite work because
most size 10 dresses are not big enough for my bust-line so I changed my goal
post. I love rice crispies, so I buy it and keep it away unopened till I reach
my target weight and reward myself with a bowl. I read in one post that ‘you
are not a dog, stopping rewarding yourself with food’ but asko!!! I still
reward myself with rice crispies anyways.
Importance:
So someone might say but why all the stress to stay in shape?, for what?, for whom? And to what end? For two reasons; I love to look trim and fit. I feel more confident at 55-65kg weight. I am an entrepreneur, a lecturer and I need a buy-in to my person from my students and prospectus buyers or clients. People buy into you first before they buy into what you are selling. When I deck up for presentations to customers, or stand in front of my students who are millennial and fashion/beauty police by demography, I stand tall, with square shoulders looking sharp and in control. They want to listen to me. They want to listen because they are curious, if she looks this good then she must have something good to say, I never disappoint.The second reason is health. My BMI as at the last time I checked was 26 but the ideal range is 19-24.9 and therefore my ideal weight should be between 49.8kg- 65.3kg but as at the time of writing this I weight 67kg.
Me now
