In July 2020 I turned 30 years old and threw out my back pretty badly (great timing right). I was around 108 kg and am about 186cm tall. I was in the obese BMI category.
I went to a doctor and a physio and found out I had a herniated disc and routine blood work found that I also had high cholesterol.
This was a massive wake up call. I realised if I kept up my sedentary lifestyle and didn't lose weight, health issues were only going to pile up as I got older.
On the advice of my physio I took up swimming to help strengthen my back and decompress my spine. This was hugely helpful because it turns out I actually enjoyed swimming (and it helped my back greatly). I worked my way up to swimming 1km 3x times per week. On my 'off' days I would try get in atleast 30mins of walking as well as doing some light stretching. Later on (when I was about 95kg) I also mixed in some jogging and lifting weights, mostly because I wanted to have a few different options for exercise since sticking to just swimming sometimes got boring.
To bring down my cholesterol (and start losing weight) I cut out butter, eggs, red meat and most processed foods. I started eating more vegetarian meals and included things with lots of fibre. The biggest change however was cutting back on alcohol.
For a long time I was a bit of a binge drinker. I would often drink up to 12 standard drinks on weekends. This almost always led to eating takeaway and junk food, either while drinking or the next day while hungover (or sometimes both). So while I might not have eaten too badly during the week, any progress I made was being sabotaged by weekend drinking.
What helped with my drinking was to treat 'drinks night' as something special. Instead of just drinking whiskey or beer I would make myself and my partner 1 or 2 cocktails. The effort required to make a good mojito or whiskey sour meant I was less likely to just keep drinking more and more. I would also cook us a nice 'semi-cheat' meal which was a bit more decadent than weeknight meals but still keeping to a smaller portion size. This took away the urge to order pizza or something else off uber eats.
Another helpful change was switching from milk to dark chocolate. I've always had a pretty bad sweet tooth and I knew I couldn't give up chocolate all together. Dark chocolate turned out to be a great compromise, ive found because of how rich it is im more likely to stick to a smaller serving size.
The best advice I got regarding exercise comes from my physio. For most people exercise NEEDS to be either enjoyable and/or convenient and accessible. You can't set yourself up for failure by setting yourself unreasonable goals. If you hate running you likely don't have the discipline to build a running routine. If you hate travelling you aren't going to drive to the gym everyday after work. You have to find things that are sustainable for you.
Over the year I've certainly had setbacks but overall this is the longest I've stuck to positive lifestyle changes. I now weigh in at about 86kg. Based on BMI I will finally be in a healthy weight range at 83kg but my end goal is to get to 80kg.
The biggest struggle atm is complacency. Im nearly at my goal but in some ways it feels further away than ever. Because I'm looking better and feeling better, and the weight isn't coming off as easily as before, it's easy to slip into maintainence. I've realised that the difference between a week with weight loss and a week of maintaining my current weight is very small, an extra bit of chocolate here and there or a few bigger portioned meals can make a big change in the result. Im hoping to break this stall by July.
Anyway this has been a bit of a rambling post so I'll finish off with other bits of advice and lessons I've learned along the way.
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Having a supportive partner who is willing to make these lifestyle changes with you is unimaginabley helpful. My girlfriend was never really overweight but she managed to lose a few kg and build her own fitness.
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Old advice but worth repeating. You can't outrun a bad diet. When I was finally able to run 5km I'd often catch myself thinking "go on, you ran 5km, you've earned that snack". I try to remind myself that exercise isn't about earning food.
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Maintaining is better than gaining. Between last year and now I've had a month here and there where I've lost no weight at all. Plateuing can be infuriating but just remind yourself that not slipping backwards is also a step in the right direction.
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I'm too lazy to calorie count accurately but having a rough idea of how many calories you can eat in a day (online calculators make this easy) and how many calories are in foods you eat regularly is important. My target is about 2000 kilojoules per meal (so 6000kj for breakfast lunch and dinner) which gives me room for a snack and a bit of dessert.
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if you can afford it, I have quite liked having a smart watch. Tracking how many steps I've taken in a day is a good reminder to keep active. It has also been cool to see my resting heart rate become lower from increased fitness.
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More old advice but small incremental changes that you can stick to is key.
Anyway, that's my progress. Happy to answer any questions.
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