Guest Post: Gee’s Weight Loss Journey. 38kgs in 18 months - Why? How?

Note from Tim Karajas - Head Coach/Owner of Extension Fitness

I’m delighted to publish this guest post from Gee Fernando! I asked Gee to write an article for The Slog Blog about his weight loss journey and he kindly agreed. Gee is a father of 3 young kids; a white-collar worker (doing big data stuff!), and a keen cyclist. In this post he shares his perspective on weight loss plus some great, practical tips based on what has helped him to lose 38 kilograms in 18 months.

Maintaining a healthy weight can be tremendously difficult, living as we do surrounded by an abundance of cheap foods which are extremely tasty (by design), energy dense and low in nutritional value. It follows that weight management is a vexatious issue and an important topic for many people. I find our cultural discourse about weight management quite exasperating. Like many areas, there’s a distinctly polarised landscape of opinion here. One on pole is people who contend that there’s actually no health downside to carrying excess body fat. On the other are those who make weight management the be-all and end-all of human health. It seems likely to me that both are partly right. Yes, the “ideal” body shape is largely dictated by culture - not what’s actually healthy. But, yes, carrying excess body fat can be a substantial health issue. Anyway, I’ll climb off my soapbox now and let Gee do the talking.

MY WEIGHT LOSS JOURNEY - by Gee Fernando

These are some things that I found helpful with my weight loss journey. I hope they help you too.

Goals

Before you start your weight loss journey; think about your WHY.

Think about why you’re doing it. It could be to have more energy to play with your kids, have more energy to do chores around your home, to look great for your partner, to be able to go on bush walks with friends or to take part in a sporting event. But whatever it is, make sure to write it down and share it with someone you trust. This will help you to stay disciplined when the going gets tough. Having an accountability buddy or buddies can be helpful. 

Last year, I signed up for West Cycle’s dams challenge, as a goal to help me lose weight.

Exercise

Find a form of exercise you love doing (dancing, walking, running, bootcamp, pilates, cycling etc). The internet may tell you certain exercises are better for weight loss, but find something you love doing that you’ll enjoy doing long-term. For me this was cycling.

Set aside time in your week to do exercise, or even better find an individual or a group fitness class and book it in for 10 weeks. This will force you to attend classes, even when you don’t feel like it.

Food

More than anything limiting my food intake was the biggest factor in losing weight. If you haven’t done so already, think about using a calorie counting app like Lose It, Noom or MyFitnessPal. This will help you understand how many calories you eat and burn throughout a typical day. I don’t think it’s necessary to do this forever, but doing it for about 2 months will make you aware of how much you should eat based on your activity. Try to think about this every time you sit down to eat and when you’re thinking about food, keep portion control in mind. Knowing you will be losing weight and improving your health is important to keep front of mind.

If you’re like me and if you’d like to eat lots, I’d suggest eating more of less-calorie-dense foods. These foods will fill you up with the least amount of calories. Think about fruits, vegetables and wholegrain. Here is a great article on calorie-density, where they split food into 3 colour categories (green, yellow and orange). If you start incorporating more green or less-calorie-dense food into your meals, you’ll be able to lose weight without feeling hungry or deprived.

Also prepare your own meals, if possible. This will make you aware of ingredients you’re using, and help you eat more healthy.

Steamed eggs in spinach and overnight oats with fruits are 2 of of favourite low calorie dense meals that I eat to start the day.

Weighing-In

Weighing-in regularly is key to tracking how you’re going. Don’t focus on the day to day fluctuations, but rather focus on the weekly/monthly weight trends and the bigger picture you’re working towards. Investing in a smart scale like Renpho will make it extremely easy to track your weight overtime. It can sync with Apple Health and other Health/Fitness apps, so all your health data could be in one place.

If you don’t want to purchase a smart scale, logging your weights in an excel template or simply writing it down will also help you track trends overtime.

Accountability

Work in a team. Find some friends who are also trying to lose weight to share your journey with. You could start a WhatsApp group to share encouragements, recipes or weekly weigh-ins. You could even start a healthy weight loss competition if you want that extra push.

Another thing you could look into is sharing your weight and other health related data with a person you trust. This will enable them to view your progress, and send you timely encouragements. They’ll also be notified when you lose or gain weight, which I think is a great form of accountability and encouragement. (Check this out for how-to info using Apple products).

Recipe for steamed eggs in spinach

credit - https://yummylummy.com/

Heat a non-stick frypan, add a small handful of spinach leaves and then add an egg. Afterwards, put a lid on and set a timer for 3 minutes. Usually the yolk is soft and the white sets nicely. Finally slide it onto a plate and add some pepper and hot sauce.