How to lose weight when you don’t know where to start

Sub Title: Personal Guide on how to lose weight and keep it off

From as far back as I can remember (ok 13) I was always on the chubby side. Of course being in high school in the 2000s I wasn’t really self aware or self conscious. I mean I grew up in Jamaica where we ate stew chicken, banana and yam for breakfast.

Fast forward to 2011 where I was a whopping 200 and a lot pounds. I became very self conscious, much of that through social media and critical remarks from persons in my community and family.

I embarked on a journey of health and “redemption” (free me up Jah Jah) and I’ve never looked back since.

Now my weight stands at 136-141 pounds (fluctuate) at 5 ft and 8 inches.

For the last 10 years I have managed to lose over 100 pounds and have kept it off.

Let’s delve into my journey!

What I tried

Every fad diet, pills, shakes and nothing at all under the sun.

1. Fad Diets: Keto, Mediterranean, Paleo and more

2. Pills: green tea extract pills, açai berry, HCG and all other weight loss pills that I could get my hands on

3. The shakes and the teas- yes the gullible fool who believed that these things were responsible for giving celebrity socialites the body they now have. Jokes on me.

4. Liquid diets: Cabbage diet, tea diet, soup diet

5. Air: That’s it that’s the “word”

The only thing I haven’t tried is Plastic Surgery. Unfortunately and as the universe so happily reminds me when I have to get up and go to work everyday; I am still very poor and even the sale of my kidney on the black market would not help in my bid for liposuction. Annndddd well the lottery doesn’t like me either 😢😢😢😢

What worked (temporarily)

Cabbage diet

The Cabbage diet is where you replace two meals with cabbage soup for 12 days. Considering I was eating basically air I did lose a considerably amount of weight but ultimately gained that back once I stopped pretending to be “Peter Rabbit”.

Starvation

This is self explanatory, I basically ate nothing and drank only water and maybe a few apple slices here and there throughout the day. I would’ve kept going if the grim reaper didn’t come knocking on my door step. Kids don’t try this at home! Red alert! Red alert!

Keto

I put the Keto in the temporary pile because it is hard to maintain. Does Keto work? - absolutely. Do you lose weight?- yes if you stick to the rigid structure of 25 carbs or less (which is like a spoon of rice). Keto in the long run is not sustainable and I found myself miserable. If you are ok with cutting out all the guilty pleasures that food has to offer then by all means go ahead. As for me, a slice of brownie and the occasional cheesecake prevents me from burning the world down to the ground.

What didn’t work

Everything else basically. The pills, shakes and all other “easy” methods packaged in a bottle or otherwise. These may be a shortcut to losing weight without the dedication, commitment or sacrifice but there is no longevity or assurance. The road to success is paved in hell fire and the devil himself awaits yonder.

The best approach

The best approach to losing weight and keeping it off is the “trial and error approach”. What is good for the gander is not necessarily good for the geese. Try the fad diets, the teas, pills and all the shakes out there and see if anything works. But also listen to your body, know your strengths and weaknesses and build your personal approach around those things. For me, I knew I needed to eat dessert to cap off my evenings or else I would feel miserable. That was my weakness and I was not particularly keen on eating fruit for dessert and celery sticks (bleh). I needed the sugary rush so I made sure my other meals were healthy and my dessert was a small slice of cheesecake.

Knowing your weaknesses will help to boost your success

My personal approach

1. Counted calories - This is your golden egg, the OG, the boss, el jefe of losing weight.

2. Downloaded a food tracker - If I had to recommend an app it would be Fat Secret. They have all the foods accounted in the world and the users on the app provided the extra motivation on my down days

3. Intermittent fasting - I still do this even now. My method is the 16:8 ratio. I eat from 12pm-8pm everyday and ensure my meals are healthy as possible with a side of cheese cake of course. Will talk more about intermittent fasting in another blog post

4. 30 mins of exercise - Zumba, cardio, aerobic and step classes virtually or in person worked for me. Personally I don’t do gym equipment out of dignity and respect for my personhood and feelings thank you very much. But do what works for you.

5. A cheat meal a week - Go crazy or don’t. Having 6 wings covered in gravy with fries on a Saturday while watching tv really boosted my serotonin levels.

6. Accepted that there would be days I would falter but that didn’t mean I was a failure. This is super important. Don’t be weighed down by the failure of today because tomorrow is a new day to get back at it. Losing weight and keeping if off requires failure and you will fail, but that only means your human

7. Most importantly I stopped thinking about it being a diet and more of a lifestyle change. Clean eating, exercise and intermittent fasting is like breathing for me. It is now my life and I view it as such. The word diet carries too much weight (pun intended) and I don’t need that negativity in my life.

Let me know what works for you.

And if you are one of those struggling to start...just start

Julz out!

P.s let me know what topics you would like to see me address on my blog.