Weight Loss

When the quarantine was imposed by the government last year, my sister and I know that we will be stuck at home to do the same thing over and over again. We enjoyed the first week because all we did is the sleep-eat-repeat cycle. By the end of the week I realized that we're going to become totally fat if we continue that way, and I don't want that to happen. It's not that I don't want to be very thin, but because whenever I gain some fats, I find it hard to breath and I easily feel tired when doing physical activities. So I decided to exercise and lose weight.

And because I'm a lazy-ass when it comes to exercising, I searched on YouTube some weight-loss strategies that I can do daily and in just a few minutes. I saw this 7-minute workout routine that is super easy to do… or so I thought. At first, it was super easy but from 3 minutes onwards it's very tiring, and I almost gave up. But I survived and felt the body ache the next day. 

Aside from the workout routine I learned on YouTube, I also did all sorts of strenuous activities at home, I did the chopping of woods, I fetch water and in the afternoon, my sister and I did Zumba. And it was really effective. When the quarantine is over, I went out and met a few of my friends, and they told me that I lost so much weight - though I look better with a little fat on.

Truth be told, I am not obese nor fat. I have a slim body, but I also have a few baby fats. So why am I so determined to work out and lose weight? Because most of the overweight stories started out by slowly gaining some weight. It started with gaining a few pounds first, and they don't realize how much weight they already gained, not until they look at the weighing scale. Then they would try to go on a diet to lose some pounds and after some time, they'll gain what they lose again and much more than what they lost! How did I say so? I have this friend who is older than mine and that's what she experienced, and I'm sure that it's the same with others. Then it results in getting a feeling of helplessness - that everything they do will not help them lose weight.

Because this concerns me so much, I tried to research and read more about this topic before, since I have a lot of time in my hands.

I found out that the way to avoid such a feeling of helplessness is to start with my diet. Don't think about how much I weight and not even my waistline. What matters is the way I think about my food. If we do not track the food we eat and just eat anything we want, whenever we want to, then at the very start, our diet is already doomed.

Some became successful in their weight loss journey by keeping track of what they eat. Self-control is the key to success. It always feels good to have midnight snacks loaded with sweets and even soda, but it's not good for the health and even for the weight.

Alcoholic beverages also play a role in getting so much weight. In my friend's case, aside from being fond of sweet foods, soda and foods high in carbohydrates and calories, she's also fond of drinking alcoholic beverages. Alcohol is high in calories so a glass of wine or a bottle of beer can turn into fats, how much more if you drink it often?

Here are few steps for a successful weight-loss journey

• Know what foods ruin your diet. Have you ever been in a situation where you are not feeling hungry at all but when your favorite food is served in front of you, you suddenly hear rumbling sounds coming from your stomach? You feel famished and in just a few snaps, you already devoured all the food. When our favorite food is in front of us, it is usually hard to control ourselves to eat, even though we just ate moments ago, our stomach can take more foods and this could ruin our diet. But if you know first hand about this, you can have a sense of self-control around such foods.

• Ask for help. It's good to do things alone, but it's better when you  have someone to do things with you. Same with getting a proper diet, if someone knows your dieting, they could give some reminders when you seem to have reached more than your limit. I saw this from a movie before where a girl is dieting and whenever they eat fried chicken, it's her favorite by the way, her boyfriend would get some skins because it contains fats. We can ask for help from a trusted individual such as a family member or a close friend, if it is not too much to help us have a better self-control when eeating.

• Drink lots of water. This is probably one of the secrets to a successful weight-loss. Drinking lots of water is better than bot eating at all. There are people who say they are on a diet, and all they do is not eat anything, and thus they looked like a walking dead in the end. Diet means you keep track of what you eat, it doesn't mean not eating anything. Drinking water from time to time can help replenish the toxins in our body and once our body is used to water as a response to stomach fangs, it can serve as an alternative to sweets or chocolates. What I did before is drinking a full glass of water before every meal because it makes some feel full and as a result I only eat a half of what I'm supposed to eat without drinking the glass of water firsthand.

• Exercise. Diet and exercising goes hand in hand for a successful weight loss. It helps our body to have toned muscles, unlike when we starve ourselves where we only became thin instead of getting a toned body.

@thepandagirl 🐼