I have played see-saw with obesity all my life. There were moments of highs where I enjoyed optimal body mass index, followed up by lows when, with Ms Cadbury Bar as company, I tipped the scales by an additional 10 to 15 kilos.
My personal trainer got me to examine why I overate and we broke it down to a few things: boredom, stress and lack of understanding. The last reason, simply put, was me frolicking with food with reckless abandon, thinking that my body will slip the unburned calories under some mystical carpet.
Last December, I weighed in somewhere north of 100 kilos, I was out of breath walking up the smallest hills and I had a loyalty discounts at the local sweet shop. So, before Christmas I decided to give gyming and sane nutrition another go.
I have been here before. I was no stranger to cardio fitness training and I signed up at the local Fitness First, a national fitness chain. I also decided to re-look at my nutrition and add fruit, salad and discipline to my intake. Nutrition was easy, because my partner shared my enthusiasm for healthy eating and suddenly there were fewer cans and lot more greens in our weekly shopping. The sweets, that disappear within days, now have a safe haven in our cupboards.
I now exercise 4 days a week. The exercise routine comprises of 25 minutes on the thread-mill and another 25 minutes on the cross trainer at the local gym. I finish off with some abdominal exercise and 5 minutes of weight training. I go in when my local gyms open up, at 6 AM and get out at 7.20 AM. Every week, as I feel stronger, I push myself a bit harder and push a few buttons, to increase the machine's resistance or speed.
I have lost 18 to 20 kilos, over the last three months. I have moved down 4 inches and 2 waist sizes. Needless to add, I now feel healthy.
However, I have now hit a plateau in my weight loss and my work life schedule has changed a bit. I have to look at alternatives to continue what I started.
