I could stand to lose twenty kilos.
Woah! You don’t normally see people come out and make statements like that so bluntly, but it’s true. Since my mum passed away in April last year, I’ve put on ten kilos on a body that was already on the heavier side of normal. A lot of it was comfort eating – it was very easy to turn to making and eating home-made ice-cream.
It’s time to change this.
I’m aiming to lose ten kilos by the start of April, which is when I’ll be going to Hong Kong and China to see older relatives who are bound to comment on the size of my body with blunt comments of “Wah, you’re so fat”. If I can lose a decent amount of weight by then, I can avoid all those unnecessary comments.
To lose weight, I’m doing a range of activities:
- Cutting out all dairy from my diet.
- I’ve had terrible acne for the past six months, and the growth hormones in cows milk is a contributing factor which activates the sebaceous glands in the skin that create acne.
- I’m actually marginally lactose-intolerant, and avoiding dairy helps me to avoid bloating and wind.
- Joining a gym.
- I’ve been going three times a week for the past two weeks.
- I mainly concentrate on cardio, but will be moving onto weights once I get my fitness up
- Counting all the kilojoules I put in my mouth.
- And I do mean every kilojoule – from the 4 kilojoules in a breath mint, to the kilojoules in a cocktail or a cup of tea with milk.
- Logging everything I eat and all the exercise I do in the My Fitness Pal iPhone app.
It’s the final point that’s key to the (eventual) success of this endeavour. In the past when I’ve contemplated trying to lose weight, long-term goals are very daunting. Five kilos in a month? I wouldn’t even know where to start. But with a daily kilojoule count (6402 kilojoules) in the My Fitness Pal app, I have a regular, achievable, bite-sized goal to work towards. From a motivational perspective, it works really well for someone with my competitive nature as I ‘compete’ with myself to beat my daily goal.
What does this mean as a food blogger?
The few times I’ve gone out for a meal since starting this regime, I’ve managed to enjoy myself relatively comfortably, without restricting my meal choices too much. I’ve just had to make up for it with other meals in the day – i.e. having a lighter breakfast and lunch without snacking during the day, in order to enjoy myself for a dinner out. So, restaurant reviews should still be consistent.
What it will probably mean is that I might look at posting recipes more frequently, and in particular low-kilojoule recipes that fit in with my new eating plan. I’m on a learning curve in terms of reading food labels, and coming up with hearty and filling meals under 1800kj. I look forward to sharing my learnings!
I’d love to hear from you as well – can any food bloggers out there share good low-kj recipes or personal experiences around weight loss?
I could stand to lose about 30kg. I lost a whole lot by doing similar to you, just not on such a tight schedule. Moving to Sydney didn’t help despite walking A LOT more. So many nice places to eat. I really have no time, so gym isn’t an option now, but I try to walk even more and eat as well as I can. It’s working but very slow going. I might start tracking kj again.
Counting breath mint calories? Woah, that is hardcore!!! Wishing you lots of luck.
Good for you! I’m sure it will be hard work, but it sounds like you’re going about it in a really systematic way and are setting yourself up for success.
I don’t diet, but I really love the gym. I do cardio classes 2-3 times a week and heavy weight training once a week (and sometimes squeeze in a yoga class too). I’ll look forward to hearing about how you go with weights – I *love* weight training, I find it makes much more of a difference than cardio classes because it improves appearance and the more muscle you have the faster your resting metabolism is! (It’s also really hard to get bulky if you’re a girl, even if you lift very heavy, so you don’t need to worry about that, you just tone up, burn fat and develop a leaner physique). :)
Body Pump is a good class to start trying weights if you don’t want to start on the gym floor by yourself, although I’ll warn you that the first time you do it you’ll be in MEGA PAIN for the week after. You just gotta stick with it!
All the best! You can do it!
Good luck with this Amanda, I can totally understand how you feel about the relatives, my background is Irish and they can be very blunt as well. My daughter is an aspiring Nutritionist and as a result and with her guidance I now adapt all the recipes we eat and on my blog so they are healthy as what I cook on the blog I feed my family. So butter for coconut oil, sugar for maple syrup and honey. I’m also eating more grains like quinoa and draining the fat thoroughly off my food while I’m cooking it. That combined with getting a new dog and walking him every day has helped me lose weight and I had to lose 10kgs and have already lost 5. All the best but remember don’t be to hard on yourself.
Just stopped by to check out what you’re up to… I’m also attempting to lose weight and am looking forward to some healthy recipes :P As a gadget lover, I’ve gotten a fitbit pedometer – have a look into them, it’s keeping me moving, now I just need to crack down on the healthy eating bit!
As a dietitian and a new blogger who’s had a drastic reduction in activity for the last couple months I definitely find myself conscious of what I eat. I usually try to follow the 80-20 rule where 80% of the time I eat the good things! lean protein, fruits and vegetables, high fibre etc and 20 I indulge. Some tips I have for maintaining weight is to be really aware of what you’re eating, no mindless snacking so reduce the crisps and random snack items in your house. Don’t drink your calories (or kilojoules since I’m not in North America anymore!) meaning stick to water, juice, smoothies, coffee with cream and sugar or lattes all add more energy and doesn’t keep you as full. Finally I emphasize focusing on health rather than a specific size or number on the scale. If you are eating healthily and have regular physical activity, that is being better than just being thin but unhealthy. Wishing you good luck on the rest of your weight loss journey!
Update: as of 11 October 2014, I’ve lost 22 kgs!
http://gourmanda.me/2014/10/11/unblogged-files-july-to-september-2014/