Sound of Music

In my initial post I established that I needed [and still need to] to lose some weight, to do this effectively I had to get to the root cause of my issue. Like Maria (of the Sound of Music fame) I had to start at the very beginning, it’s said to be a very good place to start. I have had to truthfully reflect on how I put on all of this weight. Many of us are not able to tell ourselves the truth about what we struggle with, so we are unable to get any real results in the solutions we deploy to tackle the issues.

My 155kg weight didn’t all happen overnight; I didn’t just wake up and find myself severely overweight with all the health issues I mentioned in my last post– Rome after all was not built in one day. To get to where I am today I found that like when we read, we begin with A, B, C; when we sing, we begin with Do, Re, Mi… so when I want dig deep into the cause of weight gain I have to begin with Me, Me, Me. (forgive the play on the song from the movie).

I was diagnosed with a thyroid dysfunction a few years ago. I think one of the results is that my metabolism [the process through which the body converts what you eat and drink into energy] has become quite slow. For years I blamed my thyroid and metabolism for the extra weight, and felt powerless to do anything to turn the tide. After all I was ill, right? Talking with a colleague at work today, I realized that many people (like me) believe that they are powerless to turn the tide on their health, wealth, weight etc; and that we all just have to manage the hand nature/genetics had dealt us. Not so true, I’ll tell you why I no longer think so.

If a doctor detected that you had malaria, would you go home and say ‘oh I have malaria, and that’s why my joints ache and I just have to leave with this ache for the rest of my life because Dr Timbuktu has said I have malaria’? What would you do? You would get your prescription, take your drugs and get better right? So why think that because Mom, Dad, Brother & Sister are overweight so you are predestined to be overweight and possibly unhealthy for life? Many of us think like this, as did I.

 

I read an article that highlighted Mayo Clinic researchers saying that people will put on weight because of any of or a combination of the following:

1. Eating too many calories
2. Getting too little exercise
3. Unhealthy habits, such as skipping breakfast or not getting enough sleep
4. Certain medications
5. Genetics and family history

 

In my case, my weight gain was a result of my personal actions and decisions. Decisions about what to eat, about when to eat; decisions about to do or not to do physical exercise, In essence, it was mostly me! I have found that I have control over numbers 1, 2, 3 and in some cases 4 in the list above. But I gave up my control through ignorance.

Some other time I’ll talk about the other reasons I put on weight, but for now I want to zero in on the #1 reason for my weight gain and what I am doing differently – OVER EATING! First off I’ll confess that I do not know a thing about counting calories. I don’t know if a banana has 3 calories or 500 calories. Like any average person all I know is that too many calories are bad for you. So I am not telling anyone to go learn how to count calories. (Although I hear that an average woman needs at about 1,200 calories daily). But one of the things I do now (or that I am learning to do is to watch/shrink my portion sizes.

The pictures below (I got the pictures for today’s post from the web), this is what an average person eats in one sitting (I’ve used pictures that depict both a Nigerian/African meal and Western/European meals do no group is left out). I know some of us (who shall remain un-named) who can do twice this portion size in one sitting.

I don’t think anyone needs to doubt that this is just too much for one person in one sitting, both in terms of portion size and calories. My bourgeoning frame shows that no good comes from a habit of such meals.

In my journey to lose weight (I still have like 40kg to lose to get to my ideal weight for height and frame) I worked with a nutritionist who taught me about portion control. I will be the first to own that I was dismayed when she went over the new portion sizes I had to get used to…no I was not just dismayed, I was scandalized; because truth be told I love FOOD! You may be scandalized as well…take a look at the chart in this link to get an idea of what quantities YOU should be eating to maintain a healthy weight and health.

http://www.readyseteat.com/pdf/HW_HandPortionChart_1222.pdf (if you can’t open this just now, see the picture here)

I feel your pain – believe me. But be encouraged, it is possible. If a dedicated foodie like me can start living like this, then anything is possible.

Following this, below is what my plate looks like these days (another picture from the net, but I hope you get the idea).

I am serious when I say this is how my plate looks like these days – I actually went so far as to mark one plate in my kitchen as shown above (with permanent marker) so each time I eat, I remember what portion size of protein (fish, chicken etc), carbohydrates (yam, rice, potatoes etc), vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, carrots etc) I am supposed to eat during my meal. They say that there are many ways to skin a cat – marking my plate was my way to skin this particular cat. Try it…you never know. At the start it was not easy, but with time I am beginning to get the hang of it. Practice makes perfect they say.

Eating for health involves a paradigm shift I’ve learnt, and it is NOT EASY. It has become the reality of my life now, and I am determined to stick to it. Some other time I’ll tell you how I motivate myself to keep to this program each day – I don’t always succeed, but I keep at it. Every day is a new day and a new opportunity to eat the right foods, the right size and at the right time.

While we are on the subject of eating healthy, feel free to ask whatever questions you have on the subject. I will attempt to answer them, or point you to where you can find the answers to your questions. Please feel free to share your personal eating healthy experiences with us, I know I would love to learn a thing or two as I battle to loose and keep off the extra kilograms.