“Hi. Wow, you've lost weight! Like, ten fifteen kilos, right?” a friend who saw me six months later says to me immediately after we meet. “Ten,” I reply uncertainly. “Don't you eat? Do you exercise? What do you do differently?” she immediately wanted to know my secret recipe. Anyone who notices my lower weight asks me the same questions. And I realized I didn't know what to answer.
Something different suits everyone. Some people start exercising, others try different types of diets. I have no idea what's the best way to lose weight. All I can say is that I'm comfortable with a caloric deficit. It makes sense to me to have boundaries for my daily calorie intake no matter what I eat. I also try to split my intake evenly between sugars, fats and protein. I don't count calories and as long as the weight is going down, I'll just estimate them. During the spring, I added another rule - I try to eat at least three hours before bedtime. I sleep better with a half empty stomach.
During the anti-epidemic measures I regularly walked the streets of Prague. Not that I suppose it has any effect on weight loss. It was helping my head, which needed to get out of the tight embrace of the four walls of my prefab apartment.
In March, I decided that I wanted to run a 5 km route in a better time than my two years old attempt (I wrote more about the movement last time). Since then, I've run eight times. I've managed to push my average time per kilometer under eight minutes. I feel that with each new attempt, my time has improved slightly. My body is also getting used to it. My legs don't hurt so much anymore, my breathing is becoming a weak point.
“You really lost 10 kilos? Seeing you every day, I didn't even notice,” my friend and work colleague tells me over a beer in the pub. On the first day of January, I weighed 123.2 kilos. Five months later, I'm ten kilos lighter and my weight corresponds to first-degree, not second-degree obesity. I'm happy about that. But I'm only a quarter of the way there. I still need to lose 30 kilos to reach the recommended 83 kilos.
a month average weight
| Month | Weight (kg) |
|---|---|
| January | 120.9 |
| February | 119.1 |
| March | 116.3 |
| April | 115.3 |
| May | 112.9 |
I am managing to lose weight with minimal changes in my life. I perceive the weight loss only as a side effect of correcting my diet. I don't feel like I'm dieting, depriving myself or over-protecting myself. I don't have cravings that make me bite my nails.
This is exactly what I went into this with in early January. In order for the change in eating to be permanent, I mustn't feel that one day it will end and I'll be back to gorging myself on sweets like before.
I'm embarrassed every time someone starts praising me. I'm not used to it. In fact, with 30 pounds overweight, I'm not even sure it's appropriate to draw attention to my figure at all.