So you want to lose weight?

I speak to a lot of people who want to lose weight. When it comes to doing something about it their story changes and the excuses start coming. The question is how badly do you want to lose weight and why do you want to lose weight?

I can’t answer these questions for you because your reasons are very personal and vary greatly. Some people want to look pretty, while others are in pain or are battling with mobility.

What I can tell you is that you need to make your own decision and then you must never look back until you achieved your goal. When you are a month down the road on this journey towards achieving your goal, you will see that your achievements are going to start driving you and will become your motivation to continue.

Weight loss is best achieved through a combination of altered eating habits and exercise.

Weight loss without exercise is very difficult because it becomes just like another diet. Your only objective is to lose weight and you are doing it all alone and soon you find that you are losing interest. When you exercise, the dynamics change, especially when you measure your progress and you see and feel the results.

My own experience has shown me that there are great benefits to be had when you combine weight-loss and exercise. While there are undoubtedly also health benefits, there are no certainties and no guarantees. In my case I have found immense relieve from pain as a symptom of chronic rheumatic gout. I am better but I still get the occasional gout attack. It is however a massive improvement over my previous condition. I am almost entirely without pain with increased mobility and I don’t have to constantly carry pills with me to deal with constant pain. I also found an improvement in my blood pressure and I have been able to reduce my blood pressure medication.

On top of this I am feeling a lot better and I have a lot more energy.

It all took a decision from me however and the will to stick to my objective.

All of this makes me a winner and I am not only proud of it, I am also content in what this did for my general levels  of happiness and my health.

Are you a winner or a loser?

Losers are the people who say that they can’t exercise, because they are in pain or they need knee replacements or other medical interventions. Let me tell you, if I didn’t change my lifestyle, I probably would have been a candidate for double knee replacements.

Winners don’t find excuses to get out of something, instead they just go out and do it despite the conditions that they are suffering from. In my cycling group I have a fellow whose knee  pops out every now and then and then he has to pop it back in. He never complains and he rides better than most, in fact he is probably the second best rider in the group.

Last week I saw a guy who rides his bicycle with only one leg and his crutch fastened on his back and he is not hanging back. He is riding with normal able bodied cyclists and keeping up.

These are people who are not looking for excuses but instead they are finding a way to be active and do something. They have every reason to say that they can’t, but they made the conscious decision to do the opposite and they are achieving amazing results.

Can I guarantee that you won’t need a knee replacement? No I can’t, but I can tell you that you will most likely be better off and yes there is a chance that you will be so much better off that you might even be able to avoid that knee replacement.

It is no secret that I am a huge fan of cycling as an exercise method. It is especially true when you suffer from excessive weight or pain in your knees, legs or ankles.

Whatever you do, bring down your weight!

When you can’t exercise your legs due to health issues or whatever other reasons and you have mobility issues, it is still important to bring that weight down. Excessive weight is bad for you in every way. It puts extra strain on your joints and heart. Your movement becomes difficult and sometimes causes a lot of pain. Losing weight alleviates so many of these issues and will undoubtedly improve your mobility.

When tragedy strikes.

Recently I met a woman who had cervical cancer and as a result of the treatment lost the mobility in her legs and now moves with great difficulty. This had a knock-on effect and caused her to gain a lot of weight, which in turn affected her mobility. Then she started eating too much at a time, thinking that eating only one or twice a day will not affect her weight adversely. Unfortunately this is not the case and when I first spoke to her she didn’t even know what her weight was. When she finally got around to weighing herself, she found out that she weighed more than 20 kilos more than she thought and even that was way heavier than her BMI. She avoided drinking water, because she feared going to the toilet. This is another mistake because it makes the situation worse and accelerates her downward path. Did she get a raw deal? Undoubtedly, however there is still a lot she can be thankful for. She is alive and there for her children and she can still do something about her condition and turn around a lot of the things that she is currently battling with, but it is going to require her making a decision and keeping on going towards her goal. In her case exercise is difficult and she will have to look at alternatives like rowing or weightlifting with her arms and/or upper body alone, at least in the beginning. Her legs might never recover fully but she will become more mobile and she will be able to move better within the limitations dictated by her affected legs. The alternative is that she will become wheelchair bound and gradually become less and less mobile until she eventually ends up in a bed and early death. There is of course also the possibility that her legs will improve with time as she becomes more mobile and perhaps start doing light exercises within her limitations. Based on my own experience it is absolutely worth the effort to give it a go.

My situation was not as bad as this, but my end would have been very similar if I didn’t change what was I doing.

Don’t look for excuses and if you have to become selfish.

When you look at my guidelines for eating, there are two ways to approach it. The first is to adhere and improve on my guidelines and that will put you on a journey that will lead to victory. This has been proven by myself and now others who joined the journey. Hopefully I will start sharing some of their stories in the months to come, if they agree to it. The second is when you ask me continuously whether it’s okay to deviate from my guidelines. Then it is clear that you are not committed. You have to then go back to the beginning and ask yourself why you are doing it. If you can’t motivate yourself to proceed to the next step, I can’t help you.

One you start going for your goal, you need to become a bit selfish about it. You can’t afford to compromise. If you do you are going to lose motivation and it will be game over. All it needs is a bit of planning. Buying the right food to eat rather than the wrong food takes exactly the same effort. Saying you don’t have the right food to eat is just an excuse and you are a loser. Plan better and put some effort into it and you too will become a winner.

Don’t forget to have fun.

In the beginning it is not usually too much fun to start exercising. My first rides on a bike was really hard, but as soon as I gathered a couple of friends to start doing it with me it all changed. At first we suffered together and laughed about our mistakes and occasional falls, but soon it changed and we really started enjoying it. There were times when the only reason we got up to ride that bicycle was because we promised each other that we will ride together. It still happens sometimes but not too often these days. In more than a year, I only pulled out of one ride because I woke up one morning with an upset stomach. The rest of the time I was there for every ride and enjoying every moment of it. Initially I was the instigator but that role has been taken over by one of the other guys in the group now by default and sometimes another one will pop the question. We are very informal and we just enjoy riding together. We have become a close-knitted group and over time we grew from two to around ten. We pick up people on rides and invite them to ride with us or we invite friends or business associates. Some stick with us and others fade away. Some of those that fade away still occasionally joins us on rides and those days are very special. We care for each other and we look after each other and riding together makes our sport safer as well because there are always somebody to assist if something goes wrong. We get punctures or mechanical breakdowns and occasionally some people need some encouragement if the road gets a bit long. We have been lucky that there were no serious falls but we will be there for each other even if that happens.

I will be there for you.

If you make the decision to go for it, I will be there for you every step of the way. But only if you want me there. I know some people prefer to be on their own and they don’t want to be bothered. I appreciate and respect that, but if you find that you need some encouragement or that extra bit of nudging I will be there if you elect to choose that option.

When you want me to stay in touch with you and assist you with advice and encouragement, send me a mail via the link and ask me specifically that you need my assistance. I will gladly walk the extra mile with you. Some people are already doing it and they are benefiting from it. One guy took my record of weight-loss and decided he is going to do better. At the moment he is and I am proud of him. If all goes well he will share his story with us soon.