My Weight loss Journey
From XL to XS
“I was never fat but not fit either.”
Flashback: 2018–2019:
Beginning of my 40’s … I was stressed out with work and slogging for hours together at my job. To add extra stress, the 40’s hormones were building their houses and as a result — my weight started showing an upward trend and my body was heavily bloated.
Before I could notice and start working on it my network and circle of people started noticing it and gave me a lot of MKG (muft ka Gyan — Borrowing this term from a dear friend 😊) — free Gyan sessions along with direct and indirect body shaming (Which is the topic for my next article). Though I kept telling them that I liked being ME and don’t want to do anything about it, my inner self was saying otherwise. I was stressed out about it! 2018 passed by with more traveling, more fun, and most importantly MORE EATING.
Beginning of 2019 the hormones decided to act up even more and started moving around my body. That was certainly an experience. Hormonal imbalance, urticaria, more stress, and more weight gain, you know all the fun stuff! I went to different doctors and tried to solve the problem by taking pills. Of course, everything comes with some terms and conditions. With pills, it was obvious bloating, mood swings, and outfits getting tighter. That was something I could not handle at all. My outfits are my most prized possessions. I spend a lot of time choosing them. That was my major eyeopener, it helped me realize that I had to do something about this. So, looking back, 2019 was a really exciting and fun year! About my health, I was not an athlete nor did I have any interest in sports but I pushed myself to enroll in BADMINTON classes!!! The irony has not gone unnoticed. Well, one day I came home and never went back. It just shows that I realized badminton (Any sport for that matter) isn’t for me. 2 months passed and there was no change in my weight. Well, that was coming because I was on like 5 pills a day for my allergies!
I ended up so stressed that I decided to leave my job and take a break for few months.
2020 — the pandemic year:
When I was deciding upon how to start my journey of becoming fit, I observed that my daughter was losing weight at a faster pace. Figured out that she had stopped drinking milk as it affected her stomach. That’s when it occurred to me, why not stop drinking coffee and see the results. so, I stopped all coffee, tea, and milk as well as the pills on 1st Jan 2020. It was no easy feat in the beginning. Although I did not lose weight in the first 2 months, I started feeling good about myself. I was on my noticed period and was having mixed feelings about it. At that time, I regretted quitting the job as I was clouded with uncertainty if my decision was right or not. When I look back at it now I realise that it was the best decision I have ever made!
When it all started….
After my official last day of work, I was a little upset and confused about what to do next. It is like coming from 100km/hr to 0km/hr. Lockdown made it worse as I did not know what to do the whole day. Got a subscription for audible and listened to “Michelle Obama” (narration of her book Becoming). Got really inspired by her.
After days of persuasion, I agreed with my daughter on her proposal for working out together. And to this day I’m glad that I did that. We started with a ten-minute workout video by Chloe Ting. I have to admit that it was difficult to do at first but my daughter helped me do it at my own pace. Thanks to lockdown, we mastered this. Slowly expanded my knowledge of at-home workouts. I remember my bestie telling me about this ‘Walk — At- Home Program’ by Leslie Sansone. I made a deal with my daughter to continue her favorite workout and add this. Few days she continued with me and later decided that she would substitute it with dancing. But that did not mean I stopped doing it. I took it very slowly and the Mantra was ‘one day at a time. I enjoyed it and started seeing a downward trend in my weight. I lost approximately 4 kgs that month which was certainly a dream come true. Like any other person, we tried so many delicacies during the period and relishing food.
My family loves food, so we never substitute food for anything. This time I was determined to lose weight and of course, the food was homecooked. By June I was down 7 kgs. Happy with the progress I made, I started working harder. I walked for at least 10K steps each day. I successfully got rid of my stress and focused on myself. I came to realize that health is forever your FIRST PRIORITY.
Fast forward to November 2020:
Joined a FB group on a weight loss program. I do not believe in diet or diet programs. I have seen my friends and family members fail miserably with diet especially when it comes to consistency. So, decided to reduce the weight by working out. I came across a news feed asking people to join a 100-day walk challenge, it immediately attracted me. I challenged myself and joined that group. At the beginning of the challenge, I wanted to see how far I could go with this. It got really interesting as I was posting my day’s data on the FB page and many fellow walkers inspired me to achieve more. I completed my first ever 100 days challenge with a bang. My lowest step number was 10,299 up to 25,000 steps. That was a great achievement for me. Meanwhile, people started noticing my weight loss in profile pictures and asked for some inspiration. I felt really good and motivated. After completing my 100days walk challenge, I reduced all my extra weight and I am currently in my ideal weight and size. Of course, the downside of this was that all my clothes became extremely oversized. After receiving many requests I decided that I would start my own group called ‘BOHOFIT’ on FB and close to 40 people are walking with me every day. We are walking another hundred-day challenge currently.
Friends as virtual walk partners:
Many a time I have had virtual walk sessions with my friends while talking over the phone. Now my fellow BOHOFIT walkers are motivating and inspiring me to walk.
“Family that walks together stays together” :
In this weight loss journey, my family played a major role. I used to have my walk sessions individually with my husband, daughter, son and my dog. Some of the walks we do together. I am thankful for their support in my journey. We have taken major life decisions during the walks.
Did I sacrifice a lot to get to this point?
No. In fact I thoroughly enjoyed this transformation process from the beginning. I did some bit of lifestyle changes along with that brought in a lot of discipline into my life.
Things that I changed about myself:
1. Mindful eating with homecooked food.
2. Stopped milk
3. Exercise on daily basis
4. Be Consistent
5. Never Quit. Take a pause if you want and come back stronger.
These exercises helped me stay fit both physically and mentally and got me through the crazy year 2020. I am stepping onto the next adventure of my life and I hope to continue with my workouts and stay fit forever!
It was neither an easy nor a difficult journey. Rather it was challenging and exciting to go through.
Never beat yourself up for anything in life. Add the fun element to whatever you are doing. My fun element in this journey (after achieving my milestone every time) is to drive at least for 25 kms to the airport and get Sulaimani and enjoy having that in the parking lot sitting inside the car. Waiting for the pandemic to end so that I can restart my travel.
Thumb Rules:
1. Walk away the stress — Walk for a better YOU!
2. A.B.C.D — Aspire, believe, consistency, and dedication
3. Invest in TIME instead of MONEY when it comes to your health.
4. Have patience and Never quit.
#GOBOHOFIT, #GETBOHOFIT #StayBOHOFIT
I hope my story inspired you. Now it’s time for you to choose your path in life and write your own story :D
