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No Magic Pill

Because I hate those articles that start with a huge long story then give you the information you started reading them for I’m going to start with how I lost the weight then tell you why.

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Eat less, move more. That’s all my secret is. Four words that sound so easy in theory but become increasingly difficult in practice. I run at least 5 km every other day and try to do 10,000 steps on the days I’m not running, don’t run every day no-one runs every day even Olympians. I use an app to track my food and keep my calories in a deficit, I was using a Fitbit but recently upgraded to a smart watch and the Samsung Health app which is significantly better. I don’t restrict what I can eat because I very quickly adjusted so I ate things that didn’t leave me feeling hungry, you can just eat chocolate if that’s what gets you to your calorie limit but you’ll be starving and feel like crap. Cut out all alcohol. That’s all I did, one paragraph, less than 200 words. There was no magic pill I took, no magnificent super calorie burning exercise, no specific food cut out or added in to my diet. Just eating less, moving more. I started by using the Couch to 5k app to get me running. I did that then I stuck to it for 7 months (and counting). That’s the hardest part, you have to stick to it for the most part. I have days when I have the calories I need to maintain my weight, on my birthday I ate way more than my daily allowance but 90% of the days I go to bed on a deficit with calories left over. Sticking to it is the hardest part but if you do you will lose weight and you will be healthier. In total I’ve lost 60lbs (4st 4lbs or 27.2kg) since January.

I lost a lot of weight the wrong way once before, you can read about that here, and it didn’t stick because it was unsustainable. I had cut out an entire section of food and everything was unpleasant, going for a meal with family or birthday parties for example, you can’t make life hard for yourself and expect to feel better for it. The slip backwards happened because I was on guard the whole time, if I ate the wrong food just once it set me back a week and so if I slipped it made sense to keep slipping rather than start the long climb back up again. The way I’m doing it now is just how standard human bodies work, if I decide to have cake one day I wouldn’t even notice it as long as I didn’t keep only eating cake. I could relax into it.

And that’s a huge part of it, I’m not rushing anymore, I’m patient. You can feel like rubbish and not exercise, you can stop and start as much as you like. This isn’t a race, the only person you’re competing against is yourself. The important thing is not how fast you get to where you’re going but just getting there happy. 

I found motivational speeches really helped after finishing the Couch to 5K app. It didn’t really matter what they were saying just that it was overwhelmingly positive and supportive, something we are just not used to in everyday life. I’ve embedded the playlist I used below

Remember that you’re worth something. The world is designed to make you feel worthless, it’s designed to make you scared and panicky so you can be an efficient consumer. You don’t need to be, you’re worth everything. In fact to yourself you are everything, you are the most important person in the entire world to yourself and you should treat you as such. Getting healthier isn’t a magic pill or fantastic special workout you buy in weekly blocks, it’s not a personal trainer or expensive gym, it’s just you, a path and some determination. Everything you need is free, everything else is unnecessary. You can do this because I did this. Now go do it.

If you’ve found this helpful please do get in touch or if you ever need any support or advice, I’m always happy to help anyone that wants to take the next step in making themselves happier.

We’ve got to show up

Really proud of Lichfield today. Proper peaceful socially distanced protest stretching all the way from one end of the city to the other. Organiser came around with a tape measure to make sure everyone was distancing, police liaison did the same. Huge support from drivers honking as they drove past, an ice cream van turned back on itself just to show support with it’s music, even ambulances honking as they drove past waving. This is my first protest. I can’t just share a social media post and feel less guilty for my lack of actual action, that’s never been enough. I was worried about going today but last night Lucy turned to me and said “We’ve got to show up, if we don’t show up for people who need us to how can we ever expect people to show up for us”. We all need to show up.

Bloody well done to everyone today for showing up.