FIT&FAB: What my countless quick-fix diets taught me

Before 2015, I had made various unsuccessful attempts to lose weight. I recall one incident in particular after high school. I had just received my admission letter to Moi University in Eldoret and I was ecstatic! Eldoret sounded very far away from home. Anticipating lots of adventure, I decided to cut a bit of weight and overhaul my wardrobe symbolically to mark the beginning my new life in campus.

I got on a seven-day diet that promised to reward me with an hour glass figure if I adhered to it religiously. May I point out real quick that diets are highly overrated? I lost two kilos only after clearing my mother’s two-week grocery shopping.  My tummy flattened considerably though, sending me over the roof with joy. When we reported at the University, I was totally killing it in my fitting top and jeans. I had achieved my target.

DECIDED TO SPOIL MYSELF

To celebrate my progress, I decided to spoil myself with some pork ribs and fries just a day after settling in at school. That move was highly miscalculated. My weight sky-rocketed and in no time I was sitting pretty at 100kg plus. It didn’t help that my room was right next to a fast-food joint. I would literally make my order from across the window.

What this experience taught me was that some changes can’t be short-term. Fitness can’t be achieved by a one week diet fix. The rebound after such quick fixes is usually baffling to say the least.  For instance, I had lost two kilos in one week before joining campus. After falling off the wagon in the name of celebration, I gained five kilos by end of that week. I simply couldn’t stop chewing. The next day I was having “celebration breakfast” which paved way for “celebration lunch” then “celebration week.” Eventually, I stopped justifying my smokies sandwiched in a hot greasy mandazi. I reassured myself that I only needed one week of dieting to get back in shape. Meanwhile, the round shape I was developing was doing just fine with the familiar host.

TAKES MORE THAN A WEEK OF DIETING

In 2015, I learnt that it took more than a week of dieting to be fit and feel fabulous. My extensive research revealed that drastic weight fluctuations could not only stall my weight loss efforts but also make me ill. I had a list of timeline diets such as: the seven-day cabbage soup diet, 10-day body detox, 13-day metabolic diet and even the three-day military diet. While they did their magic, they were not sustainable. It took all the resilience I could master to not succumb to my cravings for junk.

These diets, popularly called fads, are a slippery slope. I would not advise anyone to rely on them as a long term strategy to achieve fitness. However, I realised that these diets can be useful in helping one transition to a more sustainable eating lifestyle that promotes general well-being. They help one acquire a taste for vegetables, for plain water, sugarless tea and the likes. We will be discussing what constitutes of such a diet as we move along in our journey to fitness.

It is my hope that you will not make the five mistakes I made when staring out this journey. I trust you will sip your water throughout the day as opposed to gulping it down and pressurising your poor bladder; use the tape measure alongside your weighing scale; eat enough food; not over-exercise and most importantly that you will make a lifetime commitment to this journey enjoying every step of the way.

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Fit&Fab is a new blog series by Marion Maina who lost 30kg in her weight loss journey that started two years ago and is now in pursuit of a healthy lifestyle. Do you have feedback on this story? E-mail: [email protected]