FIT&FAB: How my despair to lose weight evaporated

What you need to know:

  • Depressed, I trudged home as I contemplated on quitting. It had been an entire month of clean eating and aerobics with plenty of water in which I lost close to 15kgs.
  • I learnt about muscle build-up. Eating enough protein and vegetables and whole carbohydrates was promoting building of my body muscles. The lean muscles weigh heavier than fat.
  • Do you have feedback on this story? E-mail: [email protected]

To embark on a lifetime journey of fitness, water is undoubtedly a key part of the starter pack. I was fortunate to realise this early enough and it has made all the difference in keeping me on track.

Over the next few weeks, I will highlight some of the mistakes I made while starting out. We learn through our mistakes but the lucky ones learn through the mistakes of others.

TRIAL AND ERROR

Dear readers, it will be such an honour to save you the trouble of making some of these mistakes. What I am about to share in the coming weeks will see you enjoy every single step of your transition to a healthier and happier you. Shall we?

By my second week of dieting back in 2015, I had stepped on the weighing scale at least ten times on different occasions. I vividly recall stepping on two different scales on the same day to check if I had lost weight. Looking back now, I see how ridiculous that was. At the time though, I didn’t see anything off with my obsession with weighing scales. I would gobble down my lunch - one carrot and a cup of cabbage soup (a mistake we will address in the coming weeks) - and dash to the nearest chemist to check if my weight had dropped!

One day after a vigorous session at the gym, I passed by a local clinic to weigh myself. To my utmost horror, I had gained three kilograms. Depressed, I trudged home as I contemplated on quitting. It had been an entire month of clean eating and aerobics with plenty of water in which I lost close to 15kgs. Now the weight was coming back. It was both frustrating and puzzling at the same time.

DON’T PANIC

I turned to the internet seeking to find out why I was gaining weight despite all the effort I had put to keep it off. That is when I stumbled on information that caused all my despair to evaporate instantly.

I learnt about muscle build-up. Eating enough protein and vegetables and whole carbohydrates was promoting building of my body muscles. The lean muscles weigh heavier than fat. I vividly recall proving this to myself in butchery. One handful of lean beef balanced with almost five handfuls of animal fat!

I also found out that all those hours spent in the gym was strengthening and toning my muscles further contributing to the density that I had erroneously interpreted as weight gain. I got new resolve. The last time I weighed myself was two months ago.

From my research surfing the internet, I learnt that the more effective methods to ascertain progress would be to compare the scale readings with your body measurement. Knocking off the inches meant that my body was toning up; I was losing the fat and gaining more muscle.

Muscles allow motion, they pump blood, they regulate breathing, they allow for food digestion. Building and strengthening them made me whole and healthy In effect, I resorted to trusting the loosening of my clothes and the testimony of the tape measure. Since then, I have been winning at this fitness journey.

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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]