As written for SophistiCareer: http://sophisticareer.com.au/half-the-woman-i-was-how-i-lost-70kg-naturally/
I recently serendipitously crossed paths with a woman who was the physical mirror image of who I used to be. The likeness shocked me so much that it made me stop and retrace the steps of my own weight loss journey and start asking some rather ‘big’ questions.
Of a similar age and with similar looks this woman had an oversized pear shaped body, just like I used to have – with giant upside down tree trunks for legs. Squeezed into a pair of poorly designed white trousers I estimated she weighed about the same as I had – 143 kg, give or take a few kilos. She’d made a futile attempt to cover up her large frame with an oversized shirt, a clothing staple of my own former wardrobe. I wondered if I used to look as big. My historical photographic evidence proves that I did.
I mentally compared my now slender frame against hers as I walked past her, trying not to stare. My old overweight frame shed more than seven years ago now seemed a distant memory. But this visual event had jolted me. The truth be told I had an almost overwhelming urge to run and give her a copy of my book, to help her ‘see the light’ and give her the answer. But I knew that if I did talk to her, that if I broached the subject, it could possibly be very painful for her. When you are that large the protection mechanisms are so overpowering that the interaction could have turned out very badly for her, and for me.
This retrospective on my life and temporary reconnection with the pain of being obese got me thinking about the changes I had made in my life in order to achieve such a startling life transformation. I started to wonder what was it that made this lady the size she was. I questioned why I’d been able to overcome my barriers to weight loss, and more intriguingly why she had not.
Diet is a Four Letter Word
The first step, on reflection, was that I had to get the right knowledge base into my head – I had to get my mind right. As a large child growing up into an even larger adult I wasn’t given the depth and breadth of knowledge about food that I believe every child should learn at school. And unfortunately most parents don’t know this information either and so sadly we’re turning into a society of large adults breeding very large kids.
I had to learn about food composition – carbohydrates, proteins, fats, salts, fibre. And I delved deeper: What is the difference between a simple carb, a complex carb, and the different between sugars? What makes a good fat bad? What fats are essential every day? How much sodium is okay and what’s the effect of having too much, or too little in my diet? How much is enough protein? What type of protein is best? What are the types of fibre? Was I was eating the right type and quantity to help prevent disease and to help me feel fuller, longer?
I delved further still learning about calorie density: A 60g Mars® Bar has 277 calories – the same as 2.3 kilograms of celery, which I couldn’t possibly eat. That same bar contains 42.2g of carbohydrates, 34.5g of which is pure sugar but I’d have to eat more than 5 times the amount of apple, over 300g, to achieve the same carbohydrate and sugar result, (except the sugar in fruit is healthier fructose and not sucrose). And that same bar contains zero fibre and a lousy 2.2g of protein, the same as a measly 8.5g of chicken meat. And that bar contains a whopping 6g of saturated fat – I’d have to eat three times the amount of chicken meat, over 180grams, to achieve that fat level.
And just as important I had to retrain myself into appropriate portion sizes, as over time I had taught myself to eat bigger and bigger meals. Understanding these differences and learning what the right food choices were was a huge paradigm shift for me. It was my first step to weight loss in getting the education to know the right choices, and then having the courage to make them that started my transformation. But it was my next step that was going to be an even bigger challenge.
Read about Sigrid’s second step to her amazing weight loss transformation in Part 2 of “How I Lost 70kg Naturally” coming soon.