Before the year ends, I wanted to celebrate a small win I had for this year - My Weight Loss Journey 2022! Sharing this here on Hive means that I can always come back and read this sometime in the future to remind me that I've once done it and so I can do it again if I ever found myself at 60kg again.
This won't be a blog about telling you tips or techniques that will help you lose some weight nor will this be a good feel story to impress you about how "sexy" I look now. This will be about my journey - the challenges I met, the small habits that helped me, and the results and outcomes I gained.
September 2021
To be honest, I don't know where to start however I could remember that every time I step on the weighing scale, the numbers would always range from 58kg - 60kg back in 2021. Despite resigning from the corporate world, ditching the stress eating habits, going on freediving adventures, and taking dancing lessons - the numbers didn't go down. Until I took up Boxing lessons at the recommendation of my dance classmate. And after four months of training - I lose weight - but only about 1 kg! 😂
I didn't get sad or depressed that nothing happened. I was happy I put in the effort and started getting active again. During this time, I wasn't obsessed with losing weight but my awareness was looming in the back of my mind. I was conscious that my weight wasn't healthy based on the ideal BMI for a 5-foot woman like me. I was overweight at 59.50 kgs or 131.175 lbs.
I think it was in the ber months of 2021 that I slowly introduced - salads and fruit shake into my diet. I started with a simple recipe taught by discoveringarni - cucumber, apple, tomatoes, and a splash of Italian dressing. After which I slowly mixed in some iceberg lettuce, nuts, eggs, and other fruits. This I also shared with my parents which they also adapted later on as they were also on a health journey like me (Dad was diabetic).
Around February 2022, my weight hasn't significantly dropped. In fact, it reached a whopping 60 kg or 132.27 lbs. 😆 I guess it was due to the fact, I stopped doing physical activities - boxing and yoga and still loved eating rice, meat and sugar (all those milkteas!). I started dancing again but only at home. I liked how I was sweating a lot that I unconsciously forced my body to do more than it should which then resulted in an injury - a knee sprain. My knee couldn't anymore support the weight that I had.
Was always wearing my knee support where ever I go
Despite all this, I wasn't discouraged that I would never be able to pull those numbers down. Looking back, I'm glad I wasn't that obsessed with "losing weight" because if I were then I would be so self-critical and end up hating myself so much.
However, around March 2022, I turned my world upside down and embraced a new way of living. While my parents were relocating to a new apartment within the city, I decided to move out and take residence at our humble home near the beach here in San Remigio, Cebu - just a 4-hour drive away from them, away from an old life that I've already outgrown. The Universe seems to support me in ways I never could have expected. From this point on, my weight dropped drastically!
So what changed? A lot!
But let's tackle the important ones that helped me lose 10 kg or 22 lbs.
Eating Healthy Food Raw Organic Vegetables & Fruits.
Have I gone vegan? The answer is No! 😄 But I've ditched rice as my main staple food and replaced it with a hearty big salad! A big bowl filled with fresh vegetables & fruits! Living on my own forced me to do my meal prepping including going to the local wet market to shop for my food supplies!
Though I have a rice cooker here, I never took it out of its box. I still get to eat rice though (occasionally and minimally) paired with fish when I have dinner with my grandparents who just lives right next to our hut. And I still eat 8 pcs of Siomai paired with 2 hanging rice as my dinner from time to time. (Siomai is life!) But the main gist is that 95% of what I eat is raw, organic, and fresh. Removing carbs, meat, and sugar from my diet was a huge factor.
Intermittent Fasting
I know when people read or hear the words - Intermittent Fasting - most would immediately whine "That's hard for me to do" and it's true as most of us were programmed to eat 5-6 meals a day! I grew up having 1 - breakfast, 2 - morning snacks, 3 - lunch, 4 - afternoon snacks, 5 - dinner, and 6 - an occasional midnight snacks! 😆 thought this way of eating was "okay" for the rest of our lives perhaps for others but certainly not for me.
Now, I don't want to go into a long explanation about what Intermittent Fasting is all about, the pros and cons, the benefits, blah blah blah... so these simple yet informative videos of a certain Dr. Berg explaining all about it which I and my dad got hook right away, enjoy watching and learned a lot from might pique your interest and change your perspective.
I didn't right away follow everything he says on what and how to do IF but I slowly and gradually adapted to eating only 2-3 meals a day at a given time frame. In the mornings I would just have my dark, French-pressed coffee. I would have my big hearty salads for lunch and would take it around 1:00 - 2:00 pm. Then I would have my fruit shakes paired with sweet potatoes or eggs as my dinner around 6:00 - 7:00 pm. From that time until 11:00 - 1:00 pm the next day, I make sure not to eat any solid food so my stomach can have 16 - 18 hours of fasting.
This is now my standard eating pattern and it worked for me. Now what works for me will not work for you or others. What I do recommend if you will ask is to explore other food options or eating habits that might be beneficial for your health journey besides what you unconsciously have done throughout your life and slowly introduced it to your routine.
Swimming & Yoga
I'm a person that needs an outlet for my overflowing energy. I'm just born that way and so I need to do physical activities that get me moving. Since I've temporarily stopped dancing due to my knee sprain - I've resorted to swimming which comes naturally since I live across the beach and I used to be a varsity swimmer. Swimming was also advised by my Orthopedic doctor as the one sport that won't put weight on my knees.
I wouldn't say I was consistent with swimming because I would have to rely on the schedule of tides but normally when it's high tide season, I would get to swim 3-4 times a week.
However, yoga is my ultimate form of energy movement. I can't say it's just an exercise. From asanas (postures) to pranayamas (breath control), to Dhyara (meditation) - it is so much more. I stumbled on a certain yoginimelbourne where her instructional yoga videos are simple yet so amazing which I do 4-5 times a week when I'm staying here at our beach home.
Losing Weight was never my biggest WHY
Yes, you read it right - Losing weight was NEVER the main goal because if it were I would have brought with me here my weighing scale and got obsessed with checking my numbers every day! I would probably go insane by now or have gotten depressed if I hadn't reached my target weight. I didn't want to lose weight for the looks, for the approval, or because of society's distorted way of beauty.
Losing Weight was but a by-product of all those things I mentioned above. My biggest why had been and was always been - TO HEAL MY BODY SO I CAN DANCE AGAIN. I was told by my Osteo doctor that I must temporarily stop my dancing to let my knee heal. (I danced from time to time but I was wearing knee support 😜) He mentioned it would take months or even years for a knee sprain to recuperate! And the thought of not dancing for that long just doesn't sit well with me as I feel joyful when I dance.
And so to heal my knee, I had to deal with what caused the injury in the first place which goes back to my weight. But instead of losing weight as my target goal - I changed it to a less critical one - TO HAVE A HEALTHIER & STRONGER BODY. In this way, it didn't sound so demanding to me. I didn't even set up a time frame to reach this certain weight in a certain month. All I wanted was to get healthier and stronger as soon as possible so I can go back to the dance floor asap! 😆 And perhaps that did the trick for my critical mind. No badmouthing, no shaming, and no guilt-tripping for myself. (I am my own worst enemy.)
Kizomba Workshop - Early 2022
Dance Rehearsals - August 2022
Dance Performance - August 2022
Happy at 50 kg and dancing!
Last September 2022, I stepped on the scale and reached 51 kg or 112.54 lbs and I was already more than satisfied with where I was. Two months past since then. I didn't get the chance to visit my family in the city so I wasn't able to check my weight again but I maintained my level of health and fitness perhaps adding in some abs/core workout from madfit before my yoga practice.
Alas! November 2022 came and an out-of-the-blue impulsive decision to join a dance event in Boracay was made by me and my dance teacher. 😆 Besides my worries regarding my knee (because it was still hurting), I had other bodily pains that bothered me at that point so I decided to visit a 3rd Chiropractic Doctor (probably the best) stationed next town. After that visit, I made progress with my posture, movement, and flexibility. I asked him if I can dance again and was just told that I know my body well so it is up to me.
I came home on the 21st and the moment of truth arrived. I stepped on the weighing scale and the numbers showed ...
I took a step back and smiled triumphantly. Not only did I exceed my zero expectations of losing weight but I gained so much more - discipline, clear thinking, focus, a lighter and stronger body, respect, and love for myself. However, if there was one lesson that I would emphasize here is that - Listen to your body. Our body is an intelligent being that signals you that something is not in alignment with your wholeness and wellness.
Was I able to dance once again without any knee support? Hell, yeah! I had so much fun dancing during the Boracay Latin Dance Vacation event but I'll tell you more about this at another time because it's already 2000+ words... 
If you made it this far, I don't expect you to get motivated or inspired to lose weight too but just wanted to let you know though that it is possible. I probably shouldn't even call this a weight loss journey but should have been MY JOURNEY TO A HEALTHIER & HAPPIER ME 2022.
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