My 9 Steps To Lose Weight

In my previous video, I spoke about my lifelong struggle with being overweight, and about changing my weight pattern, after many years, finally getting a better grip on my weight. How did I manage to do that? What did I do differently this time?

The video story (if you prefer to read the story, please continue below the video):

Twenty-two years back, I did not have that many kilograms overweight. I just wanted to be a bit more fit and better looking. I decided on a Hayes diet, which was quite successful. I quickly reached my target weight. And that was more or less all I did. I won the battle, and that was it.

My second major attempt dates seventeen years back. At that time, I already had many more kilograms. It was the first time I tried to do something more – I followed the Montignac diet, eating carbohydrates only for breakfast and not mixing them with fats and proteins. All my meals were prepared at home. And I introduced a control step; I weighed myself every day. I reached my target weight but slowly drifted into the old routines. I tried to stick to the diet for a few more months but finally gave up.

My third attempt, fourteen years ago, was identical to the second one. Maybe I followed a diet a bit less strictly; therefore, it was not really successful. It was the first time I did not reach a target weight.

And then my last attempt came seven years ago. A lot has happened in the meantime, and I knew I would have to do more to succeed. I decided on a more comprehensive approach, strengthening things that I already did in the past and, on the other hand, adding a new topic to my routine – sports. It doesn’t mean that I did not do sports before, but this time I started to do it in a planned way.

I have based my new approach on three pillars: Nutrition, Sports and Control, where each of them contained multiple decisions and actions.

Nutrition:

• Step 1: Low carbohydrates consumption; avoid mixing them with proteins and fat
• Step 2: Preparing all food on my own
• Step 3: Menu planning – a key enabler of steps 1 and 2
• Step 4: No more beer

Sports:

• Step 5: Engage a personal trainer
• Step 6: Regular exercises (1x a week, 2x a week, daily, etc.)

Control:

• Step 7: Daily weighing
• Step 8: Health monitoring
• Step 9: Activity tracker

The first year was easy, I enjoyed everything I was doing, and immediate success motivated me to continue. But later, after reaching the target weight, it became more challenging; however, I still stick to it. I have practiced this approach now for seven years. I fell many times, but I always stood up and kept going. With some steps, I never failed – eg. I haven’t missed a single entry into the activity tracker and I prepared a weekly menu plan each week. On the other hand, I once ceased to weigh myself for a few months.

However, looking retrospectively, I did at least a few steps every day in the last seven years. There have been better and worse days, but I never gave up.

In the upcoming posts, I will go into more detail on each step, describing what I do, how I do it, and how difficult it is for me.