Happy Sunday dear friends! Happy to be a three-day old blogger now, actually doing better than I thought I would (Big smile). So while I hope I can still sustain your reading interest, we will get into the how I lost weight….by my own rules. Fashfunk redesigned her own rules… Yeah man!

After my first post, a friend of mine sent a private comment to me. He felt there were too many pictures of food on the post and it was confusing if my blog was about weight loss or how to eat good food! Sorry to all the people who got confused by the lovely looking steak and other food pictures. I put them up on purpose though, to show you guys how much I used to love food! On my way back from my friend’s wedding in Lagos today, someone said something that sounded very familiar, he said “I have no discipline at all with food. I can’t be bothered about caloric content or type of food. The only time I won’t eat something is if I don’t like the taste.” Four months ago, that could easily have been me! LOL! I love food o, I no go lie! Ice cream, Yoghurt, Cake, Mac & Cheese, Cheesecake (Yummy), Pounded yam, Fried plantain (that one very special), yam & eggs, Pizza (especially pepperoni pizza), my mum’s okra soup and ofe nsala with cat fish (heavenly), Egusi nko? I can go on and on till tomorrow. In fact one of my favourite past times is taking pictures of food…before I eat, of course! Now that I think of how I prided myself in coming from a home where we were never begged to eat or finish our food, I get hysterical with laughter! omg! Food almost killed me.

As usual, when you commence the weight loss journey, the first thing everyone tells you is that you need to go on a diet, and increase your physical activity. Everything you read (by the way, there are more than a billion online resources on how to lose weight and the types of diet) points to the need for you to change your diet, and exercise more. What they don’t tell you is how much work that actually takes. Believe me, fasting is easier than going on a real diet with the aim of actually losing weight. If you have also been guilty as I have been in the past (Old things have passed away and new things have come), sometimes your real motivation for joining that fast was more about the potential weight loss than meditation in the spirit! Can I hear somebody shout Amen? I no go lie, I embarked on some of those week-long fasts with a silent prayer that I could drop a lot of kilos in the short term. Hahahahahahaha! How ignorant I was! Even the Holy Spirit did not grant me my heart desire.

Underestimating the level of effort, time and energy it will take to reach your weight loss goals is often what leads to disappointment and the loss of motivation to continue with the weight loss program.

As easy as it may sound, losing weight is not just about Diet and Exercise. I learnt from my experience that you need more than just diet and exercise. Once you have found your motivation to lose weight, you will need to add the following ingredients:

1. Determination to lose the weight and not give up. If you believe you will succeed immediately, you are setting yourself up to fail. You acquired all that excess baggage over a long period of time, and you should give your body some time to shed all the baggage. As we will see later on, there will be times when you make almost no progress and will have to step up your game to break to the next level. You also need to recognize that everyone is different and because it took one person 1 month to drop 5kgs doesn’t mean it will happen exactly the same way for you. You have to stay determined. You require mental strength to diet and exercise effectively. But remember this one thing: if FashFunk could do it, so can you, no matter how long it takes.
2. Reduce your food exposure. If you are the type that likes to spend a lot of your time in the kitchen or in settings where you are always in contact with food, you need to reduce your exposure. The more you see it, the more your brain reacts, especially at the beginning when you have not tuned your brain away from indicating hunger every time it sees food. If every time you are at a shop or duty free, you must buy chocolates and sweets, reduce it and save your money in the process.
3. Sleep more. Sleep is actually one of the positive outcomes of weight loss and increased physical activity, but it also aids the process of losing weight. We will delve into the many benefits of exercise at a later time. It is important to get adequate sleep. Aim to get your minimum 6-7 hours of sleep everyday. Your Fitbit tracker or any other device you choose,  also tracks your sleep time. The more sleep you get, the lower your stress levels, the lesser your weight gain. You might need to cut down on some of the partying and late nights, if you really want to lose weight. Besides, increasing your physical activity puts your muscles to work and adequate sleep helps them recover quickly and increases the strength of your muscles.
4. Read extensively and do your research. This in particular really worked for me. I read a lot of materials about how to lose weight. I read a lot about the Nutritional value of different types of food, I asked my colleagues that had experience as physical trainers or with agricultural backgrounds about the right types of exercises and benefits of eating specific food stuff. In the process I learnt so much especially about some types of foods we all ate in abundance as kids, and when we grew older paid little or no attention. For instance, I only just found out in this process that ‘Aya’ (for those who grew up in the North), also known as Tiger Nuts in English, is a great tuber for weight loss. Can you imagine? Aya that we used to buy for 10 Naira and eat until our temporomandibular joints ached became one of the secret weight loss weapons. It is also starchy, so doesn’t that confound the whole cut-the-carbs theory? We will get there. I became a lover of Kunu aya instantly. Try it too.
5. Create time to exercise. Most of us have very busy schedules and can easily come up with the justification for why you can’t regularly exercise. After all, na person wey don belle full go dey run on tread mill. My dear friends, if you want to lose weight and plan to actually lose the weight, then you need to create the time for your physical activity. Doctors recommend at least 30 minutes of physical activity daily. For those of us that want to sincerely shed some weight, I recommend at least 60 mins of moderate intensity exercise. Why is it easier to make time for drinks or point-and-kill with friends than it is to make time to work out for your health? If you are the busy executive that has to work 24 hours because if you don’t work your life will end and your office will not go on, then spend some of the big dollars you are earning to install a sports machine or table tennis table in your office. Oga at the top! Whatever you do, nothing comes by wishful thinking. Plan for it, create the time, and stick to your schedule. From January, I started to make a hard stop at work by 5pm, which is the official closing time, to go for my walk/run with colleagues or attend tennis sessions at the stadium. To make this possible, I tried to attend to all work-related issues before this time so I could maintain my new schedule. I would then get back to outstanding tasks after the workout. Of course, there will be some exceptions, like late meetings or specific last minute tasks from your boss (who signs the salary cheque..hehehe), but as previously mentioned, you should aim to stick to your time schedule for the exercise.
6. Buy an infuser bottle and drink a lot of lemon water. This one is just awesome. If you can’t buy an infuser bottle, it is ok. Slice the lemon into your Thermos flask, water bottle, or even Eva bottle and carry it everywhere with you. Just try to infuse your water with lemon juice. It works really well. It makes it so much easier to drink the recommended 2 litres of water a day. Apparently, drinking water boosts your metabolism!

   

   So it is good to drink lots of water.  Please don’t add sugar, just drink lemon water. I recommend lemon water, but there are other fruits & vegetables you can use to add flavour to your water – Cucumbers, Oranges, Apples, Kiwis, Strawberries, Spinach, Carrots (Abeg, no put onions and garlic, I never try that one). Infused water also helps flush toxins from the body according to scientists and according to Fashfunk. Before I started on this journey, I don’t think I drank up to 750ml of water a day. Adding a fruit to your water bottle just takes it to a whole new level. It was not until I started doing this that I understood why the top class hotels always have lemon slices to go with your water. So why don’t you try it today and let me know how it goes.

I will stop here because it is now getting very late and I have to sleep. I need my 7 hours of sleep. Before you embark on that diet plan and exercise, please take a minute to review the above points and ensure you are prepared to work on these as well. I really look forward to hearing from my friends and readers  and if you read this post to the end, we are making progress! Good night from Abuja, folks! Enjoy your lemon-infused water!