My Own Personal Experiences with Losing Weight

Yes, I have lost weight, and yes, I am immensely proud of myself for losing that weight. And if I tell other people how I managed to lose this weight, will I be able to help other people do the same thing? Well, that would be a great thing if I did!

But losing weight is a personal thing, and losing weight isn’t an easy thing to do, necessarily, especially for busy people who don’t have the time to investigate the truth of the calories they are consuming. Just a slight ‘mistake’ in thinking you’re eating something healthy, so not realizing how many kilograms of fat you’re piling on, can be the trouble.

‘Healthy food’ can mean many things, and putting ‘healthy’ on the box of a food product doesn’t necessarily make it healthy for everyone. And those serving sizes on those boxes, well, I am a short woman with quite low calorific needs, so if I ate the calories of a 'serve,’ then I would be consuming enough calories for a medium height man, and wow, I sure don’t need to eat that much!

Once I thought about these things, my method to lose weight became clearer, and I am happy to be eating the correct amount of food and the correct types of food too. Vegetables (lots—raw is good), some fruit, some dairy, some nuts, a little meat. And grains too (I’m loving oats, rolled oats, every morning for breakfast—just a little in milk and warmed up in the microwave; yum).

Well, not really yum, as such, but because I’m not adding anything except milk to the oats, I am getting an interesting ‘oaty’ flavor, which I’m appreciating more and more. My breakfast is just that: rolled oats and milk. Served with a cup of coffee, no sugar, with milk. I don’t need a big breakfast; I don’t have a full day of running around shopping, commuting, or anything else, beyond maybe walking the dog a kilometer or so or going to a meeting once a week.

My life is a scaled-back one, so my diet is also a scaled-back one, and I am so close to being my ideal weight! All I need to lose to be at my optimal weight is one kilogram; no, make that 900 grams. When I weighed myself today, I weighed 51.4 kilograms. My ideal weight for my height is 50.5 kilograms.

My ultimate aim is to weigh between 50.0 and 50.5 kilograms. I’ve been at that weight before, after dieting, but let my attention slip and put some weight back on. But now my method isn’t a diet; what I am doing is changing my lifestyle and being more mindful of what I do. This is in regard to what I eat, but also in more all-encompassing ways.

I’ve taken on a more Stoic attitude to life and am thinking more deeply about what I do, who I am, and, more than that, who I most want to be and do. Stuffing myself with unneeded food is definitely not something I want. I like to eat tasty food for sure, but I realize now the benefits of tasting small amounts and eating them slowly to truly think on the flavor and better appreciate what I am eating.

I can spend quite a few minutes eating a 30-gram piece of chocolate, which is something I eat almost every day as my 'dessert.' And I am content with that, because this small bit of chocolate isn’t a cheap thing; it is good chocolate, dark chocolate often, and I can savor that chocolate, knowing the dark chocolate is doing good things for my body!

Eating the foods that are good for your body and consuming the food mindfully, considering each item, perhaps even growing some of it in my garden, these good and ‘slow’ things bring me joy, knowing I am not overconsuming and that I am valuing what I have.

And the fact that I am now looking slim and trim, well, who wouldn’t want that! Good food and not too much of it, that is the secret to my weight loss story, and the truth is that no one has to spend a lot of money to lose weight if they follow my path too.

In addition, if you have a Greyhound that goes for a walk on a regular basis, this will be of much greater assistance to you in your efforts to become the slender and trim person that you want to be as well. Even my dog, Lenny, is quite trim and slender.