FAT SHAMING
WAR ON FAT PHASE TWO: PART 3: MAY 2021
Most oldies (I’m 61) nostalgically cherish flattering photographs of themselves in their youths; and I am no exception.
I love to remind everyone around me that I was once super-slim (please see my favourite archive photograph below, a black-and-white portrait that was taken when I was 28 years old and about 70kg…a weight I maintained until I was about 50).
But I don’t deceive myself.
I know I can never look so dewily unblemished and mega-svelte again. But I’m still determined to look a lot better than I’ve looked since obesity started to enter my life about 10 years ago.
Ah obesity! My enemy.
The fat came slowly at first, silently creeping up on me like a thief in the night – as in a few kilos of middle-aged spread that surreptitiously deposited themselves on my stomach and hips when I wasn’t looking, but didn’t significantly alter my appearance because I’m 5 feet 10 inches tall and can get away with a bit of excess lard.
I didn’t even have to buy new clothes at that stage (early 50s).
It wasn’t until I hit my mid-50s that I made the scary transition from being moderately out-of-shape to being alarmingly obese, thanks to medication that had weight gain as a side effect. I took those wretched pills for 3 years and they changed my body and my life. OK, so what now?
I started 2021 at 123kg and dropped to 118kg in February and 116kg in March, thanks to eating less in a rather vague and unplanned way.
When I say “vague and unplanned”, I mean that I wasn’t highly focussed on the science of kilo-shedding and made no attempt to follow any particular diet or count calories and just simply reduced my sugar consumption and the amount of food on my plate.
This unremarkable modus operandi that I embraced in the first quarter of this year delivered unremarkable results as in only 2kg a month. And though the 7kg I dropped during this period didn’t make me look slimmer, I FELT slimmer and was relieved to be making steady progress; and I told y’all in last month’s column that I was going to speed things up by embracing a strict and structured diet I hoped would accelerate the lard-ditching process.
But sadly – my Dear ThisDay Style readers, please don’t despise me as much as I despise myself! – I actually gained weight in April and my bathroom scales are stuck at the 120kg mark at the moment.
So why did I lose control to that extent?
A big comfort-eating binge brought on by financial worries.
In a nutshell, someone owed me a substantial sum of money and broke a promise to pay me at a time when I had loads of big bills to pay, so I was in a tizz and ate like a madwoman to ward off the panic.
Comfort-eating is ultimately ineffective and counter-productive.
Sure, the cheesecake or egusi soup or whatever you shovel down your throat in ridiculous quantities will definitely cheer you up and soothe your sore soul when you are at rock bottom emotionally.
But you only feel better fleetingly. And when you emerge from the comfort-eating daze, you feel even worse than you did before.
Anyway, I compounded my gluttonous binge by doing hardly any exercise. But no use crying over spilled milk. Just dust yourself down, get back on track and focus on getting to where you want to be.
I will look too haggard at this advanced age if I push myself back down to my heyday weight of 70kg. I’m not even sure it is possible to ever be 70kg again! So I’m settling for a more realistic target of 85kg.
My new motto is TEN YEARS ON, SIX MONTHS OFF…meaning that I intend to shift in 6 months fat that took 10 years to accumulate.
To be more specific, I intend to shift it via exercise and intermittent and extended fasting. If you want to know more about the various fasting options and best way of starting, sustaining and finishing fasts, google Doctors Michael Moseley and/or Jason Fung.
In the meantime, according to the Healthline website, there are 8 health benefits of fasting — backed by science.
1. Aids Weight Loss by Limiting Calorie Intake and Boosting Metabolism
2. Promotes Blood Sugar Control by Reducing Insulin Resistance
Several studies have found that fasting may improve blood sugar control and be especially useful for those at risk of diabetes.
3. Promotes Better Health by Fighting Inflammation While acute inflammation is a normal immune process used to help fight off infections, chronic inflammation can have serious consequences for your health. Research shows that inflammation may be involved in the development of chronic conditions, such as heart disease, cancer and rheumatoid arthritis.
4. May Enhance Heart Health by Improving Blood Pressure, Triglycerides and Cholesterol Levels 5. May Boost Brain Function and Prevent Neurodegenerative Disorders
6. Increases Growth Hormone Secretion, Which Is Vital for Growth, Metabolism, Weight Loss and Muscle Strength
7. Could Delay Aging and Extend Longevity
8. May Aid in Cancer Prevention and Increase the Effectiveness of Chemotherapy
Having said this, fasting doesn’t suit everyone, so please check with your doctor first if you’re planning to fast for more than 24 hours or have an underlying health condition.
Finally, let me share a triumphant tale that intrigued me. I chanced upon it on the internet. It’s about an American youngster who lost 100kg and started his weight loss journey with a twoweek diet of unseasoned potatoes.
Dylan Wall weighed 192kg when he graduated high school in 2017 but decided to make a lifestyle change when he visited Austin Peay State University for New Student Day and realized he couldn’t keep up.
“During a tour of my college, I lost my group because I couldn’t keep up,”Wall explained. “I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it to my classes on time if I stayed on that course.”
“Around the same time, my sister also gave birth to my nephew,” he continued. “I didn’t want to set that example for him.”
Before slimming down, Wall ate vast amounts of mostly fast food, processed carbohydrates and meat.
To begin the transformation, Wall yearned to break his “flavor addiction.”
“I started by doing a taste bud cleanse. I ate only potatoes with no seasoning for two weeks,” he said. “It really helped with my cravings.”
The taste bud cleanse is the part of this story that interests me most. Many fat people suffer from flavour addiction and that’s my biggest problem.
But Dylan Wall has inspired me and I’m planning to spend a few days eating nothing at all (extended fasting), followed by a few days of eating nothing but one single bland boring largely or totally unflavoured food item.
I’ll tell you how this experiment went when we reconnect next month!
DONU KOGBARA IS A VANGUARD NEWSPAPER COLUMNIST.
Please feel free to share your thoughts about her weight loss journey on 0805 404 6887 or donzol2002@yahoo.co.uk