I woke up this morning, jumped on the scales, yet again and to my annoyance I still did not lose weight.  AGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!  Why, oh why, does this blasted weight not shift?

Yesterday, I went for a walk/jog, took in over 9,000 steps, carefully tracked what I ate yesterday with my trusty LifeSum app which said I consumed 1,600 calories and had 200 left to consume.  I ditched the coffee yesterday and replaced it with water and two cups of black tea with a splash of milk (yes, I’m British!).

Making life easier

Today’s technology is supposed to help us with our weight loss.  It would seem like it can also become our enemy.  Especially when these apps are meant to help you track your calories with ease and make you more aware of what you put into your pie hole.  Instead, it feels like it betrays you with the results of what the scales reveal the following day.

Losing weight, they say, is supposed to be easy.  Yes, we all know that consuming less and getting more activity will help you lose weight.  We don’t need to be patronised with this comment.  We need answers and real solutions when things don’t go according to plan.

Historically, before I turned 50, losing weight was not a big problem.  Okay, I admit I am one of those people who has always struggled with their weight ever since high school.  It was hard enough to try and just get through school; add all those hormones flying around, and you end of with a volatile cocktail of emotions ready to blow any moment should you gain weight.  Add all the judgements from your peers and it’s enough to create a lifetime of self-loathing.  However, it doesn’t have to be this way, nor should it.

Love and acceptance

Over the years, I have grown to love and accept myself for who I am.  Now I’m not saying it doesn’t matter about what I eat and just throw out all the advice given about eating.  Your health is very important.  I have discovered this in the last 6 years, which is roughly when I stopped exercising consistently.  As a result of not making exercise a priority in my daily routine, my body was going to let me know about this.  Oh boy, did it ever!!  It came out in the form of not being able to consistently jog for ½ hr like I used to with no problems.  This time, I was listening to my body loud and clear!  It was telling me – you need to STOP because I cannot breathe! – it was a little frightening to say the least.

Lean into it. 

I started to take it easy and not beat myself up because I couldn’t exercise like I used to.  So, I started to just take baby steps with whatever was going on with my body.  When I went to see the doctor, they just put it down to asthma.  My intuition was telling me that was not it.  Low and behold, once I gradually started building my fitness level up, I knew that I did not have asthma.  I found the visit to the doctors a little unsettling in that they were happy to make a judgement of my condition without asking many questions or to conduct a test to simulate my running conditions so they could see for themselves what was wrong. 

Doctors have their place, but I have found you need to be your own advocate when it comes to your health and trust your instincts.  My new journey began in the form of walking more than jogging and then gradually building up to jogging like I used to.  The difference now is – it takes me a little longer than it used to.  Sheer self-discipline and will keeps me going to achieve my goal of jogging again!

Food feels good

As for the food, well I’m not gonna lie I love it! Apart from liver!  My father said I would grow to like it – he was wrong!  I think it is the whole package of the smell, taste and texture that really puts me off.  However, I do like liver pate.  Go figure!  I have discovered over these past few months that I do eat for comfort. 

This time I have made a conscious decision to be more aware of they kinds of food I am putting into me.  They’re not kidding when they say ‘you are what you eat’.  I don’t know about you, but I can feel it in my body and not in a good way when I’ve binged on cookies or “Costco Crack” (better known as G.H. Cretors Chicago Mix Popped Corn).  My skin starts to hurt, I feel heavy and sluggish.  This type of eating became a vicious cycle of instant feel good factor, but then feeling really awful inside and out as a result of eating junk.

As a result of all this yo-yo eating, I got really fed up of living this way.  I had a talk to myself and said “you’re better than this, you don’t need the junk”.  Plus with my body leaving me clues like not being able to breathe when I jog, I knew it was time to put this right.  Start living up to my full potential both inside and out!

What’s your secret?

What am I doing about my new eating habits, I hear you say?  Well, I am using my trusty app Lifesum to track my daily intake of food.  What I love about this app is you can create a plan to suit your lifestyle and what you like.  I like to track my protein and this program gives me the amount of protein I consume every day, along with the amount of carbs and fat I am consuming. 

Every day is an opportunity to try again!  When I find the scales may not have budged, I look at the previous days exercise and food to see what I can adjust today to get back on track.  What I have found is if I stick to the recommended number of calories in the range they have set, I will lose weight.  Which is my goal now. 

What’s great about all this detailed tracking is you can keep an eye on the important numbers like visceral fat, subcutaneous fat and metabolic age.  All of it is important to educate yourself as to what is going on inside your body.  Is it 100% accurate?  I’m not sure about that, I am not a health expert, all I know is when I lose weight and the important numbers in my fat and metabolic age go down, I do notice a difference inside and out.  Which is why I can confidently recommend tracking more than just your weight.  But of course, seek medical advice if you have any concerns.

I also use VeSyncfit.  It is an app that you connect to your scales.  These are not just any ordinary scales, but next level scales, that don’t necessarily cost and arm and a leg.  Besides you and your health are very worth it.  VeSyncFit monitors 12 Essential Measurements: Weight, Body Fat, Body Water, Muscle Mass, Bone Mass, Protein, BMR, Metabolic Age, Visceral Fat, Subcutaneous Fat, Fat-Free Body Weight, and BMI.  At the time of writing this, there may be an even better model out there that does more than the model we have.

Disclaimer: I am not an affiliate of Lifesum or VeSyncFit and I do not receive any money for recommending these products. I just like them so much because they have helped me achieve my weightloss goal. I wanted to share them with you as a suggestion.

What now?

As I continue on my journey to become healthy, I welcome you to join me on this journey and share with me below what you have found works for you and how you manage to lose weight and feel good about yourself!  I encourage you to look at using technology to work with you on your journey. 

Let me know how you get on! You’re worth it!!