With a BMI of 40.2 I was labelled morbidly obese.
When you fit into that kinda category you obviously haven’t been ‘living healthy’ and trying to make a change to a healthy lifestyle is pretty bloody hard.
But, it’s not impossible! I’m going to show you how to start losing weight and give you the tools to transform your life.
How I went from fat to fit
Straight up, this will be a marathon, not a sprint. There’s no quick way back from obesity and anyone telling you otherwise is not being honest with you!
There’s roughly 1 million and 47 gorgeous looking personal trainers online that will sell you a 12 week body transformation programme, but I promise you that’s not the best place to start!
I’m not sayin their programmes don’t work. Kayla Itsines has a whole section of her website dedicated to her customers body transformations. That’s cool. That’s really cool! For $69.97 you can earn your bikini body in 12 weeks or less!
But really, are you ready for Bosu Burpees, or Straight Leg Jackknifes?! Again, I’m not saying these workouts don’t work. It’s just that doing them when you’re carrying a lot of extra weight and not used to exercising is a recipe for disaster. It could be a fast track to an injury, or end with you saying “fuck this, I hate it and I’m done”.
I know how that feels, it’s awful, you feel ashamed and left wondering why you even bothered to try.
Keep in mind, that these 12 week style programmes are designed for people who are just a few kg’s overweight and have a reasonable level of fitness. It’s much easier for these people to push through the burn and get results. When you’re 40, 50, 60kg overweight these exercises aren’t just uncomfortable, they’re painful and potentially dangerous.
The first time I set out on this mission to lose weight and get healthy, there wasn’t a chance in hell I was going to be sporting a bikini after 12 weeks! One. I’m a guy and I’m not in the habit of wearing bikinis! Two. It took me approximately 11 weeks less than 12 to figure out I hated running, AND every other exercise that had been recommended to me! Three. I was obese! A 12 week body transformation would be asking way, WAAAAY too much of me.
How do I get Started?
Step 1
Repeat after me:
“It’s not gonna happen in 12 weeks.
BUT SO WHAT?! IT TAKES AS LONG AS IT TAKES”.
Most “experts” will tell you that you need to eat less and do more. Adopt a low calorie diet and do at least 30 minutes of physical activity everyday and you’ll lose weight. Just like that!
I don’t need to tell you that this advice is missing a few vital ingredients, such as an actual plan. Not to mention you’re being asked to make massive changes to your lifestyle in one giant leap. Big sweeping changes don’t work. I tried and it’s too hard!
Step 2
Let’s start by proving to yourself that you can change.
Stay with me here, coz this is important.
I want you to focus on making two tiny little changes to your daily habits. That’s it, just two. One will be a food goal and one will be an exercise goal. Now don’t freak out. When I say tiny changes I really do mean tiny. I want you to start out by making two changes to your lifestyle that are so small you barely even notice.
I know what you’re thinking- “How can changes I don’t even notice make a difference? ” Maybe it sounds too easy. Well, that’s the point!
I want you to succeed. I want you to avoid the biggest mistake I made when I first attempted to lose weight and failed.
I call it the fantasy gap. I hear ya ” WTF is the fantasy gap?! ”
It’s the gap between where you are right now, and where you want to be. If that gap is too big, it’s almost impossible to see the path that’ll get you there. What happens? You fantasise about what you want, but never focus on how you’re gonna get there. It’s way too easy to get overwhelmed by a task that seems just too big.
So here’s how I want you to start: Pick 2 REALLY small things this month, and ONLY work on those.
Make one about food and one about exercise. I started by taking one sugar out of my coffees every day. That was my food goal. My exercise goal was to get off the bus two stops early and walk the rest of the way home everyday after work. That’s it! That’s the change that put me on the path to losing 60kg.
I want you to do the same. Look for one really small food habit that you know is unhealthy and change it, and add a really small amount of exercise to your daily routine. Remember, these changes should be so small you barely notice them. This is about changing habits.
I don’t want you to focus on a goal weight, or running 5km in 3 months, or anything like that, and I don’t want you to feel like you’re missing out on the things you love.
I encourage you not to wrap big numbers and deadlines around your goals. It’s just not helpful. It’s way too easy to get overwhelmed by a task that seems too big.
What do tiny food changes look like?
- Maybe you have a can of Coke every afternoon at work? Swich it out for a Coke Zero
- Do you buy a small bag of lollies to eat at your desk most days? Change that to dried fruit
- Do you have 2 sugars in your coffee every day? Knock it back to 1
I know it doesn’t feel like much, but this is first to step towards building new, healthier habits. When I look back on my own weight loss and fitness mission, the biggest lesson I’ve learned is that small changes add up to big results. Big sweeping changes aren’t sustainable and usually result in short term success and long term failure.
Living healthy isn’t something you just wake up and do one day. It’s a learned skill, it’s a series of habits that eventually all come together for a healthy lifestyle. Over time you learn more and get better at it.
Do you remember learning to ride a bike? Unless you were some kind-of bike riding prodigy I’m guessing you didn’t just pick the thing up and take off, right? You might have had training-wheels and most likely had the help of your Mum & Dad for a while. Eventually the training-wheels come off and you’re away, you move on to bigger and better bikes and eventually you’re riding no-hands.
Healthy living is the same deal, it takes practice but eventually you nail it!
What do tiny exercise changes look like?
- Do you catch the bus? Jump off a couple of stops early
- Do you drive to work? Park a little further away
- Do you have stairs at work? Ditch the lift a couple of times everyday
If you’re battling with your weight and you’re more than a little overweight, exercising can be one of the biggest hurdles to overcome. Where do you start? What exercises do you do and how often? How do you know it’s working?
My advice? Forget all the questions and simply start by walking. Don’t focus on results. Remember the fantasy gap? Stop thinking about results and focus on what you’re doing today. We start by building new habits. Find a way to build a few minutes walking into your day, everyday. A lot of fitness “experts” and “trainers” will tell you you can’t lose weight by walking. That’s bullshit!
Walking is the single-best way to start exercising.
When I first set out on this adventure I thought I had to become a runner. I tried it, I hated it and I quit. It wasn’t until I started walking that I realised I COULD enjoy exercising. It’s also important to know that over time, as you become fitter, stronger and start to see results, you’ll want to do more and more and push yourself harder. Today, I am a runner, but I had to learn to be a runner!
Still got some doubts? Here’s what happened for me:
MONTH 1:
MONTH 2:
MONTH 3:
The Results:
I’d consumed approximately 9,900 calories less than I did in the previous 3 months and I’d walked 66km more. By making barely noticable changes to my daily lifestyle I lost 12kg. The point is, small changes add up to big results.
If the progression in months 2 and 3 scares you, don’t worry about it. You’ll be amazed at how quickly your body adapts to small amounts of regular exercise.
Don’t push yourself too hard, too early though. When you’re just starting out you really don’t want to ‘feel the burn’. You gotta build up to that. Over time you’ll get more and more comfortable with this.
When it starts to feel easy, walk a bit further, or walk a bit faster. I started timing myself, everyday trying to get home just a little bit faster than the day before.
Let’s Recap:
- Don’t buy into the ’12 Week Body Transformation’ trap
- Stop focusing on where you want to be and focus on what you can do today
- Start with really small changes and don’t deprive yourself of the things you love
- Living healthy is a learned skill, it doesn’t happen overnight
- Walking is your best starting point for exercise
A few words on motivation
A lot of people will tell you that you really oughta have someone to exercise with, ya know a ‘workout partner’. There’s roughly 26,700,000 web pages that tell you why you do need a workout partner. I’m going tell you why you don’t.
If you think about it there’s a few good reasons fitness professionals will recommend a workout partner. If they can reinforce the idea that support and external motivation equals success, you’ll be much more likely to buy gym memberships, workout DVD’s and 12 week programmes.
‘Workout partners’ are cool but they’re also a trap.
Exercising with others is cool, but don’t let it be the only time you see any physical activity. Don’t rely on other people to be your motivation. If you are lucky enough to have someone you can exercise with, treat it like a bonus workout. Circumstances change and life happens. You don’t control that. You don’t control that in your own life, so you have bugger-all chance of controlling it in someone elses. Make sure you’re responsible for getting the exercise you need, make it part of your daily lifestyle. If exercising is part of your daily routine, like walking to work, you won’t have to be worried about finding motivation.
Over the last two years my walking has evolved from 6oom after work everyday to walking all the way to-and-from work everyday. In two years, that 600m has progressively turned into 9km per day.
In that time I’ve seen a lot of people, I’ve chatted with a few and said “heya”, or “morning” to dozens of folk. There are three, or four people I see nearly everyday, these people inspire me. These are real people, just like you and I.
They don’t do leg lunges in a bikini at the beach before knocking back a kale and ginger detox smoothie and posting the whole experience on Facebook.
They have jobs, responsibilities, ya know, real-life shit. They are all very, very different but they all have a few things in common. They’re fit, and look to be in great health. They each walk on their own, and they’re consistent, THEY WALK EVERYDAY.
People that I see walking in groups, or with a partner are inconsistent. I see them most days for a week, then just once a week, then nothing for a couple of months. I never see any of these people from a group walking on their own.
The lesson here is that it’s too easy to let your exercise goals rest on the availability and willingness of others.
The biggest motivator is seeing results and witnessing a change in yourself.
When you nail these tiny changes in your daily habits the whole process starts to become addictive. You start to see results and you see yourself changing. You want to do better and you strive to do more. You are inherently motivated!
Track your progress
Looking back at your fitness data can be a great reminder that actually, YOU’RE AWESOME!
Finally I recommend tracking your progress. Now I’m not talking about keeping an exercise and food journal or anything like that, but there’s something to be said for looking back and celebrating your success and looking at how far you’ve come. Apps like RunKeeper are choice for giving you a different view of your activity and reinforcing the new, healthier habits you’ve developed.
Technology can give you feedback that looking in the mirror, or standing on the scales can’t show you. It can also highlight gaps in your routine and give you clues as to why something isn’t working.
On top of this, there are times when your head will betray you, there will be times when you think you’re just not getting anywhere. Looking back at your fitness data can be a great reminder that actually, you’re awesome.
You’re in total control of your choices- no-one else. You don’t answer to the latest bullshit diet, or some gorgeous online trainer selling you their lifestyle through a 12 week programme. Start small and look for the easy wins, avoid big sweeping changes. As you get better, do better.
What you did yesterday can’t be changed, but what you do today is entirely up to you.
What’s one change you plan to make? Let me know in the comments below.
-Shane
image credit: DonJinTX, El Scrapeo, Katerine Lim
My change is the walking and black coffee 🙂 Great website by the way woop woop go you!! How did you deal with all the hype around paleo and crossfit, getting a little sick of people who don’t have real lives and spend all day talking about food and excersie on facebook, chuck in some serious responsibilities at work, a kid with ADHD, and marriage just about dead.. good luck with your paleo and crossfit posts !! (trying to not appear evil)
Cheers 🙂
Hi Ainslee. Thanks, and nice work with the walking and black coffee! I’m over all the paleo and crossfit posting too. I don’t do paleo or crossfit. I like waaaay too much food to go paleo and I don’t have nearly enough time to go to the gym (crossfit, or not). Don’t these people have anything else to do?! Lot’s of people ask me if I’m on a paleo diet, which I always find weird…it’s like people think it’s the only way to lose weight and be healthy now. I will be writing about the paleo diet soon, but it’ll be more of a “why you don’t need to go paleo to get healthy” kinda post.
Amen to that man! I am so sick of posers who are into any and all fads that come along -thank you for keeping it real.
I have a similar weight loss journey that I am at the start of- currently 110kg but have lost 6 kilos in the last 6 weeks with change in diet and walking.
Cheers 🙂
6kg is awesome! Good luck with the rest of your mission. Keep in touch, I’d love to keep up to date with how you’re going.
Great website! I also started at 127kgs and was deemed morbidly obese 🙁 I tried everything!! Stupid weight watchers and Jenny Craig and stone age diet. Four months I go I decided to get back to the gym (which I used to regularly attend with little to no results), and instead of killing myself, I just stretched and walking/little jogging on the treadmill. I also decided to try and cut my sugar in my coffee and calorie count and start eating breakfast again. I have lost 18kg!! I know I am still fat, and have 24-34kgs left to go, but knowing I have finally found something that is working for now, and there is so much support out there! I will enjoy following your site and getting tips to bust that final 24-34kg 🙂
Wow, that’s awesome, big ups to you Caro! Finding something that finally works and seeing results was the biggest motivator for me, that and starting to fit into the kinda clothes I’d always wanted to buy! As far as tips go, I just started making my walks harder and harder, adding some hills (Wellington is good like that) and trying to beat my previous times. I also added some really light weight workouts like this -> simple strength training plan.
I got a set of circumstances that I am sure are not unique but they combine to make this a lot harder.
No success stories here, I am over 130kg’s and 10kg of that is within the last year.
Lets start with walking, are these reasons or excuses? I can’t tell any more.
Very busy work area means parking anywhere other than my allocated park is impossible within a 5k+ radius, do not have time to go for a walk when home and I find it boring and pointless walking in a circle.
Advice?
Hi Paul,
I get it. Reason or excuse? You need to answer that. I was a master at finding reasons why I couldn’t. Interestingly though, the fitter I got, the more time I could find, and I have less time than ever now.
What about your lunch and tea breaks? Got time for a 10 minute walk? Got stairs at work? Hit those a few times throughout the day. Or when you’re at home, try strength based exercises like this: Really Simple Exercise Plan to Lose Weight. Walking just worked for me, but it’s not the only way. It takes as long as it takes, but keep trying until you find something that works for you.
You can lose weight without exercise too, take an honest look at your diet. Try out an app like MyFitnessPal and log EVERYTHING. It’ll give you a really good picture of what you’re eating and you can see what you ought to cut back on. Start out by finding those little things that you won’t miss too much. What you eat is 80% of the battle.
This blog is great! I have 30kg to lose and one of the hardest things for me has been accepting that it’s a long term change. Not a 12 week miracle. My changes have been lunch time walks and quitting smoking/no booze (latter two not so small, but needed!). In the last six weeks this has equalled about 5kgs in weight loss, and a massive difference in fitness and overall body tone.
The biggest problem I’m facing are the sugar cravings. Any tips on those aside from eating fruit?
Hi KJ, thanks for the kind words. Well done on the weight loss and the quitting smoking and booze, that’s pretty huge! As for the sugar cravings, I came to love dried pineapple and dried apple chunks- I know it’s fruit, sorry! I’m also hooked on wholemeal rice crackers and hummus, I tend to always have these at home and for some reason these help me not crave sugar. Kumara is great for beating sugar cravings too. I still eat sugary things, I just eat them a lot less than I used to. This too, was a process of slowly cutting back, till eventually I didn’t really notice. If I really feel like something sweet, I try to make it dark chocolate, like Whittakers 72%. Try not to let yourself get hungry, that’s the time that our brain tricks us into craving sugar and it’s an easy trap to fall into when you’re trying to lose weight.
Just found your story through the Stuf website, you are truly an inspiration! it is so great that you have a concrete exapmle to show of how small changes made a big impact for you
Hi Amanda, thanks for the kind words, really appreciate it! Your site looks like a good read, I’m enjoying running more and more, so I imagine I’ll be spending some time reading what you’re writing.
Chuffed to have come across your site – will be re-reading regularly to help me keep on track. Like Paul, I have excuses and reasons down to a fine art (currently a painful foot – poor me! ha!) Since early December I have lost 8.5kg and am fairly certain that is largely due to now drinking green tea and water instead of the several mochas daily plus cutting out those refreshing alcoholic ginger beers. I had hit a fairly low point and had become really despondent about my weight and size, avoiding those reflective surfaces and being photographed! Hell no! My motivation now though was through increasing health issues – real and imagined – and the realisation I could be a Gran one day and I want to be here to enjoy that….REALLY enjoy that – playing with them and watching them grow. What better excuse to not revert back to mocha drinking? My skin is better, my aches and pains a little easier and I feel fairly positive that I can continue to improve my habits and get healthier still.
Good on you for your common-sense approach and witty, accessible style – this will help so many I’m sure and it’s great that you take the time to do it.
Sounds like you’re off to a great start. Keep up the good work! Thanks for your kind words Elsie, they mean a lot! Stay in touch, I’d love to hear how your own mission is going!
I’ve got a lot of weight to loose and am going to use this blog as my motivation. My first goals are to swap the juice for water and start walking 600m every day for the first month.
That’s great news Emma! Switching juice out for water and adding a 600m walk is a great start! Stay in touch, I’m keen to keep up to date with your progress!
Hi Shane, I’m so pleased to have found your site through the Stuff article. You make it sound so simple, which is different from easy. I love your common sense approach and your friendly style of writing. You articulate a lot of the things many of us feel and don’t say. I’m a month into living my new life; I bought a fitbit because I tend to tell myself big fibs about how I’m doing. Same with MyFitnessPal. I love the accountability to myself and seeing my progress.
The one thing that has really resonated with me in reading your stuff is the willingness we develop to push ourselves when we start slowly and patiently. A month ago, I scurried around our streets in the dark to avoid being seen. Then a few weeks ago, I took the kids to the park and walked while they played. Last night, I did your 4 exercise workout at the park while it was still light. I now look for ways to make it a little bit harder, and I don’t think that would have happened if I had done too much, too soon.
You’re inspiring and your humility makes you stand out from the crowd. Thanks 🙂
Heya, thanks for taking the time to comment, I’m so glad that my experiences resonate with you. Congrats on starting your own mission too, it sounds like you’re off to a great start. I can sooo relate to your experience. I still feel like an imposter when I’m out running, and for a long time I would stop and walk when I heard a car coming or saw another person up ahead.
It’s great that you’re looking for ways to make things a little bit harder, for me this represented a turning point, I think this is when I realised I was actually starting to live a new life.
How are you finding the FitBit? I really want one! Thanks again for the kind words, stay in touch, I’d love to keep up to date with how your mission is going.
Hi Shane
My Fitbit Charge HR is flipping amazing. I can’t tell you how much I love it without sounding like an advertorial!!! It’s made me do things that I wouldn’t have thought I was up for, to reach daily goals, like working out in the park, marching back and forward across my lounge or across a hotel room floor or up and down stairs at work to reach a step goal. I like knowing how much I’ve slept and I really like that it links to MyFitnessPal as well, for that complete, non-lying picture!!!
I think a big part of the problem for people who want to lose more than a little bit of weight is how we feel about moving in public. We tend to feel ashamed and sometimes people say hurtful things when we’re out and trying to move. When you’re already feeling ashamed and somebody says something horrible which validates that feeling of shame, it’s a recipe for giving up.
That’s why your approach is so appealing – yes, get out and do a bit of walking to improve your fitness and grab a mate (or your child) if available. But you can do the sweaty, grotty stuff (the squats and planking, etc) in your home away from everybody else.
I feel a sense of empowerment and permission when I read your stuff that I’ve never felt before. Yes, it’s ok to say I hate gyms and they make me feel bad. And it’s ok to find it hard some days. And it’s also totally ok to take control of my journey and do it my way.
Thank you (and get a fitbit – I like the heart rate one I’ve got, because it tells me how many “very active minutes” I’ve had in a day, without having to go into any app or anything.
Peppa
Hi Shane,
You journey is inspiring. I’ve just started – I’ve managed to lose 6kg, but only eating 600 to 800 calories a day. No good. I’ve now reset my goals, using myfitnesspal, and uped the calories and have ditched the sugar. I’m hoping the scales wil start going down.
My only problem (not an excuse) is that I’ve got a very injured ankle. Any amount of walking, biking, swimming makes the foot swell and get so painful I can’t weightbear. So exercise is out of the question for me right now. I used to walk – sometimes 4 hours a day, which I reckon why i’ve put on the weight, I hope if I lose weight, the ankle will be less painful too.
But like you say – exercise is only 20% of weightloss – and we are what we eat.
Cheers
Robyn
Hi Robyn, sorry to hear about the injury. Congrats on the 6kg, that’s awesome! I’m glad you’ve started eating more than 600-800 calories though, coz that’s a little dangerous. Keep up the good work & stay in touch, I’d love to keep up to date with how your own mission is going.
Hi Shane, your storey and website are inspirational. It can be difficult to find examples of real weight loss storeys for males. You are a role model for many. Typically the information on the web or YouTube is about some fad diet or product advertising miracle quick weight loss. I too know that small lifestyle changes are what’s needed to make changes. 18 months ago I decided things needed to change topping the scales at 136kg. I started out by cleaning out fast food & fizzy drinks from my diet and doing 15 min walking on my cross trainer before & after work. This started a habit. I now mix my workouts up including weight training which I started a few weeks ago. Typically I do between 1 to 1.5 hours of activity a day. As of today I am down 39kg. I feel amazing however I still have some distance to reach my final goals. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for the kind words & congrats on your own success. 39kg is no small feat & you should be very proud. Weight training made a real difference for me, especially when my weight loss started to slow down. It helped to reshape my body from a smaller but still flabby version of my old self, into a more toned version. Keep up the great work & stay in touch, I’d love to hear how you’re progressing.
Hi Shane,
What an amazing journey you’re on and the down to earth inspiration has been great. My husband and I had each lost around 20 kgs each since July last year but since the holidays its creeping back on again and I’m finding it really difficult to get back on track. I found your website just recently and love your philosophy but we’re not really at the beginning of our journey and I’m kinda wondering where we can go from here. We have 3 young children and are constantly out doing something so it’s difficult and chaotic most of the time but I am enjoying the exercise when I get a chance. What I’m finding most difficult is the food aspect. I love cooking and food and I really like the idea of the small cut backs but I’m struggling to find things to cut out – I don’t have sugar in my tea and I don’t drink full sugar fizzy at all so I’m wondering if you could share other small changes you made and if there were any times that you ‘fell off the wagon’ so to speak and what you did to get your mojo back? Thanks, Kim.
Hi Kim, thanks for getting in touch and congrats on the 20kg weight loss, that’s really cool! This is actually a really good topic to cover, so I’ll try and write something in more detail for the blog soon.
In the mean time, yeah I fell off the wagon quite a few times. Not in a big way, but there were times when I got complacent and some of my old eating habits snuck back in- regular unhealthy snacks, bigger meals etc. Especially when my usual routine of walking to work got interupted for whatever reason, holidays, friends/family visiting etc. So, some other changes I made include: Smaller dinner plates that I now use for every meal. I pretty much only cook with coconut oil now. Wherever I can, I choose kumara over white potatoes. Have moved from white rice to brown rice and cous cous. Probably one of the bigger changes for me was making sure I take my lunch to work every day, I was in a really bad habit of buying my lunch most days, and even with the best of intentions it’s usually cheaper to get an unhealthy lunch. So most days I eat muesli and yoghurt for lunch. Kinda boring I know, but it saves me a lot of money and I tend to focus on making a really tasty meal for tea. I always hated the idea of calorie counting, and I stopped as soon as I thought I was ready, but if I thought things weren’t going well I’d start logging my food into MyFitnessPal for a few days just to see how much I was eating. That was usually a pretty good wake-up call.
Not food related, but something that really helped when my weight loss slowed down was getting some weights and doing some resistance exercises. 3 or 4 times a week I try and do a quick weights routine in the lounge while the TV is on. Just some squats, planks and pushups. Pretty much the routine I outline in this post: . I hope this helps! As I said, I think this is a really good topic, and I’ll give it some thought and try and write something in detail soon. Thanks again and stay in touch, I’d love to stay up-to-date with how things are going for you.
🙁 have fallen off the wagon….. since my last comment on here I lost another 1.5kg but have put that back on. Found that, as awful as ‘some of the shit people say’, some of the shit they DONT say is just as bad: visited friends I hadn’t seen in a long time recently, feeling pretty good – convinced I was glowing and my weight loss was evident (yes – am still big just not AS big) but no-one said anything. Not one word. I know it’s tricky: if they say ‘wow, you look good, you’ve lost weight’ they worry they’re implying that they previously thought you looked awful, and fat. But it’s knocked me back and I can’t seem to shake it. Have reverted to including sugar and not worrying about my portion size as much. So much for my grand chat of wanting to live a healthier life. Pah! Am sure I’ll get back to it. I HOPE I’ll get back to it and start losing again – it just seems am going to have to allow for falling off that wagon every now and then. Damn.
Hi Elsie. We’ve got 99 problems but what other people think shouldn’t be one of them. None of us are perfect, I fell off the wagon plenty, we all do. It’s a great opportunity to reassess why we’re on this mission & who we’re doin it for. And so what, you took a couple of steps in the wrong direction, not a big deal, it takes as long as it takes, with plenty of learning curves along the way, right? You can’t change what happened yesterday but you get to pick what happens next.
Hi Shane!
Is it okay if I work on my exercise goals first. I still can’t control my diet. I just don’t know which food to change/reduce. and I just don’t like being stress out about anything.
Currently I am walking one mile a day with Leslie Sansone, it’s been two weeks. Next week I think I am ready with 1.5-2 miles walk.
My plan is I master my walk exercise first, until I can walk like 30 minutes (2 miles) every morning, and then after that I am ready for small change in my diet.
Looking at your food choices is important, but adding exercise to your daily lifestyle can only be a good thing! Just don’t use exercise as an excuse to not address a poor diet. Good luck Ira, stay in touch.
Awesome, just awesome.
I am on a similar journey. Starting at 106.5kg and BMI of around 34. Just watching what I eat, eating like a 75kg (my goal) person and when I can getting to the gym and lots of walking. I’m a cyclist but I find rides make me sick so walking is a big thing. Not looking at macros, just using a fitbit to measure estimated cals in v out and to record sleep. Making sure I keep my protein intake up to ensure I am losing fat not lean mass. 91.0kg this morning and my fitbit scales are regularly saying <30% body fat so no longer obese. Very happy and feeling better!
60kg is awesome, well done!!!
Hamish
Hey man that’s choice! Great results. Thanks for the feedback too, really appreciate it. I’d be interested to hear what you think of your Fitbit, I’ve been thinking of getting one for ages.
Heya,
Love the site, my favourite part is – it will take as long as it takes! Am going to hold onto that thought.
I love that your approach is away from the cool diets like paleo etc! is confusing and expensive trying to figure out what to eat that fits when cooking on a strict budget! And anything involving no carbs is a recipe for disaster for me..
I am an extremist – i specialise in lofty goals with epic initial enthusiasm followed by significant rebound back to my favourite foods – pie and full sugar coke for breakfast, soft drinks all day and take out when i am tired or stressed! I am going to try and just have toast and a diet soft drink instead of a pie and coke and see how i go – surely the calorie reduction from that would be significant!?!
I have recently found time in my day for adding a walk – I arrive at work an hour early to avoid traffic, previously i would then end up working an extra hour every day – now i go for a short walk for half an hour before work then have breakfast and read my book 🙂 I am also just trying to bring my lunch instead of buying it at bakery or cafe (also good for budget!).
Love the site, will definitely be keeping up on your posts 🙂
Hi Sonya, thanks for stopping by! I agree, all the latest diets are confusing and expensive. Budget is a big consideration for me and slowly changing my eating and exercise habits has saved me a lot of money over time.
It’s great that you’ve found the time to add a walk into your routine – that’s awesome!
Switching your pie and soft drink out for toast and a diet soft drink will save you a lot of calories, I think it’s a great first step, even if you just start with a few days a week. It took me a while to get used to diet soft drink when I first started, but stick with it.
You’re doing great. Keep me updated and keep slowly moving forward.
Shane
Right so thanks to the Healthy Food Guide Email i stumbled across your website, OMG i think i’m in LOVE, Everything makes so much sense, you have a sense of humor and are a real person. I have had so many failed weight loss attempts, my whole life (32years) i have been over weight even looking at my plunket book i was classed as over weight. But i have read through the starting pages and i agree i try to change to much to soon, i love walking but there is no routine to my walking some days i walk everyday other times once a week. so my exercise goal is to go everyday, my Food goal is alot harder but im going to eat breakfast everyday. I have really bad eating habits because i dont eat. due to pure Lazyness. Thanks So much, This website has now been saved as my Homepage to try keep me motivated. Gotta be better than opening facebook everytime i look at the computer right?
Welcome aboard Megan and I’m honoured to be your Homepage! I’m glad you’ve found some helpful information and it sounds like you’ve got a solid plan. Let’s do this.
Well this is just crazy as…
Im in my early early 50’s and morbidly obese, i need to loose at least 60 kgs. I work in an office 6 days a week, funnily enough being morbidly obese I should be exhausted by the long hours however far from the truth.
What I do recognize is I can’t keep pushing my body this way and believe I will survive.
Its my day off work and I was thinking today I need to make something change. I goggled “walking friend for obese in wellington” & taa daa! Found your page.
Cracked up at your style of writing, agree with you rely on oneself first, & add small changes.
Those stairs to my apartment are going to be my friend I’ve decided, thank God I drive to the fourth level to park and live of the first floor above that.
Exercise change “stairs not the lift”.
This will come in handy as our office is moving from the ground floor to the 4th in a months time “whoop whoop” then I can at least manage walking down them at work by this stage I recon.
Food change… #Bread #remove…
It felt easy writing that, maybe it should be anything with flour in it? “Thinking”.
I will tell you a true story, Mid November last year, this guy in our office was casually talking to anyone in the office who wanted to get in on the conversation he asked “does anyone want to come on the St Clair marathon in May”?. (Our office is predominantly over weight with a few obese females). A lot of bantering started, wtf are you for real? Yea ok I will just get my running shoes on? Do you want to carry me from the start to the finish line? Hell no really? then there were those who sympathized with good on you, and you can do it, we are proud of you but on one said yes or took up the challenge.
All the time I was thinking I wished I could say yes to him, out loud in front of everyone, if only.
Secretly I quickly googled “St Clair half marathon:”. I was reading the Web site and fell in love with the environment for this marathon, there was a run, hybrid and walk category! Now this just became even more real WALK!!! In the midst of my dreaming and fantasing about myself being there a voice popped into my space, ” Uh huh looking at the website eh” ? I turned to my left looked up and there he was all 6ft of a gentleman and he leaned closer and said you should do this with me, you can do it, I believe in you, I will help you.
And right there was a missed opportunity.
So today my friend is my change day, thanks for shining your light my way.
Annabanana
Hi Anna, I’m glad you stopped by. Sounds like you’re right in the middle of a shift in mindset. Absolutely one of the biggest steps to make, so huge congrats on that! Based on experience I can say that those stairs will be both friend and enemy, let’s call them your frienemy for now, but ultimately they will become a huge asset. Opportunities will always be missed and new ones will always present themselves, having missed one you’re much better placed to recognise the next. Glad to have you on board, welcome to the mission!
Your awesome, I will get myself some dumbells for strengthening too , and I will pop back once in awhile and give you some feed back 🙂
Yesss! That’s awesome, you’re awesome too, keep me updated, I’d love to hear how it’s going.
Just found your Web site. Just love it.Wow sounds so real. So like how I feel and think.
I am over 50 years old ,over weight by 40 – 60 kgs. Tried most days, work over 40 hours a week.
Thinking all the time about my weight and health issue, still no real plan to work on, till now.
1. Walk to collect mail instead of driving for work.
2. Stop adding sugar to my hot drinks- replace one cup of coffee to a glass of water.
That may stop the sugar with coffee.
Thank you for sharing your story. I feel that I can start looking forward to really seeing some results.
Hi Shane. Thanks for sharing your journey. You’re very inspiring and so real and down to earth with what and how you write. I’ve just started on a weight loss journey of my own so I’m looking forward to adding your tips and advice to my plan. I’m going to start walking for 10 min a day during a work break and for a food change I’ll only have max two caffeinated bevvies a day. Thanks for the advice and guidance.
Hi Carey, thanks for the kind words, it’s great to have you along for the ride! Sounds like you’ve got a plan, keep me posted on how you’re doing.
Hey Shane . I’m 19 and majorly over weight. Was trying everything. The gym , shakes, not eating carbs etc. Nothing was working. And i really just got sick of it and stopped trying. But coming across your blog is amazing !! Its nice to think someone has been in my position and changed their life around.
My changes are going to be: not buying any big blocks of chocolate and saying ” They will last all week” and my exercise goal is going to be not going inside my house straight after work until I’ve walked just once around the block. Thanks for all your help so far 🙂
Really pleased I have stumbled on this great wee website. Someone who is completely ‘real’ and down to earth, thank you! I am in my late 40s and have quite bad arthritis in my hips. Losing weight is really essential for me to keep mobile and keep up with my two children aged 6 and 4! My family all struggle with their weight, but I can’t let this fact become an excuse (“We are all like this, it must be our mother’s genes!”). My two changes for this month will be – not snacking on cheese (I have a habit of grabbing a bit almost every time I am in the fridge!), and taking my son on the back of my bike for a bike ride on his non-kindy days. Thanks again for this wonderful resource.
I was so lucky I found your Facebook page last September when I started on this journey. When I first started I did laps around my house because I was to embarrassed to go out in public. Now I am out walking the central Otago rail trail every night, when I started it took me 48 mins to walk 3.5km tonight I nailed it in 34 minutes. I have lost 13kg and still have along way to go but because of you I know there will be crap days and that’s ok but I’ll get there in the end. Thank so much for you blogs and Facebook etc. you’ve helped me start to get my life back.
Nikki, that’s sooo cool! Stories like yours is a big reason this website is still here. Thanks heaps for sharing with me and everyone here!
Nikki you are doing awesome and if I was a couple of Kms closer I would walk with you every night!! You have given me the inspiration to get off my arse and do something and finding this website because you had liked it on facebook!!
This website is great, and I am now spending more time reading than working!!!
Hi Shane, Im so glad I came across yr website. It is very inspiring from yourself and I appreciate the encouragement that is given by your subscribers. I am struggling big time in spite of exercising at gym 2-3. times a week. No weight loss and a diagnosis of diabetes later, I read yr info and decided to change approach, I am learning tai chi to holistically improve my physical and mental wellbeing, have substituted gym twice a week for walking and do toning exercises with resistance. Have only lost 2 kilos so far but have lost 19 inches off my body. Will keep going and hope I reduce my bmi too. I am fed up though weight loss is so slow, so I think this forum might help me.
I am 72 and was 18 stone at the age of 18. I have been obese most of my life other than when on some of the many diets I have tried over the years. At present I weigh 125 kgs and this has been relatively steady over the past 10 years. In my youth my excess weight was not a problem as I was a very active person playing sports such as rugby, cricket, squash, and golf, but in recent times, as the increasing pain of osteo-arthritis takes its toll, bowls has become my sport of choice although I still play the occasional game of golf provided I have a cart to travel in. I know that I could help my overall well-being if I could lose some weight permanently, but I have lived for many years now with the desolate resignation that it is absolutely impossible to make any effective long term change to my weight. I have despaired over an enduring feeling of guilt over most of my adult life about my seemingly uncontrollable urge to continue eating beyond reasonable limits due to not feeling satiated. Your concept of making small changes makes sense and may work for me – and be sustainable – if I can motivate myself enough to make a start.
Hi Shane,
My food goal is to have a piece of fruit every day and my exercise goal is to walk at least 6 times a week and to increase my step goal by 500 another steps a day.
You are right- using apps does help. I feel like the weight isn’t shifting but when I look at my changes in exercise it’s huge!
Just need to keep going 😄
Caroline
Keep up the good work Caroline, sounds like you’re doing really well.
I’m finally ready for this “marathon” weightloss! I literally googled “overweight where to start” and came across your site. I’ve tried many ways of loosing weight over the years and eventually always end up heavier than the last. This month I’m going to swap my 1/2 sugar in my coffee and add less milk and I’m going to park a few blocks away from my work rather than parking in the driveway!