As some of you may know, I have finally reached the “healthy BMI range” on Monday so I thought this might be a good time to reflect.
In the past 20 months since the end of October 2014 I have managed to reduce my weight of 104.5kg (BMI of 43.5 – OBESE III) to a current weight of 59.8kg (BMI of 29.9 – HEALTHY – just about).
I’ve started this journey on my own, I never felt it necessary to sign of for any slimming clubs or a gym.
The picture attached shows a graph of how I have improved my activity in steps – I would attribute a big part of my weight loss to increased exercise rather than a “change in lifestyle”. Yes, I have reduced my calorie intake and yes, I've learned an awful lot about nutrition, however I'm eat for the joys of flavours and textures not just for the sake of eating, so I'll probably never become a "healthy eater", just a more conscious one.
I’ve started off walking around 300,000-400,000 steps per month, last month I’ve accumulated over 930,000 steps.
In distance I’ve walked over 4,750 miles – over 9,951,100 steps – in words – nine million nine hundred fifty one thousand one hundred steps.
In addition to that I’ve accumulated a distance of over 1,400 miles on my cross trainer (comparable to a bike in terms of distance for time).
This would bring my grand total of miles covered to nearly 6,200 miles – This is about the distance between London and Cape Town (as the crow flies), or in other words, if the earth was a disc, I would have fallen off the edge as the radius of this planet is only just under 4,000 miles.
I must admit that my physical health doesn’t seem much improved but then I don’t think I ever had any weight related problems. However, I think it much improved my mental wellbeing as I’m no longer the “fat girl” witch glares and whispers coming my way when I enter a room. No more worries before a holiday on whether I’ll fit into that low-cost airline seat – never mind the increased space in the suitcase!
My journey isn’t yet complete, as I would like to be in the middle of the healthy range (another 8kg to go). At this point I hope to be fit enough to go on a few long distance hikes and maybe even dare one of the really big (1000+ mile) ones!
I hope with the continued support of this forum and a little teeeeeny bit of willpower I will get to my goal by the end of August.