There’s a fat person who lives inside all of us. That is the only explanation I have for why humans worship food. It makes sense though. Think about it. When we are sad, we find comfort in food. When we are happy, celebrations call for food. Meals have come a long way from bread and fish of the biblical times to culinary journeys in molecular gastronomy.
Last time, I shared my weight gain story. People usually ask me what I did to shed pounds. The truth — Diet, exercise and moderation. I spent hours at the gym and really watched my food intake. I shared my meals and ate smaller portions. I drank lots of water. I stayed away from the buffets. I tried not to eat anything too fatty. But that’s boring stuff so lemme share with you the other motivators:
#1 – Have an extra critical family – I’m not kidding. When people constantly tell you how fat you are, you almost have NO CHOICE but to lose weight. That’s what happened to me. My family doesn’t know the meaning of sugarcoating. They used to say, brutally, “anak you’re fat” or “oh my god ang taba taba taba mo na” or “laki ng legs mo!” While it hurts like heck to be told the truth, losing weight was really the only way to get everyone to shut up already about me being fat.
#2 – Think of an “angry inspiration.” – Be angry when you’re working out, it pushes you harder. Hate your Ex-boyfriend? Your ex-bestfriend pissed you off? The people who used to bully you in school? Someone who told you that you are ugly? Tap into that motivation. That’s what I did. You wanna look good so all your haters can look at you and die with envy. I’m not gonna say what my angry inspiration was anymore but it worked. Turn off the negativity when you leave the gym though.
#3 – Be vain – Seriously. I’m vain. If you say you’re not, then you’re lying. Everyone is conscious of how they look. Everyone (male or female) is insecure about some physical aspect of their body. We all fixate on how we look in the mirror, in pictures, how we might look to other people, how that shirt fits us, what our butt looks like in jeans, the fact we’re losing hair, our small boobs, our man boobs, our beer gut, our stubby legs, our hairy arms, our height, our skin tone, our wrinkles, etc etc etc. The list goes on, forever. If you have those parts that you wanna work on, vanity will push you to correct them. Hold on, I don’t mean this in a Belo way. Correct as in, the right way. I have a weighing scale that I check weekly and I scrutinize myself in the mirror quite often. I’m vain to the point that it makes me mad when I don’t fit into clothes right or when I look funny in photos.
#3.5 – Work with your flaws. Learn what camera poses make you look thinner and what types of clothes best suit you. I hate my mid-section because I have a flabby tummy. So I hide it a lot with flowy tanks or dresses offset with skinny jeans or shorts.
#4 – Know your body – I can gauge what kind of foods my body will react to and what I can eat with gusto. Carbs make me bloated (but disappear pretty fast), sweets make me a whole different kind of fat (the flabby gross kind). Carb-fat disappears fairly fast for me, I burn it off quite quickly. For example, I can eat a lot of bread and rice and I feel the gain but it’s easier to get rid of than two slices of chocolate cake and a side of ice cream.
#5 – Distinguish between hunger and thirst. This is one of the biggest lessons I have learned. Often hungry and thirsty feel the same. More often than not, you will think you are hungry when in fact you are merely thirsty. Hence, I eat when I’m hungry and drink water when I’m thirsty. I don’t eat when I’m thirsty. Enough said.
#6 – Moderation is Key – We all love food but we cannot have too much of it. So much about food has already been said so I won’t say too much to this. But when you eat, make sure it’s worth the calories. If it’s not then, don’t eat it.
#7 – DO NOT eat in search of something – Broken hearted? Confused? Lonely? Looking for love? Try your hardest not to eat your feelings worth in ice cream or chocolate. Also, if you are craving for something but don’t know what, do not consume food in search of that unknown thing. I used to crave unknown food items but since I couldn’t figure out what I wanted, I would just eat until I could find the thing that would satisfy me. In the end, I would take in a lot of random food items and still be dissatisfied. Waste of calories. Pinpoint what you want to eat (like, really figure it out) and then just stick to that. If it’s chocolate cake, then just have it. Don’t eat a burger, fries, milkshake, chips, pizza, only to decide on chocolate cake. Also, when you go to restaurants, try to order what you went there for. If you deviate from your usual, you might regret it and eat double.
#8 – Do not deprive nor starve yourself. No crazy fat burning drugs either.
#9 – Ask for help – If you are desperate, you cannot lose weight alone. Perhaps a trainer can give you that extra push. Or diet with a friend who is also trying to cut back. Tell all your friends to police you to make sure you don’t slack off.
#10 – Stay positive! I was super grumpy and moody for a bit but the weightloss felt great so that’s what kept me going.
Goodluck!
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