I HATE it. Being FAT.

Dear beloved readers,

Well, it's time for my rantings again. I swore in my New Year resolutions that I would regularly update and write in this blog, and being a gentleman and a man of my word, I do what I say. ;)

The thing is, all my life, I've either been chubby or fat. Which is pretty much a bummer, to say the least. At my heaviest, I weighed at least 216 pounds (98 kilograms) and being the 5"6 (1.69 meters) guy that I am, I really though I was pushing it when compared to my height. My BMI sky-rocketed to 34.9 and that REALLY is unhealthy. My heaviest weight may mean nothing to you guys, but being in an Asian country with their smaller builds, it meant that I was automatically labeled "the fat guy" in any group I was in. Sure, I tried to cover my weakness by being the nicest and most reliable guy around and by being super friendly to everybody I did win over many friends, but in my heart I always knew that people would always refer to me as the "fatty" or make fat jokes when I'm not around. It didn't help that even my relatives that came over during festivities would mention how "hefty" I was to my mum and my mum would try to help me out by explaining that I was just "big boned". I tried my best to not listen to the others, but there is only so much a person can endure before he or she is reduced to a crying mess by all the criticisms floating around.

Being drafted to do National Service for my country helped a bit, and slowly I slimmed down to 192 pounds over the course of 2 years. I still was fat, but I looked in better shape than I ever did in my entire life. After my National Service ended and I entered university, I decided that I wanted to lose weight further by joining their Martial Arts Club. I joined Silat.

The very first training session that I attended I felt very awkward and shy. All the other people that joined the club already had "muscular" or "svelte" bodies and I was the only "fatso" around. The coaches then began their lessons. Right from the beginning, I didn't feel outcast-ed. In fact, they were very supportive of me and encouraged me more when I told them that I had joined the club to lose more weight.

Dear readers, I had learned so much from the coaches of my Martial Arts Club, and I really feel like sharing the knowledge with you readers out there. If you feel that you are unfit or overweight and want to lose some of those pounds and feel better overall, then you must remember 3 important steps:

1) Get yourself a support group. It can be your best friend or a group of close friends. Tell them the reason(s) that you want to lose weight, and tell them it would mean so much to you if they would help you. Tell them how much weight you want to lose and the period of time taken. Tell them about all the difficulties you have losing weight. They don't even need to give you advise, the very act of telling them already enforces to yourself that you want to make the change. Tell them all the small decrements of weight that you achieve, no matter how small. And when the going gets tough, they'll be your lifeline to pull you through, just by being there and listening.

2) Create a list of 5 things that you will achieve by loosing weight. It could be anything from being more attractive to members of the opposite sex or being able to fit into a stylish piece of clothing that you always want to wear. Paste it beside your dressing mirror and look at it EVERY DAY to remind yourself and to keep yourself motivated. I cannot stress how important this is in increasing your willpower so that you will achieve your goals.

3)  Exercise more and eat lesser. SLOWLY AND STEADILY. Start very small like eating one less Oreo cookie packet during snack time or climbing that short flight of stairs to reach one level higher. DO NOT rush and do intense exercises or deliberately starve yourself in hopes that you will be thinner the next day. SLOWLY AND STEADILY is the keyword here, and building and acclimatizing yourself up would be the way to go. Most of the time we want to see results fast, but in the journey of losing weight it is very difficult to achieve. You did not gain 50 pounds overnight, it might have taken months or even years, so why are you beating yourself up when you can't lose the weigh fast? Step number 2 is very important in working with step number 3 to maintain your willpower and help you through your journey.

Most of us have a busy lifestyle (work, school, activities, etc) and lament that we really can't find time to exercise. This is why we must MAKE time for exercise. Living healthily is a choice, and with every choice worth choosing, it will come with sacrifices. For example, every Saturday, instead of choosing to watch the television, why don't you spend just 30 minutes having a walk around the neighborhood instead? You don't need to walk fast, just the act of walking itself will burn of a few calories. You might say that it is very little, but if you do it regularly every Saturday you will find yourself to be more energetic and in turn wanting to do more activities. And this positive cycle continues on and on. I myself am on this journey to losing weight, and will regularly update this blog about my achievements.

Well, that's all my ranting for today. I had hoped to write a better piece of work, but this didn't turn out so bad. :) I'll refine this post further as time goes by.

As always,
Lokman