How I lost 30kg by running, part 1

Wow… You have really lost weight. A frequent comment I’ve heard from people I hadn’t seen for years. The thing; I have never tried to lose weight…

I have from several people been asked to share more on how I managed to lose so much weight. I thought I finally would take me some time to talk about just that. I realised when I started to write about how I lost weight that this can be a long text, I have therefore chosen to divide this story up in a few different blog posts. This is part 1 of x?, on how I lost weight, simply by being active.

I love good and quality food

I have always loved food, and I have never been slim. But I have (at least in my head at the time) never been overweight. During high school, I educated my self to become a chef and without doing any exercise it didn’t really help my weight and fitness goals. Well, I didn’t really have any fitness goals at the time… 😉 I didn’t work as a chef for more than a few years, but the love of food and cooking has remained. Food, cooking and a glass of wine or a few beers when cooking has followed me through life. I guess one could say that, outside of my computer interest, the pleasure of cooking, food was my biggest interest. Neither the computer interest or the cooking (or the beers) was great for my weight and it became clear, every time I stood on the scale. I used to stop using the scale when it showed 100kg. I would estimate that as most I weighed more than 105kg. For years this was the normal me. The scale normally showed numbers between 90kg and 100kg.

Never overweight

I never thought I carried too much. Maybe a kilo or two. “I’m just out of normal weight”. “What does a kilo or two does anyway, I have no interest to become a boring fitness geek”. “I’m not fat, I’m just big bones”, like Cartman says, used to be my motto.

As I never really considered my weight, it was never a real problem for me. I guess if that’s down to ostrich mentality and ignorance doesn’t really matter. I had no problem with the weight, and it didn’t make me feel bad. Most of the time that is…

At times I of course considered my weight, and body style. Of course I would, as most people reflect when seeing my self in the mirror, trying out clothes in a shopping mall. When looking at my self on a picture. When realising I’m becoming out of breath by walking up a floor. Even if it never was a major problem, it of course never helped my self esteem. But what could I do, I would never be slim anyway.

A new diet to lose weight

During the years, I have at times been drawn into different diets. I have never gone whole hearted into a diet though, as I as educated chef strongly believe in a varied and healthy mix of food to ensure one get the energy that one need. What this mean in terms of food has always been good quality meat, a side salad or vegetables to the main course and a big portion of carbs. Mostly potatoes or pasta. Always, always served with a tasty, creamy sauce. I have never really believed in diets as you have to suffer too much from what you really like. And I strongly believe in that one should be able to enjoy life. That’s why I loved food, and normally always had the dinner accompanied with a beer or wine, and very often followed by some kind of sweet. Do more of makes you feel good right?

What I never really cared about, even if I knew it, was that this lifestyle and the portion of food gave me too many calories and that if you eat more calories than you burn, well, then you gain weight. You don’t lose weight by eating. 

I was tricked into a habit

During the spring of 2013, My wife at the time, Zandra, came home oen day and shared the (she thought) fantastic news that she had signed us up for a race. The race for couples (parloppet), a few months in the future. I wasn’t equally satisfied. I got, as I got many times at the time (I realise now) too easily annoyed and actually really upset. “Why would she do something so stupid…?”

Zandra had the previous 2-3 years picked up running, and she thought she felt great when running. (I understand now, I guess she just wanted to make me feel the same.) But at the time, what did that had to do with me. I can’t run. It’s not fun. It doesn’t make me feel good. Food, a beer, a good movie to relax infront or perhaps to code something during the night. That got me relaxed. That made me happy. She could have the running for her self. I had my programming. So, I of course told her. “You need to get a refund. You simply can’t waste our money like that. We aren’t made of money”. A bit sad she said… “Ok, I will cancel it.” 

A day or two later she told me that it wasn’t possible. We couldn’t get the money back. “WHAT… THAT’S CRAZY”. “Talk about wasting our money.” After another discussion where I let her know how unhappy I was about her action; I thought: “Oh well, it might as well not go to waste then. I might as well run this stupid race. I have a few months to ensure I can do it”.

The day after I went down the gym. I took the lift down, the two floors in the same building. Yes, we had the gym in the same building and entrance as where we lived. But hey, of course I would take the lift rather than the stairs.

I was ready to ensure I could do this race. 5K. How hard can it be?

TO BE CONTINUED IN ANOTHER BLOG POST…