Help!

I need help!! I was motivated. I lost a lot of weight! And then I lost motivation. I haven't added weight but I haven't been losing weight either.
I meed help!!!

HOW TO LOSE BELLY FAT.

1. EAT HEALTHY. You can work out all day but if you don't eat healthy you won't lose the belly fat. EAT HEALTHY!! Reduce your intake of processed foods, eat more unprocessed foods. Replace your foods with healthier options like brown rice in place of white rice, olive/sunflower oil in place of regular oil, whole wheat bread in place of white bread etc. You don't have to be perfect, you can do processed/junk foods once in a while so you won't feel deprived but please do not overdo it. Make it 90% healthy foods and 10% junk.

LIMIT YOUR ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION. Doing alcohol once in a while is okay but doing it everyday is saying goodbye to losing belly fat. Alcohol gives you beer belly and for the guys man boobs too. Alcohol also stresses the liver because it will have to work overtime to clear the toxins. Reduce your alcohol intake if you want to lose the belly fat.

EAT FAT. It takes fat to burn fat. This may sound counterproductive but it is the truth. Fat does not make you fat. Sugar, lack of exercise and bad nutrition does that. Eat good fats. They include foods rich in omega3 like fish and avocados, olive oil etc. When you give your body a constant intake of healthy fats it will not store fat.

REDUCE YOUR CARB INTAKE. Our bodies need carbohydrates for energy but the problem is that most times we overdo it. Then the body stores the excess carbohydrates as fat. Cut back on the carbs and replace with more of fruits and veggies.

EAT MORE PROTEIN. The body burns more calories processing proteins than it does carbohydrates. Stock up on the proteins as they help in burning belly fat.

Image credit: africapresse.com

APOLOGIES!

Photocredit: transgriot.blogspot.com

Hi guys. Sorry I've been off the radar. I've been really busy. I barely had time to breathe. I was that busy. Please expect a new post soon.
Meanwhile, I invited people to lose weight with me this month. Thirteen people joined me. I'm happy to tell u guys that they are losing weight. Some people lost as much as 3kg at the end of the first week. I'll give u a comprehensive report at the end of the week.
One love!

IT'S A MIRACLE!

Image credit: prlog.org

I went to a branch of Diamond bank today. While I was waiting to get in I noticed the security man staring at me. He kept staring until I went in. I finished my transaction and came back out and he was still staring. My phone rang and while I was taking my call I heard the man exclaim, saying IT'S A MIRACLE!
The second I hung up the man came to me. He said he had been staring at me because he wasn't sure I was the one. He only realized it was me when he heard my voice. He was surprised that I had lost a lot of weight and reminded me of the times when he had to open doors specially for me because the bank doors wouldn't let me in as I was so fat and heavier than the limit. Lol. It really is a miracle.

LOSE WEIGHT WITH ME!

I've had a lot of people sending me emails telling me they want to lose weight and asking me how to go about it.Why don't we all do it together? Lose 2 to 5kg with me this month. If you're interested and  know that you will be committed and disciplined, send me an email udodirimoparaji@gmail.com and I'll give u the details.
LET'S GO THERE!

HOW I DO IT

I COUNT CALORIES!
Weight management all comes down to the calories you take in versus those you burn off. Weight loss is really all about calories.
Calorie counting means recording the calorie amount of every food and drink you consume each day.
Calorie is the amount of energy in food. The body has a constant demand for energy and uses the calories from food to keep functioning. Energy from calories fuel our every action, from breathing to fidgeting to dancing and so on.
In my opinion calorie counting is VERY IMPORTANT. It helps ensure that the calories you consume throughout the day do not exceed the number of calories you burn. If you eat more calories than you burn you gain weight. The calories you eat are either converted to physical energy or stored within your body as fat.  The stored calories will remain in your body as fat unless you use them up, either by reducing your caloric intake and creating a caloric deficit, so that your body will draw on the reserves for energy or by increasing physical activity so that you burn more calories. I DO BOTH! By keeping calorie intake in line and adding a daily exercise regime you can effectively start losing weight.
To start counting calories you need to work out how many calories you need each day to maintain your present weight and how many to lose weight.

FOUR STEPS TO CALORIE COUNTING
1. DETERMINE YOUR DAILY CALORIC INTAKE FOR WEIGHTLOSS... To determine the number of calories you can consume and still lose weight, use an online tool such as this.
There are many free weight loss tools available on the internet. Once you sign up you enter your weight, height, age, activity level, target weight and any other information needed to calculate the amount of calories you should be eating everyday. To lose weight try to stay as close to that number as possible on a daily basis.

2.KEEP A FOOD JOURNAL... You can use a pen and paper, online calorie trackers or download a calorie tracker to your phone. The nutritional information of various foods can be found right in the online calorie counter. Being that the calorie trackers do not have most of our Nigerian/African foods, make google your new best friend. You will find the caloric contents of such foods there. Your food journal will become your most important tool because it holds you accountable and keeps you on track through out the day.

3. PURCHASE A FOOD SCALE, MEASURING SPOONS AND CUPS.
I measure and weigh everything I eat. My mum and siblings make fun of me when I do that and my friends think I'm obsessed. I tell them that weight loss is serious business!
It helps ensure that I am always eating or drinking accurate portions. It is easy for calories to get out of control when you don't know how much you're eating. For example a serving of cereal is one cup and about 200calories depending on the brand. If you just dump it into the bowl straight from the box you can easily cosume 2 to 3 servings without thinking and thus bringing you up to 600 calories. Measuring and weighing your food lets you have control over the calories you are putting into your body.

4. PLAN AND PREPARE MEALS AHEAD OF TIME... It will be so much easier to stick to your daily calories if you plan and prepare your meals ahead of time. Once you get accustomed to meal planning you will find out that you are eating healthier, feeling better and enjoying your meals.

With calorie counting you can eat what you want as long as you stay within your calories. Calorie counting may not be fun and easy but IT WORKS!

NEWS

I've had some people sending me mails asking me to tell them what I took to lose weight. Bikokwa, I DID NOT TAKE ANYTHING O! I'm losing weight strictly by exercising and dieting. I work out for at least 30mins from monday to saturday( I rest on sundays). I eat healthy these days. (I cut out all the junk, for e.g I used to drink at least 2 bottles of coke everyday but I don't do that anymore) I stay hydrated (drink loads of water), I practice portion control and so on.
Weight loss may not be easy but it's doable. For people who think it's impossible to lose weight without supplements or herbs or whatever, I've got news for u, IT'S POSSIBLE. You just have to be disciplined. In my next post I'll tell you guys how I do it.
One love.

MY MOTIVATION

Like I said in my last post I knew I had to lose weight but I had no idea how to go about it. That was until I discovered the weightloss forum for Africans. www.africanweightloss.com/forum. It changed my life. There I met women who were making serious efforts to lose weight and were SUCCEEDING. I read success stories and was motivated. However my greatest motivation came from a member of the forum, Natachy Austin. skinnyymi.blogspot.co.uk She went from 140kg to 67kg strictly by dieting and exercising. Wow! And I was 145kg. I decided that if she did it I could too. AND I'M DOING IT. And Natachy who's my weightloss buddy has been of great help to me. Encouraging me when I felt like I couldn't do it anymore and pushing me to do better.

Here's her story. Maybe you'll be motivated too!

I love to cook and experiment on different cultural foods. I will say combining studies and work didn’t put much stress on me. As a child, I was very skinny but as time went by, I grew into being big. All through my secondary school, I was big but after an accident that left me bed bound, I added more weight and I couldn’t stop gaining. I just got bigger and bigger. My taste buds increased and I couldn’t stop eating rice in particular. I didn’t eat fast food or fizzy drinks but rice was my weakness as I could eat it all day and at night without knowing when to stop. At 308 lbs. and standing 5’3″, I wore UK size 26 (22/24 in US) in jeans and I now wear UK size 10/12 (6/8 in US). It has taken me 2 years to get to 147.7 lbs. (67 kg); my ultimate goal is 138 lbs. (63 kg).My mum motivated me to lose weight. She would cry and watch me while I sleep. She would always tell me that at my age, I shouldn’t look like this. My fiancé encouraged me all through my journey. He never for one day pushed me into losing weight. He would say, I love you fat or slim and that gave me the courage to continue. Some people’s negative comment about my weight also motivated me to push harder, just to prove to them that I can do it. By the time I lost my first 15 kg, I knew I could do it. This time, am done being fat and it’s for good. I want to be able to wear what I like and look my age. My health was at stake at 308 lbs. with knee and joint pains I knew I had to lose weight.First, I set S.M.A.R.T goals. My goals were specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time bound. I knew that the fat I carried around has been accumulated over a long period of time and losing it wasn’t going to be easy. I set my mind to it and told myself the truth that I had a lot of weight to lose. I gave myself 3 years to lose the weight! The support I got from my mum, fiancé and siblings kept me going. I kept a journal of what I ate and made improvement where necessary. I started in 2010 ending and in 2011 I joined a weight loss forum online, mainly for Africans where you have to log in what you eat.I ate and workout most times, not 24/7 though! I work out evening time, and it consist more of strength training than cardio. I use videos that I see on you-tube because i don’t go to a gym. I tried the gym once but it demotivated me in a way that I cannot explain. The cardio I enjoy are jumping ropes, jogging, walking and little dancing (I don’t like cardio). However, I enjoy weight training a lot! I have more energy now, before I felt like I was carrying another person around while walking around. I can now wake up full of energy and ready to move. Shopping is more fun than before! Now I enjoy trying on clothes and finding what fits me is now very easy and affordable too!I am soooooo happy i started this journey and the time, patience, determination, motivation and hard work is what is needed to make those changes."A year from now, you might wish you had started today"

THE GENESIS

I'd always been the fattest of all. The fattest in class, the fattest of all my friends, the fattest in d family, THE FATTEST EVERYWHERE! I didn't think it was possible for me to lose weight so I convinced myself that I was always going to be fat and that there was nothing I could do about it. I got comfortable and relaxed. Then I grew fatter. I knew I was fat but I didn't know what I weighed, I never checked my weight. I had people telling me that even though I was fat that I was pretty. That I was big all over and even and wasn't shapeless and blablabla. Hmm...
I checked my weight for the first time in 2007. I'd gone to the hospital for some medical tests for school stuff and of course they had to get my statistics 1st. I climbed the scale and it was a whooping 118kg. The nurse screamed. She told me that at my age I shouldn't weigh that much. She talked for almost an hour and gave me some weightloss tips. The minute I left the hospital I forgot everything she said. And I kept adding weight. I got bigger and bigger and bigger.
In september 2012 I ran into a friend I hadn't seen for a long time. He was surprised at how fat I'd become and told me I had to lose weight because I was at risk of type 2 diabetes, heart diseases, obstructive sleep apnea, certain types of cancer, osteoarthritis and so on. He told me about his girlfriend who had just died and that she was as big as I was. That she was healthy when he travelled for just one week and that by the time he got back she was dead, heart attack. Being a medical doctor he sounded like he really knew what he was talking about and he scared me shitless.  That was my "ahaa moment". I went to a nearby pharmacy to check my BP and sugar level. My sugar was normal but my BP was really high. It scared me more. On my way home I drove into a ditch, to show you how scared I was (I didn't want to die, at least not yet). I usually take that road but on that day I didn't notice the ditch. The next day I checked my weight and it was 145kg. For the first time in my life I decided that I was going to lose weight but I didn't know how to go about it. Someone told me about BIOSLIFE SLIM supplement. She told me it was going to help me lose weight, that a friend of hers had lost some weight using the supplement. At that time I was broke but I knew I had to do something about my weight so I bought the supplement. After paying for the supplement I had less than 10k left to live on. I read online reviews of the supplement and realized that I had to exercise too. That if I didn't the supplement wouldn't work. As much as I hated the idea of exercising I knew I wouldn't be happy if after spending most of the money I had I didn't lose weight. So I joined a gym and began working out.
I was surfing the net looking for weightloss tips when I found a beautiful online weightloss forum for Nigerians, www.africanweightloss.com

I joined the forum and got a lot of information on weightloss. I learned that I could lose weight just by eating right and exercising and not using any supplement. I read the success stories on the forum and was motivated. The greatest motivation came from a member of the forum Natachy. She has lost more than 70kg. She was 140kg but is presently 67kg (her story is for another day). Anyways, I took it from there and so far I've lost about 40kg. In my subsequent posts you'll get to know how I did it. One love.

Finally here!

I've been meaning to do this since forever but being the lazy writer that I am I kept postponing. Finally... I'm here, yaaayy! My name is Udodirim and I'm on a journey, a journey to lose weight and be healthy. I started at 145kg but by the grace of God I'm at 105kg and I'M NEVER GOING BACK! I still have a long way to go before I get to a healthy weight but I don't want to do it alone anymore. That's why I'm here, to inspire people and be inspired too. It hasn't been easy. It's been really difficult. Having to see things I love(sugary drinks, pastries, sweets and so on) and say no. Anyhow...
I'll let my pictures tell you a little about the journey so far then I'll come back and finish up.
One love.