I’m fat, to put it bluntly, I’m obese and I was always like this since I was a little kid.
I blame it mainly on myself, my life choices, my old civil construction job and to a lack of diet education, because yes, one should learn how to navigate around the trash some people call food these days.
Being fat never was a problem, I’m a big guy and I could easily be one of those Harley Davidson guys who enjoy their beer and their bars.
Yes, I do enjoy my leather jackets and some fine vintage motorcycles. Because I’m no ray of sunshine people refrain from commenting about my weight these days. I also rarely see my friends, and my wife sees me every day so she didn’t notice my slow weight change.
Anyway, in a visit to my work doctor, I got a really wonderful surprise, stepping on the scale, it hit 140Kg (that’s about 308 Pounds) I was in disbelief, mostly because I still considered myself around 120Kg (not that 20Kg means that much for an obese).
So I arrived home, undressed and guess what, 138Kg… Besides the massive and rather brutal talk my doctor had with me, I wasn’t a happy guy.
Something had to change fast, in a cold turkey way, 138Kg was alarming.
My wife knows her diets and her sports, and believe it or not, after almost two decades with her I learned a thing or two about calories and how to burn them, even if I didn’t really care about it until now.
karma is a bitch.
So it began, I know losing weight fast is dangerous for both body and mind, but having 138Kg and continuing on this road would kill me sooner or later. So after calculating my basal metabolic rate (BMR) I started a simple diet.
My BMR is about 2550Kcal, so I thought that if I consumed those calories per day and walked like there was no tomorrow I would burn fat, I was right.
But I would need to eat or I’ll have my typical headaches, I picked up some digestive cookies (one is about 55Kcal) and started eating one every hour between breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
As long as I was near the 2550Kcal and walked a lot, my body would have to burn fat, it’s a survival thing.
Between 1 of February and 22 of February I lost 8Kg (17.6 Pounds), all with a simple diet but with the occasional trash food or sugary sweet in special occasions, because I’m not a hermit yet and I still need to attend social and family events.
I did one hour of treadmill after crossing the line with sweets, let’s say that one hour at fast pace (8Km/h with 5% inclination) makes you regret eating those foods really fast, I sweat so much I can twist my T-shirt and it will drip.
I do eat everything but in very small portions, losing 8Kg was easy, but the hard part will be getting to 100Kg, I won’t give up and when I get there I want to maintain my weight.
On off duty days because I don’t walk my usual 10Km to 15Km I do treadmill until I get to 10Km.
Losing weight made me conscious about some bad lifestyle choices I made, especially one the ones related to money.
In my opinion, if I can lose weight, I can also learn to lose less money in stuff that doesn’t matter. Believe me, I buy a lot of shit that I regret later on.
I organized my income, expenses, and budget and went ahead and put my words into action.
First thing I did was to drop most of my Patreon pledges, I only kept 3 I really enjoy, but to a bare minimum of $1 each, at the end of the month, that’s about $4 with taxes, a cheap price to the entertainment they provide.
Then I went forward and canceled Spotify, a heavy blow to my wife who enjoys it a lot but 7€ a month is a lot of money at the end of the year, because I canceled it I also changed my smartphone data plan, cutting another 4€ monthly, so in one move I saved 11€.
All other savings will be done on massive cuts to my hobbies, I spend a lot of money on those and it must stop. I will talk about those later on.
I also need to adjust some spending on restaurants and other little delights, kind easy now that I can’t eat most stuff.
Then I must set a budget for my computer, home repair and vet of my cat.
This month I had to buy some parts for my desktop computer, unlike some people I really need to have a working desktop, mostly because it’s the entertainment hub of my house. Might sound like a first world problem but a broken desktop computer is not an option to me, so I need a budget for that also.
As for home repair, well my home needs some work done this year. I avoid spending lots of money in it because I know it’s a domino effect when you start fixing stuff it never ends. 🙂
Having healthcare for “free” can make you forget that your pet needs their own healthcare. When my old cat went to the hospital I had to spend about 800€ with him, so I shouldn’t have forgotten about that.
Anyway, I also need to cut on the habit of living on the edge by not saving much, again having a retirement plan makes you forget you should save a bit to have a good life later.
A lot of my income goes to my healthcare and retirement plans, I don’t mind but saving for a rainy day is very important and these days I’m living on a edge, something I always dislike doing.
I love to buy new headphones and other audiophile stuff but lately that hobby was burning a lot of my money, so I decided to put some purchases on hold.
I still want to buy one or two models but I’m not in a hurry.
Regarding culture, well I need to be careful, because I want some Japanese books for my collection and also some CD’s but I must balance my purchases. I don’t stray too much from my favorite music, so that’s easy, but it will be hard to keep my Steam account in check. 😀
Spending on culture is by far my greatest Achilles heel, I enjoy a good book even if these days I buy them on ebay, often in 2nd hand deals, so I’m saving already.
I don’t collect optical media anymore besides CD’s, nor do I feel the need. A certain Korean movie lover I know must be nodding in disapproval.
Netflix might be ephemeral, but it’s enough for my family. My kids enjoy kids stuff, my wife enjoys series and I enjoy some documentaries and anime.
I need to create new habits, they must become second nature and that’s a lot of work from food to saving money, creating new habits and making them stick can be very hard.
For example I have a budget application to keep my accounts in check, it’s amazing the money you lose in small habits. Coffee for example is a lot of money in the end of the month.
Anyway, keep on walking… It can literally save your heart.
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