I didn’t know I had gained so much weight until I bought a new digital scale. I had some shopping vouchers and when I went shopping I couldn’t resist the scale when I saw it. I knew it would be a constant reminder of the fact that I needed to lose weight, but I thought I wasn’t doing badly.
I think the manual scale at home was not serving a good purpose. Like all manual things, it had some limitations so I decided to buy this digital scale to ensure I had something that was close to my actual weight.
Before I bought the scale, I had checked my weight during one of our community fan games and I was shocked at what I saw. There must have been something wrong with the instructor’s scale, perhaps it had not been calibrated because it showed that I had lost eight kilos.
I know myself and I knew I had not lost that much. “There must be something wrong with this man’s scale.” When I asked him, he said it was correct. Other people checked theirs as well and they indicated that it was close to what they already knew was their weight. I knew there was something wrong with mine but I couldn’t prove it at the time. So as soon as I saw the scale in the shop I grabbed it. We got home and fixed it and when I checked my fears had been confirmed. I had gained more weight. It was disheartening. I thought I had done enough walking to be rewarded with a weight loss.
Deep inside my heart, I knew what the challenge was and I just had to make a decision to do better than I was doing. I have been reading and learning how to achieve a desired weight but could not figure out why I am still not losing weight that fast.
Currently, I have my scale right in a corner around my bathroom. With this I get to check more often. The truth is that getting a scale is one thing and losing weight is another. Indeed having a scale without losing any weight is like having fancy Nike training shoes without doing any active sports; it would have been better to leave them in the shoe store. So now I am making some efforts to bring the numbers down. I know what I must do and I have to do it now. Now is the time to lose weight. Studies have it that many people put on weight during the holiday season. In Ghana this is usually around Christmas and so if there is something to be done it has to be done now.
Weight loss could be a Herculean task only because we have all acquired the wrong habits which have gradually become part of our lifestyle. Many people like to eat heavy and drink lot of carbonated drinks. Others never make any attempt to exercise, not even basic walking.
The danger is that nobody is getting younger and we need to take drastic steps to deal with our lifestyle issues. Even when you don’t drink or eat badly, most of us do sedentary work and hardly have the opportunity to walk around.
I have to stop eating late. Late eating and sitting in front of TV with drinks and biscuits will add to the problem. I also have to write down what we eat. When you do that you will see what you ate for a week and what you need to remove from your plate. We all have to do a rigorous and sustained exercise. Not the fianga, fianga exercise that we do for a few days and stop. To sustain the interest, perhaps we need to join forces with others. I am thinking of getting an instructor to form a fitness club in our community. I am talking about a proper weight loss club and not those who drive their cars to go and walk for 30 minutes and end up eating Omo Tuo and Banku with tilapia right after the walk. I call that social walking. They are doing that to score social points with the people within the group.
Isn’t it interesting that we all know the right things to do to stay healthy and yet we cannot do them? It takes a self-disciplined attitude to maintain a good-eating habit and to exercise. I am also thinking of getting one of these smart Garmin Wearable Tech watches to help customers to track their health and wellness activities.
Research has shown that cardiovascular diseases are on the increase, especially in the urban areas and this could probably be attributed to most of the sudden deaths we are witnessing recently. It is common these days to see a “what a shock” or “Gone too Soon” funeral posters than to see a “Home Call” or “Call to Glory” posters. This means that younger people could be dying at a faster rate than the aged.
Perhaps we have to go back to the lifestyle of people in the villages and do more walking and eat a lot of fresh food with lots of vegetables and greens. This is why we all have to make informed choices and there is nothing better than making a firm commitment to live a healthier lifestyle. I hope you can come along with me if you find yourself in the same shoes.