Belly fat and Other short stories

Belly fat and Other short stories

“Hope is not a strategy”, John Maxwell.

The belly fat is still there! After four weeks, four whole weeks of exercise. Well, three weeks of exercise and one week of lounging if we are being really sincere. Still...

The scales have refused to budge also. Ladies and gentlemen, in the past four weeks, I have lost a grand total of 0.2 kilograms!

This year I made some unofficial New Year resolutions. Eat better, exercise more, live more... But I did not want to rush them you know, because I was afraid that I would not be able to continue through the year. So I decided to take them a little slowly and didn’t really do any exercise or healthy eating in January. Needed to plan and build up enough zeal and willpower to start and sustain the weight loss/healthy eating goal.

Anyway, early February, I realised that I had been sitting on my bum for a bit and some belly (well a lot of belly), had somehow crept up on me. I blame the puffpuffs, chocolates, cakes, and ‘Churros’, my latest addition.

“Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” Kate Moss.

Kate Moss has obviously never tasted freshly fried Churros dipped in Nutella and sprinkled with sugar on a cold winter day. Skinny could never ever ever taste so good!

But I digress.

Anyway, so I started slowly with the exercise and hoped the healthy eating bit would catch up. There’s this square right in front of my house and on the first day, I jogged round two times and walked the remaining four times. Then I gradually increased the distance and within two weeks, I was jogging ten laps at a stretch.

But the scale wouldn’t budge.

And the naysayers! Just the other day, Julius told me that “upon all your jogging we never see anything...”

Now I know two weeks is pretty short so I was not discouraged... initially.

Instead, I pumped up my exercise routine; increased my pace and distance, switched up my routes, and pushed myself a little each day.

I started dieting also; not them fuzzy fad diets, just portion control and upping my intake of fruit, veg and water, and thanking God that there’s no Churros vendor near my house!

So now its four weeks and I proudly climbed the scale this morning. 0.2kg.

It was very discouraging, and I almost thought of quitting. That’s when I realised that I had been going about this wrongly; I had been too busy focusing on one specific outcome, or two, that I was missing out on loads of other benefits I have gained since I started exercising.

It’s true that the weight is still there, and my belly still has a long way to go...

But...

·         I have not gained any weight

·         I feel so much lighter and stronger

·         I have so much more energy (I think!)

·         I am healthier and reducing my risks for obesity, cardiovascular disease, etc

·         I get to wear my gym clothes that have been folded up for more than a year

·         I get to feel a sense of achievement and pride every time I jog, every time I push myself, every time I do much more than I thought I was capable of. Today I ran twelve laps!

·         I get to dream again; I’ll run marathons, I’ll go hiking long distances, and I’ll climb mountains... I may even learn a new sport.

Most importantly, I am learning to enjoy the process.

I love the feel of the early morning breeze on my face, the pain when I push myself a little too hard, the way my body protests at the start but later eases into the jog and loosens up...

I have also noticed that when I use the right mirror, and stand at just the right angle, my belly looks almost flat.

The belly fat is still there, but it has stopped jiggling when I walk.

“Care about the journey”, Davidb.