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1. the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause, activity, etc. “the company’s commitment to quality”
Before Clearly, I’ve never been committed to weightless. I had good thoughts and intentions, but I had never been truly dedicated to losing weight! Not until 2020 that is.
Today I reviewed my journey and I admit, I’ve not been fully committed to losing weight. I’ve had the best intentions but the lure of greasy takeaways, extra portions and of course the sweet treats from the world of plant-based options. They’ve often taken over and my weight has increased as a result of my over-eating.
Topshop (A fabulous UK brand, that has a selection of clothing for tall people,) was recently acquired by ASOS. When I visited ASOS to sign up, as I love buying pieces from Topshop, I noticed a great selection of high-waisted skirts.
I envisioned myself slipping into one and showing off my amazing toned and curvy figure. And I must say, ‘I looked FABULOUS!’ I then downloaded a running plan from the web, and I’ve committed to start it from this Monday! In 2016 I committed and completed a ½ Marathon.
This year, if the event goes to plan, I hope to run for most or all the course – 13.1 miles. Today: ‘I commit to my weight-loss ‘I commit to completing a ½ marathon this year.’ ‘I commit to sticking to my new running plan.’ ‘I commit to manifesting positive change.’
I remember the times I would spend avoiding my reflection. I didn’t feel I was worthy of looking at myself in the mirror. I mean, I had eaten so much that I felt ugly, both inside and out. Those fairy-tales always spoke of the most beautiful girls in the world. You wake up and you look amazing. A Fairy Godmother could fly by and zap out the perfect ballgown for you. No problem!
Mirrors showcasing beauty to beautiful people and highlighting those voids you manage to block out for the most part. In a world where our society provides some with the joys a nice compliment and those that ‘seem’ less favourable, with negative comments. It’s a challenge to get through the shit and stay focused on your weight loss goals.
I hear you! I understand you! I am YOU!
I’m on my weight loss journey and I find there are challenges along the way. Some are nice, others are okay and then the rats chew on your ankles and hope you stop looking after your health. They hope you fail, then they’ll continue to label you FATSO.
’Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the healthiest one of them all?’ • You will reach your goal weight. • You are becoming healthier every day. • Your reflection is glowing. • You are beautiful. • You are valued.
Today, I look in the mirror every day. I smile and speak my positive affirmations. I love my body. I love my curves. I love my tiger stripes.
Remember, there is only one version of you in this entire universe.
This is one of the most frequently asked questions when a person begins their weight-loss journey.
How do I lose weight?
How to lose weight?
How to lose weight fast?
How to burn fat?
How to lose 10lbs overnight?
The questions are endless, but the core remains the same within each, ‘lose weight.’
In some sense weight loss should be easy, because all advice (most advice) point to the following:
Healthy eating
Follow a fitness plan
Have the determination to stick to the above.
I’ve found that many sources of information, fail to delve deeper and highlight the following:
Healthy eating – Changes to diet, Allergies, Portions, how much is too much? Plant-based benefits?
Follow a fitness plan – What fitness plan? Resistance training for weight loss?
Have the determination to stick to the above. What is the determination? How to identify motivation? The effects on your mind when you fail?
There are a plethora of key elements that derive from weight loss but most outlets just tell you to focus on one area. When in reality one must work on all three elements to achieve successful weight-loss.
For example: I’ve known someone who solely focused on her diet. Yes, she was successful in losing weight but her muscles were weak and her mind was not prepared for the aftermath of substantial weight-loss, such as loose skin.
Another example: A person that focuses specifically on fitness, fails to address the fact that unhealthy eating got them to become overweight. Thus, what you begin to find with some people, is that they quickly gain weight the moment they lag a bit with either diet or fitness.
A final example: An individual who focuses on fitness and diet, may lose weight, and look fabulous. However, they fail to address the mindset that aided their weight-gain.
In short, to lose weight, you must work on all three elements. This will not only help you to reach and sustain your goals – it will help you to become a healthy version of yourself.
I’ll be sharing free plant-based meal planners, fitness planner and positive mindset documents. However, only you can lose weight!
Information is out that and there’s plenty of it when it comes to health and fitness. It’s your responsibility to sift out what applies to you and it’s your responsibility to apply best practices to achieve all your health goals on time.
Why is it important to reflect? It’s important to reflect because it allows us the chance to pause and assess how things are going and if we’ve accomplished our goals. Reflection helps us to work through areas in our lives that we feel are stagnant or personal trauma that may have been holding us back.
January 2021 for Unique Fatso I had a pleasant start, as my NYE was spent with family, reflecting, and vocalising my gratitude for everything I’m thankful for. January 2021 has been a massive contrast to January 2020 – which I entered depressed, due to a failed relationship and other personal challenges. I started 2020 on a low. It wasn’t until mid-2020, where I started to reflect on what’s causing me pain, why I feel like my life isn’t moving forward and what I can do to heal and progress.
Once I began reflective writing, my life started to improve, and I began to feel happiness in my life! It had been a long time since I had genuinely smiled. What I discovered was:
I had been holding onto 2019 traumas. I think mainly because I had hope that things would improve. I see the good in many people and I try to do the best I can, to ensure that they’re happy. In June 2020, I learnt that I’m not responsible for the happiness of others.
I never stopped and took time out to celebrate my accomplishments to date. I was forever talking down about myself and ignoring how far I’ve come.
I Ignored the messages our universe kept putting out for me to see and understand. Be myself, listen to my voice and know that my words have meaning, and my life has a purpose.
From that moment on, I started to reflect more – not always in the form of writing. It was hard at some points. Even recollecting the whole experience now, makes me feel vulnerable. I can tell you for sure, that this process is not an easy one. I’ve cried several times, as reality pierced through my heart and embedded itself to my soul.
So how has January 2021 been? It has been phenomenal! Extremely challenging but phenomenal all the same. I’m posting more here and I’m feeling more relaxed about opening-up to you all and sharing my weight loss journey to date. My confidence is growing with the plant-based recipes that I infrequently try out. And I’m building my experience with creating videos, that aim to support others on their weight loss journey. (I’m a complete novice with all these elements of social media and being present online.) My apologies! January 2021 was positive and highly insightful. I’ve grown. I’m growing. There are no ceilings above me.
My liquid intake consisted of the following soft drinks:
Coke-a-Cola
Sugar water
Syrup and water
Various milkshakes (made with full fat cow’s milk)
Cow’s milk Semi-skimmed or full-fat – served in large pint-sized glasses. Most often consumed with chunky chocolate-chip cookies.
Mixed soft drinks – I used to mix Cola, Sprite and Fanta.
At the time I only thought about the thirst I was feeling and what to drink to quench that thirst. I never gave much thought as to what I was filling my body with.
Sugar (excessive amounts.)
Aspartame
High fructose corn syrup
Yellow 5
Phosphoric acid
Saccharin
Sodium benzoate
Alongside many more detrimental elements.
I’m sure this behaviour, blended with such ingredients contributed to my weight gain and issues such as acne and low nutrition.
Today
Whenever I’m thirsty I will drink one of the following options:
Water (prefer still, sometimes with a few drops of lemon juice.)
Orange juice.
Apple juice.
Other freshly pressed juice combinations.
Herbal tea.
Plant-based hot chocolate.
Plant-based tea.
Homemade plant-based smoothies – sharing recipes on my YouTube channel UniqueFatso
These drinks are loaded with:
Vitamins
Minerals
Antioxidants
Essential nutrients
Good health!
Gone are the days that I filled with cow’s milk.
Today my acne is less prominent, and my health is a lot better.
Today I feed my mind with knowledge on good foods to eat for my health, my body with good nutrients and my soul with good intentions.
Know that although you may be devouring bad foods like I was all those years ago. You can change your diet for better health! Better to start now, than never.
It may seem impossible and beyond your expectations. But why place limitations on what you CAN and WILL achieve?
Why restrict yourself? You can adopt a healthier lifestyle if you truly want to. It by no means will be easy for you. However, you can start small like switching from animal milk to a plant-based alternative. You can also reduce your soft-drink intake and have water.
I know, critics will tell you it’s boring and stupid. Only, your body will thank you wholeheartedly!
Your skin will glow with good health and you’ll feel better within yourself.
From time to time I will post about my period. Initially, my concerns were the strong pains I was experiencing. Which I later found out was caused by Bean.
Fast forward to today and here I am writing about my night, last night.
I had a nice hot shower, changed into some warm Harry Potter nightwear, (Gryffindor always!) Slipped quietly into bed, wearing a tampon. I was finally in bed, after a long day working on various things.
As I now like to sleep listening to podcasts, I tuned into The New Yorker, The Writers Voice. Falling blissfully to sleep.
I must add that my rest was wonderful, and I slept long and deep.
However, I woke up around 0300 to turn over and discovered I had created a small puddle of blood. I had been laying on my stomach, so comfortably. So there I was wet between my thighs and trying not to drip on my way to the bathroom.
Minutes later, I was thankful as hot water sprayed over my body, washing the crimson stains off my body and down the drain. I lathered myself up with Raspberry & Vanilla Original Source shower gel, feeling refreshed and clean.
Menstruation.
Many people talk about the pain that comes along and how they can be remedied. I too have posted many times about pain and what has helped me to alleviate my pain. However, I’ve rarely seen any posts about the mess!
I know it probably has never happened to some of you, however, I also know it has happened to many.
That morning was a bloody mess and the blood that seeped through and stained my sheets looks horrible. I mean, what can I use to clean that out? After thinking about my wet night, I concluded it was because I slept on my stomach. But I was soooooooooooo comfortable!
I guess what I’m trying to say is, menstruation is natural and while that moment during my cycle was icky. I think it’s great to have these conversations and share experiences with others. Yes, I menstruate but I’m still learning about periods – all the time.
Don’t be embarrassed about leaking out, it happens and you’ve got to move through it and continue forward.
Apologies for posting up late – I tend to sleep a lot during my period.
I know you have looked at your body in the mirror many times and felt disgusted at your reflection. How you’ve cried yourself to sleep, wishing that you could be thinner and wear whatever you want.
I’ve seen your past and the bullies that haunt your nightmares and cause you so much emotional pain. I get you; I once was the same.
Before I would try to lose weight but then someone would say something nasty to me and I would regress into a worse state of emotional eating. Food was the cause of my pain but also my pleasure. I grew bigger, chunkier and surely fatter! My image depicted that of one like the Fatso my Grandmother always saw when she looked at me.
Back then I never knew that there were other people out there, who shared the same struggles. I know it sounds crazy but I believed I was alone in this world, the only girl trying to lose weight.
In some respects, I was the only person:
Wearing black at family parties.
Wearing jeans that chaffed between my fat thighs.
Never had a boyfriend because I had no confidence in myself. I had never felt worthy of anything.
I was the only person in my circles that went through such a horrible experience.
Today
You’ve started making positive steps to adopt a more positive mindset.
You look at your reflection and admire how beautiful your eyes are, how supple your skin feels and how much joy your smile brings to you.
I agree, taking weight-loss one day at a time is better than doing nothing and expecting everything.
Know that one day you’ll reach your goal weight.
Know that you are wonderful.
Know that your body is beautiful.
Your body is beautiful!
You are beautiful.
Live your best life, my friend, there is no one in our universe quite like you.
What on earth was a portion? I used to fill my bowl or load my plate with food. My thoughts were, ‘how much food can I get onto this plate?’ and ‘I wonder if there will be some more when I’ve finished this.’
I think it’s fair to say I had no sense of the right portion. Or even when to stop adding to my plate. I never cared, I wanted to eat everything and enjoy the tastes of the meals I once deemed as great! I wasn’t into blogging back then, but below is an image of how overloaded my plate would look, give you a visual idea. **This is not an image of my actual plate
Although I felt guilty about the kinds of food I was devouring, I rarely considered the portions. It kind of felt okay to just eat as much as I wanted, until I was ready to pop.
Back then, my mindset was icy, food was my only friend…
Today
I use the following to help me to cook with the correct portions:
Tiny bowls
Measuring cups.
Small kitchen scale.
I don’t always get it right every time, but it’s a lot better than before.
I’ve learnt that portions are important, one of the fundamental elements of successfully losing weight. Gone are the days I spent treating each meal if I were attending an Eat All You Can Eat Buffett! I’m more conscious of quantities and I feel much better with extra vegetables, as opposed to extra slabs of meat.
Weightloss is about learning and implanting what you’ve learnt, into your weightloss journey. There is no magic spell you can cast to lose weight.
3 key aspects:
Food
Fitness
Focus
All 3 must be worked on in unison to maximise your weight loss. This is by no means easy to do.
I digress.
Enjoy your weight loss journey and embrace every aspect you learn about health.
Unique Fatso 