Dirk Wessels asked: I believe there are many diets out there that work and generally I can not blame the particular diet for my failed attempts in the past. Everything boils down to attitude.
All my life I have been somewhat overweight and oversized. I remember on the day of Princess Diana’s wedding some of the kids in my class asked me how much I weighed and I told them 72Kgs. This is not so bad, except that I was in grade 7 (12 years old). I stopped growing in length about 2 years after that, but by then I stood 1.92M tall. The problem is that I did not stop “growing” in weight. By the time I left school I weighed around 105KGs.
While I was at school, my mother, sister and I tried every possible diet under the sun, but nothing lasted and soon afterwards we would pick up the bit of weight we had lost during the diet.
By 1996 I had moved to Johannesburg and my mom moved up there for 1 year to fill the position of national director for Child and Family Welfare and we decided to share an apartment. On the first of February 1997 I bought a book called Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins. Many of you will probably know Anthony Robbins who, in my opinion, is the greatest inspirational speaker in the world. I sat down in a restaurant to start reading this book and I could not get myself to stop reading. Eventually, by midnight, the restaurant closed and they chased me away, so I returned home and continued reading Unlimited Power, which I finished during the course of the next day.
The book is not dedicated to weight loss at all, but Anthony does mention how he lost 36 pounds (16Kgs) in a couple of weeks and he gives one piece of advice regarding weight loss: “If you want to loose weight, buy a blender” (paraphrased). That was all the motivation I needed. The book had inspired me so much that, at that moment, I believed I could achieve anything. I took off to the shops and bought a blender, a scale and a bunch of fruit. When I got home, I told my mom what I had read in the book and that I would only be eating (drinking) fruit for the next couple of months until I had lost at least 10KGs. I also threatened that I would move out of the apartment and leave her alone in this big, scary city if she prepared any food other than blended fruit for me. Being the angel that she is, my mom agreed to this and decided to join me on my fruit diet.
On the second of February 1997 I weighed 122KGs. That was day 1, a Sunday, and I was still inspired from the book, so it went fairly easy. I don’t believe it matters what fruit you use. Many people say that bananas are fattening, but I have found that I need at least 1-2 bananas in every mix to enjoy it. Generally I add 2 apples, 1-2 oranges, 2 bananas and something like watermelon or “spanspek” into a blender and mush it all together into a fruit “goo”. Add a cup of water in the beginning to thin the mixture and add a dash of lemon juice to prevent the mixture from turning an unbearable brown color within a couple of hours.
On day 2, the Monday, I took a 2 liter bottle of fruit goo to work. This raised a couple of eyebrows as the mixture does not look very appetizing. Those few that agreed to taste it though, admitted that it actually tasted much better than it looked. However, all the stares and frowns did not bother me, as I was determined to make this diet work. The interesting thing was that by the time I got home on the Monday afternoon, I was still not hungry. Yes, in my mind I could imagine enjoying a juicy piece of steak, but physically I did not feel hungry.
I lost more than 2 Kgs in the first 2 days On the Tuesday morning I jumped on the scale and was pleasantly surprised to find that I had lost more than 2KGs. The needle on the scale rested halfway between 119 and 120KGs. In 2 days I had lost 2 KGs and I still didn’t feel hungry or deprived of food as I had on previous diets. This inspired me again and I could not wait to get to work and tell all those skeptics about my progress. Strangely enough, by the time I got to the office, I had decided not to tell anybody that I had lost 2KGs, but rather to push through and see how quickly I could loose another 2. It would, after all, be far more impressive to say that I had lost 4KGs than 2. 2 Kilograms had always been my limit on previous diets. I would loose the first 2 kilograms fairly quickly and then it would stop there. I did not have the discipline to see a diet through, but this time I was determined to get further. So I quietly walked in and tried not to draw too much attention to myself or my 2 liter bottle of fruit goo.
By the Wednesday morning I could not help myself and jumped on the scale again. My original plan was to only weigh myself once a week, but I was hopeful and again, I did not have the discipline to wait another day. Fortunately, the scale-needle god smiled on me and decided to rest just below the 119KG mark. That was 3 kilograms in 3 days!!! And I still did not feel hungry or feel the need to eat solid foods. I was on a mission here. Anthony Robbins’ advice was working and he had lost 36 pounds in a couple of weeks, so I could do the same!! Whenever I felt hungry, I simply poured another glass of fruit goo and when we got home in the evenings, my mom prepared another bottle of goo for us to share during the evening.
Less than three weeks later I had lost 10 kilograms!! Everybody at work knew and could see that I had lost weight and now, instead of laughing at the mixture I was drinking, they asked me about my diet everyday. How do you do it, what fruits do you put in that mixture, don’t you get hungry and may I taste it? Instead of laughing, these were the questions they were asking now.
During that third week, I got home one afternoon to find my mom, who had also lost around 7KGs by then, sitting in the lounge with an unusually guilty look on her face. I asked her what was wrong and she immediately looked down at the empty plate in front of her. She had bought some salty cracks (biscuits) and yes, by that time I was quite eager on putting some solid food in my mouth as well. We agreed to eat some salty cracks with cheese and tomato from then on and a week later we decided to give the diet a break, but simply to try and maintain our weight. By the 28th of February I weighed 111KGs, so I had lost 11KGs in 26 days.
During the first couple of days, I was loosing 1 kg every day. Pretty impressive, but obviously you can’t expect to keep that up. At some stage I remember my weight standing still for about 3-4 days. The scale-needle god was not smiling so brightly anymore. One morning when I got on the scale and noticed that the needle was still stuck on the same weight, I decided to move to the next level (whatever it takes, remember). Now, I’m not very big on exercise, but we did live in an apartment on the ground floor of a 10 or 12 storey building. So I jumped off the scale and ran out the front door with only my sleeping shorts and my slightly reduced stomach sticking out and proceeded to run (okay, I lie… I walked most of the way) up and down the stairs of this building. By the next morning I could see that the needle had moved a little and I continued walking/running up and down the stairs every morning. Everyone knows that exercise will help you lose weight, so that is not the great revelation I want to share with you. The point that I do want to make is that my attitude was right. I was going to lose weight!! There was no question in my mind and I believed that absolutely. Therefore, when I ran into a bit of difficulty, I did not give up as before but I simply changed my plan of action, by adding a bit of exercise to my routine and continued on.
The results I had booked a 4 week holiday in Greece for May that year and decided that I would continue to weigh myself every 2 days or so and ensure that I don’t pick up any weight before the holiday. By the time I left for Greece, I still weighed 111KGs. This may not sound important, but how many times have people told you that you should loose weight slowly or you will simply pick it up again, and more. Well, here’s my answer. I had a motivation to ensure that I don’t pick that weight up again because I wanted to look good and feel good about myself during my holiday. It worked. I don’t know how to express in words how I felt when I walked onto that beach on Myconos (the first island I visited).
Firstly, being from South Africa where we don’t have nudist beaches, just being there was quite a treat for me. Walking around without a shirt and not feeling embarrassed about the size of my stomach was absolutely amazing. For the first time in my life girls actually came up to talk to me and when I went to talk to them, they did not immediately give me a cold shoulder. On IOS, the party capital of Greece, I met a Swedish girl and we actually had a mini fling there for a couple of days. Something I had never experienced before. I left to go visit 2 other islands, but I went back to IOS and she was actually happy to see me. Again, something I was not used to before. I don’t believe anybody treated me differently because I had lost a bit of weight. In fact, I was still overweight and could have done with losing another 15-20KGs. Added to that, if you’ve seen my pic on my weight-loss blog, you’ll know that losing a bit of weight can’t change that face. Instead, I believe they treated me differently because I was more confident and at peace with myself and my own body.
In 1997 I was earning a pretty good salary, considerably more than most of my friends. Even so, between February 1997 and June 2000 my salary trippled without changing jobs. Generally people say you have to change jobs to get those sized increases, but I believe I achieved it within the same company simply because I had a newfound confidence in myself.
Success breeds success!!
Bulk Vending Machines
