Coach Cathy was overweight, now she helps others lose weight…
It all started about 3 years ago; I had an event to attend with Hubby. I couldn’t get any dress to fit and I was shocked- what had happened to me? I quizzed myself silently as I took a look at the mirror, terrified at the reflection I saw. In that fit of disappointment I looked back to see if a strange lady had magically appeared behind me to play pranks. I was horrified, my worst nightmare stared me in the face: I was FAT!!!!!
Truth is, after I had my first child I quickly got my pre-baby body back and so I felt it would be same after the birth of my second child; but a number of factors had created a new reality at the time: family planning injections that messed up my hormones and FOOD INDISCPLINE! I would buy cake bread from a popular bakery in Festac Town and wolf it down alone almost every other day!!!, also my mum was around for ‘Omugwo’ and would cook yam and pepper soup, starch and banga , garri, rice, milo and milk, pap etc. She would serve me in those ‘who send you?’ bowls and I would gobble it all and even ask for second and third helpings.
I started lone attempts to lose the weight but I didn’t really know how to go about it: I tried fad diets, magic teas and pills that promised ‘magical results’ in record time and sadly nothing worked oh. Then I read up stuff on exercises and weight loss and just as I began and had lost some weight I think about 7kg after about 2months, WHAM!!!!…..
I discovered I was pregnant again so I had to stop.
Fast forward to September 2015, I was a whooping 83kg, the biggest yours humbly had ever been in this life: sad and crest falling, my good self-esteem was gone with the winds- it was terrible. Then a dear friend of mine; the amazing E’, who also had weight issues asked me to join her as she wanted to start her weight loss journey; well I had nothing to loose any more so I obliged her.
The working out started but because I wasn’t eating CLEAN / HEALTHY and practicing PORTION CONTROL I wasn’t seeing results: I knew something was amiss and so I researched and found out our food intake is about 75% – 80% of our weight loss journey. Armed with this new information I started all over again but I wasn’t CONSISTENT and after about 2 weeks I lost a mere 2kg. It felt disappointing to say the least- soooo pissed, I just muttered : ‘abeg this thing isn’t working jare, I’m not doing again.’ I threw hope out of the window and quit.
In December 2015, I paid a visit to my girlfriend on Christmas day and noted she had lost all the weight, ARHHHH!!!!! It was surreal as much as it was pleasurable. She looked hot and I looked like her grandma; she actually said I looked like ‘Michellin Tyre’ choi!!! As I left her house that night I made up my mind I was doing this and no power from the pit of hell would stop me this time.
January 2nd 2016, I went for a job at Lekki phase 1 and entered a restaurant to get a quick bite with a friend. I needed to use the rest room and there I was staring in the mirror. The sight that greeted me was shocking; yet again. There was this full length mirror opposite the door and as I ran in I was greeted by the sight of my very fat self, I broke down in tears. You see, prior to that I used to avoid looking at mirrors, I would just use a small mirror when I wanted to make my face up and move on, so imagine how I felt when I saw my reflection, if I was slacking before, this incident heightened my resolve to shed the weight and fast.
January 6th I checked my weight. It was 86kg. I told hubby to take me to take me out for Ice cream because I wanted to binge on it one last time and he obliged me. lol. The next day I called up my friend and she gave me tips and shared meal plans with me and I started. I recall my daughter laughing at me and asking me: ‘mommy is it like that they are dancing in the video?’ –Apparently a reference to my comical attempt at reproducing the dance steps in the video-, ‘mommy don’t break the floor with all this skips o’ I ignored her and was DETERMINED! I was gonna get my body back and I wasn’t stopping until I achieved my goal. This time I MEANT IT!
I must confess it wasn’t easy ; my flesh rebelled, I felt pains all over my body, my knees hurt so much cos of all the dance exercise video I used ,skipping and jumping jacks et al. Convinced I wouldn’t be able to wear heels ever again but I knew what I wanted and pushed myself. I recall I would always call my friend to ‘check in’ daily, I made her my coach ‘by force’, why? I needed to be accountable. I also told hubby to buy fruits for me instead of my ‘favourite junks’ and to encourage me to take lots of water and work out no matter how tired I was and he did just that.
Initially, I tried using Uncle ShaunT and Sister Jillian work out videos but I got bored easily and wasn’t feeling it but I continued nonetheless until I got introduced to Keaira Lashae and I got hooked. 10 minutes and babe has got you sweating profusely plus her videos are fun and lively, just what was sufficient enough to get me motivated. I started with just 10 minutes work out videos and kept increasing the duration, at a point I was doing 1,500 skips daily; morning and night then I would do 60 – 90 minutes abs videos.
I would prepare my special meals the night before; wake up in the morning, get my kids ready for school, pray, work out, drop my baby at crèche, head to work, get my baby from crèche on my way back, get home, cook for the family and make my meals separately; work out, put the kids to sleep, do some chores, pray/study the word and go to bed.
It was really hectic I tell ya- but I needed my sexy back so I continued… I didn’t bother to check my weight again until about 4weeks after I had started and noticed I had lost 6kg. can you imagine the esctasy? gush! oh the joy I felt…I told everyone that cared to listen that I had lost 6kg and got the most hurtful and sarcastic statements ever (don’t ever let people’s opinion especially the negative ones get to you).
I recall attending an event with hubby and I called out to him to come assist me with something because I had so much on me and one ‘Thin nosy lady’ from nowhere just said “Instead of you to stand up and help yourself you are calling him to assist you, see how fat you are, help yourself and move around o” Huh? I was dumbfounded, did this chick just say that to me? I wondered, is it your hubby or your fat? It took all the Jesus in me to not scratch her eyes out. Some people can be insensitive abeg….ahhh… A quick word of advice, if you see someone with weight issues, odds are the person is most likely already unhappy or self-conscious already. If you have nothing positive to say to the person, especially if you’re not really close to that person, please keep quiet and move along, nobody needs that kind of negativity around them, hissss!!!
Well back to my gist, along the line I would cheat once in a while but most times, I kept my pace…I continued. Something happened mid-way, one of these days, I had eaten something that was almost stale and so I began to have a running stomach. At a point I was crawling to the rest room because I was too weak to get up. Hubby came back from work and went to get palm oil for me to take to neutralise the effect of what I had eaten. When he gave me I refused to take it initially and when he asked me why I said ‘palmoil is fattening’ lollll, the look on his face was priceless, hahahahha, of course he made me take 2 full tablespoons and I felt better after a while.
I had set my daughter’s birthday, April 2nd , as my target date ,to have lost at least 10 – 15kg but imagine my surprise when I checked my weight on the 27th of March and I weighed 65kg, I had lost 21kg. I proceeded to do a picmix and my joy knew no bounds when I saw this.
After this I had to slow down on my work out routine but continued to eat clean and of course, exercise and I went down further to 60kg. Since then, I’ve been able to maintain my weight between 60- 61kg which is my ideal weight according to my BMI.
My biggest lesson in all this is, nothing is impossible if you are DISCIPLINED and DETERMINED, be willing to PAY THE PRICE to achieve your desired RESULTS, CONSISTENCY always pays off.
Coach Cathy is a UK Certified Health and Fitness coach, Weightloss Coach and Child Nutritionist. A God-lover, wife, and mum of three kids, she’s helped t0ns of women all over the world lose weight healthily since she began her online weight loss programme, SimplyFab Fitness barely a year ago. You can contact her on Instagram @coachcathyfitness, or WhatsApp on +2348062468325.
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