My Story; Loosing 60kg Within Two Years

Slim with ease- SWE boasts of balance in food consumption and not being a diet, breaking the glass of the diet world. It is the second year anniversay  of SWE, which was borne out of an aha moment, and the CEO, Nina Ndubisi believes that is the first step to a succesful weight loss.

Nina In Cool FM Portharcourt

At SWE, you need to eat more to loose weight and there have been many succes stories to prove this change of lifestyle works, albeit differently.

Nina Ndubisi is a food lover and from her own personal experience, she takes us through 'her journey' to a slimmer and healthier person.  Sit back, relax and enjoy this personal narration of any interviewer's delight.

SWE Give away  goodie bags, 

1. We know, that the SWE experience was birthed through a dire need, take us through that story.

I was obese no erase that – I was MORBIDLY OBESE, I was humongous. The largest size clothing a woman can get in the UK is a size 32 and I was lucky to find these sizes with elastic waist bands or those made out of stretchy material. Now I am not exaggerating when I state how big I used to be, but those who know me can testify, I could barely move, I would not go anywhere I could not drive to, I used to make up excuses as to why I could not go anywhere that I could not drive my car to. I found myself being excluded socially from my friends (or maybe it was in my mind), I knew I was being teased and mocked behind my back, I remember once my children coming home from school telling me how other kids had been teasing them on how fat their mother was. Despite a couple of health scares, warnings from medical personnel, I kept on living in denial and fooling myself and believing that; I was NOT FAT, it was just baby fat (at 40+), that would one day melt away, I took solace in the fact that people used to say; “well Nina is fat but at least she carries it well.

Nina On a media tour in PH with Anu a show host

I had been complaining of serious knee problems since 2005, I could barely stand for more than 5 minutes without looking for something to lean over (something that would actually take off the weight from my upper body that was crippling my knees), kneeling down at the altar for communion became problematic so I stopped going forward for communion.

Being a, medical personnel, the need to perform CPR (cardio pulmonary resuscitation) is inevitable which means regular training to update techniques is required. 

In 2012, I then summoned up the courage to visit my doctor I use the phrase “summoning up courage” because over here in the UK, whenever you fall within the category of being slightly overweight any ailment you present the doctor with, will be attributed to your weight. The doctor decided to refer me to the surgical orthopedic consultant (Mr Thilagarajah).

Before I even saw the doctor I was sent for an x-ray by the nurse. 

I said a silent prayer as I mounted the x-ray table praying that it would not collapse underneath me, as I lay there waiting patiently for them to take

photographs of my bones I tried so hard not to breath, worried that any slight movement might cause “katakata”(as my people say), after a few minutes it was finally done and I stood up.

After a long wait it was finally my turn to see the consultant, as I walked in I saw this skinny man sitting in a chair take a quick glance at me from head to toe, as I sat down, without even exchanging pleasantries he went straight for the jugular and asked “so what are you doing about your weight?”, without knowing what I was doing, I looked around his consulting room to make sure I was in the orthopedic clinic and not a weight loss clinic, when I was convinced that I was in the right place I replied, I am unable to exercise because my knees are limiting my movement, he rudely stopped me and said it’s not about exercising its more about what you eat. I started to feel a bit uncomfortable and felt my eyes welling up as I knew I was fat but it would hurt when someone reinforced it.

After looking at my x ray, he told me that my knees looked like the knees of an 82 year old woman and I am a candidate for knee replacement surgery in the next 5-10 years and concluded; “I doubt if you will live that long”. 

A few days later I started what I thought was a healthy way to become healthier and in three days I lost 2 lbs (0.91kg), I reduced the amount of food I ate by cutting out EVERYTHING!!! That was high in fat and high in calories, I lived on fruits during the day and having just my main meal in the evening and I believed my stomach had shrunk.  On the third night I sat down and did a review of the week, I was beginning to become bored on this “diet”, I knew it wouldn’t last, I needed something sustainable, something that was not too regimental, something that would let me eat what I wanted, when I wanted (within reason) and still lose weight. 

The next morning  I went to a shop and was looking at some healthy/diet magazines, I found one that I could relate to, I read it from cover to cover and was inspired, I then signed up with them; I was officially weighed in I was given a food diary to maintain and given a list of foods and was told I could eat as much of what was on that list as I liked, the list was huge and looking through the list it seemed like every food I usually ate was on it, I was also given two other lists that and told I had to choose one a day from each list to ensure I consumed the recommended allowance of calcium and fiber each day. I was quite skeptical looking at the lists as I knew there was no way I could eat all that they were advising I should eat daily, the plan they gave me actually meant I was going to be eating more than I would normally eat, the only difference which I had not realized at that time was; all the food was being cooked in a healthier way. 

I decided to give it a try and keep on going for the weekly weigh in sessions and meetings. I took onboard all that was discussed at these weekly meetings, although all the meals that were being discussed were English dishes I listened carefully and I started to apply the principles when cooking our traditional Nigerian dishes such as; Rice, moimoi, plantain, soup and stew, thankfully this plan was right up my street as there was no restrictions on portion control, calorie counting or times when you could or could not eat.

I could have still had the occasional treat in my case it was ice cream and chocolate as long as it was within my daily allowance for treats, but I decided not to, when I fully recovered I went back to my weekly meetings and I was advised to make sure I have my daily treats as it is a way to make sure that I understand that I am not on a diet but rather a healthy lifestyle change, I took on board this advice and made sure that whatever I indulged in was way within my daily allowance and I followed the plan religiously and something amazing started happening – the weight started to fall off me, each week I got weighed I noticed the figures on the face of the digital scales descending, my clothes started feeling loose, people started giving me compliments, I started to feel a bit lighter on my feet and I became more energetic.

2. What were the challenges you encountered?

After 3 weeks into the plan, something really strange started to happen to me, each time I stood up the room started spinning, when I sat down I found myself feeling dizzy and faint, this happened for about 3 days, when I couldn’t take it any further, an ambulance was called and I was taken to the emergency room, the doctors ran all sorts of tests on me including a pregnancy test which all came back negative, I was kept in the emergency department for over six hours and put on intravenous fluids while the doctors racked their brains to try and find out what was wrong with me. 

After what seemed forever, one doctor came to me and asked me if I had gone through any change in my normal life that might have affected me emotionally, I told him no, he then asked what the last thing I had eaten was, it then dawned on me that it could be the change in my eating habits that was the cause of my ailment. I informed the doctor that I had started a healthy eating regime and I had stopped feeding my body with sugary foods, processed foods and all other unhealthy foods I used to eat, the doctor asked me to give him a lowdown of what I used to eat on a daily basis, after doing my best to give him as much as I could remember, he stopped me and told me that I was suffering from; withdrawal symptoms, he explained to me that I must have seriously abused my body in the past for my body to have reacted in the way it was reacting for not getting what it was so used to in just 3 weeks, he told me that he could cure me within seconds by getting me a mars bar from the nearest vending machine or I could choose to go “cold turkey” and sweat it out, I chose the latter. I was kept in for two days before being discharged and I vowed never to contaminate my body with refined sugars any longer.

I would be lying if I said that my journey so far has been smooth sailing without me feeling the need to succumb to temptation, going off the rails, falling off the bandwagon or anyhow you may describe it. But one thing I can say which is something I have not mentioned; is that at the start of my journey, I asked God to give me the tools I needed to start this journey and see it to the end, I asked with faith and he handed me the tools. What tools? I hear some of you asking, well he gave me gifts that I needed to see me through on this journey, these gifts were; Determination, willpower, motivation and the ability to say no.

3. How did you overcome them?

I live in a country where there seems to be more fast food restaurants than people, now I will be lying if I say that in the last two years I have not yielded into temptation and gone and indulged, I have a couple of times, but if I don’t find myself going for the healthiest options, I always find myself riddled with guilt whilst eating the “bad food” and this guilt alone, tends to take away the whole pleasure of the food away from my mouth. I have also noticed that my body is no longer used to eating these “bad foods” and I find myself in agony with severe abdominal and epigastria, sometimes accompanied with nausea and vomiting, each time I find myself overindulging in them. 

Overindulging is not what I find myself doing often, it only happens once in a while, say I go for a party and there is cake, I must admit I will eat cake and I may not just stop at one slice, I might find myself going for two or three slices, riddled with guilt as I eat it knowing well that I will end up with an abdominal discomfort. I have found it easier to continue on my journey by not depriving myself of a little what I fancy, the trick is having the willpower to stop and remembering the saying that goes; “a minute on the lips is a lifetime on the hips”. Another tip is to not dwell on it the next day, rather than moping over it the following day I always do as my consultant says and that is; “to draw a line underneath what happened the previous day and start afresh”. And this is how I have managed to overcome my challenges, my yielding to temptation etc.

One final thing I have now adopted and that is; I never go anywhere without my “survival kit” – this is a cooler bag that most of my friends can now associate me with which contains; several portions of fruit a fat free yoghurt, low fat salad dressing, water and diet drinks, I take this bag with me EVERYWHERE, work, visits to friends houses and even parties, as I don’t want anyone giving me an excuse and saying; “oh sorry Nina we have run out of diet drinks/we don’t have any low fat salad dressing” etc. Yep some people might say I am blowing this my journey way out of control, but my response to them is; “unless you have walked in my shoes, you will never know where I am coming from” and I have come too far in my journey to let a social outing derail me.

4. A lot of times people who embark on the weight loss journey give up when they don't see any material change. Did this happen to you? What kept you going in difficult times?

I have been fortunate enough not to have the urge to give up maybe because there are a lot of naysayers that I need to prove wrong starting from the Orthopedic consultant and some “bad belle people”. Also it will cost me a heck of a fortune if I gave up now as I sold all my oversized clothes on eBay and used the money to buy smaller sized clothes, as well as the anticipation to find out what it’s like to live within a smaller body, as I have lived in an oversized body for so many years I just want to find out how it feels living in a smaller sized body.

In addition to these mentioned, I can also say that the divine gifts of determination and willpower I acquired at the start of my journey has helped me through, since August 2013 I have been struggling to get to my next mini target, the scales have been fluctuating each time I step on them, I see myself 0.5kg away to my next target and the following week when I come to weigh in, the dial on the scale shows I am back to needing to lose 2-3kg to reach my next mini target, this has been going on for the last year but I know I have finally cracked it and hopefully by this time next week-hopefully I should have cracked it.

 

5. Can you share some of the lifestyle changes you made and if you had any particular difficulties making these changes.

I have not made any drastic changes to my lifestyle apart from the commonly known things people do when they decide to live a healthier life such as; cutting out the junk, adding more fruits and vegetables into my diets, drinking more water and attempting to exercise more. At first this was quite a challenge and I did have an adverse reaction (withdrawal symptoms) as I have mentioned above, but this new lifestyle has now become part of me and my whole family.

6. How did you ignore/overcome the lure of unhealthy food?(real, praacticable/ relate-able examples and stories will be good here)

Thankfully the plan I have been on is not a DIET, so I have not felt deprived of anything as I have my daily allowance that I can use on treats (cakes, chocolate, ice cream etc) and as long as I stay within my allowance, I will be fine, the hardest bit of this is having the willpower to know when to stop, so rather than eating a whole packet of chocolate digestive biscuits I stop at two, which was a challenge initially, considering I could eat two whole packets of chocolate digestives in one sitting and now to see myself stopping at 1 or 2, or opting for a sliver of cheesecake and a scoop of ice cream, when before I used to eat a whole tub of ice cream every night and finish off a family sized cheesecake all to myself.

7. How many hours did you spend working out daily? 

It wasn’t until I had lost 19kg’s, that I started to contemplate adding some form of exercise to my new regime, this had not been an option when I first started “my journey” as I still felt a lot of pain in my knees or rather shall I say; I was just too lazy? All the years I had spent as a couch potato had turned me into one “lazy mama” and I just could not find the energy to do the slightest activity that had the word exercise attached to it. As the weight started to fall off I noticed I was feeling a bit more energetic and I started with “baby steps” – The first day I attempted to walk further than my gate (bear in mind I drove everywhere), I could only manage a five minute walk down the road and back, I was persistent and knew that although I was starting to lose weight gradually without regular exercise, I knew that I needed to start doing some form of exercise for the health of my heart and to speed up my weight loss. I kept on at it and within weeks I graduated to walking just five minutes without feeling like passing out to completing ten minutes, then thirty minutes non- stop, which also involved climbing hills considering I live in a very hilly area. I am still trying to fall in love with exercise, but unfortunately I do not see that relationship ever developing further than what it is now. I have an elliptical machine at home that I use when the weather is not good outside and I try and do thirty minutes at least three times a week, when the weather is nice, I take a morning thirty minute walk also three times a week. Apart from the walking and using my elliptical machine I have not done anymore exercise, although I have noticed that with the amount of weight I have lost so far, I am more energetic now, so places where I would normally drive to I find myself leaving the car at home and walking, I also find myself running my own errands within the house and not shouting at the kids all the time, I am now able to get up from my seat and go up and down the stairs anytime I want something (I have 38 stairs in my house), we were informed in our weekly sessions that; any form of movement all counts as exercise and not necessarily going to the gym and working out for hours, I took this information on board and I have been working with it for the past 18 months.

8. How did you structure your eating/ meals

The plan I was following as I have mentioned before was/is not a diet, rather it’s a permanent healthy lifestyle change that is sustainable as it does not involve any quick fixes such as; drinking tasteless Chinese teas, eating cereal bars or drinking shakes as replacements for meals, counting calories, portion controlling etc rather the plan shows you how you can cook your favourite foods in a healthier way and balance them out on your plate and still eat them without adding any weight. So taking this into consideration, I did not have to follow any rigid structure and time when I ate or sigh once it was 6pm as “it’s too late to eat”, no I eat three meals a day, with regular snacking in between meals (whenever I am hungry), but mind you, snacking does not mean I am snacking on; meatpie and chinchin far from it, I snack on healthy options and use my daily allowance for treats, so if I fancy an omelette and chips at 10pm, I make sure I follow the principles of the plan and I make myself an omelette and chips and eat and enjoy it without feeling guilty.

 Everyone who needs to lose weight needs an "aha moment”, because if you have not had that “aha” moment (something that has made you realise that you really need to do something about your weight) then you are not mentally ready to embark on any program.

- Finally, once you have decided to tackle your weight issues, look for a sustainable program and not a quick fix program that promises to “cut belly fat in 2 days” etc – these plans are just cons and don’t work!!  follow it, don’t try to cheat it by cutting corners, be determined and motivated and tell yourself; you are doing it for “you” and no one else.

Thank you for letting us into your world on the second year anniversary of slim withe ease.

For more information, enquiry and interest, send an email to info@slimwithease.guru or visit the website via www.slimwithease.guru