So I Did A Thing, I Am Taking My Body Back..!

Hey my people! It’s me your run away friend, can we be friends again? Yes?!! Yaaay okay! Haha.

This might be a long read, so get comfortable, grab a snack and let’s do this..

On April 4th 2024, my life changed in my friend Kome’s bathroom. I have been over weight for a long time, for more than half of my life actually but I just didn’t care enough to fix it. My mum, my sister, my aunts, my friends, everyone always had something to say about it and I hated hearing it so much, I would get so defensive and I just ignored them. I moved to America in 2014 and things took a turn, my mum wasn’t there anymore to curtail my cookies, candy and coca cola addiction so I went crazy. Few months down the line my cycle went haywire and I was diagnosed with PCOS but that didn’t sink in still, I just kept going. Sugar in all its forms had me in a strong hold.

As the years went by, I became hypertensive, my right knee was inflamed and hurting so bad that walking down the stairs was agony. My whole body was acting up but I just kept taking medications and acting like it wasn’t happening. Fast forward to 2022, I lost my dad and junk food became my full time comfort, sometimes, I’d wake up from sleep and go eat ice cream. I still was on BP medication, my vision was getting to the point where I was changing my glasses prescription yearly, and I was ALWAYS sick, like I had a fever almost every other week, it got to the point where basic pain medication stopped working for me.

In February of 2024, I remember going to the optometrist and he was seriously concerned about a nerve in my eye and he kept asking me if I had gained weight recently as that could be the cause. I was like nope, I didn’t gain any weight, I look the same, my clothes fit the same, and he said we’d watch it and gave me another prescription for my glasses. That appointment jostled my reality but I just kept going, a lot of things were pointing me to the fact that I had to make a change but I still wasn’t listening.

So back to April 4th 2024. I went to Kome’s house like I always do and she ordered some food, while we were waiting, I decided to go to the bathroom. When I walked in, I had the strongest urge to climb her scale and so I did. When I saw the number, my jaw hit the floor! I said nahhhhh that can’t be right. 156 KG! Me????? My heart was pounding so fast, I couldn’t breathe, it was like my life was flashing before my eyes. I came out and told Kome and she very calmly said, okay now that you are finally ready, no more soda, no more junk food, you have to put serious thought into the food you cook and you have to start fasting. I made up my mind right there to fight for my life.

The second I got home that night, I walked straight to my fridge and threw out all my coke, cookies, Ice cream. I started doing some research for food ideas cos all I ate was rice and pasta. The next day I downloaded the Fastic app, and I started day one of a 16 hour fasting window. Yo! I thought I was gonna die of hunger that first week but my mind was made up and there was no going back. After two weeks of fasting, I found my self getting so sleepy at like 10:30- 11 and I’d sleep soundly through the night, mind you, I’d had insomnia for years so I was confused! Come to find out the fasting was already recalibrating my body! That spurred me on so much, I was like a little kid with how excited I was. After the first month, I bought a scale and some baby weights and I started dancing in my room and lifting my tiny weights in the evenings after work, I was still missing coke so badly, but I was chugging my water and was very determined to keep going. When I lost the first 1kg, I cried so hard, I hadn’t lost any weight in years, because my hormones were so out of whack. I remember standing in my bathroom that day and just bawling my eyes out and I told myself this is it, there really is no going back now.

One kg became two, two became three and it just kept going. I started taking walks after work. The first day I tried I could barely do five minutes, but I kept trying and by the end of summer I was doing 45-50 minutes walks. The more weight I lost the more my skin was clearing, the fevers stopped, my blood pressure and my cycle stabilized, my moods were better and I was encouraged and kept at it. I joined the gym in November and the day after my first workout?!! I was sore for like a week but I kept at it and now, it’s part of my routine.

Fast forward to today April 5th 2025, I am 21kg down and some days I cannot believe it. Some of my clothes don’t fit anymore, none of my rings fit any more, I no longer pant when I run down the stairs, I can cross my legs and tie my shoe laces without almost passing out, and most importantly, I am getting stronger every day. I still deal with body dysmorphia, I don’t see the weight loss even though I know it’s happening, I still fight the urge to hide in black and wear baggy clothes but I’m working on it. Yesterday at the store I was gonna buy a 4xl Tshirt but Kome said babe that’s not your size anymore, buy a smaller shirt! My relationship with food is so much better, Carbs are not the enemy, we do need them, it’s just a balancing act and I am figuring it out daily.

I’m so emotional writing this because I am in awe of my body, she has carried me through it all even I wasn’t taking care of her, it still shocks me that I have not purchased a can of soda in a year now, I am so excited to keep going and to get to my goal weight. If you have been thinking about losing weight, let this be your sign. I NEVER in my wildest dreams thought I would be a person that goes to the gym, but here we are! If I can do it, so can you. It is by far one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life but also the most rewarding. Its so easy to become obsessed with the numbers on the scale and I would be so hard on myself when I gained back a kg or if the numbers didn’t go down but I am working on myself daily. My body is a living thing, it ebbs and flows, the weight will fluctuate but every progress is progress, one bad day doesn’t erase all my hard work. It took me years to put on this weight so it’s not going to magically disappear in one day, so I will keep going because this is an investment in me, in my future..

I feel so vulnerable sharing this and I definitely didn’t need to but it is a huge milestone for me and I want to celebrate myself. If this helps even one person, then I am fulfilled. I can’t wait to come back next year with another update. my family and friends have been so supportive, my mum celebrates every kg I lose like I won the Grammy’s, my siblings cheer me on, my uncle sends me encouragement pocket money whenever I update him with a new photo of my scale, my friends stay hyping me and nothing fuels me more than that. I took my body back from morbid obesity! And I will take it back every day, slow and steady till I get to my goal..

“Take good care of your body, it’s the only place you have to live.” – Jim Rohn