I lost 53 kg (117 lb) in 18 months and I’ve kept the weight off for two years now and counting.

There were no particular diet involved, no counting of calories or carbs, no magic bullet. Just some careful thought and a decision after life happened to give me a kick in the behind.

This is what happened to me, what I chose to do about it and how I turned my life around. It’s not a 12-step program, it’s not expert advice, I’m not trying to sell you anything or sell you on anything.

It’s simply a story, my story. Enjoy.

Part 1, Introduction

First of all, I feel the need for a disclaimer:

Please understand that I have no medical training, I’m not an expert on nutrition, nor do I have any training in physiology or psychology. This is simply a collection of notes about what worked for me. Use the information in these blog posts at your own risk and always use your best judgement. Remember that no one knows your body like you do.

Important note: You should always consult a physician before starting an exercise regimen and before embarking on any kind of diet!

I’ll let you in on a dirty little secret. We all know how to lose weight, we just don’t want to face up to it: Eat less and be more physically active. It’s both that easy and that impossibly hard and you already knew that before you started reading this story.

I knew it too, I’ve known it all my life. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that losing weight is easy or simple to do, just that it isn’t complicated. There’s a huge difference.

The question isn’t what to do in order to lose weight, but how to keep doing it without losing faith in yourself and giving up. In other words, losing weight is all about motivation. This may sound a little strange to you, as I’m sure you’ve been highly motivated to lose weight for a long time.

What I’m saying is that it’s not just a question of how much you want to lose weight; it’s also very much a question of you understanding exactly why you want to lose weight. Once you know and understand what drives you, you can make some very important decisions about the rest of your life and what’s most important to you.

We all want to fit in, we want to look beautiful through other people’s eyes, we want to be able to shop for clothes in regular sizes, we want a new boyfriend or girlfriend, we want to believe that other people might find us desirable. Never mind that maybe they already do, the problem is that we just can’t believe in it and we sorely need to.

So we decide to lose weight. We already know how to, but we’re accustomed to seeing ourselves as failures, so deep down we don’t think we can do it. We give up without really trying, or we do what’s even worse, we start looking for that magical quick fix and easy diet we think even we can follow. Above all, we don’t start exercising, at least not much or in earnest.

In my case I had been overweight ever since I was a child, but when I was about 16 years old I became an athlete. I started crewing (rowing) competitively and enjoyed it immensely. Of course, all this hard physical activity meant that I lost a lot of weight. Even after I gave up the rowing I kept working out, I took up running and managed to keep the weight off for a few more years.

However, after my running buddy moved away I stopped running and you can pretty much guess the rest. For all the years since I kept thinking that I would take it up again, I really enjoyed being fit and felt so much better about myself, and my health in general.

I never did, and the reason why was simple enough: I knew how hard it is to start exercising when you’re completely out of shape, and in particular when you’re also overweight. It’s not just hard, it’s painful and if you’re not careful you can even hurt yourself.

More on that, and how I got my motivation to change my life handed to me on a silver platter, in the next installment. But first, some “before and after” pictures:

The author, before and after. Credit: Gunnar Helliesen

There’s about 18 months between the two pictures. In the picture on the left I weighed a little over 137 kg (302 lb) and in the picture on the right I weighed 84 kg (185 lb). The purpose of posting these pictures is just to tell you that if I can, you can too. I’m not special, I don’t have secret powers or a magic recipe. In fact, I am you.

Feedback or questions? Please post below! If you want to contact the author directly, please see the “About” page.