Since the pandemic started in early 2020, all of our lives have changed in many ways! My life has changed a lot as well, from getting married to my lovely wife, spending 5 months in Nigeria with her, while working remotely in the US, then returning back to the States and buying my first home, its been a whirlwind.
These past 3 years have also made my life more sedentary thanks to my now full time remote work and western lifestyle, which I love by the way. So as you would expect, I have gained about 25 lbs from my pre pandemic weight of 185lbs to 210lbs as at the beginning of February 2023.
Health Problems I noticed with the extra weight
As a Nigerian kid that grew up eating lots of organic food and occasionally going hungry as a broke student back in the day, being overweight was never a problem I have had contend with. So the pandemic pounds was definitely new for me. As I steadily gained weight in 2020 and 2021, I noticed a few problems with my health.
First, I started to feel a heaviness in my chest, low energy and lack of motivation. With my medical background, I knew I needed to move around more. So I started to take long walks every evening after work. Going to the gym wasn’t an option as my gym was closed at the time, plus when it opened, I couldn’t keep up.
The next problem I started to notice was my knees started to hurt when I climbed stairs and doing squats became a problem. For a 31 year old male who is 6.3” tall, this was certainly unacceptable to me, I felt I was still too young to have these sort of problems.
The last problem, I noticed was brain fogs. Even though I didn’t have any Covid symptoms, I knew I might have contacted it and was asymptomatic. Keep reading to learn strategies I employed to shed 10 lbs so far in February 2023.
Steps I took in February 2023 to lose the pounds
Daily Intermittent fasting has really been a game changer for me over these past three weeks. Prior to deciding to start this journey, I always skipped breakfast and ate around 12noon, except when I’m with the wife, as she won’t allow me to be great 😂, anyways I digress. The first few days of eating my first meal at 2pm or 3pm was certainly tough, but it became easier with time. After my first meal, my dinner was usually around 7pm or before 8pm. This gave me 18 hours of fasting till the next meal. There are many benefits of intermittent fasting I noticed. That’s for another article.
Low carb or ketogenic diet was the second lever I pulled to shed a lot of pounds. I have now discovered that combining a high protein, fat and veggie diet with intermittent fasting is a powerful weight loss strategy. This combination is great for ketogenesis where your body derives it’s energy from burning the fats you have stored in your body. Ketogenesis is a much cleaner mechanism of energy generation and produces less free radicals that cause all sorts of inflammation and chronic diseases.
So enough with the jargon’s, what exactly have you been eating these past few weeks you may ask?
For my first meal, I mix Sweet kale with 3 or 4 hard boiled organic eggs and Avocado. I enjoy this with a glass of water and some almonds on the side. Nothing fancy, but it fills me up really well and it keeps my energy up through out the day. If I want to eat something else, I usually make an Egg wrap with low carb keto tortilla, steamed kale salads, avocado and organic pickles as the filler. I would add a picture of my egg wrap subsequently. For dinner, I would eat a nice steak and some salads on the side. On my cheat days, usually Fridays, I would eat a good sized Steak with a small portion of Nigerian Jollof rice and salads plus avocados.
Lastly, I have started to incorporate daily walks (atleast 5000 steps daily) throughout my day to clear my head and get some exercise. I have resumed going to the gym atleast twice a week. Even if I don’t keep up with the gym, I can always control my diet, take walks and stay in shape.
Its been an amazing 3 weeks of finally making progress with my health, the heaviness in my chest is gone, the pains in my knees have also dissappeared and I feel more alert and sharp mentally. As at the time of publishing this article 7PM Pacific Time in California, I am yet to have my first meal today and I still have a lot of energy.
My long term eating goal is to have at least two weeks of Keto diet every month combined with two weeks of low carb diets or high carb diet during periods of intense physical activities. I would keep practicing intermittent fasting as it helps my body to detox and clean itself daily. I would continue to report on my progress to my desired weight of 185 lbs as the weeks and months goes by.
Over the next two weeks, I would be heading to Ghana for a vacation with my wife and I hope to stay on track with my weight reduction and diets. If you would love to support me, follow my Amazon affiliate links above to purchase my recommended products and I may earn a small commission. Also subscribe to my blog so you get notified on my next article.
Thanks for reading and I would see you on the next post.