How I lost 11 Kilograms in 26 days

I believe there are many diets out there that work and generally
I can not blame the particular diet for my failed attempts in
the past. Everything boils down to attitude.

All my life I have been somewhat overweight and oversized. I
remember on the day of Princess Diana’s wedding some of the kids
in my class asked me how much I weighed and I told them 72Kgs.
This is not so bad, except that I was in grade 7 (12 years old).
I stopped growing in length about 2 years after that, but by
then I stood 1.92M tall. The problem is that I did not stop
“growing” in weight. By the time I left school I weighed around
105KGs.

While I was at school, my mother, sister and I tried every
possible diet under the sun, but nothing lasted and soon
afterwards we would pick up the bit of weight we had lost during
the diet.

By 1996 I had moved to Johannesburg and my mom moved up there
for 1 year to fill the position of national director for Child
and Family Welfare and we decided to share an apartment. On the
first of February 1997 I bought a book called Unlimited Power by
Anthony Robbins. Many of you will probably know Anthony Robbins
who, in my opinion, is the greatest inspirational speaker in the
world. I sat down in a restaurant to start reading this book and
I could not get myself to stop reading. Eventually, by midnight,
the restaurant closed and they chased me away, so I returned
home and continued reading Unlimited Power, which I finished
during the course of the next day.

The book is not dedicated to weight loss at all, but Anthony
does mention how he lost 36 pounds (16Kgs) in a couple of weeks
and he gives one piece of advice regarding weight loss: “If you
want to loose weight, buy a blender” (paraphrased). That was all
the motivation I needed. The book had inspired me so much that,
at that moment, I believed I could achieve anything. I took off
to the shops and bought a blender, a scale and a bunch of fruit.
When I got home, I told my mom what I had read in the book and
that I would only be eating (drinking) fruit for the next couple
of months until I had lost at least 10KGs. I also threatened
that I would move out of the apartment and leave her alone in
this big, scary city if she prepared any food other than blended
fruit for me. Being the angel that she is, my mom agreed to this
and decided to join me on my fruit diet.

On the second of February 1997 I weighed 122KGs.
That was day 1, a Sunday, and I was still inspired from the
book, so it went fairly easy. I don’t believe it matters what
fruit you use. Many people say that bananas are fattening, but I
have found that I need at least 1-2 bananas in every mix to
enjoy it. Generally I add 2 apples, 1-2 oranges, 2 bananas and
something like watermelon or “spanspek” into a blender and mush
it all together into a fruit “goo”. Add a cup of water in the
beginning to thin the mixture and add a dash of lemon juice to
prevent the mixture from turning an unbearable brown color
within a couple of hours.

On day 2, the Monday, I took a 2 liter bottle of fruit goo to
work. This raised a couple of eyebrows as the mixture does not
look very appetizing. Those few that agreed to taste it though,
admitted that it actually tasted much better than it looked.
However, all the stares and frowns did not bother me, as I was
determined to make this diet work. The interesting thing was
that by the time I got home on the Monday afternoon, I was still
not hungry. Yes, in my mind I could imagine enjoying a juicy
piece of steak, but physically I did not feel hungry.

I lost more than 2 Kgs in the first 2 days On the
Tuesday morning I jumped on the scale and was pleasantly
surprised to find that I had lost more than 2KGs. The needle on
the scale rested halfway between 119 and 120KGs. In 2 days I had
lost 2 KGs and I still didn’t feel hungry or deprived of food as
I had on previous diets. This inspired me again and I could not
wait to get to work and tell all those skeptics about my
progress. Strangely enough, by the time I got to the office, I
had decided not to tell anybody that I had lost 2KGs, but rather
to push through and see how quickly I could loose another 2. It
would, after all, be far more impressive to say that I had lost
4KGs than 2. 2 Kilograms had always been my limit on previous
diets. I would loose the first 2 kilograms fairly quickly and
then it would stop there. I did not have the discipline to see a
diet through, but this time I was determined to get further. So
I quietly walked in and tried not to draw too much attention to
myself or my 2 liter bottle of fruit goo.

By the Wednesday morning I could not help myself and jumped on
the scale again. My original plan was to only weigh myself once
a week, but I was hopeful and again, I did not have the
discipline to wait another day. Fortunately, the scale-needle
god smiled on me and decided to rest just below the 119KG mark.
That was 3 kilograms in 3 days!!! And I still did not feel
hungry or feel the need to eat solid foods. I was on a mission
here. Anthony Robbins’ advice was working and he had lost 36
pounds in a couple of weeks, so I could do the same!! Whenever I
felt hungry, I simply poured another glass of fruit goo and when
we got home in the evenings, my mom prepared another bottle of
goo for us to share during the evening.

Less than three weeks later I had lost 10
kilograms!! Everybody at work knew and could see that I
had lost weight and now, instead of laughing at the mixture I
was drinking, they asked me about my diet everyday. How do you
do it, what fruits do you put in that mixture, don’t you get
hungry and may I taste it? Instead of laughing, these were the
questions they were asking now.

During that third week, I got home one afternoon to find my mom,
who had also lost around 7KGs by then, sitting in the lounge
with an unusually guilty look on her face. I asked her what was
wrong and she immediately looked down at the empty plate in
front of her. She had bought some salty cracks (biscuits) and
yes, by that time I was quite eager on putting some solid food
in my mouth as well. We agreed to eat some salty cracks with
cheese and tomato from then on and a week later we decided to
give the diet a break, but simply to try and maintain our
weight. By the 28th of February I weighed 111KGs, so I had lost
11KGs in 26 days.

During the first couple of days, I was loosing 1 kg every day.
Pretty impressive, but obviously you can’t expect to keep that
up. At some stage I remember my weight standing still for about
3-4 days. The scale-needle god was not smiling so brightly
anymore. One morning when I got on the scale and noticed that
the needle was still stuck on the same weight, I decided to move
to the next level (whatever it takes, remember). Now, I’m not
very big on exercise, but we did live in an apartment on the
ground floor of a 10 or 12 storey building. So I jumped off the
scale and ran out the front door with only my sleeping shorts
and my slightly reduced stomach sticking out and proceeded to
run (okay, I lie… I walked most of the way) up and down the
stairs of this building. By the next morning I could see that
the needle had moved a little and I continued walking/running up
and down the stairs every morning. Everyone knows that exercise
will help you lose weight, so that is not the great revelation I
want to share with you. The point that I do want to make is that
my attitude was right. I was going to lose weight!! There was no
question in my mind and I believed that absolutely. Therefore,
when I ran into a bit of difficulty, I did not give up as before
but I simply changed my plan of action, by adding a bit of
exercise to my routine and continued on.

The results I had booked a 4 week holiday in
Greece for May that year and decided that I would continue to
weigh myself every 2 days or so and ensure that I don’t pick up
any weight before the holiday. By the time I left for Greece, I
still weighed 111KGs. This may not sound important, but how many
times have people told you that you should loose weight slowly
or you will simply pick it up again, and more. Well, here’s my
answer. I had a motivation to ensure that I don’t pick that
weight up again because I wanted to look good and feel good
about myself during my holiday. It worked. I don’t know how to
express in words how I felt when I walked onto that beach on
Myconos (the first island I visited).

Firstly, being from South Africa where we don’t have nudist
beaches, just being there was quite a treat for me. Walking
around without a shirt and not feeling embarrassed about the
size of my stomach was absolutely amazing. For the first time in
my life girls actually came up to talk to me and when I went to
talk to them, they did not immediately give me a cold shoulder.
On IOS, the party capital of Greece, I met a Swedish girl and we
actually had a mini fling there for a couple of days. Something
I had never experienced before. I left to go visit 2 other
islands, but I went back to IOS and she was actually happy to
see me. Again, something I was not used to before. I don’t
believe anybody treated me differently because I had lost a bit
of weight. In fact, I was still overweight and could have done
with losing another 15-20KGs. Added to that, if you’ve seen my
pic on my weight-loss blog, you’ll know that losing a bit of
weight can’t change that face. Instead, I believe they treated
me differently because I was more confident and at peace with
myself and my own body.

In 1997 I was earning a pretty good salary, considerably more
than most of my friends. Even so, between February 1997 and June
2000 my salary trippled without changing jobs. Generally people
say you have to change jobs to get those sized increases, but I
believe I achieved it within the same company simply because I
had a newfound confidence in myself.

Success breeds success!!

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