Sweet September

I’m back.

I took a little vacation as I was chronically tired after having written daily for one year now.  

So back to business.

You know very well that anyone can lose a lot of weight, but there are very few people who manage to maintain their figure and weight for the rest of their life.

Pour yourself a jug of coffee and let’s begin.

✅ TO BE OR NOT TO BE

“How many people do you know who were 30-40 kg overweight and who lost all the weight, look great and have been maintaining their figure for at least 3-4 years?”

I ask this question quite a lot on the first meeting with a new community member and the answer I get most often is:

“No one” or “just you” or “my friend who sent me here, she became a member of your community 4 years ago”.

✅ YO-YO

I bet you are like me: an ambitious person who doesn’t get complacent about the extra weight.

I am certain that, like me, you’ve been on tens of diets over the years. I bet you’ve lost weight and every time you put that weight right back on.

This is exactly what I’ve done between the ages of 10 and 28: a continuous yoyo.

But I’ve never given up on my dream.

✅ THE DECISIVE YEAR

The year 2010 proved to be decisive for me. I lost weight and for 14 years I am presenting myself to you all as a champion of maintenance.

The truth is it took me an year to lose weight and then another 13 years to learn how to do the maintenance part…

If you’ll read my older articles, you’ll find out that maintenance, for me, represents a collection of habits, a clear routine and various strategies.

✅ STRATEGIES

I have strategies for the weekends, for the Easter vacation, for summer holidays, for Christmas dinner, for family meals, for outings with friends about town.

Everything is meticulously planned ahead of time so I can prevent the accumulation of extra weight.

However, if I do gain a bit of weight, I can effortlessly lose it in record time.

I think I could write an entire book solely on maintenance strategies…

✅ FOR EXAMPLE

For Christmas / Easter dinners, we order ONE holiday cake – usually the finest Panettone I can find.

Only one holiday cake for the entire family for the entire holiday season.

It’s drastic. Exaggerated. Unacceptable. I know.

Our friends know that we avoid sugar as much as possible so our kids are never offered any sweet treats.

We have worked for years on purging our social circle.

✅ BAD JOKES

Before, our friends used to do all sorts of bad jokes.

But for a few years the jokes stopped. They’ve seen my results are getting better and better, they see my strong, healthy, fit kids.

Moreover, Santa or the Easter Bunny never bring sweets for the kids, but toys, books and clothes.

By taking care of the Easter, Christmas and New Year dinners, 50% of the problem is taken care of for the entire year.

I don’t gain weight during holiday seasons. It’s been like this for at least 7 years.

In fact, I usually have the lowest weight of the year at the end of winter.

Then I usually gain 2-3 kilograms between spring and the end of summer.

✅ SUMMER

I have to admit it: I love fruits. I’ve been eating a lot of fruits since forever. A lot of them 😏

Well, cheese is also a favorite of mine. Nuts as well.

If I think about it, I don’t really have any “favorite foods”.

I like to eat. Doesn’t matter what I eat. It should be tasty food and it should be A LOT of food.

But let’s get back to the matter at hand.

Summer for me means eating fruits: strawberries, raspberries and even watermelon, when they are in season.

I believe it’s no mystery by now that fruits are just water with sugar, and we tend to eat them “the Balkan way” – in excess. They are extremely fattening.

✅ SUMMER II

In summer we get heatwaves.

What this means for most people: 2 beers today, an ice cream tomorrow, we have a baptism party in 3 days, there’s a wedding next week, our friends invite us for a barbecue…

For me, summer represents a huge danger because temptation is literally at every step.

It’s usually in summer that we take vacations with our children. We relax, put our guard down and when September comes…Sadness comes along as well.

✅ SUMMER III

Children have long summer vacations – which means you have less and less time for yourself.

I get the least amount of exercise over the summer months.  

I don’t walk as much and I tend to skip daily exercise routines when we go with our kids on vacation.

✅ SUMMER IV

Add the ungodly heat to the mix. If you don’t wake up at 5-6 AM, then there is little chance you’ll be able to go out and walk.

In short: summer, for me, is a disaster because it disrupts my routine.

Temptation at every step, less exercise, lots of fruits…

And this is how I gain a few extra kilograms by the end of summer.

Over time, however, I have come to accept these seasonal variations as part of being normal.

Because of the reasons above, I constantly gain 3-4 extra kilograms at the end of every summer.

✅ THE TRUTH

The truth is that I lost weight in 2010, but I kept gaining a few kilograms during the summer, just like any other “normal person”.

Of course I didn’t remain complacent. Out of the maintenance strategy “arms race” comes the perfect weapon:

The annual official weigh-in on December 20^th

✅ DAMAGE CONTROL

No matter what happened during the summer, on December the 20^th the scale had to show me that I weighed less than the previous year

In practice, I have always accepted the impact of temptations during the summer. However, I used to say STOP to all temptations on September 1^st.

In September I used to go back to 100% basic protocol compliance and every year, on the 20^th of December, I used to weigh less than the previous year.

Then I used to apply the Christmas strategy and start the new year (January 1^st) with the lowest weight in the year. That’s usually when most people think of “going on a diet”.

This is how I’ve been maintaining my weight and my figure for 14 years.

✅ SWEET SEPTEMBER

Let me give you a few reasons why timing is crucial when starting a weightloss program.

If you think about it, it’s not really practical to start a “diet” in July. You know it’s the holiday season, temptations are all around. Am I right?

When you start something new, it should be as easy and as pleasant for you as possible.

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September is the perfect month to begin for 2 reasons:

• The time for vacations, summer holidays, watermelons, weddings, baptisms, barbecues, heatwaves, beer, ice cream ends. So now comes a time with fewer temptations.

• You have 3 months until Christmas. That’s enough time for you to get some quick, remarkable results. Then start the new year strong in full force.

What’s the point in postponing? So you can realize on the 1^st of January 2025 that you gained 4-5 extra kilograms?

✅ 9 PERFECT MONTHS

We have 9 perfect months to work together.

The most spectacular and long-lasting body transformations I have witnessed in the Body Engineering community have one common denominator: kick-off in September.

Would you be open to support our publication for 0.2 Euro per day, and, at the same time, support yourself on the way to your desired weight? Press the button below.

Thank you for your attention.