The decision that changed my life

Your body is like a car.

In January 2010 I was 28 years old. I was obese, sick, decrepit, had lots of red rectangles showing up on my medical test results.

Just like every year, I then set myself the goal of losing weight. Again…

What was different that January was that I had a moment of introspection.

“I’m 28 now and I’m a wreck. How will I look like when I’m 30?”

✅ TRIGGER

This moment of introspection gave me extra motivation.

For the first time in my life I decided I will go “on a diet” for more than 2-3 months.

I decided it will be an 28-month “weightloss” program lasting until my 30^th birthday.

✅ TARGET

I wasn’t even at my peak weight then at 115 kg (I used to weigh 125 kg in the 12^th grade).

I did some simple math and it seemed to me like a good idea to reach 85 kg of weight – good for my 1,85 m height.

I thought I would polish things up afterwards.

✅ I SET MY GOAL

There I was, at the point where I needed to set a goal for myself.

From personal experience, I know that if I get to set a goal, then that objective is achieved even before I take the first step towards said goal.

✅ I DO HAVE ONE PERSONAL QUALITY

Just one: perseverance.

If I set a goal, I am then willing to do everything and anything to reach it.

I always go all the way. I’m bad. All that matters to me is to reach that objective.

How long it takes? That’s absolutely irrelevant. One year? 2? 10?

✅ VIZUALIZATION

• It’s the introspection that brought the trigger on.

• The trigger brought the motivation.

• Motivation led to a decision.

• The firm decision led to the target.

• The target led to a plan.

• And the plan led to ACTION.

The catalyst that would maintain constant action, in my case, has always been visualizing my objective.  

I imagined my ideal weight that I set myself as a target. Daily.

✅ PEER PRESSURE

I never listened to what my acquaintances, friends of family had to say:

“You’re good the way you are, you’re tall and you can’t tell you’re fat.”

“Oh man, you lost so much weight, you used to look better before.”

“Stop losing weight, you won’t look good.”

I was getting even more triggered because it seemed to me like they wanted to sabotage me.

What do you mean…

“You used to look better before”?

You mean to tell me that I used to look better while sick, obese and aging prematurely?

✅ WHAT DID I DO?

What I had always done.

I excluded bread, sweets, potatoes, rice etc. from my diet. You know how it goes.

It’s something that any normal person looking to lose weight would do.

Then I started doing cardio every day, like a crazy person.

✅ I LOST 20 KG IN 3 MONTHS!

That’s how I went from 115 kg to 95 kg in 3 months. Exactly 20 kg. Then I plateaued.

I was under the impression that it’s normal to have a plateau after having lost that much weight in a very short time.

Out of the 20 kg, 4 or 5 kg were just water. 2-3 kg was just excess from cleaning out my “pipes”.

I obviously weighed myself on the first day of the year, after the Christmas and NYE holiday, at my maximum excess weight.

In reality, I lost 12 kg in 12 weeks. The rest was just water and waste.

You know how it goes: you cut off bread, bear, junk food, you start eating actual food again.

Within 2 weeks 5-6 kg will fly off the scale and you’re jumping with joy.

It’s just water and “piping” excess. After your first holiday you’ll put 5-6 kg back on.

✅ EAT LESS - MOVE MORE

I used to eat chicken, cabbage salad and fruits. You know, a low fat diet + fruits are healthy.

After the 3 months and 20 kg I lost, months were passing and I was still stuck at 95 kg.

I kept eating the same way, but I increased my time exercising to doing cardio 2h/day every day.

But the plateau was still there.

✅ BUCHAREST TO BRASOV

On top of it all I added cycling, with constant Bucharest-Brasov-Bucharest tours.

All these considered, the needle on the scale didn’t move for 7 months: it kept showing 95 kg!

✅ THEN IT DAWNED ON ME

I read something interesting:

“Madness means doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results each time”

✅ I WASN’T MAD

I realized I wasn’t mad, I was just an idiot.