For the longest time I have had issues with how I look, It is one of those things that people don’t always notice immediately because I joke a lot and act normal around people, but deep down I think about it more than I should.
I used to check my weight every now and then just to make sure I wasn’t getting excessively too big, not in an obsessive way, but enough for it to stay somewhere in the back of my mind, then sometime around August last year, I checked again and saw that I was weighing 88kg.
Omo.
I remember staring at the scale like maybe it was joking with me.
“E no fit be this much,” I said.
My sister Uddy was nearby that day and she laughed immediately.
“Why you dey look scale like say e offend you?” she asked.
I hissed “Uddy this thing is saying 88kg.”
She looked at me, then looked at the scale.
“Well… maybe na because you too like shawarma and soft drink.”
“Please leave me abeg.”
But honestly, that number stayed in my head for days, I felt uncomfortable with myself, not because anybody was insulting me or anything, but because I personally did not feel good anymore, all my clothes started fitting differently, I got tired easily sometimes, and every mirror suddenly became too honest.
That was when I decided I needed to actually do something.
Not the “I will start next week” kind of decision.
A real one.
So I started cutting down on certain foods, the painful part was drinks because if you know me, then you know I like soft drinks too much, especially when I am stressed, but I had to reduce it seriously, I started paying attention to what I ate and when I ate.
It was not easy at all.
One evening, my friend Abigael came to see me and caught me drinking only water while everybody else was taking chilled malt.
She narrowed her eyes immediately.
“Who are you and what have you done with my friend?”
I laughed, “I am trying to lose weight please.”
She shook her head dramatically, “This life no balance, people dey find weight, you dey run from am.”
But even with the jokes, she encouraged me a lot, anytime I wanted to give up and start eating recklessly again, she would remind me why I started.
And the thing about weight loss that nobody really talks about is how slow it feels, you expect to wake up after two weeks looking completely different and then you check mirror and it is like your body did not even receive the memo.
There were days I got frustrated honestly.
Especially when the scale refused to move.
One day I even told Glory, “At this point I feel like this fat is emotionally attached to me.”
She laughed so hard.
“Give your body time na,” she said. “You did not gain it overnight.”
And she was right.
That became the hardest lesson for me through this whole thing, patience.
Because slowly, the changes started happening, small small.
My clothes felt better.
I felt lighter.
I became more confident again.
And this year when I checked my weight and saw 80kg, I was genuinely happy because that meant I had lost 8kg.
Eight whole kilograms.
That wasn’t small at all.
But if I am being honest, I am still not fully okay with where I am yet because I still intend going down to 75kg if possible, not because I want perfection or because of pressure from people, but because I want to feel fully comfortable in my own body again.
I think sometimes people just underestimate how connected weight can be to confidence and mental health,see ehn, when you don’t feel good physically, it can quietly affect you emotionally too in a really big way
For me this journey has not just been about looking different, it has been about discipline, patience, consistency, and learning how to take care of myself better.
And honestly? I am still learning.
But one thing I know now is this, progress may be slow, but slow progress is still progress.
And I am proud of myself for not giving up halfway.
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