My good friend Tatiana Kukanova always struggled with her weight, even when we were at high school together and she continued in this way throughout college. Eventually some friends and myself became concerned with her weight and so we planned an intervention to get her to take some action. This was a carefully planned intervention and something that we did with good intentions. We left it at that and then Tatiana went back to college for her final year. When she came back from college that year she had lost 20 kilos and looked phenomenal, and here is how she went about it.
Simple
Tatiana focused on simplicity, we all know what healthy food is and we all know that eating it and exercising is a sure way to lose weight. In the past Tatiana had focused on fad diets like Atkins, or Keto which would help her lose weight but then she piled it all on again. Tatiana told us that she saw this as a change fo lifestyle rather than a diet, and my goodness how well it worked.
Buddy
Tatiana took a bit of a risk with one of her fellow students who was also overweight, and asked her if she would like to go on this weight loss journey with her. Thankfully the student wasn’t too offended and accepted this offer. The pair would go running together a couple of times per week, they would discuss meal plans and food prep and then every Sunday they would go to the grocery store together. This buddy system seemed to work so well for Tatiana and she says that t give her some accountability as she knew that if she let herself down, that she would let her friend down too.
Small Goals
Something which Tatiana always struggled with was discipline which is why she could never stick to her diets or her health plans. The way in which she changed things this time was to set very small goals for herself which she would set out. For example instead of saying that she was going to go to the gym 3 times per week for a month, she would look at each day on its own and say that she was going to the gym today, and then make new goals tomorrow. Breaking this down into bitesized chunks seems to be a great way to lose weight and it is something which certainly worked for Tatiana.
Celebrate
For each kilo that Tatiana lost she would celebrate with her friend by buying something new for herself or taking them both out for a fancy meal. Instead of aiming to lose 10kg, she decided to focus on each kilo and celebrate success when it was lost, again this is about breaking things down into manageable chunks, and it does seem to have really worked for Tatiana.
Perhaps if you are looking to lose some weight, you could try some of the tips that helped Tatiana.
