Tomike Adeoye shares a personal weight loss experience that is easy to adopt by anybody struggling with their waistline. A vlogger, actress, brand influencer, and entrepreneur, she is currently a presenter at Ebony Life TV.
By Ololade Bamigbola
I’m already fat, let me eat my junk in peace, is a mindset that has trashed the weight loss diet plan of many! To be honest, keeping fit isn’t easy!
Cities don’t make it easier with the crazy schedules, traffic, name it, but truth is, many have succeeded and many will continue to diet successfully with the right motivation.
My weight usually fluctuates. Blame it on being a media personality. Some weeks you’re on set back-to-back and you have to eat lots of junk to remain sane through the stress. No one wants to stick to a stressful diet when work is enough stress.
One major sentence that always rings in my head when I start eating junk and putting on weight is, if you go out of shape because of your own carelessness, they will dump you. Sounds funny but it’s a constant reminder that works for me. I have to stay in shape for myself and for the TV screens.
I had my biggest motivation to lose weight this year. I lost several pounds in less than a month! No, I didn’t work out and didn’t suffer.
My motivation was the Avant-Garde by Elizabeth R wedding gown. I had gone to try it out a few weeks before my wedding and it didn’t fit. It was a struggle zipping past my waistline! After we forcefully zipped it, I looked bloated. My tummy was sticking out like I was three months pregnant. It then dawned on me that if I truly wanted to walk down the aisle in the breath-taking Avant-Garde, I just had to lose weight.
Out of frustration and desperation, I registered at a gym for ₦25,000. Guess what? I went only twice! I got too busy and couldn’t work out. I would get home exhausted and think the day was enough work out for me.
Now you’re wondering: What happened?
Also, worked on my diet. I stopped eating late at night. I learned the trick of portion control. Better put, I didn’t want to feel like I was on a diet, so I ignored the meal plans I saw online (those meal plans can be really depressing). I didn’t have time to follow the meal plans; I just decided I would be moderate in everything I did.
Honestly, I believe our African parents made it difficult to lose weight. They instilled in us the habit of I must finish it, team no wastefulness, team eats five spoons of rice. They would pack lots of food on our plates and insist that we finished every single bit.
Don’t get me wrong, it was great for us as kids because we owe our cute baby pictures to them. It made us robust and healthy kids but as an adult trying to stay fit, I had to trash those rules. I learned to eat in bits, which was a life-saver. I drink lots of water so I would be too filled to eat a lot of food. I would eat half spoon (serving spoon) of rice or whatever it was, and hours later I would munch on nuts or chips (in small portions, of course). Another trick I learned was to chew my food for a long before swallowing it. It helped me get filled up without eating too much. It was indeed a life changer as it worked for me.
Long story short, when I tried my wedding dress one last time before dry-cleaning, it fit perfectly. It wasn’t tight. I felt comfortable. I had lost weight! I felt lightweight and trust me it felt good. I couldn’t be happier.
Keeping fit and losing weight is a mindset. It’s a gradual process. Try portion control. Try drinking lots of water. It worked perfectly for me and so I can confidently say it’s going to work for you too.
Ololade Bamigbola is a PR practitioner advising multinational brands, a writer, and an avid follower of Nigerian fashion and arts. She is based in Lagos. The article was originally published by Four Points Communications in NCDMB’s Local Content Digest magazine.
Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.
