Why I embarked on a weight loss journey.

Before

After my accidental weight loss journey

I used to fit into this pair of pants just 4 months ago.
One of the biggest 'headache' of weight loss is having to buy an entire new wardrobe
​and I hate shopping!

Many friends, on seeing my obvious recent weight loss, have been asking why I had embarked on a weight loss journey. Often I would be at a loss as to how to answer them, because I actually didn't.

I was born a skinny boy and had gone through primary school with the disapproving School Health Service 'force feeding' the underweight me with free milk or some kind of protein powder. I grew up a slim young man and then became a not slim and not fat middle aged man. But like everyone else, with advancing middle age, I began to accumulate a 'little' more fat around the waist.

The reality was I never really set out to lose weight in the first place, I had initially only embarked on a journey to eat healthy and the weight loss was an unexpected big bonus very early on. And once the weight, especially the belly fat, started to drop off, I was woken up enough from my complacency about my weight and I began to put in more effort to lose weight through being more mindful of what I eat.

But now having lost the weight that I did, I'm thankful that I did. My blood pressure has come down, my body composition analysis test is looking good, the visceral fat level is at a healthy range which I am sure it was not when I was overweight.

So should anyone now ask me why I had embarked on a weight loss journey, my reply would be:

'I actually did not embark on a weight loss journey but had instead only consciously made more effort to eat better, move more and sleep better and along the way I lost some weight 'accidentally'. But now that I have lost weight and regained my health, on reflection, I realised that in the first place, I should not have allowed myself to become overweight in the past through complacency, however moderately or even just a heavy in the middle,  

So now, I continue to strive to keep to a healthy lifestyle to try to keep the excess weight and waist away because:
(i) I love my wife and I want to keep in health
(ii) I love my kids and I want to keep in health
(iii) I want to walk the talk and be able to speak with authority and be able to teach, encourage and coach others about the power of lifestyle as medicine through:
- my practice as a medical doctor and able help my patients through the prescription of lifestyle modification as medicine to better manage their medical conditions.
- my role as the founder and executive chef of a restaurant that has the promotion of healthy eating as its mission.

But most of all, I want to keep a healthy weight and waist and keep in health because I want to honour my God who gave me this body by treasuring my physical health as best as I could, starting with practising a healthy lifestyle to keep my weight and waist at an ideal level as best as I could.'

So to all men out there who are, like what I used to do, complacently 'laughing' off a slowly but surely expanding waistlines as 'love handles' or 'beer bellies', hope you do not mind my unsolicited 5 cents worth of advice and encouragement:
- the fat at the waist are the worst kind of fat anyone could have in terms of its adverse health implications, people may jokingly call it a 'love handle', but waist & visceral fats are really no joking matter nor is it a sign of 'love', it is anything BUT. In fact, if you love your wife, love your kids, love God, lose that fat around the waist. It would not be easy, but it has to be done and it can be done. Go for it!

Important Note:
Everyone's weight journey is different and personal.
No one has the right to judge another based on body weight. 

I shared this post because it is clear, from medical research, that there is a strong relationship between excess weight, waist and incidence of many chronic diseases. 

Our focus should therefore be on our own weight, waist and our own health and whether our current weight puts us at higher risks of the common chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. And if necessary, seek advice and support from doctors or other healthcare professionals in your journey towards a healthier weight and waist.