Thirty. In thirty¹ weeks I'll be thirty years old and that is a big thing for me. Thirty is the age of my father when I first asked him how old was he. If you're thirty, you're a grown up. Thirty is a final goodbye to childhood. Thirty, is a milestone in life.
The first half of my twenties went like a roller coaster. Everything was so fast, emotional, and spontaneous. In the second half, I tried to get my shit together. I understood that balance is the ultimate comfort.
Arguably, I can say that I found some decent amount of balance, in most of the matters I had to deal with. The perhaps only exception is: my weight.
I've been an obese since my teenage years and I've always felt like I could do much better in a leaner and stronger body.
In these days where I'm moving to another stage in life, I want to leave this problem behind. Investing in my mental abilities, studies and career turned out to be great but now, it's the time (if not too late) to focus on my physical capabilities, well-being and health.
Although it sounds like I took an impulsive decision and set a childish goal about my weight, it's not the case.
Four years ago, during 2019, I dedicated to lose 40 kgs of my body weight, mostly counting calories and ended up losing 24 kgs (and gaining almost all of it within years).
I educated myself about fat metabolism, forming habits and behaviors and physical activity.
I've studied how people losing weight usually gains all of them in time and fall back to their earlier life styles and diet.
Even though the picture is not much bright, I believe the best recipe for getting rid of the excess weight and maintaining a healthy body weight lies in: gaining enough muscle to counter your natural appetite, engineering your environment to make having a healthier lifestyle easier and setting goals that you can follow until you die and become too old.
For the past two years, I've been trying make exercise a part of my life. I set up a a small home-gym where I can exercise freely.
Last year, I taught myself how to run five kilometers² following a program called Couch to 5K.
For the the past six months I've been trying to make weightlifting 3 times per week a habit. A habit that I could continue doing until I become too sick or too old.
For the past two months, I've been following a rule, almost religiously³: No food after 9pm. I can have this rule in my entire life without much struggle.
I feel that now, it's the time. It's time where I am ready to fight obesity for good.
That's why I decided to: Lose 30 Before 30.
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[1] Not exactly thirty, I don't want to expose my birthday online and I want to give myself some extra time as a buffer.
[2] Running with 120 kilograms of body weight does not look like what Nike commercials show us. It's so slow that 5K runs take an hour or more.
[3] Of course there were some times where I couldn't follow this rule and of course there will be. Exceptions happen all the time. What's important is to make this a part of my identity.