Kat & Tshepi

Hi there, welcome back.

How was your week? we hope it went as close as possible to how you planned it, especially your planned fitness and health activities. Our week was hectic due to work pressures and change in our daily routine but we managed to fulfill at least 90% of our fitness and weight loss commitments, it is really easier to hit your targets when you have made fitness a lifestyle because you don’t have to go out of your way to make your health goals happen. When your fitness and health activities are woven and integrated well into your lifestyle, a path of less resistance is created for you to perform them, e.g scheduling a workout at a time when you have completed your daily demands might lead to a missed workout because you will be tired by then and more resistant. Although the week was hectic, we were reminded of some of the benefits of prioritizing fitness and health in our lives and the progress we made so far, see Tshepi’s picture below, it was humbling to see.

This week, we would like to talk about simplifying a weight loss journey. When it comes to weight loss, most people turn to follow more complex routes which often comes with a huge price tag (financially, mentally and emotionally). These includes the purchase of supplements, diet programs and products, weight loss procedures and treatments, expensive gym equipment and these often promises a lot but yields minimal or no results at all. It makes sense that we turn to follow complex routes because of our vulnerability when we are at that state of needing to lose weight, we decide to lose weight because a particular pressure or fear has reared its head , such as medical diagnosis, self-esteem and physical changes, and when we are vulnerable we turn to seek complex and short term solutions instead of embracing simple and long lasting alternatives.

When we began our weight loss journey we fell to the trap of complexity , we spent what we consider a fortune on supplements and gym equipment(we previously highlighted how minimal equipment worked well for us), we initially believed that the more you have the better the chances of success. But looking back and drawing on our experience we see that what really worked was the simple, the bare minimum, we already had what we needed to succeed. We did not need supplements as there was real food available, we did not need gym equipment as our bodies can exercise without equipment. Oscar Wilder states that “I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex”, well we have come to realize that the process of losing weight can be a simple pleasure, and that is “eating natural foods most of the time and moving a bit more”.

Simplicity is choosing to start with what feels simpler, its choosing to be patient and playing the long game, being aware that weight gain had its fair share of time and similarly sustainable weight loss will have its own fair share of time to undo the gained weight. Our lives are already complex as it is, either out of our own doing or our environmental influences, adding more complexity and pressure through the efforts of losing weight is not helpful. It is far better to choose simplicity by consistently eating more natural food and improving physical activity (stated another way , eliminate processed foods and eliminate a sedentary lifestyle) , then the weight loss will come.

Choosing simplicity regarding food can pose challenges because it requires a drastic change in our food choices, processed foods have become majority in many peoples diets and to change this needs a bit of work. In our weight loss guide we recommend a system of introducing small weekly changes to your diet which is incremental and progressive, the premise is that you start with small simple and doable changes which adds up over time to be significant. And we recommend a similar approach to changing a sedentary lifestyle, a simple 15 minute walk per day is a good and doable start.

That’s it for this week, simplicity is better for weight loss, and what could be more simpler than starting with what we already have? foods that are naturally meant for our bodies, and our bodies that are naturally meant to move us around.

Until next week, stay blessed.

Kat & Tshepi