My blog

I have always envied people who can eat and drink as much as they want, knowing that it does not affect their weight in any way. In college, I had a friend – warm regards, Michał – whose mother would never let him go to school without a thick bag of rolls filled with cheese and ham. Michał did not have enough breaks to empty the bag, so he would also eat sandwiches during classes, and he was as thin as a stick.

For as long as I can remember, I have always liked to eat well, which was undoubtedly due to my mother, for whom good and plentiful nutrition was the basic dimension of maternal care for her children. Dad, in turn, instilled in me a love of drinks consumed in pleasant company, and I was particularly fond of excellent, although terribly caloric, whiskey with cola. Years of good food and enjoying drinks could not fail to have an impact on my weight.

And I always weighed a little more than I should have. Even in high school and during my studies I was slightly overweight, but Mom kept telling me that I was slim but big-boned, and the standards given by dieticians, which implied that at my age and height one should weigh eighty-two kilograms, were treated as a misunderstanding - in her opinion, someone who weighed that much was either seriously ill or neglected.

I was an absolute and insatiable carnivore from birth. I loved meat in any form. I couldn't imagine any meal without meat and I believed that a meatless meal would never be full-fledged and that it was impossible to leave the table with a sense of satiated hunger if the plate contained only vegetables and carbohydrates. My most common breakfast was scrambled eggs with bacon or a ham sandwich, but definitely not without that tasty, fatty coating. I only skipped meat for dinner on Fridays, when, in accordance with our centuries-old tradition, breaded fish with sauerkraut salad was served on the table. And dinner was a real meat festival - pâté, headcheese, dried sausage or other cold cuts were a must. In the season, I loved our Polish, spicier grilled feasts, with kaszanka and pork neck in the leading roles.

My weight slowly but steadily increased. After thirty, my BMI began to stabilize at a level above thirty, which indicated the first degree of obesity. However, I can't say that I had a big problem with it. I felt great, I still liked myself in the mirror, and besides, I didn't have much time to think, because I worked a lot and long hours, and weekend feasts gave me a lot of pleasure.
One day, a few years before I turned forty, I decided to step onto my bathroom scale, which I had always avoided at all costs. And it, without warning, unceremoniously and ruthlessly showed me how much I was worth. It was 107 kilograms. I admit that those three figures shook me up a lot. In an instant, I decided that I had to do something about it.

At that time, I didn’t consider sports to be a sensible way to spend my time, and giving up alcohol was out of the question, so I decided to go on a diet. At the urging of a colleague from work who, like me, had learned about his weight – greetings, Marek – I went to a doctor, a specialist in Chinese medicine. Based on a detailed examination of my tongue, he made a clear diagnosis: you are overweight and need to lose weight. He recommended acupuncture, wearing mustard seeds in my ear, and developed a daily diet. I declined the acupuncture and mustard, but for the next six months I ate only what he prescribed. Breakfast consisted of two grilled slices of rye bread with salad and boiled lentils. Dinner could be large and fancy, but only if it consisted of one of three combinations: groats with meat, meat with vegetables, or vegetables with groats. The meat had to be lean and boiled. Fresh or cooked vegetables. Cooked buckwheat or pearl barley. Any spices, but not much salt. For dinner I could eat anything except meat and carbohydrates, as long as it was little and no later than six p.m.

It wasn't easy. I went through many crises and was often close to steak and chips, but I managed. My bathroom scales, which I used three times a day, gave me encouragement, and almost every time I used them I saw a different, and most importantly, lower value. After six months I weighed 86 kilograms. I threw out half my wardrobe. I casually put on Lewis size 38, and my stomach, butt and thighs finally started to look the way they should. I was delighted, and I could finally start eating normally.

After this amazing feat, I did what most dieters do after they finish it – I went back to the same habits, drinking and eating that I had before the diet. And slowly, step by step, I returned to my original state. It took me a few years. In my early forties, my bathroom scale started showing triple digits again.

This time, however, sobering up came a little faster. Turning forty is a good motivation to rearrange your life, so I decided to take up sports. I started running and playing badminton. It wasn't an intense sport, but it was systematic - I trained on average three times a week. I didn't change my eating and drinking habits. My weight didn't want to go down, but it didn't go up either. Apparently, in my case, not very intense sports in some way neutralized the negative impact on weight of excessive fat, sugar and alcohol consumption.

This weight stabilization of around a hundred and something kilograms lasted for almost an entire decade. However, when I started approaching fifty, my body began to indicate that this was not possible in the long run.

I remember it clearly, it was July 2017. I was forty-nine. I had just returned from a vacation in Austria, stuffed with Germknedl and drunk on Stiegel. I had a test done, which showed that my cholesterol had risen to two hundred and fifty units. I knew it was time for a change. Serious changes.

A colleague from work – greetings Robert – gave me the contact details of his dietician. I made an appointment. The nice lady did a detailed interview with me, got to know the whole history of my nutritional life and made a diagnosis: you have to completely change your eating habits and start using natural herbal preparations, which I will prescribe to you, they will help you lose weight. When I asked her if it would be possible to do without the treatment with preparations, she replied that she does not treat otherwise, I knew I would not use her services.

I came to the conclusion that I had to find the best way for me to spend the second fifty years of my life. And I knew that it had to be a drastic change, and above all a change not for a month, half a year or a year, but a change for good, and one that I could like.

I already do sports, so I won't change anything here. I started planning with alcohol.

I quickly diagnosed that I was drinking too much. On weekends, basically always. And during the week, almost every day: most often a glass of wine, a beer or a cocktail, and often a whole bottle, a few beers or a few drinks. I knew that completely eliminating alcohol was out of the question. After analyzing various options, I came to the conclusion that I had to completely give up drinking during the week.

The second issue is meat and fat. I had a suspicion that of all the factors, this one could be the most significant for my health. The World Health Organization recommends a maximum daily intake of meat of 62 grams. A Pole statistically eats 200 grams a day, and I ate much more. The first decision – a maximum of one meat meal a day. The second – a maximum of three meat days a week. The third – no buying cold cuts or any processed meat – if meat, only the one I prepared myself or in a restaurant. I also stop using butter for spreading.

I knew I couldn't deprive myself of sweets. So in terms of sweets I decided to eliminate only the convulsive absorption, and otherwise I would eat.

And most importantly – I focus on vegetables and groats. This will be the basis of my diet.

As I decided, so I did.

I have been using these principles for over three years. In the first few months, my weight dropped by almost 20 kilograms. My performance improved by leaps and bounds. My complexion is better. I want everything more. I eat a lot, maybe even more, but completely differently. I have changed my approach to preparing food, I devote more time to it and celebrate it. And most importantly – I like my new self even more.