About 17 years ago, I was around 25 kg heavier than I am today. I was extremely unhappy about the situation, and I kept trying various low calorie diets. They worked for a few weeks, but I was unable to keep up with them over longer time. With two toddlers I found it difficult to find time to exercise, and I thought that everything would be fine if I just started exercising. When I finally started running about 15 years ago, I did indeed lose some weight, but only about 5 kg. I was quite frustrated that exercising was not helping more; I was after all running 2-3 times a week, and I had even started to do the Stoltzekleiven races! What more could I do? What I know today is that exercising alone is not enough. A run takes perhaps 400 calories off, but if you just eat a big muffin you get back all those calories...
After a lot of frustration and trying and failing in lots of diets on my own, what finally saved me was signing up for a Grete Roede course. I was really skeptical to start with, and honestly I did not actually believe that this would help me. Fortunately I had two friends who were also interested in losing weight so we signed up together. A Grete Roede course lasts 7 weeks (8 lessons), and you are in a group of 10-15 people who want to lose weight, some just a few kilos, some perhaps more than 20. You meet once a week, you are weighed by the teacher, your weight loss is announced to the others (but not your actual weight), and then the rest of the session you discuss experiences, what happened during the week, and get guidance and instructions from the teacher. The real clue is that you write down what you eat, and keep close track of your food intake; every single thing that you put in your mouth!
We were lucky to get the kindest and at the same time the most strict teacher you could think of: Anlaug Totland. She was so direct in her instructions that it was easy to just do exactly as she said. To my huge surprise I actually started to lose weight. At the same time I was eating much more than before; I could eat unlimited amounts of vegetables and salad, and this was a big revelation to me. I did not need to be hungry to lose weight! Who would have thought of that? I learned so much about nutrition during the first course, and for the first time in my life I realized that what I needed was not a diet but a life long new way of eating. I also had to learn to stop feeling sorry for myself. I always thought I was so unlucky to put on weight so easily, while others could eat much more and still stay skinny. Now I had to learn to just deal with it! Just think of it as a kind of an allergy. During the first course with Anlaug I lost 8 kg. I continued on to two more courses with her during which I lost 10 kg more. In total 18 kg in 6 months!
Unfortunately keeping my weight at more or less that level continued to be a challenge. During the last 10 years, whenever my weight increased more than 3-4 kg I went back to a Grete Roede course, and every time it helped me get back on track. Instead of considering this a failure, I tried to embrace it as a great help to regain focus whenever I started to struggle. About 4 years ago I had two courses with the sweetest teacher ever, Elise Hetlevik, and she turned out the be Anlaug's grand daughter! Elise is very young, but she has an incredible energy and an impressive authority as a teacher. I followed an "active" course with her, where we had 45 minutes of a really tough spinning session after the weighing every week. Great concept! And guess what: 2 years ago I had to repeat the process, but this time with Elise's mother, and Anlaug's daughter, Linda Hetlevik! Wow, what a family of great motivators and incredibly positive and cheerful women! After getting once more back on track with Linda, for the first time I also signed up for the "keep your weight down" course. This goes over a whole year; you meet with your group once a month, and the goal is to simply stay focused. I think this is perhaps the most important course of them all, and I regret that I did not do this after the first three courses more than 10 years ago.
Nowadays, for the first time in my life I believe that I will be able to keep my good eating habits and my weight down more easily in the future. The fact that I am running more often and longer, and in general practicing and working out several times a week is of course helping a lot. Having regular personal training sessions is also a great way of staying in focus. My trainer Ketil and I discuss nutrition almost in every session, and in the beginning we also had the exercise of me writing down what I eat and Ketil analyzing it. We made a few changes in my diet, to make sure that I get enough nutrition to recover from the training without putting on weight. Although it was not one of my goals for the PT sessions, I did actually lose 4 kg since I started with them in March this year. I still want to lose a few more kilos, but the situation is quite different now. Earlier, I ran to lose weight, whereas now I want to lose weight so that I can run faster. On the other hand I still want to get stronger, and building muscles and losing weight at the same time is a delicate matter. Fortunately, Ketil is an expert also in this area with even personal experience that is both great motivation and excellent example to follow.
I know some strong people who have managed to lose substantial weight on their own. I think writing down what you eat is a very good method that has helped many people. There are nowadays many apps that you can use on your phone, and you can even scan the food in the store to get the calories directly calculated. You can also join online weight watching clubs, register your progress and share experiences with others. But if you are struggling to do it on your own, please don't waste too much time.
Get help! It works!
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