How to lose weight healthy as a (too) fat man

I want nothing more than to let you sympathize with my struggle against the pounds and what it has brought me (a divine body and a clear mind). But – I want to say this loud and clear – you should in no way feel compelled to follow in my footsteps. Are you comfortable in your own skin, even if that skin is stretched tight around a mighty grease apron? You have my blessing. Is your idea of ​​exercise a round-trip fridge or letterbox, and then only when it’s not raining? You must know yourself.

Because I was just like that. I didn’t need myself either. I was fine, thank you. Mind your own business. But in the end I did, change. I took care of myself and started living differently. And I am now 22.5 kilos slimmer, stopped drinking and moderately sporty. And I feel so much better. So much stronger, more energetic and more aware… that I can’t help but push you with a whisper soft hand in the direction of a slim and healthier life. Because deep down you may also want a slim athlete to get out.

Bad truth

What I’ve discovered, namely: we tell ourselves all kinds of nonsense. Imagine all sorts of things, and if not, we close our eyes, condone and keep silent. Men are especially good at this. For example, I managed to gain 22.5 kilos without even realizing it. That was because I subconsciously didn’t want to face an unpopular truth: that I had become way overweight, drank too much, and exercised too little. If I had to face that nasty truth, I had to do something about it.

After all, I was the man behind the large pieces of meat on the barbecue, preferably pulled pork from the (pork) shoulder, gently cooked for 12 hours on the Big Green Egg, lovingly plucked into threads with two forks, topped with barbecue sauce and accompanied by au gratin potatoes, and ahead: a bite of forgotten vegetables.

I was the man of the good bottle of wine, the beer in the garden, the sturdy G&T or trendy cocktail at the vernissage. Not an alcoholic – it doesn’t matter, everyone asks – just an enthusiastic social drinker, like you might be. In principle, sports was ‘my thing’, especially a game of veteran football. But often it didn’t work out because of a small injury or domestic obligations. With 22.5 kilos of consequences.

dietician

It was my wife who could no longer look at me, broke the deadlock and sent me to the dietician. This one would change my life.

By weighing and measuring me, and letting you know in crystal-clear language that I was in pretty bad shape, and if I continued like this, I had a good chance of various cancers, diabetes, and a few other correlated ailments that made my evening quite a bit would ruin. I was shocked, already, the pleurisy. Wendy (that’s the name of the dietician) sent me a super healthy vegetable, seed, bean and nut rich weekly menu that would ensure that I would lose a lot of weight. And she showed me the way to a useful and feasible way to exercise more and keep it up. Later in the process I also stopped drinking. When I started I weighed 110.9 kilos, today 88.4, and all systems are back in green. I am also very happy.

Enjoy new flavors

That did not happen by itself. Initially you are all resistance. You think it’s mean and unfair that you have to give up everything you like. It is therefore necessary that you tackle that first phase with a strong motivation from outside. Such as the prospect that you would otherwise die prematurely or have to spend your last years in an oxygen tent with two amputated legs.

But fear of death also gets boring, so the change doesn’t last that way. In the second phase, you have to allow yourself to enjoy the new ‘flavors’ in your life: the delicious fruit in your morning oatmeal, waking up without a hangover, the deer you encounter when you tread dew in the polder and your body that is toned and stronger. and become more attractive. In short: you have to admit that maybe your old life wasn’t that much better than this new one and you only told yourself that. And how stupid that really is.

stupid habit

I look back with amazement and sometimes with shame at all the buck-jumps I made to hold on to behavior that I now know was no better, more fun, tastier or more exciting. In fact, which I now dare to say was unhealthier, more superficial and sometimes downright embarrassing. Vegetables are just as tasty as meat, if you prepare them properly. Sober is much better than tipsy – come on, unless you’re 25, wearing glasses, very shy and you’d never dare approach a nice girl. Being fit is a thousand times nicer than a meat mountain. Change is not scary but nice.

But the best discovery is: every habit can be unlearned, because it is nothing more than, exactly, a (stupid) habit. Which we ourselves have made important and can therefore also make unimportant again, and replaced by something different and better. So, again, you don’t need anything from me, but if you still got the jitters, I promise you: life gets much, much better, you just have to want it.

Jan’s tips for a healthier life

1. Take small steps. No one runs a marathon untrained. I started in the polder near my house. Walk a few hundred meters, twice a week, and a little further each time.
2. Do it together. Neighbor Jeroen and I are now going into the same polder together for the sixth year, and we would never have been able to do that if we hadn’t cheered each other on.
3. All beginnings are difficult. Try – even if your whole childish brain is screaming murder – to have a little self-mockery and to see that you are being terribly obnoxious with your aversion to lamb’s lettuce.
4. On a nice day you suddenly find fruit tasty. Because fruit is tasty. You were anti-fruit only for some obscure reason. And maybe you like cycling after all. Could just be.
5. Don’t care what others think. Especially if you stop drinking, you will have a hard time. At first everyone is proud, but soon your friends ask when you will start again. After some time people are used to you with spa. You too, by the way.
6. Read my book If Jan can do it… Healthy and slim for ordinary men. This is an honest, recognizable and cheerful discussion of how to tackle the above concretely and successfully!