A few years ago I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and fibromyalgia that has been debilitating and life changing. Aside from the fact that it took me over a year for a diagnosis, I felt like I was shaking when walking with the amount of medication I was taking. In addition to becoming inactive after years of regular exercise, I was taking medications that were contributing to my excessive weight gain.

As time went on, I gained an excess of 25 kg, more than a quarter of my total body weight, it was depressing and uncomfortable to say the least, and I didn’t seem to lose anything anytime soon. After seeing some photos from a vacation with friends, I made the decision that something had to change and the weight had to go away.

I am going to rate this article by letting everyone know that I am not a dietician or nutritionist and that I have no experience on the subject of diet. I’m just going to tell you what worked for me, in a remarkably short amount of time. The only reason I’m writing this article is because my doctor was so shocked that he recently told me that I need people to know my secret. I’m here to tell you that there are no secrets, just simple common sense and a hint of willpower.

I realized that to lose weight I had to combine a diet change with at least some exercise. You have to understand that with my condition, exercise is not something easy to achieve. The main symptoms of my condition include fatigue and pain, which restricts my ability to do any physical activity. Both of these facts limit the amount and frequency of any exercise I can do, but I didn’t let that stop me from doing what I could.

I started walking about 1 km a day. That was my limit, as I would come home after walking and collapse in bed for at least an hour in recovery. However, as time went on, I managed to slowly increase the distance I was walking to about 4km, which took me about 45 minutes. I would do my best to accomplish these hikes at least 5 days a week. I had the benefit of an active 25kg American Staff puppy for pacing and crawling, so I’d say the walks were reasonably brisk in nature.

The only other thing I did to achieve weight loss was change my diet. I tried cutting out complex carbohydrates, even though I still had small servings at some meals. I even indulged in the strange chocolate fad on occasion. It is not necessary to completely eliminate the simple pleasures of life.

I usually had breakfast around 9:00 am before my walks and consisted of the same thing every day for the entire diet period. It was really simple and consisted of a cup of natural Swiss formula muesli with a cup of low-fat, high-calcium milk. If I found myself looking for food between meals, I would not starve, I would indulge in an apple or similar to overcome hunger.

Despite the cravings, I stuck with the plan and rarely ate again until around 1:30 pm. Lunch again consisted of the same meal throughout the period. One thing’s for sure, this was a boring diet and you can get tired of eating the same thing, but when it works like this, it’s easy to stick to the plan. I had spinach arugula salad with half an avocado, a cup of shredded chicken breast, a quarter cup of shredded cheddar cheese, and a diced tomato with a tablespoon of ranch-style dressing. All of this was topped off with a soft poached egg that makes this salad perfect. I promise you, it’s actually very good and it was easy to prepare so it was never difficult to maintain your willpower.

The little variety in my diet came with dinner, and this is where I had most of my daily carbohydrate intake. Three out of seven nights a week I ate a Thai curry, usually chicken or lamb with vegetables. The great thing about a curry is that you can make a large batch and freeze multiple servings for later in the week. I always made it with light coconut milk and limited the rice to half a cup. If you are interested in my recipe for the curry please let me know via the website and I will gladly send you a copy.

Other options for dinner basically boiled down to a lean piece of rump or Scottish steak (200g max) with steamed vegetables (no potatoes). Simple but nice goal! I also enjoyed a slice of Atlantic or Tasmanian salmon (200 grams max) with steamed vegetables or a slice of the salad I made for lunch.

Okay, variety wasn’t on the menu, but you get used to it in a short space of time and it’s easy to get on with the program. For the first four weeks, I lost on average about 1kg per week and then all of a sudden around week five the pound really started to drop. By the end of the 13th I had lost 25kg in total and was back to the weight I was before I was diagnosed. Since then I have managed to maintain the weight simply by being sensitive and avoiding complex carbohydrates like those found in cakes and cookies. The secret is to keep it simple and it will work. If you want more information or recipes of the diet plan that worked for me, feel free to write to me on the website and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

So there you have it … it’s that simple and you don’t need any expensive weight loss products to be successful. If you find this helpful and it works for you too, then all I’m asking is that you consider supporting a struggling new author. Best of luck, I hope this can work for you as well as it did for me.

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