Mauie Flores

November 23 of last year, I took charge of my life. That day, I decided to stop being fat for good. At 5'1" I weighed 174 lbs. You can imagine how fat I was. I still am, but my weight's going down every week.

Before that day, my blood sugar was way over normal. I started to feel pain in my knees, a clear sign of juvenile arthritis. My clothes either don't fit or I look like a walrus in them. I was wearing 36-inch pants. It's hard to get up and down the stairs.

I tried a lot of diet plans before but they did not work too well for me. SBD gave my kidneys a hard time. Once, I tried a diet plan that made me dizzy the whole day.

Today, I checked the scale and it showed 156 lbs. My waist is now down to 34 inches. Not that slim yet, but I am so happy with what I see. How did I do it? Simple. I took Orlistat (I don't want to write about the brand name, people might think I'm being paid to endorse it. Google it yourself. :D ) I also changed the way I ate. I eat half a cup of rice once a day, only at lunch. At breakfast, I only ate 2 wheat bread pan de sal with a slice of cheese or peanut butter or I drink a glass of taho. At dinner, I eat only some meat and a lot of veggies. We don't eat fried food that much now. Meat or fish is either steamed, boiled, or grilled. I also walk everyday. When I started, I only walked for 30 minutes, 3 times a week. After a while, especially in December, I made it every morning at 7am. When my internet connection started to get a little better, I made some research and learned that I need to make 6,000-10,000 steps a day. In a week, it burns 3500 calories. So, now, I walk at the Makati Coliseum parking lot an hour every day. I make 7,000+ steps. I hope I can increase it eventually.

Losing weight has given me more self-confidence. People has started to notice. I feel a lot healthier beacause I'm lighter. I plan to take the med until March, in time for summer. By that time, I think, I can stick with a herbal diet supplement that is cheaper. I will give an update next month. I hope I'll be at least 145lbs by then.

It's a long way to go until I reach my ideal weight. I read that losing 2 lbs a week is just right. Anything more than that is temporary and you'll gain it back again. So, as slow as it seems, I'm contented.