Kat & Tshepi

We (Kat & Tshepi) believe in fairness, equality, simplicity, humility, honesty and love. It is through these core values that we have created the following weight loss guide to help those who might be struggling to lose weight or who are looking to kick start their fitness journey. Our weight loss guide is based on a combination of studied material, actual experience of losing weight and insight. It is our desire and intention to create a weight-loss guide that is simple, practical and sustainable, but most importantly a guide that works. We hope that we have acheived these objectives with this guide.

KAT & TSHEPI WEIGHT-LOSS GUIDE

The truth about weight loss is that you need to eat less than you are eating currently. You need to figure out a way to eat less without feeling starved or restricted. We recommend the following 4 steps for a successful and sustainable weight loss:

1. Create your vision

2. Clean up your nutrition

3. Increase physical activity

4. Track your progress

In the following section we will give a brief explanation and highlight the requirements for each of the 4 steps.

1. Create your vision

The aim of this step is to set your direction and to determine your weight loss goal. To do this, firstly take and record your current weight measurement on the scale, this is your weight loss journey starting weight. Secondly, record your desired weight, this is your weight loss target.

CURRENT WEIGHT	DESIRED WEIGHT
e.g 80kg	e.g 70kg

On this step, we intentionally left out setting a target date because although important, setting a target date for weight loss creates unnecessary pressure and leads to unsustainable weight loss. As humans, we somehow focus on the target date and the end results, and forget about enjoying the process and the day-to-day benefits of working towards our goal. We think it is better to enjoy the process, to embrace the day-to-day improvements that comes along with it, eventually your goal will be reached.

2. Clean up your nutrition

The aim of this step is to ensure the inclusion of healthy foods on your diet , this will increase your chances of losing weight and improve your overall health. To do this, create a list of food items that you think should be reduced on your diet, and also create a list of food items that you think should be included. The lists does not necessarily need to be very extensive and fixed , you can always add to the list every time you discover/remember information about food items you consume or not consume, we encourage flexibility.

Foods to reduce	Foods to include or increase
1. e.g Biscuits	1. e.g Fruits (Apple, Banana)
2.	2.
3.	3.
4.	4.
5.	5.

It is worth being aware that healthy foods are generally whole unprocessed foods, these are foods that are in their natural state or as close as possible. Fruits, vegetable, nuts, seeds, legumes and meats are examples of whole foods, these are worth being included in one’s diet. We recommend the inclusion of more whole foods and a reduction of processed foods, but to succeed in losing weight, what you think and prefer is very important, so be mindful about your own needs and include the foods that you can eat. At this stage, do not worry about your knowledge and correctness of what is healthy foods and what is not healthy as you will build this knowledge over time on your journey.

3. Increase physical activity

Physical activity is not a requirement for losing weight, but it is a requirement to be fit and healthy (and we are certain that this is your ultimate goal 🙂 ). Nutrition is key in weight loss, it is the main player in the game, and exercise is the main supporter. This step aims to encourage you to move, to burn some of the energy you received from the consumed foods. When we consume food, we are fueling our bodies so that we are able to perform our daily tasks. When we don’t burn all the fuel by the end of the day, it gets stored as fat. To increase your physical activity, identify physical activities you would like to do to get fit and healthy, make this a wish list :). This is not a commitment, it is just highlighting your ideal physical activities.

Activities I would like to do

1. e.g Running

2. e.g walking

3. e.g Hiking

4. e.g Exercising

5. e.g Yoga

To increase your physical activity, we recommend a minimum walk of 20 minutes per day. If you have a smartwatch or a step counting app (pedometer app) on your phones, we recommend a step count of between 5000 to 10000 steps, this is because walking less than 5000 steps is considered “Sedentary“. It is worth noting that to get healthy, it is recommended that adults should do at least 150–300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity. Therefore, slightly increasing physical activity helps you lose weight whilst also getting you fit and healthy ( 2-in-1 benefit 🙂 ).

4. Track your progress

Weight loss is acheived through consistent efforts. This step aims to help you become consistent on weekly basis. To stay consistent, we recommend that you start each week with a scale measurement of your weight, then select 1 food item you will reduce in the week from the list created in step 2, then select 1 food item you will constantly include on your menu in the week, lastly dedicate yourself to 20 minutes of walking per day (you can start by aiming less if you want, perhaps 10 mins?). Do this at the beginning of each week (Sunday seems like a perfect day to plan for the week), in time you will be able to see the nature of your commitment and level of CONSISTENCY.

To summaries progress tracking:

• Record your weight.
• Select 1 food item you will reduce in the week.
• Select 1 food item you will include in the week.
• Dedicate yourself to 20 minutes of walking per day.
• Repeat each week.

WEEK	WEIGHT	FOOD (REDUCE)	FOOD (INTRODUCE)	WALKING TIME
WK 1	80kg	Biscuit	Apple	15 mins
WK 2
WK 3
WK 4

To build your consistency, we recommend that you allocate 15 minutes each week to complete the above table. The requirements for this table are very small and may seem inadequate for your desired weight loss goal, but the reality is that goals are acheived through small manageable consistent efforts. We know and expect that in due course the number of items on the table will increase each week except the weight column, which will decrease 🙂 .

FINAL WORDS

The basic truth of weight loss is that you need to consistently eat less than what you are currently eating. In order to achieve this, you need to build habits that will help you to be consistent, and these are habits that will not make you feel restricted or leave you starved and depleted. The 4 steps that we recommended are meant to help you build habits of healthy living in an incremental fashion. Habits are formed by repeatedly completing small tasks, which evolve to bigger outcomes over time.

Our recommendations are very small and may seem insignificant, but over time the results are enormous. If you think about it, one week at a time you will be building habits of committing to a journey , of eating healthy foods, and of living an active lifestyle, which can only results in weight loss and overall good health and wellbeing. Our weight loss guide requires patience, it requires a long term view of your desired life, it is unfortunately not a quick win solution but a sustainable and lasting solution. To avoid frustration, remember that the process of gaining weight took a bit of time, and so will the process of losing weight.

We wish you all the best on your weight loss journey, and ask you to subscribe to this blog, so that we can be your companion on your journey. Each week when you receive an article from us, it will be a reminder of your goal and encouragement to keep going. There is so much power in companionship, as they say “out of sight, out of mind”, this is what you need to avoid on a weight loss journey.

Feel free to Contact us about this guide or any additional information you require or your journey.

Stay blessed.

Kat & Tshepi