Change your weight –
change your life

I probably need to start by saying that I was never small, never skinny or slender. For as long as I can remember, people always pointed out my excess weight. I should say that I always tried to lose weight: diets, gym, massages — nothing helped me. I scolded and hated myself and kept breaking down and eating away all my failures, blaming everything and everyone around me.

In 2019 I turned 50. And I realized that hormonal changes had started happening to me, and I began to gain weight. And I decided that something had to change… Something had to be done… On February 1, 2023 my weight was 81.5 kg. I thought about it seriously and decided that I needed to lose weight urgently!!! So I started reading online about what, why and how one can lose weight. Following the recommendations, I started eating right, cutting out sugar, sweets, fatty foods and flour products. I began eating 150 g of the main dish and 100 g of salad and salad greens per meal. And, of course, I followed a drinking regimen and ate strictly by the clock.

I am now a full 46 years old. Exactly a year ago I realized I wanted changes in myself. All the problems piled up (lack of self-confidence, problems in the family, problems in my relationship with my husband). To let go of different thoughts, I started running — well, I had run before, but this time I decided to take it up seriously. Slowly, through effort, through laziness, through tears, I ran every day: first a little, 3 km, then 5 km, then 7 km. My personal record is 22 km.

I did not just lose weight. I got back my health, energy and confidence. And that is the main victory! BEFORE: Weight 74 kg; Shortness of breath, hard to walk; Insulin resistance; Cholesterol 7.5; Inflammation and thyroid problems. AFTER a year of therapy ...

It all started with a dress. A beautiful one, in a lovely fashionable color, which I saw in a shop window. It drew me in with the promise of lightness and grace, and I, like a moth flying to the light, fluttered to it just as fast. The fitting, predictably, turned into a tragicomedy. The dress took me for yet another enemy and aggressor and, predictably, got stuck on my hips and my "favorite" folds. So I decided to join my own campaign under the name I had chosen: "I will die, but I will lose weight at any cost!" My weekdays became one continuous walk and jog along the Ob riverbank — or rather, attempts at them. I could only last a few minutes, and I became more and more convinced, even talking myself into it, that — as it indeed turned out — Nordic walking is a serious sport.

A little about myself: I am 39 years old, a mother of 3 children (14, 11 and 9 years old). I work on an ambulance in 24-hour shifts. I tried to lose weight many times. I tried intermittent fasting — it ended with a gastritis flare-up. I tried healthy eating, which <strong>kept falling apart during 24-hour ambulance shifts</strong>, because it is impossible to plan what a call will be like and how it will end. So there were constant problems with my eating schedule.

Before every holiday or event I would rack my brain about what to wear, because dresses looked like a potato sack on me. Constant judgmental looks and thoughts like "what is she wearing", "how ugly" kept spinning in my head. I thought people were looking at me sideways precisely because of the way I looked. In a dress I did not feel comfortable, so it was easier to dress in oversized clothes. That is how I hid all my flaws.

In February 2024 I reached my highest weight, and that was exactly when I realized it was time to change myself and my life. I decided to start losing weight. But I chose not to go on diets, starve myself and end up breaking down and gaining everything back. I decided to make this journey my way of life, forever, by changing my eating habits.