By the time you read this, I will have turned 40.
Don’t worry. I’m fine. No need to call in the cavalry. No need for consolation or reassurance that “life begins at 40”. And I’ll pay no mind to warnings that “it’s all downhill from here”.
I’m not scared.
Honestly, I love birthdays and I’ve never been afraid of getting older. This birthday, however, is particularly important for me because I feel like I dodged a proverbial bullet when I decided to take stock of my life and get #fitbefore40.
Those who have been following this column will already know that at the start of my journey to health in January last year, I was terribly overweight, unhealthy and unfit.
Desperate to shed at least 40 of the 107.4kg, reflected on the scale at the time, I edited my diet and my lifestyle and while I may not have reached goal weight of 65kg by my birthday, I did manage to lose 40kg and gain a whole new perspective on life by the time I reached the big four-oh.
The run-up to my “big day” was a time of excitement and deep reflection for me as I looked back on the bad habits which resulted in me struggling up a single flight of stairs and fitting into size 44.
In addition to my job being largely desk-bound and my living an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, I was eating too many take-aways and snacks and my portion sizes far exceeded what I needed.
That may sound like an over-simplication, but if I’ve learnt anything in the past year and nine months, it’s that we all have the ability to get fit, to lose weight, to get healthy.
I have come to believe that what many of us lack is the knowledge and understanding of what our bodies need to be in good shape. I blame our near obsession with getting good value for money - aka a huge portion of food - when eating out, conflicting messages about what’s good for you and what’s not, and a general, often confusing, overload of information about new fad diets and weight loss quick fixes.
The Paleo lifestyle, which calls for the exclusion of legumes, grains, sugar, processed foods and dairy from one’s diet, has worked well for me. If you’re not comfortable with the idea of eliminating whole food groups to lose weight, you don’t have to. You can start by making changes as simple as cutting out or reducing the amount of processed or convenience foods you eat, reducing your portion sizes - and moving more.
That’s it. Eat less. Move more. Then assess how your body responds to determine whether you have genuine intolerances to specific food groups.
And if you decide to cut them out, remember that it’s not necessarily the elimination of this particular food group that helps you lose weight, but the reduction in calorie intake that this invariably results in.
So, as I kiss my thirties goodbye, I’ll be focusing on Keeping It Super Simple and, most importantly, having fun as I keep fit, and having fun with the food I eat.
And it is in this spirit that I offer you some fun facts about 40, according to Reader’s Digest:
Forty is the only number in English whose letters appear in alphabetical order.
Minus 40 degrees, or “40 below,” is the only temperature that is the same in both Fahrenheit and Celsius.
There are 40 spaces on a standard Monopoly board and the game gives players equal odds (one in 40) of going directly to jail or winning free parking.
Forty is also the number of winks suggested for a perfect nap.
(And for those who were wondering, I finished last week’s fun run with strong legs.)
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*Chantel Erfort Manuel's column appears in the Weekend Argus every Saturday