Weight Loss – My Personal Journey

On December 7^th 2014, as I was walking in our town of Eldoret, I noticed one of those weighing scales people place on the pavements. There was a man beside it rattling a handful of coins, ostensibly to attract potential “weighing-in” customers. I took notice because of late, I had been feeling quite heavy; and not in a good way. I was fast outgrowing most of my clothes and most of the ones that fit me could only just barely do so. I had got into the habit of getting into track suits and other baggy clothes as soon as I got home from work since I would be quite uncomfortable. I was also feeling pain in my ankles if I stood for too long.

I had some coins in my pocket and decided to check my weight. The digital numbers on the scale flickered like the micro-seconds on a stop watch until they stopped at 101.5 Kilograms. I could not believe it. It looked like a bad joke but there it was. The man had a chart of ideal weights based on BMI (Body Mass Index). For my height, the maximum weight I should have is 78 Kilograms. I was 23.5 Kilograms over my ideal weight. I was not over-weight; I was obese.  Right there and then I knew I had to do something but I didn’t know what.

The following day I was on the internet researching. I found a weight-loss program which looked simple enough (at least it did on paper). It entailed 3 major items which I have explained in detail below and which I have tried to follow since that fateful day in December. They are;

Diet

I came to learn (the hard way) that all the weight we carry on our bodies comes from the food we eat. I have always loved my food and could afford room for any tasty delicacy. I also learnt that the part of the diet that gets converted to fat most readily is carbohydrates. I therefore had to reduce my carbohydrates to the kind of amounts that can induce tears in food addicts like me. Coming down from the kind of ‘Ugali’ that casts a shadow on the table to a slice the size of my fist took a serious fear of death from obesity for me to pull off. I also had to go easy on my beloved chapattis all the way down to one from a previous minimum of four.

Veggies now had to become the in-thing. All that space previously occupied by carbohydrates had to be taken over by any kind of greens I could lay my hands on. I learnt that you can’t over-dose on veggies. Now I know why Popeye was stronger and healthier than Wimpy (Those too young to get the inference can google).

My aim was not just to lose weight, but to keep it away. To do this, I had to have both a short term plan (see about carbohydrates above), and a long term plan. The long term plan (which is still in operation), entailed building muscle. To do this, I had to increase my protein intake. Any protein can do but in my case I opted for cereals such as beans and lentils.

The ratio in diet was not just in relation to the quantities of the different foods as explained above. It also had to do with the ratio of amounts taken during different meals. I therefore take a heavy breakfast with lots of protein. (The word heavy here is relative; not as heavy as it was before my diet started). My lunch is a small (I ensure this by using a very small plate). I don’t eat supper as a meal. I just snack (usually on a cup of nuts or a fruit). I take 10 o’clock tea with 2 slices of bread and 4 o’clock tea plain (no sugar in the tea).

Water

The importance of water in weight loss is such that it cannot be discussed as part of diet. It is a topic all on its own. I have never been one to take a lot of water. I could go for weeks without drinking plain water. During my research however, I discovered that water was so important not just for weight loss, but also for general well being.

It was difficult at first to take the minimum recommended 2 litres a day. I overcame this by having a jug of water on my desk all day. I then apportioned how much I needed to take during every session of the day. I came up with 1 litre (4 glasses) in the morning before I left for work, 1 litre over the course of the day, and at least a ½ litre in the evening when I got home from work. I am now able to comfortably take 3 litres every day.

The benefit of water in weight loss is two-fold. First, it occupies the space that could have been taken up by food thereby leaving you feeling full and with less appetite. Secondly, water is the solvent the body requires to metabolise all that fat you want to lose. It cleans out all the internal organs and makes me feel quite vibrant. I prefer to take my water warm or hot instead of cold whenever possible.

Exercise

All the people who have been following my progress agree on everything I recommend apart from one, exercise. Ideally, you don’t need exercise to lose weight. You can lose weight by just following my diet and water taking regime outlined above. Exercise however, determines where the weight you lose comes from.

I learnt that when the body is starved through dieting, it is just being induced to use what it has stored instead of relying on food. It therefore has two choices. It can either burn fat or muscle. It is harder for the body to metabolise fat than it is to burn muscle. Exercise is the only way of convincing the body that it still needs the muscles so that it can only concentrate on burning the fat.

People who diet without exercising can discard all the unwanted pounds on the scale and still retain their unsightly pot bellies. This needs not be the case. Personally I jog for 20 minutes 5 days a week. I don’t run far or fast, but I try to be consistent. If you can’t run, try skipping rope for 20 minutes a day. It will have the same, if not better, result as running.

My Results

I have so far lost 18.5 Kilograms half of which I lost in the first month of my program. I still need to lose 5 more kilos but am no longer under pressure to do so. I have also shed 5 inches off my waist from 42 to 37.

P.S. The main disadvantage of weight loss is the urgent need of a new wardrobe whose budget you will almost always never think about when you are starting on the program.

Let’s Give Gay People a Break

So the gay community was back in the lime light after the courts ruled that they’ve got the right to have their association registered. Apparently, denying them the registration was going against their constitutional rights. Now everybody is up in arms protesting against this harmless minority. Even the Deputy President himself put his weight behind the debate invoking biblical and cultural views on the matter.

Personally, I don’t see what the big deal is in letting gay people be. I don’t see how another person’s sexual orientation (whatever that is) has anything to do with me. The activities of a gay person are in no way harmful to another person. Their engagements are self-involving and they use their own “apparatus”. Being a layman, I don’t know what leads somebody to become gay but then, neither do you! Even gay people themselves do not know why they are gay. Many people say it’s a choice but I don’t believe that. What would make a man choose to be attracted to another man, or a woman to a woman?

I would hate to impose my preferences on people whose inner workings I do not understand. In the same breath, I would not want to be self righteous and all-knowing. I would rather concentrate on what I know for sure. Towards this end, I have tried to gather some information concerning this largely ignored group.

Biblical Views

In condemning homosexuality, the deputy President invoked biblical teachings. It is true that the bible does not approve of homosexuality. It is also true that the bible does not approve of a lot of other things alongside homosexuality. In the book of Leviticus chapter 18, God talks about unlawful sexual relations and dispenses their punishments in chapter 20 of the same book. Included among these are incest and bestiality. All of them are detestable and should be condemned equally. What gives us the right to pick one and ignore the others?

In 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 9 and 10, idolaters, adulterers, homosexual offenders, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, slanderers, and swindlers are promised that they will not inherit the Kingdom of God. If I may single out adultery, or ‘mpango wa kando’, as it’s popularly referred to in Kenya, I say lets also outlaw it since it is condemned in the same verse as homosexuality in the bible. This condemnation is repeated in 1 Timothy chapter 8 verse 10 where adulterers and perverts are spoken to in the same breath.

Contrary to popular belief, Sodom was not destroyed purely due to homosexual sin. It is written in Ezekiel chapter 16 verse 49 that, “Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. Now we all know how arrogant we are especially among our political class. We also know we are overfed judging by the increasing number of pot bellies we can see today.

Anal Sex

Whenever homosexuality is mentioned, most of us think about anal sex. I was surprised to learn that there are homosexual people who have never engaged in anal sex. Some of them are actually in heterosexual marriages complete with children but they are not any less gay than the guys with placards advocating for gay rights. On the other hand, there are many heterosexual couples engaging in anal sex. There are also straight men engaging in gay sex for money and (wonder of wonders) curiosity.

Government Support of Other Vices

The government has been concerned with the spread of HIV and has being using a multi-pronged approach in combating the issue. Towards this end, it has been distributing free condoms to prostitutes (an illegal group) and more recently, school children (who should not even be having sex in the first place). The government supports these vices because it is looking at the bigger picture of dealing conclusively with the disaster (AIDS was declared a national disaster), and also because it does not know how else to deal with the issue.

The government has also been giving syringes to drug addicts especially at the coast in order to try and reduce their cross-infection with HIV due to shared needles. The last time I checked, drug use was illegal. Drug sale and distribution was also illegal. Why would the government opt to support prostitutes and drug users (and by extension barons and peddlers), while they declare an all out war on people with homosexual tendencies and whose activities cause nobody any harm?

Gay Porn

Recent statistics by Google indicated that Kenyans are leading in the world on Gay Porn searches on the internet. It is then obvious that either more of us are gay than we are willing to admit, or we don’t detest it as much as we claim to in public. Is it just casual interest we have in gay sex or are many more of us partakers of the ‘detestable’ activity?

 There, I have said it. You can blast me now!

Kenyans are not Ready for Democracy

The simplest layman’s definition of democracy I have come across is that it is a form of self governance in which individual views are considered and summed up. The view supported by the largest number of individuals takes the day. Democracy then, is the only way through which the citizens of a country can effectively govern themselves.

Most of the development experienced in the modern world can be directly attributed to democracy. On the flipside, a lot of the conflicts can be attributed to either the manipulation of democratic processes, or on the complete absence of democracy.

In Kenya, we have been unable or unwilling to make democracy work for our common good. I have tried to analyse the tenets of democracy below in order to see where we go wrong.

Tolerance

According to Webster’s dictionary, tolerance is the sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one’s own; the act of allowing something. Looking at our history, it is obvious we are quite intolerant to one another. This is especially so when it comes to people who are not of our tribes. Tribalism is probably the greatest enemy to democracy.

Critical Thinking and Decision Making

In an ideal democratic situation, decisions affecting a society are made through a process of critical reasoning and brain storming. This means that all possible options are laid on the table and scrutinised objectively. The outcome of such a process is a decision that is the best possible one under the prevailing circumstances. Everybody stands to benefit from such a decision.

In Kenya, most decisions are populist in nature. Leaders make decisions that appease the masses without necessarily benefiting them in any way. At this stage, corruption rears its ugly head and leaders consider their own personal benefit in making any decision.

Power Sharing and Empowerment

When I mention power sharing, most Kenyans think it is what was done by Kibaki and Raila to avert the post-election violence. On the contrary, as a democratic principle, power sharing means that your views and opinions as a citizen are heard and considered in the making of important decisions. It literally means that you are a member of the ruling class.

Empowerment is the bringing to par of those who have been left behind either culturally or economically. The meaning is the same in Kenya although here; it refers to the individual, not community. When we talk of empowerment in Kenya, we refer to giving positions of power and influence to individual members of marginalised communities so that they can personally enrich themselves.

Individual Responsibility and Civil Involvement with Others

This simply means being good citizens and being our brothers’ keepers. It entails playing our part in ensuring that we keep within the law and objectives of our society. It also means that we should combine forces with other like-minded people to expose evil and champion good causes.

As Kenyans, we believe it is every man for himself and God for us all. Besides, few of us are willing to point out any mistakes being committed by the ruling class. We are a “see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil society”.

Kenyan Tenets

We have devised our very own form of democracy where the following “values” abound;

Defending Leaders

It must be nice being a leader in Kenya because everything he does is defended. I have heard people say that their community is being targeted simply because someone tried to point out a mistake done by their leader.

A king pin in a vehicle is the point about which a wheel turns when it is steered. It is consequently the point about which the whole vehicle turns. A tribal king pin by deduction, is the person who is able to turn his whole community’s way of thinking. He replaces critical thinking.

Intolerance to Minorities

When I talk of minorities, most Kenyans relate it to the smaller tribes. I however refer to the word in the wider sense of people with differing opinions. These form a very small group hence my reference to them as minorities. Most individual Kenyans are critical of that which they don’t understand or believe in. This is the reason you can be lynched for being gay.

Opposing for the Sake of Opposing

We have an opposition in Kenya which is supposedly tasked with keeping the Government on its toes. It keeps it on its toes alright, but often for all the wrong reasons. I have seen members of the opposition opposing something that they themselves put in place when they were in Government.

The Government on the other hand has made it its business to respond to every whim of the opposition. It gives  the impression of not being very sure of what it committed to do for Kenyans. I therefore think Kenya is not yet ready for democracy even if I am just but a lowly Layman!

P.S. I get the distinct impression that we can use a population census to select leaders instead of costly elections. Just pick one person from the largest community to be President and one from the second largest to be deputy president. Other smaller communities can in the meanwhile get “very busy” to increase their numbers for future census (polls).

The Mumias Sugar Saga – One Lady’s Single-Minded Determination

I am a Kikuyu hailing from Central Kenya. I don’t say this often, particularly on social media, since I don’t find it important. Am not proud to be a Kikuyu because it is not an achievement, but am proud of my parents for teaching me to work hard and practice honesty and virtue. I didn’t do anything to be born a Kikuyu and so my being one is neither here nor there. I have met people who think am lucky to be a Kikuyu. I find such people to be ignorant. There are others who are wary of me because am Kikuyu and between them and the first group, I can’t immediately assess who is more ignorant than the other.

I believe am liberal in my thinking but I was not always like that. I was brought up in the village surrounded by my kinsmen and from an early age, I was fed on the usual tribal prejudice against other tribes. I became an adult believing that bull-shit (pardon my French) of tribalism. It is only through travelling to different places in the country and interacting with people from other communities that I started seeing errors in the stories I had heard. I came to realise that tribalism is not a genetic condition; it is an acquired trait.

My first transfer from Nairobi was to Kisumu. I didn’t know anybody there but within a very short time, I had many friends. This was due to the friendly nature of the people I met. A few weeks after I had landed, one of my new friends told me that I needed a Luo name. Others in the group agreed and they called me “Onyango”. This really enhanced my feeling of belonging and whatever prejudice had remained in me completely vanished. I had a very comfortable stay in Kisumu and the friendships I formed then still run strong to date.

When I later moved to Eldoret, the story was repeated again. My first close friends were from the Kalenjin community. They decided that I needed a “local” name and they called me “Kibet”. By now, I had concluded that the tribal prejudices we exercise are completely without reason.

It was also in Eldoret that I interacted with many people from the Luhya community and as you must have guessed by now, they were and still are friendly towards me. Again, my Luhya friends thought I should have a Luhya name. This time however, it took longer to get a name than before. This was owing to the fact that, my friends could not decide whether I should get a name from the Bukusu, Maragoli, or a few other different dialects that I cannot now remember. I had no idea that there are so many dialects among the Luhya, some members of who do not see eye to eye. I was almost giving up on getting a Luhya name until I was given the name “Wekesa”. I can’t recall which dialect it comes from. It taught me an important lesson; the Luhya are not a homogenous community.

I like making new friends on social media, especially Facebook. I usually prefer befriending people from different communities because I find this enriches my experiences and interactions. It is in this spirit that I recently befriended a Lady on Facebook by the name of Nekesa Lidia Wanga (am not sure if it’s her real name).

I have been following Nekesa and have noted that she posts about only one issue – Mumias Sugar and how Raila and Kidero defrauded the poor farmers from her community. At first, I found it irritating and monotonous for a person to post on only one subject. This was despite the fact that she has more than 2,500 friends (I checked her profile). I almost unfriended her especially after she demanded that those who are not from her Kingdom (Yes, you read that right!) should not bother to comment.

It is however her resilience and single-mindedness that made me decide to stick around (she might unfriend me after this). She also aroused my interest in that almost forgotten (but apparently still going strong) Kingdom in the heart of Luhya-land. It is this Kingdom that Raila claims to have descended from and has been known to recite an interesting analogy to prove the same. It is the Wanga Kingdom many of whose numerous subjects are sugar cane farmers; who were supposedly short-changed by one Evans Kidero (under the political stewardship of one Raila Odinga) when he was CEO of Mumias Sugar Company.

Nekesa is angry because her poor farmers are now wallowing in poverty and destitution because two politicians from a “different” community wanted to amass millions to run for a gubernatorial and presidential seat respectively. Her hero, in whom she has put all her hopes of redemption, is her 'aspiring' local MP, Hon. Aleri Chris. This Lady reminds me of another one who was mentioned in the bible who wore out the ruler until her demands were met. I would have said all this on her wall but I stood warned that it was only open for those who are from her Kingdom and being a humble Layman, I obliged and decided to put it on the general layman’s platform. Somebody needs to listen seriously to Nekesa and her people.

P.S. By the way, who is the present King of the Wanga Kingdom?