Leki’s Health Vlog – Episode 1

Aug 27, 2018 | Leki's Health Vlog, Written by Leki | 0 comments

Leki’s Health Vlog – Episode 1

Hi there.

In order to give you context from the very beginning I’ve never been as healthy as I am now.

In terms of weight, look and feel I’m at the best version of myself and it has taken me over 3 years to achieve this.

I’m not at the finish line yet and to be honest I don’t think there’ll be a finish line ever.

“Health is not a destination, it’s a journey” is a quote that resonates with me.

But in the early days there was definitely one simple goal – to lose weight.

In 2014 I was enjoying playing social grade rugby for my club Footscray Rugby Union Club but I suffered what was to be my last injury playing contact sport.

I got concussed, badly.

It was so bad I had short term memory loss for 3 days (couldn’t remember my Facebook password) plus I couldn’t run for almost 6 months without having headaches. On top of that my wife Belinda was pregnant with our first child.

As a result I didn’t train or exercise regularly, ate terrible food and was stressed working long hours. Sound familiar?

Well what kicked me into gear was when my daughter Emelina arrived in March 2015.

I had ballooned from my ‘stable’ Rugby playing weight of 96kg to 106kg!

2015 injured.jpg
Given the situation of having a newborn at home and my wife being at home full time I had to figure out the safest and quickest way to lose weight.

I would say I spent over 3 months re-educating myself on basic internal medicine, food science, exercise protocols and mindfulness before I arrived at the best method for my family to be healthy with our time constraints.

It would be from our diet.

My honest assessment from my 3 year weight loss experience is that 80% of your weight loss effort will come from your diet.

The remaining 20% is from your chosen exercise program.

Now remember this advice is coming from a physio. My whole perspective in terms of injuries and rehabilitation is mostly exercise based.

But, in terms of weight loss the scientific evidence (and my own personal results) shows that diet is the most effective tool to lose weight.

Have you had the situation where you train so hard and grind out regular gym sessions and you feel great and yes you lose some weight only to eventually put it back on within next few days or weeks?
Why is that?

My research and results suggest that the discipline of eating well is the key.

If you look at elite athletes, yes they train hard but they are even more disciplined when it comes to what they eat!

If you don’t believe me ask one! I bet you they will know what they eat, when they eat, how often they should eat and what they should stay away from.

If you want to look like an elite athlete you need to treat yourself like one.

So what did I eat I hear you ask?

I followed the paleo diet. Why? Because it made sense to me and in my own personal research of people who were successful with their own weight loss, elite athletes and everyday people were getting results with these food choices.

Over time as I became more engaged and disciplined with my habits we followed the ketogenic diet which has given us much more benefits then just weight loss.

Both my parents are from the Pacific Island of Tonga and our people are prone to health issues like cardiovascular disease, stroke, cancer, Type II diabetes and poor lifestyle choices.

When I started my journey my original goal was just weight loss.

Now that I’ve achieved weight loss my focus has now shifted to well being. What does that mean? I’m actively trying to reduce the chance of developing my familial risks of cardiovascular disease, stroke, cancer and Type II diabetes.

More about that stuff later.

Right now my key takeaway would be if your primary goal is to lose weight I would strongly recommend you look closely at your food first.

When I started to pay close attention to my weight I started in Mar 2015. By Christmas 2015 I lost 10kgs and was back to my rugby weight of 96kg.

I wasn’t on a meal replacement shake or used special products in fact I ate my standard 3 meals and even had snacks in between the meal times.

As you’re reading this post I’m now currently weighing 85kg. I haven’t been in the mid-80s since I was in high school!

I will be sharing with you on how I try and keep myself in good well being!

I’ll show you what I get up to in terms of my daily routine, how we prep food as a family and what I do for exercise. It’s nothing special believe me but I do work very hard on planning my days so I can be as effective with my time as possible.

Remember I’m just a regular person just like you but if you want results you have to start somewhere.

(If you want more in depth information from a female perspective my wife documented her own personal weight loss journey and you can read more about it here.)

So I would like to finish with a quote: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with just one step”.