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So you found my blog, now let me introduce myself. My name is Sarah, I am 27 years old and I live in Switzerland.

I have been overweight for most of my teenage and adult years, with a couple of years in the normal weight range when I first went to university. However, Covid hit and it all went back to normal.

Currently my biggest goal in life is to redefine what a “normal” weight is for me – I want to feel healthy and fit and I don’t want to worry about whether or not I’m going to fit into some kind of seat.

With this blog I am committing to my goal and with this post I am setting the initial scene. I am currently weighting 131 kg (288 pounds), with a height of 177 cm (5’10”).

Now, here’s my game plan: I have a full-time job, so I thought about what I am able to commit to and I came up with a mixture of meal prepping, basic calorie counting and getting some movement at the gym.

Meal Planning

First, let’s look at meal planning. I live in a household with my boyfriend, who is not trying to lose any weight. Usually I am the one cooking and therefore he will clean the kitchen afterwards, because he is bad at cooking and I am bad at cleaning up after myself – we’re a dream team!

I decided to use the MealPrepPro App on iOS, because it offers an amazing set of features. I can add both my boyfriend and myself to the meal plan, allowing us to have separate calorie goals. It also allows us to have a different number of meals, for example I can have 3 meals and 2 snacks per day, whilst my boyfriend can have 3 meals and only 1 snack per day. It also asks you how often you would like to cook – we decided on every two days, so we will eat the same meal for two days in a row. Last but not least, the app asks about allergies and dislikes and additionally let’s us swap individual recipes in the finished meal plan. After finalizing the meal plan, it provides a full grocery shopping list.

We will generate a meal plan for 7 days at a time and go grocery shopping each Saturday. We both have a vegetarian diet, just because we’re not huge fans of the taste of meat, so we don’t have to worry too much about our food getting spoiled during the week.

Calorie Counting

The MealPrepPro app calculated my calorie budget for weight loss to be around 2000 calories. I personally decided to give the meal planner a bit less budget, namely 1900, because it is currently summer in Switzerland and I would like to have an ice pop in the afternoon (I consider that a necessity at over 30 °C (86 °F)). However, this might change in the future.

This setup means that I actually don’t have to worry about any calorie counting, as long as I stick to my meal plan. One thing I will still have to figure out is how to handle social gatherings and eating out.

The Gym

Gym subscriptions are cheapest in summer (at least in Switzerland). I took that to heart and bought a special promotion for 3 months for 240 CHF (276 USD). Additionally, I submitted the receipt to my health insurance and they paid me half of it back. My plan is to go at least twice a week and I actually already had my introductory gym lesson with a trainer, more on that later.

Those are my three weight loss pillars, so I hope you’re going to follow along. All of this might still change, as I am not trying to give any advice, but rather still working things out myself. However, I am highly committed and motivated – let’s do this!


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