Jess’s story, told by a single emoji

Losing weight; commitment & consistency

I was on Facebook one night, skipping through the barrage of garbage that makes up my Facebook feed. And then, I stumbled upon it. Usually the before and after pictures of weight loss doesn’t interest me, but when you see that in a person whom you personally know and meet, it completely throws you off ground. I later caught up with Jess for a quick chat and asked her to pass on some of her all-encompassing wisdom and wise words for shedding those extra pounds.

This is jess. And this is her before and after picture!

Niruban: WHOA! JESS! how did you lose so much weight! it’s really crazy, the difference is so visible! Tell me how it happened?!

Jess: *usual jess laugh* .. well.. it happened over 10 months. I had an intense 10-month period of getting my food clean and exercising regularly. I lost about 20kg in 10 months…

Niruban: wow! so wait… how did it happen? you just woke up one day and decided to shed that weight?

Jess: Well, it happened after my meeting with the dietician who were here (as part of the wellness program). She told me unless I had a drastic change, I’ll have to start taking prescribed medications, and that was the wakeup call I needed. I wanted to be there for my kids, and I wanted to be healthy. So I thought, that’s it, I’m getting fit. And if I put my mind to something I will do it.

Niruban: So… what did you eat?

Jess: For breakfast I have kadala or ‘mungata’, and I take only half a cup. The dietician recommended 1 cup, but I cooked the one cup and took half for breakfast and the other half for lunch. For dinner I just had very little non starchy food such as a course meal, and ended the day with green tea, and started the next day with the stew of unroasted ‘ulu-haal’. Since I anyways have to give the kids the healthy grain, it just made it a little easier. Also I cut down on all sugars, and alcohol. Didn’t take any milk, even the nonfat ones. It was a really strict couple of months. And water. drank lots of water.

Niruban: Wait, so the biggest problem I have with home cooked food is we (me and my wife) never could wake up on time to actually cook…

Jess: yea, well I have to wake up at 4:30 to prepare for the kids, so yea. No biggie.

Niruban: wuttttt?

Jess: *usual jess laugh*

Niruban: ok and the exercise, what did you do? did you go to a gym or something?

Jess: No I worked out at home. Usually in the evenings after dinner at about 8:00pm. I turn off the fan and just sweat it all out. Now I’ve got a punching bag (FYR. It’s not the husband. just saying) so that gives me some good all-round full body workout. Also got in a few dumbbells now, but before it was mostly bodyweight based training, from the internet.

Niruban: whoa ok, so you exercised every day.

Jess: Every single day for the first two months. Then started pacing it out a bit more. Now I just keep it for weekends to maintain the current level of fitness.


And with that I took off, because people were waiting to discuss urgent business matters with jess. But ultimately, if there’s anything I’ve learnt from Jess’s story, it’s that it’s about commitment and consistent. Weight loss and being fit is being taken to town by everyone and it’s almost a fashion statement to have some sort of fitness journey (I’m looking at you, all you indie square walkers). But with Jess, what I saw was you don’t need anything, a fancy gym, personal trainer, or calorie-counted food to shed that weight. Small steps. Consistency. And commitment.


*Note* thanks alot Jess for allowing me to share your amazing story with everyone here! we sure hope your story continues to inspire more people every day!

The Orange Peel

Little wins, quirks and whims of life at N*Able

Niruban Satchithanandakumar

Written by

The Orange Peel

Little wins, quirks and whims of life at N*Able

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