Selwyn's Story

My Story

Today, I am 77 pounds lighter after 7 months.

My story is not one of overnight success. I didn’t take a magic pill. My results were not from a fad diet or a product from an infomercial.

I spent many years trying to lose weight, by cutting back on sugar and going to the gym.

My journey seemed more like a roller coaster ride of trials, many errors, and a collection of small milestones along the way, eventually leading me to gain more than I ever expected.

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My Challenges

My biggest challenge occurred when my right knee started to hurt me a lot which resulted in me being barely able to walk and I had to visit the doctor. He then sent me for a blood test to verify if arthritis were present in the knee and a x-ray to check the wear of the cartilage in the knee.

The blood test came back negative for arthritis and the x-ray showed some wear in the cartilage, but not enough to be responsible for the amount of pain I was experiencing.

The doctor gave me an injection in the knee along with painkillers and advised me to lose some weight in order to reduce the discomfort.

The pain would become more intense whenever I sat for a long time driving and then I had to get up to walk. Also, during the night, when I was sleeping and had to get up to use the washroom, I had to hold on to something and walk. I thought to myself, "I have to buy a walker to use in the night to go to the bathroom."

To compound the situation, in work, I was asked to assist by working alongside some of our salesmen, on our 3 ton trucks, but I had to decline because of my knee problems. It would have been too painful to jump in and out of the truck. Consequently, my superior asked me if I would like to take an early retirement and I responded, "no" with some disappointment.

After my meeting with my superior I visited the HR department and spoke to the HR officer there. I told her what happened in the meeting, including that I was asked if I wanted to take an early retirement because I was unable to jump in and out of the trucks due to my knee problems.

The HR officer then asked me what I was doing about the knee and I told her that I visited the doctor and he advised me to lose some weight. The HR officer then told me that one of our senior managers went to Empower Nutrition and he lost weight significantly. In April 2018, she gave me the phone number for Mweia Elias from Empower Nutrition.

I work on the road, not in the office, so occasionally, I see the HR officer and each time she saw me, she used to ask me if I already called to book the appointment and I used to say, "no, not as yet," and this went on for a year.

Finally, at the end of April 2019, I called Mweia from Empower Nutrition and booked an appointment.

My Experience at Empower Nutrition

I told Mweia that I was having problems with my knee and that I wanted to lose some weight.

She proceeded to put me on a low-calorie diet with fruits, vegetables and protein and instructed me to drink 6 to 8 bottles of water per day along with regular exercise.

The first week was the hardest for me because on mornings, I used to eat 6 slices of toast bread with butter and drink a cup of tea. I used to buy lunch on the road and sometimes I used to eat junk food. At nighttime I used to eat about 4 cups of rice.

Following Mweia's diet plan I started eating 2 slices of toast bread for breakfast, a shake for lunch and 1 cup of Basmati brown rice with vegetables and fish for dinner.

For the first week of my new diet, every time I was finished eating I still felt hungry and I used to drink lots of water. After the first two weeks my stomach started to shrink and I was not feeling hungry again until it got closer to the time for me to eat, which was every 4 hours, four times per day.

I started with 30 minutes of exercise, 5 days per week and as I started losing the weight, I increased the duration to 1 hour and 30 minutes, 5 days per week. Currently, I do 1 hour and 15 minutes, 5 days per week.

My Progress

When I came to Empower Nutrition, I weighed 267 pounds and currently I weigh 182 pounds. I used to wear 3 xl shirts and size 42 in pants and I now wear large shirts and I am size 34 in pants.

I no longer have any problems with my knees after I sit down for long periods of time when I drive or when I have to get up at night to go to the washroom.

You may want to ask what motivated me to stick to my meal plan that was given to me by Mweia for seven months.

After the first 2 weeks I lost 14 pounds.
I had to keep going to the tailor to take in my clothes.
I had to start buying clothes in smaller sizes.
The knee pains ceased.
My high blood pressure was reducing.
I started to look better when I dress up.
My big belly that I had for years because of my bad eating habits and drinking all those sugary drinks just started to melt away.

Today I can give God thanks and praise for helping me though my weight lost journey.