For so long now, everyone has been asking me, “How do you stay so slim despite eating so much?”

The truth is, I was very fat before. Now, this is very subjective. Some time last week, I wrote a post on Ladyironchef on the tips to stay slim without exercising, and I was slammed by many on Instagram. Many claimed that I was advocating model-weight kind of thin, and that I was a bad influence because I said that I was 52kg and 52kg was fat.

But did I really mean that, or did you choose to interpret it that way? By my standard and frame, 52kg was a massive ballooning, and it was my fattest period. Sure, that weight may be a norm for many, and there will be people who are heavier than 52kg and they are healthy. That’s good for them, but not for me.

A little background info might help before you develop more misconceptions, so here are some hideous photos to share before I go on. It took me many days of hesitation before I finally decide to share:

I. WAS. FAT.
ZERO PHOTOSHOP! I didn’t even brighten the photos.

Get it? Based on my height, based on my lifestyle, this was unacceptable. I weighed 52kg, I wore L-size clothes, I had a fat percentage of 25%, and I lived with very unhealthy habits. To reiterate, I was fat and unhealthy, and that could not go on. 

Exercise was part of the slimming down process, and in case you are wondering, I used to jog twice a week, each time clocking 5km under 30 minutes. It was the intensity that worked for me, but I do not want to talk about exercise because it is relative and very dependent on individual. Find your own, and seek professional advice if you need.

What I want to share is how I disciplined myself with healthy lifestyle habits during the process of slimming down, and still practising them till today. While exercising for a stronger body is essential (yes, I agree and I dance + do yoga), daily lifestyle habits are vital. Sustenance is hard, and I never want to go back to looking that way again. So I live by those rules that I had shared, and by penning them all down, my only goal is to motivate girls of all kinds – whatever your weight or size is.

To all of you who are genuinely interested, I hope my guide will help you. And with this post, with these blackmail-worthy photos, I just want to tell all of you that having been through that phase personally, I know exactly how it feels like to be fat, to never be able to fit into nice clothes without looking like a dumpling, to be laughed at constantly, to feel demoralized, and to be overwhelmed by inferiority complex.

I know, I really understand how that feels, because I have really been there before. And I hope I serve as a motivation to all of you now. No matter how tough it is, I promise you that if you follow these rules of mine, you will see results sooner than you’d expect.

Meanwhile, I will not entertain any nasty comments nor criticism. I am honestly very happy with my progress and health now, and to me, that is more important than looking good in a bikini. For sincere followers and supporters who have left me kind comments (on my Instagram, on Ladyironchef’s website and through direct emails), thank you.