Waaaoooooh, losing weight eating Nigerian food seems like a daunting task considering the fact that our diet basically consists of heavy carbs. Remember the song "... Oh ẹbà, Oh ẹbà, when shall I see dodo..." which was sang by the children of Chief Bamtefa in the rested soap opera "Checkmate" which aired on NTA in the1990s? The song reflects our love for ẹbà, dodo (fried plantain), etc and it is not unusual to find many Nigerian families having bread and fried eggs for breakfast, ẹbà and egusi soup for lunch, yam and stew for dinner, and the cycle continues the next day... If we compare this with the advise of nutritionists regarding the recommended daily calorie consumption, we would realise that many of us exceed our limits by at least 500 calories per day, with the overall effect being unwanted WEIGHT GAIN!!!

How then do we achieve weight loss eating Nigerian food? While I am not an expert in weight loss and overall fitness (as I indeed have about 30 lbs to lose), I have come to realise (having followed the weight loss success stories of some friends, colleagues and online bloggers who are Nigerians) that weight loss can be achieved by making healthier choices from our readily available local cuisine, even without exercising (although the latter surely helps in speeding up the weight loss process).

In the last 40 days, my diet has consisted basically of oatmeal (for breakfast), moimoi and/or chicken vegetable salad (for lunch), fish peppersoup and sweet potato or 75g of wheat flour and okro soup with fish or chicken (for dinner), snacking on cucumber or egg plant (garden egg) or watermelon or pawpaw or sometimes almonds and/or 3 pieces of Jacobs Cream Crackers. On certain days, I eat beans, garri, semolina, rice, etc and even had 6 pieces of fried plantain last night with a small quantity of porridge beans (Ooooooooooooh, how I love the combo ) but I try to limit my consumption to a reasonable size by weighing it and I also try to do about 25-30 minutes of exercises about 4 times a week (which I'm struggling really hard to increase). While I have had my cheat days (which have been quite a number), the overall effect has been a gradual but steady decrease in my weight. I am now convinced that weight loss can be achieved eating our naija food but in moderate consumption.

Going forward, I intend uploading pictures of my food and the recipes I come up with (stating the calorie content) for support to other MFP users on this group and look forward to a reciprocal feedback from you wonderful people. Let's be accountable to one another and together achieve our fitness goals.