His Aha Moment – How Fredric Lost 100+ Pounds On His Health Journey With Shapa

**Of the Shapa users who lost weight, they lost an average of 5.8 pounds in 12 weeks. Fredric lost weight before he started Shapa and continued to lose weight and build positive habits on his health journey with the Shapa program. 

As told to Katie Hinman

THE WHY

I was morbidly obese for many years, having gained an enormous amount of weight over a decade. It got to the point where I could not even tie my shoes — I had to tie them before putting them on. I knew I was over 100 pounds overweight.

I decided at the end of September on my 55th birthday to take action to lose weight and improve my health. I began my journey back to health on October 20, 2017.

THE HOW

I started to work on my sleep hygiene, knowing that poor sleep makes weight loss more difficult, and to eat a whole food diet — cutting out processed foods. I started to get up at the same time and to head out the door for a walk every morning. At first, I could barely go a few blocks, very slowly, and sometimes my feet hurt. But I did it every morning, no matter what the weather was like.

Those first few months I trudged away, sometimes feeling discouraged that, by my estimate, I knew it would take two years to get back to a normal, healthy weight. But I believed that so long as I stayed the course, I would eventually get the results I was seeking.

I also knew from my research on maintaining weight loss that successful weight maintainers weigh themselves every day, and take immediate action to adjust their eating whenever their weight goes up by a significant amount. I had decided that my weight loss needed to be not just about losing fat, but also about changing my way of living or lifestyle so that I could maintain the weight loss after I achieved it over my planned two-year period.

THE PROBLEM

However, I had one significant problem with that:  I feared getting on a scale.

I just didn’t want to know how much I weighed. When I had to get weighed at my doctor’s office, I would ask the nurse not to tell me my weight, and I refused to look at the reading on the scale.  It was already intimidating back then to think about how I needed to take two years to get to my goal, and I feared that knowing how bad bad was would just make me feel even more frustrated. I needed patience and persistence.

“When I had to get weighed at my
doctor’s office, I would ask the nurse not
to tell me my weight, and I refused to
look at the reading on the scale.”

Yet at the same time, I needed to know whether I was on the right track and making progress. I really couldn’t tell by looking at myself — I was so fat that it was difficult even for me to see whether I was making any progress. I knew it would be slow, but I wanted to confirm that I was making progress, even though I couldn’t yet see it.

THE SOLUTION

I listen to some podcasts by scientists interviewing other scientists.  During one such podcast, I heard the developer of the Shapa discussing the behavioral principles behind the Shapa’s design. I immediately thought to myself, “That’s perfect — that’s exactly what I need — something to track what I’m doing and just tell me whether I’m on the right track toward progress or not, but without telling me the scary numbers that would just demoralize me by focusing me on how far I had to go!” I immediately ordered one.

I also wanted to know that someday, when I’ve made a lot of progress, that I would have my weight history available to review at that point — when it would feel empowering rather than depressing!

I received and started using my Shapa every morning as soon as I got out of bed in January 2018.  It felt so good to be in the “Teal” zone most mornings, and occasionally even in the beautiful “Blue” zone! Seeing that made me look forward to weighing myself each morning. It also made me feel good to know that I wasn’t waiting until I achieve my goal to begin developing the daily weighing habit. I was building the habit of stepping on a scale every morning, no matter what. I also liked that the Shapa keeps track of my streak of stepping on it daily.

“It would feel empowering
rather than depressing!”

It wasn’t until six months after I started my health journey that I received my first comment in the form of a question from someone in my office — “Are you losing weight? You look good!”  Those first few inches (as also measured by my clothes sizes) took a long time, but I knew during that time that I was on track thanks to the Shapa’s feedback.

The Shapa has become an important part of my day-to-day living.  Along the way I have received a few of the dreaded “Grey” zone readings.  When I do I take immediate actions to adjust my eating, and am always relieved to see my color progress to “Green” followed by “Teal” or the occasional happy “Blue.”

THE LIFESTYLE 

When I bought the Shapa, I thought that I would end up using it only for the weight loss phase of my health journey.  I thought I would then replace it with a regular scale, based on the notion that by then, I won’t be afraid anymore to see my weight number.

But now I plan to keep using my Shapa for life.  Even when the news is occasionally bad, I appreciate using it and appreciate knowing when I have messed up and suffered a setback. Because now those setbacks are just information and they never last long.

I consider the Shapa one of my most important tools in my health journey.  I have lost well over 100 pounds using it and I’m now closing in on my weight-loss goal as I approach the two-year anniversary of my journey.  Shapa solved the exact problems I faced with respect to measuring my weight, and does so in an elegant and enjoyable manner.  

“I consider the Shapa one of
my most important tools
in my health journey.”

The bottom line is that when I started on my health journey almost 2 years ago, I wore size 56 waist pants, and now I’m wearing size 34 waist pants — a difference of 22 inches.  I’m nearing my goal of wearing size 32. I walk every morning and people in my neighborhood often stop me and marvel at seeing the difference as I’ve lost weight and gotten back in shape. 

The Shapa makes weighing myself encouraging and fun.  I used to hate scales, but I prize my Shapa and it’s the first thing I use each and every morning when I’m home.  It is an invaluable and unique tool for helping one with weight loss, and I would recommend it to anyone who is seeking to lose weight, and especially to those who have a longer journey to travel to get to their weight-loss goals.

Fredric

If you found Fredric’s story inspiring we encourage you to take a few minutes and meet Ginny, another Shapa Superstar!

Looking to sleep better, eat a bit healthier, move more, build a practice of self-care, or just want to feel more energy each day? Let Shapa be your virtual coach. Shapa focuses your program based on YOUR lifestyle and YOUR goals so you can build healthy habits and achieve lasting results. Learn more about the Shapa difference.