In a year and a half, blogger Alisa Dubrovskaya lost more than 100 kg. Fantastic, right? Only partially. Alisa told what path she had to walk to reach her goal.
Fell in love with a colleague and decided to lose weight
She was born and grew up in Stavropol Territory, in a respected family in the city. She was an excellent student, read a lot, sang in the choir, participated in Olympiads, reading competitions, and acted in the school theater. She loved playing badminton with her sisters and friends, climbing trees. She was always very active. In the ninth grade, Alice started learning belly dancing at home, but she just hated physical education classes at school. According to her, during the lessons it was always necessary to do the same exercises: jump over a goat, climb a rope and fulfill certain norms. Alisa says that after physical education classes, her muscles hurt for several days.
“At the age of 16, I entered NE Bauman Moscow State Technical University and moved to Moscow. Then my weight was 80 kg and my clothes size was 48. My height is 178 cm, so my weight was normal. For physical education lectures, I chose my favorite sport – badminton. I also worked in an office during university because I wanted to help my family. I fell in love with a colleague and decided that I needed to lose some weight. I followed a strict diet (eggs and grapefruit only). My weight dropped to 75 kilograms and my clothes size became 46. Then I turned 17 years old. It all started from then.”
Dieting and weight regain
After the first diet, the weight returned. When you restrict yourself for a long time, you start eating “forbidden” foods in much larger quantities than before. Alice now weighed 85 kg. “I went on a diet again. And the weight came back again. Every time I lost weight, it was like a test. I was hungry, I cried a lot, my hair started to fall out, my skin condition got worse. All I could think about was how long I could last this time. I tried all sorts of things, including the keto diet.
When I got to 165kg I thought, hmm… Dieting is not for me. I decided that I would stop taking them and get sick again. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Sedentary lifestyle (work in an office + transport), wrong eating paradigm (frequent snacking, some meals looked like just a plate of dumplings or pizza), stress, a cocktail on Fridays as a reward for the work week and disturbed sleep. Such a schedule took its toll. The weight, albeit slowly, continued to increase. As a result, I gained weight from 75 to 200 kg between 2005 and 2022. I only found out my weight when I decided to lose weight.”
The hardest part is getting started!
“I found a million reasons not to start changing something. To be honest, I was afraid of another defeat. Still, I loved the sweet illusions of thinking that one day I would lose weight. This was my favorite pastime: I dreamed of becoming thin and dancing. One day I started to feel short of breath while walking from bed to the bathroom. My mother pointed this out and I was scared. Then we watched a movie together where a man kept his wife in a basement for months. Out of boredom, she exercised on the bicycle that was parked there and lost so much weight that the man did not recognize her. My mother offered to buy the same device. I thought it was expensive, but I decided to buy it when I heard these words from her: I need to save your life.”
The coach forbade starvation
“There was a promotion in the store: when you buy an exercise bike as a gift, you will receive a consultation with a trainer. The first days were the hardest. I started starving again. I could only train for 7 minutes. His grips dug into my thighs and rubbed until they were bloody. After a few days I was ready to give up. I was hungry. It was really hard. No one motivated me. I thought that during the consultation I would be told how to set up the exercise machine, choose a program, or how to breathe properly.
However, coach Oleg Willard from St. Petersburg proved to be a true professional. He asked how much I weighed and gave me instructions on diet and exercise. He also forbade me to starve and exercise because I don’t want to! I had to start with 5 minutes a day, very carefully adding 5 minutes each week and getting off the treadmill when I felt I could do more. I feel bad – I just curl up in the blanket and sleep. He also said that I need to develop a strong emotional connection with the sport. Also, the diet plan reduced simple carbohydrates and added complex ones.
I started eating normally and reduced the time I spent on the gym. After 2.5 months, I celebrated a modest achievement – minus 25 kg. Improved hair and skin condition. I feel great. I had a lot of energy. The mood was wonderful. Well, this year my achievements were no longer modest: minus 100 kg”.
New challenges
“Now the weight is coming off slowly. Just over 20 kg left to lose. When you exercise for a long time, your body adapts and the rate of weight loss slows down. It is necessary to increase the load and/or periodically change the type of activity. The muscles are ready to overcome more, but the nervous system does not always keep up with them. It would be possible to go to a sports doctor and use special drugs to support the nervous system, but at the moment I have no goal to lose the rest of the weight as soon as possible.
I want to find a plastic surgeon and get rid of excess skin. Doctors estimate her weight at 5-10 kg. You will have to adjust everything: stomach, chest, back, arms, legs, face. I was hoping to wear short dresses this summer, but the skin on my legs was shaking and causing pain when I walked. Since then I have been wearing compression garments almost all day. Everyone loses weight to look better, but the further I go, the worse I look. The motivation to “become more beautiful” is now illusory for me. I can’t see my body under the extra skin. I don’t look any younger after losing weight.
There is not much left, and for now I just keep working. I also dream of getting out of the office because I have finally found my calling – blogging and helping overweight people. After overcoming physical obstacles, you realize that you can succeed in other areas as well. For a long time I thought I wanted to lose weight, but it turned out that I wanted to live a life where nothing was impossible for me. Now I’m not afraid to dream anymore. I know I deserve more.”
My mission
“My main hobby now is my blog. I spend up to 5 hours a day on this. I see this as my mission. I have already helped hundreds of people. The information on my blog is very well thought out. I do not share magic recipes. I constantly read literature, listen to webinars and courses, psychologists, coaches. I collect the best ideas, the strongest thoughts, I tell about my experience. I share my thoughts often and for a long time with my mentor – he is my coach. He runs his own blog. I am inspired by his works and righteous thoughts. Many of my powerful messages were born out of conversations with him and based on his posts.
I am inspired by the people who follow me. These are hundreds of people who have been helped by my example and my blog. Many people who lose weight have rethought the way they think about their bodies. Many were encouraged to play sports. Many ended their hunger strike. My blog has helped many people make the decision to change – and now I’m not just talking about the figure. My blog is more than just a weight loss blog. It’s about self-love. Many of my readers don’t need to lose weight, but find motivation in my blog. To be a part of something that has changed someone’s life for the better is a feeling like magic.”
Have you lost or tried to lose a lot of weight at least once in your life? Share in the comments.
