What do you do when you’re in huge debt and can’t borrow from anyone? Some participate in television shows to try to get help, while others find financial advisers or other products that might help and motivation them to get out of the financial debt.

I was largely in debt myself. I haven’t taken good care of myself over the years. I ate without realizing that I was just got bigger and bigger. All of a sudden you wake up and you’re severely overweight with a BMI of 48. My overweight corresponds to overeating 504,000 kcal (If 1 kg of adipose tissue is equivalent to 7,000 Kcal). That would be a total debt of approx. 50 400 pounds that you just cannot get rid of. If you do nothing, you’ll just get bigger and bigger, since there is a cap on how much interest can be paid on the debt. Then you’ll just keep going and eventually die of obesity.

Therefore, it’s easy when it’s just about the money. You can get advice from TV shows or advisers and then follow these tips to the teeth. Alcoholics can seek advice in many places like AA and smokers can get help through quit-smoking-campaigns. Unfortunately, this doesn’t apply to overweight. Overweight people often encounter prejudice and judgmental glances and attitudes. Obesity is an addiction illness like any other addiction diseases, and you need structured discussions and hard work in order to succeed.

Another challenge for food junkies is that you eat every day. You can’t just stop eating. So you have to face your problem all the time. If you’re a smoker for example, you can “just” stop smoking. You don’t die of it, but you will if you don’t eat. So the road is long and narrow.

From overweight to obese

For me, my overweight has been something that has been with me for a long time. It started to get bad when I was in my early 20’s. I am today over 50. I have a great career in the IT field and started a leading position in an international corporation in the late 80’s. Since 2003, I have been an independent consultant specializing in Global IT Transitions/Transformation Programs and Interim Manager. A professional life consisting of many hours a day, a great responsibility, many large projects as well as countless days of traveling with huge time differences and jet lag. All of these factors make it difficult to control eating and exercise. So my overweight has been accumulating for years. Overweight turne into obesity, which in turn made life more difficult and frustrating.

Just as obesity is overcoming, it is also a breaching to speak out on the blog and talk about this personal journey. But I do it anyway. My hope is that I can help others get through this long and narrow path of getting rid of my accumulated debts to myself and my now congested body. Today I think: “How could I have let it go far and not have done anything?” Today I only have 15 percent of my goal on the long journey that I have embarked upon.

Surgery and diet products

Obesity is like going up a steep mountain. It is endless and confusing when you can’t see the top. This is not just about taking three months out of my life and making the extra effort. It is a lifestyle change and a fierce battle for the rest of my life.

I always wanted to get control of my weight. I know very well that when you’re my size, there is a risk that people won’t get to normal weight again. This is due to the fact that a very small percentage of people will follow through with the journey. I’ve been to countless exams for various obesity surgeries, including gastric bypass surgery. But I eventually chose not to do it. I don’t believe that you can surgically remove my obesity problem. It’s a mental condition. The urge to eat is something that stems from the brain. It won’t be removed with a knife. No studies can give me certainty of the long term consequences of a gastric bypass surgery. The doctors say that gastric bypass helps take off half the weight – not all of it. I will now only be able to remove 252,000 kcal. It’s just too risky for me. Once you have made the choice and said yes, there is no turning back if something goes wrong. So I had to find a method that suits me in order to get rid off the majority of the 504,000 kcal. 252,000 kcal is not good enough in relation to the risks of gastric bypass surgery.

My professional life has for a long time overshadowed my health. I forgot to take my health and my well being into consideration. Many of us have probably done the same at time. For others this turns into stress or something else.

I have tried the diet product Nupo, various diet pills, dietitians and everything else. It only helped me a little. Not having enough energy to climb the mountain, where you struggle to see the top, was confusing. Therefore I ended my struggle by mobilizing my energy to start the riding up to the top of the montain. One thing is certain: Others can only give you advice. You alone must make the change.

LifeWave gave me new hope

In May 2015 something suddenly happened that gave me new hope. I was introduced to LifeWave. LifeWave was completely new to me, and since I had nothing to lose, I accepted the offer to try it out. I could always just try the LifeWave products for a month. It’s been three months now and I have a newfound faith that this might be the road to a lasting lifestyle change. I hope and believe in it a little more every day.

I tried the products Corsentials and Maveric and the LifeWave patch called Y-Age Aeon. Within a few days I experienced a whole new energy level and a desire to move. I didn’t loose weight with the products, but they decreased my hunger and sugar addiction and provided energy to begin the journey and pay off my huge kcal debt to myself.

With the help of my new personal trainer Michael Skjoldan I starte off with a workout program. We meet once a week and talk or write together every day about my progress and how I can improve.

My journey with Michael Skjoldan started with a 13-day cleansing program, where coffee and other unhealthy habits, like sugar dependency vanished. It has given me the energy to exercise more. I take the train to work instead of the car. This means att I now walk at least five kilometers every day. The train improved my fitness. Ultimately, it increased my health and strengthened my muscles. I have also changed my diet so I eat a maximum of 1,900 calories a day.

Sometimes, it hurts. My whole body is working. I have legs and body pain. It’s hard and requires an immense self-discipline. Now I’m down to smoking two cigarettes a day, so I don’t smoke regularly. It is a lifestyle change and I have to carry on – no matter what. Fortunately the energy and motivation soothes my pain, even though doubting the success (my goal is realistically two whole years in the future) means that I am still careful. I only tell the people closest to me what I’m up to.

I recently took the plunge into the public (even locally where I live) and did an approx. 40 km bike ride together with the local bike enthusiasts, as they had invited anyone interested to bike with them on a Saturday morning. It was great but also a milestone for me to complete. I stuck in there all the way through, even though my bike isn’t a racing bike. I am proud that I had the courage to be bold and achieve that goal.

LifeWave becomes my faithful companion

The LifeWave products will follow me in my project to lose all this weight. Today I have lost 15 kg and can still feel the effects after using the products for three months. I have for the first time in my life been able to stick to my goal. I want to move about. I experience a great sharpness of decisions, etc. work-wise. I think faster and better than I have done in a long time. I feel that I can perform job-related issues at +100 percent. How did I ever manage before? But I still have gnawing doubts deep down. Can I keep doing this? The statistics say…and everything else.

The products from LifeWave doesn’t mean that I lose a ton of weight. It is neither a diet pill or a diet soda. However, LifeWave products have given me energy and strength to make dietary changes and to increased by ability to exercise, which is crucial to my success. For me it’s about building the foundation of my goal and persevere along the way. I am in just three months away from making practically nothing, and today I do 6-7 hours of exercise a week. Walking, endurance sports and working out on the indoor training bike, which has been a fantastic, gentle way of working of for me. I burn fat and build/maintain muscle mass. I call that a good start. Now I just hope that I can stick with it!

This is how I do it

• I keep track of my diet via a smartphone app called Lifesum. I have chosen to eat a maximum of 1,900 calories a day. (Dietitians will say that it is too little. It should be a minimum of 2,200 kcal)
• 6-7 hours of exercising a week. My workout is based on muscle building and fat burning as well as cardiovascular exercise.
• I use a TREK MTB bike where I have removed the rear wheel and put the bike up on a Wahoo KICKR smart trainer. The setup I use for intelligent cardiovascular exercising. This intelligent exercise is available to me through a program called TrainerRoad that communicates directly with the Wahoo KICKR smart trainer. Besides this, I have a heart rate monitor and cadence sensor attached to the system. These two sensors measure my precise heart rate, and how many rotations I have pedaled per minute on the bike. All this data is collected and then provides an overview of how my workout has been, and I know it won’t overwhelm my heart when I workout hard and it hurts a lot in the rest of my body. (Between 180 watts to 300 watts in load is what I can manage over an hour of P.T.)
• My personal adviser, Michael Skjoldan, gives me advice and guidance regarding my weight and flexibility exercising. He helps do the right workout and my exercise is evaluated and adjusted continuously.
• My training and daily exercise gives an average combustion of approximately 1200-1500 kcal.
• I use these LifeWave products every day: I drink Corsentials every morning. I eat the pills from Maverick every morning along with the Corsentials. I use the Y-Age Aeon patch every day.

Starting point
BMI: 48

Total weight loss
15 kg

Blog 1:
You’ll be able to follow Knarkegård’s journey in the upcoming months.