Twenty kilograms in two and a half years

I want to be clear before anything else: I am not a doctor. What follows is what happened to me. If you are managing diabetes or planning to lose a significant amount of weight, speak to a physician first.

The starting point

I was carrying far too much weight, managing diabetes, and travelling constantly. The travel is what makes this hard for businessmen specifically — you are in a different city, someone else decides when the meeting ends, and dinner is at eleven at night.

What worked

Training daily, without negotiating with myself about it. Not five days a week; daily. The moment it became a decision rather than a default, I lost it.

The second thing was Namaz. The structure of the day it imposes turned out to matter as much as anything I did in the gym.

What did not work

Trying to be perfect with food while travelling. I gave that up. Instead I got strict about the meals I controlled and stopped treating a wedding dinner as a failure.

The genuinely hard part

Sleep and meal timing. Unplanned meetings destroy both. I still have not solved this completely, and anyone who tells you they have while running a business is probably not telling you everything.

On the injections everyone is asking about

I am asked constantly about Ozempic, Wegovy and tirzepatide. I use medication as part of managing my condition, but I will not name what I take publicly, because I am not qualified to and because what suits me may harm you. Ask a doctor. That is not me being evasive — it is the only responsible answer.