I have been actively minding my weight since age 16. I am currently in my late 20s and with 2 kids. I am still trying to loose some body weight so we can agree that I have been at it for quite some time. I know that I am speaking for the masses about weight loss because, google gets about 74,000 searches on weight loss per month. It is a well know fact that exercise is the gold standard remedy for weight loss, alongside a balanced diet in the right proportions. Then why do we still search for weight loss remedies? 

Trends on rapid weight loss methods is on an ever upward surge with quick fix weight loss solutions increasing by 581% by 2024. There have been several trends that I am aware of for instance; someone had convinced a lot of people that drinking a certain tea would help them slim down. Another one was that drinking a concoction of some herbs before going to bed or first thing after waking up would melt away the excess fat. Some people were convinced that wrapping your chubby belly with cling film and other textiles overnight would do it. Others just turned to weight loss surgery.

In early 2000s, a Danish pharmaceutical company came up with a drug called semaglutide for diabetes type 2. As diabetic people world wide continued to use the drug to manage their blood sugar, they reported reduced appetite and spontaneous weight loss. Researchers began to consider semaglutide as a potential drug for weight loss in individuals who did not have diabetes. In 2021, ozempic ; which is the brand name for semaglutide started being sold for its off label use as a remedy for rapid weight loss in non-diabetic people. This drug's demand has sky rocketed since then, with its popularity being amplified by celebrity endorsements and viral trends on social media platforms leading to increased demand and even shortages!

Finally seems like the rapid weight loss solution that we have been looking for right? It really works. Would you consider it as a weight loss remedy ? Would you have weekly injections of ozempic and endure nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach cramps, constipation or appetite loss? Would you overlook the possibility of thyroid tumors, pancreatitis, gall bladder, kidney or eye problems and commit to using ozempic as your remedy of choice to get to your desired weight or would you rather use exercise and lifestyle modifications to loose weight slowly while having to stay consistent and motivated over a period of time ?

See with ozempic, you get rapid weight loss, appetite control and convenience but you have to get past the side effects, expensive costs and potential weight gain if you don't substitute for a healthy lifestyle for the long term. On the other hand, with exercise, you get natural and sustainable weight loss, good sleep, mood, heart health and energy, better body awareness but at the cost of slower weight loss, requiring consistency and motivation even in the face of a busy schedule, exhaustion or just plain old overwhelmed by adulting.

 Hold on; with great power comes great responsibility. So with ozempic seeming like the better choice, researchers started to look for any further risks associated with use of ozempic for weight loss by non-diabetic people. Rapid weight loss from the drug causes facial volume loss and the sagging skin prompts for more cosmetic procedures . Studies have linked ozempic to mental health issues like depression and suicidal thoughts due to their impact on our dopamine pathways and most recently, intestinal blockage.

Now what do we do? 

We adopt highly effective exercise routines that are quick, require no equipment and can be done anywhere, anytime and by anyone. My recommendation : Global Fast Fit.

We arrived at the event a few minutes past 9AM. We came in several small groups since we all came from different places so we waited as we assembled everyone from our team. A girl hung around the group quietly, as people chatted excitedly. 

When the whole team had arrived, I headed for the registration desk allocated to the corporate teams around. She walked up to me and introduced herself as Margret.

She wanted to compete in the races and wondered if I could include her in our team. She had heard about the athletic competition, 'Run for Mau' and had decided to show up, only to find that all the race categories had an entry fee.

She did not have any money and on top of that, she had ditched a shift at the restaurant she worked in so that she could run the marathon. She explained that she had competed in a number of athletic competitions and the most recent being an long-race in Nairobi where she had finished 5th.

Initially I had assumed that she was a student at the campus, Egerton University but she was not in school. After completing high school, she moved from her home town etched in the slopes of Mount Elgon and moved in with her older sister in Njoro. She then found work in a local Kibandaski (small roadside eatery) as a server.

I saw no harm and after a little consultation with some team members, we registered her with Global Fast Fit. We were given our running numbers and went out to have a stretching session. 

Soon after, our race category was next. We were competing in the Corporates and Alumni's 4km race which had upwards of 120 participants. We assembled at the start line and began the race. She maintained a moderately brisk pace and run barefoot through the gentle bends, the small inclines and declines, the 2 meter muddy patch, jumping the 1/2 meter bales of hay, through dry prickly grass and hot gravel, jumped over two ½ meter trenches and won the race. 

By the time we handed over the prize money to her, it was getting chilly. 

The day had been a scorcher but by 5pm the winds were cold and blustery. 

Standing by the bustling road, she took off the Global Fast Fit t-shirt she had been racing in and put on her cobalt blue t-shirt, then put the Global Fast Fit t-shirt back on top. She broke into a jog towards a restaurant she worked at as a server. 

She kept glancing back at us as if at any moment we would burst her bubble. She had a mile long smile on her face. She couldn't believe she'd won cold hard money.

I had earlier on asked for her contact details to which she replied that she had never owned a phone. So when I handed her the prize money, she gleefully told me that she was going to buy a phone immediately. I quickly jotted down my number on the envelope with the prize money and she promised to call me as soon as she bought her first phone.

She got quite a lot of attention and the prize money. All this just because she showed up.

If you want to get to know someone well, even if that someone is yourself, I recommend a hike. Not just an easy breezy hike with flowing rivers and butterflies on flowers, I am talking about at least 14 km of relentless uphill stretches, narrow trails just inches from a dizzying 2800-meter drop, dense forest with gnarled roots and fallen trunks to hurdle over, stinging nettle lining the path or worse dangling from branches waiting to brush against exposed skin leaving a burning sting. What goes up must come down. You get to this sharp decent and because this is a thick forest, the ground is moist and slippery. This is where you get to find out if your really cool looking hiking shoes are also handy or, they are weapons formed against you. Just after conquering the ascent then descent, you emerge into a gorgeous clearing where the trail widens onto a soft spongy carpet of lush grass.

 Now that you are not fighting for your life, you get to look around the forest and you can spot a family of colobus monkeys swinging away on the trees and a sighting of the rare and endangered mountain Bongo. The sun throws beautiful golden rays through the trees, the forest is filled with chattering, whooping, melodic chirping and distant hoots with butterflies flying around. By this time, you already drank all your water and since the air is just perfect and you are neither inclining nor declining, you actually start to chit chat and call different people to find out where they are because at this point the group has broken down to three or four distinct groups. I will proudly mention that I stayed in the first group keeping up with the elites. I even started to think about my kids, guessing what they could be doing. This is getting easy we are descending. In any hike that you will ever go, please note that if you are going down, you will have to climb up.

You start another grueling incline and you can feel the burn in your thighs and just like when you are doing squats, you are advised to keep your back straight and let your knees do the bending. Your mind starts to question things. In my case, I thought about a number of scenarios to get out of this situation. I settled on the idea of collapsing right there because I could tell that a good land rover could get there if called upon by our KWS trained forest guide and pick me up from the forest floor. If only I could faint on command but with my current Global Fast Fit time of 3 minutes and 40 seconds, my cardio health is pretty good. This is where sticking with the elites pays off. A club member pulled me by my hand through every incline. Chivalry is not dead. The air grows cooler until we enter an otherworldly bamboo forest. The tall bamboo forms an eerie looking canopy over the muddy path riddled with dead and sprouting bamboo stumps, so watch your steps. You clear the enchanting bamboo forest and branch off to a wide dirt road. The guide stops for a bit so that you can catch a breath. You then watch in disbelief as he asks if we would like to extend to the other leg of the trail and make it 22 km instead of the 14 km that you are currently tackling. You firmly decline and ask to proceed with the trail at hand.

Onwards and frontwards we go, tackling another incline. The very last one. On top of this climb, the group is watching a small coffee brown snake trying to cross the road. Our guide is from the Maasai tribe and tells us that in their culture, a snake will stop slithering and turn towards a pregnant person. The snake stopped slithering and turned towards us. I can’t speak for everyone else but there are 3 places you won’t catch me this year: back and forth, out of my way and-most importantly-labor and delivery.

Eburru forest is a prime indigenous forest that overlooks lake Naivasha to the south, lake Elementatita to the north and lake Nakuru to the north west. At the Ol Doinyo Eburru peak, all the 3 lakes are visible. The forest is nestled within the folds of a geologically active volcanic mountain that has a geothermal power station. The white cloud of gas rising high into the sky is visible from quite a distance and with it, a pungent rotten egg smell. The hike trail is just adjacent to the Wellhead geothermal power plant. The highest peak of this active volcano, the Ol Doinyo Eburru stands at 2820m above sea level. It is quite the experience to do a Global Fast Fit routine; 15 pushups, 15 plank leg lifts and 15 squats at this peak. Eburru forest hike really is the ultimate hiking experience. We will return to Eburru forest to unlock Ol Donyo Eburru once more.