My 2025 Weight Loss Journey
by Norman Wei

I turned 79 on December 22. On January 1, 2025, my weight clocked in at a whopping 200 lbs. Yikes. I wasn't morbidly obese but I was on its trajectory. I was certain overweight for my height of 5'11". I knew this shit has got to stop. So I set out to drop 20 pounds in 2025. This blog is my 2025 weight loss journey - on a road that went up and down.
My sleep pattern.
It turns out that sleep is a big factor in weight loss. Getting enough high quality sleep helps your body to rejuvenate itself overnight. I have been getting 6-8 hours of restful sleep every night with at least one hour of deep sleep. My Oura ring and my Apple watch track my sleep pattern which has been pretty consistent. I was getting more deep sleep in the last few months of 2025.
I go to bed at 7 pm and wake up between 2 and 3 in the morning, Rarely do I wake up in the middle of the night and I hardly ever have to get up in the middle of the night to pee. The trick here is to not drink any water three or four hours before bedtime.
Morning exercise
As soon as I got out of bed, I do my leg raise and wall pushup exercises and spend 6 minutes on the vibrating pad. It is like getting a full body massage. I then go out and do a brisk walk for a mile at 4 am. My walking pace is between 17-19 minutes per mile. My Apple watch and Oura ring track my walk. There are plenty of “exercises for seniors” and “Tai Chi for seniors” on YouTube, These are low impact exercises and are all good.
I always exercise and walk on an empty stomach.
After my walk, I have my breakfast at 5 am.
What I eat everyday.
After my morning walk, I eat a cup of sugar-free Greek Yogurt mixed in with half an avocado, chickpea, pomegranate seeds, some chopped mixed nuts (almond, walnut and pecan), pumpkin seeds and a mix of chia, flax and hemp seeds.
I then follow up with an omelet (two eggs, chickpeas, chopped nuts, blueberries, pomegranate seeds, pumpkin seeds, chia seed and Flax seeds),and a small can of sardine or a piece of wild-caught salmon with skin. The idea is to load up with protein early in the morning.
My lunch is at 10:00 am after my morning bird photography session and it consists of stirred fried vegetables (all bright colors) mixed in with nuts, chickpeas and seeds. For protein, I generally eat a small rack of baby back ribs (two to three ribs) or salmon with skin broiled in my air fryer.
I would eat a kiwi fruit or a Bosc pear after lunch. I then STOP eating at noon. No snacks. No food until next morning at 5.
I cut out all added sugar and red meat from my diet.
My meal plan is to load up on my protein in the morning and start a 16 hour fast everyday. In the future, I will reduce the eating window to 6 and fast for 18 hours. I have seen my blood glucose and blood pressure come down.
I used to snack all day long. Now I never feel hungry during the fasting period.
One more thing about eating. I never buy processed food - the stuff that often comes in a box. The general consensus is that highly processed food is not healthy for you. I also never go eat in a restaurant. Why You have no control over what they do with the food that goes in your mouth. You don't know what kind of oil they use to cook your food. For cooking, I use cold press virgin olive oil, coconut oil and ghee butter (I make ghee butter from unsalted butter).
What I drink everyday
I stopped drinking alcoholic beverages several years ago and I can’t say I miss it all. My morning drink is a tumbler filled with bottled water mixed in with a few drops of ginger juice, lemon juice and black vinegar. After lunch, I would drink a cup or two of Oolong tea (Iron buddha brand) or a cup of green tea. The Oolong tea is very strong and is caffeinated. But it is excellent for digestion.
Results after one year.
My weight is now at 180 lb. Still have a few pounds to go. I am pleased to report that this was not a crash weight loss plan. It took place slowly over a year. I dropped to 184 lbs by July and the remaining 5 lbs took another six months. My target weight is 177-178 lb which will bring my BMI to normal. My blood pressure has come down and so is my blood glucose. My energy level is up. These are all good signs.
What I learned this past year.
None of those weight loss supplements on Amazon are good. They are mostly scams. Some even caused me to gain weight. So I now stay clear of them. I do take Zinc Picolinate every other day. It seems to work for me. I also believe that you don't need to spend $$ for a gym membership and use their fancy equipments. You can pretty much do many of the exercises with a chair and several resistance bands. You can do push-ups against a wall or on the floor. I don't believe in the Keto diet or no carb diet. You need a balance of protein and carb to fuel your body. The most important decision I made was to stop eating red meat and refined sugar. If you have inflammation in your bowel, eliminating sugar will go a long way in reducing the inflammation. My GI doctor never told me to eliminate refined sugar in my diet. But AFTER I told him I had stopped eating sugar, he told me that sugar is the main culprit in IBD. He said sugar is poison. Well - why the hell did you not tell me that? Good thing I figured it out for myself no thanks to him.
Beware of Scams.
There are lots of scams out there on YouTube. A very common one goes like this: We will show you a 3-minute trick in this video to mix Himalayan salt with some common household food that will help you lose 50 lbs in a week. The video will start by saying that the drug companies will be forcing the video to be taken down soon. So watch it NOW before it is too late. Then you have a doctor with a very common name who went to Harvard Medical School and now teaches at Johns Hopkins who has uncovered the secret ingredients. He has travelled all over the world and has brought back all the ingredients to a US FDA-approved lab to make a special pill for you to buy after you have waited and wasted 60 minutes to see the simple trick. Of course there is no 1-minute trick. They are just selling you some pills after you sit through an hour of happy horseshit. And they will upsell a lot of crap to you before you check out.
Note: My plan works for me. But I am not trying to convince you to follow my plan if you don't think it works for you. If you have serious medical issues, consult your doctors.
Bird photography: I stay active by going out every morning to take photographs of birds. I have photos of eagles, Northern Flickers, American kestrels, Snail kites, owls, crested caracara. roseate spoonbill, woodpeckers, swallow-tailed kites, black skimmer and ospreys.