How I used Atomic Habits to lose weight. 104→81kg in a year.


At the start of 2022, I gave myself a long-term task.

I read the book Atomic Habits and thought of starting something I could make into a good habit.

Then I thought I do something about my weight.

Then my weight went from 63kg to 104kg in 3 years!

Hokkaido where I lived, has unbelievably great food. When you start to get to know the locals... I had so many occasions where I'm not hungry but ate because I came across an ingredient I just need to try.

On top of eating like that Covid hit, so I spent more time at home than usual. The cold winters made me stay inside my apartment more than I usually do, which piled up my weight in such a short period of time.

I had gout attacks, and my health was collapsing so I needed a good habit. The fact that my feet hurt from gout really motivated me to make a change.

To conclude it wasn't really hard, once you set a simple routine! 


3 things I did to start losing weight

These are the main things I did to lose weight:
  • back lunge whenever I have spare time
  • to walk for 1 hour. If rainy or no access to the gym, HIIT train 1 youtube video
  • cut carbs for dinner

1. The back lunge is easy to continue and was most effective

I started to back lunge after watching this video.
It's in Japanese, but it's basically saying how it's important to train your lower body to shape up.
The thighs and the buttocks have one of the biggest muscles, so training them boosts your energy consumption, leading to a deficit of calories if you control your diet well.


The most important and challenging is to continue the training!

This video said that back lunge can be done anywhere. Just 5 minutes. It's ok if you can only do 10 in between your meetings.

For me, I started to back lunge after meals. Then I started to back lunge when I was waiting for my lift. Or waiting for my takeaway food.

I could feel my thighs get muscular after a few weeks. Then it gets so easy to continue this.

If you want the same kind of video for the know-how in English, this might be good.


2. walk for 1 hour. If rainy or no access to the gym, HIIT


For me, walking was better than intense exercise because of gout attacks. If not, I think I would be weight lifting or HIIT training.

I live right by a park and choose hotels/Airbnb that is close to some kind of nature with paths as much as possible. Then I would go on a walk at least once a day.

It's free, too :)

I download a set of Youtube videos I follow and listen to them while I walk. I will be offline so I focus on the videos and the walking without being distracted.

On rainy days, I still do HIIT training in my room. Right now I'm traveling so I simply type HIIT on Youtube, then I will get different search results depending on which country I'm in, and that's interesting, too :)

3. cut carbs for dinner

I eat a lot during brunch hours. I used to cut carbs but that makes it very challenging especially in Southeast Asia. So I changed it to not eating carbs 5pm onwards, just simple soups and lots of salads. I only use olive oil, sometimes sesame oil, vinegar, and good salt.

I've been learning that I eat way too much. In Vietnam and Indonesia, people are fit and they eat so little. They eat a variety of nutrients. The fit ones have simple eating habits with no sugar or just little. I also see a lot of people obese here, they eat and drink a ton of sugar.

I can't provide data proof here, but I saw their habit and their physical appearance. 

*Please consult with your doctor regarding your diet plan. My content is a log of my experience, not medical advice.

I had to start somewhere and trial & error along the way

I remember the first 2 exercise videos were so hard. Just in the summer before Covid, I was fit enough to climb up and down Mt Yotei(1898m) in less than 5 hours, now I couldn't even finish the videos.

I was so devastated... but made sure I do at least one of the 2 videos every day.

This was the first video. Just 20 minutes.

Then I would start to do this one too, as I like the small narration explaining what to be careful of during the exercise, and I'd be tired after this one more than the one above.


I played 1.5 x faster as it was too challenging at first. Slowly I could add the relevant videos that play automatically after the ones above end.

I've had ones that just weren't for me, but it had many views. So I think it's ok to just choose whatever you have the best moderate stress to your body, and what you can continue.

I was 95kg when I moved to KL in February.

As of Dec 31st, I'm 81kg. I'm a lot muscular so I think I burned a lot of fat this year.

I'll aim to be back to 68kg for 2023!


Google Fit tells me that if I keep my pace I will be back to my best weight of 68kg by May 2023. I would imagine that it'll start getting harder to lose weight with the same kind of walking routine. But I'll see how it goes every month and start adding HIIT or some weightlifting if needed!

Reading Atomic Habits definitely helped me plan all of this. Very recommended book:)

Follow Ryu Aomi for more to come :) 

In this blog, I write about my food trips of the list of countries I want to visit. 

I also love to experience how locals live in each destination, and share what I learned.

After closing my travel business in Japan during Covid, I realized I didn’t have the right mindset to sustain the business, and got into Buddhism, mindfulness, knowing myself more.

I realized I wasn’t very materialistic and loved engaging in cooking, nature, and good relationships. 

To know more about me, I wrote it here.
Here are the SNS channels I have, but I mainly focus on Twitter at the moment.
I started blogging in Japanese, too! I hope it becomes something useful for those who are interested in Japan and who study Japanese and plan to live there.

These 2 books changed my life. 

If things are great, keep it up! You’re in the right path. If things aren’t working out for you, then these helped me a lot.

Good habits are essential to achieve your own way of success!
Managing relationships are challenging, but it’s a skill you can learn.


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