Weight Loss, Technology, and Small Steps Forward

Seven weeks ago I stepped on the scales and weighed 108.88kg.

Today I weighed in at 102.79kg.

That's a loss of 6.09kg so far — just over 5.5% of my starting weight.

The journey hasn't been perfectly linear. There was even a week where the scales appeared to go backwards. But looking at the overall trend rather than individual weigh-ins tells a very different story.

Progress isn't about perfection. It's about consistency.

One meal doesn't make a diet.

One workout doesn't make a lifestyle.

And one difficult week doesn't define the journey.

One thing that has helped me significantly is technology.

As someone who spends much of their professional life talking about how digital can support better outcomes, I've found myself applying many of the same principles to my own health journey.

The scales provide data.

My Apple Watch helps me track activity levels, exercise, movement, and overall trends. It provides a constant reminder that every walk, workout, and active choice contributes to a bigger goal.

My Meta Quest has become an unexpected part of the journey too. What started as gaming and immersive experiences has also become another way to stay active. Whether through fitness apps or active games, it has helped turn exercise into something enjoyable rather than something that simply needs to be endured.

The Meta Quest has been particularly interesting. Like many people, I initially thought of VR as something primarily associated with gaming and entertainment. What I've discovered is that active VR experiences can also provide a surprisingly effective workout.

Recent sessions have seen me burning comparable numbers of calories to more traditional forms of exercise while being completely immersed in the experience. It doesn't replace walking or other physical activity, but it has added another option to the toolkit and helped make movement feel fun rather than something that needs to be endured.

For me, that's another example of how technology can support healthier habits. Not by doing the work for us, but by creating new and engaging ways to stay active.

None of these tools lose weight for me.

But they do provide something incredibly valuable: information.

And with information comes empowerment.

The more we understand about our behaviours, habits, activity levels, and progress, the better equipped we are to make informed decisions.

Data doesn't make the choices for us, but it helps us understand the consequences of those choices.

When you can see progress, you can make better decisions.

When you can spot patterns, you can adjust behaviours.

When you can track activity over time, healthy habits become easier to sustain.

The temporary increase I saw towards the end of May could easily have felt discouraging. Instead, the data reminded me to trust the longer-term trend. A few days later, the scales confirmed what the broader picture already showed.

Technology hasn't replaced effort.

It hasn't replaced discipline.

It hasn't replaced personal responsibility.

What it has done is provide information.

And with information comes empowerment.

In many ways, it's not unlike the work I do professionally. Good information doesn't solve every problem, but it helps people make better decisions. Whether we're looking at health systems or personal health journeys, insight creates understanding, understanding creates confidence, and confidence enables action.

Perhaps that's one of the lessons from both digital transformation and personal health.

Meaningful change rarely comes from one big intervention.

More often, it comes from lots of small improvements, supported by good information, applied consistently over time.

Seven weeks in, I'm still at the beginning of the journey.

But the trend is moving in the right direction.

And sometimes that's all the evidence you need to take the next step forward.