Let me start of by saying I grew up in a nice neighborhood into a very loving family. I had many great opportunties growing up.
You see my whole life I was always very overweight and I was a huge compulsive overeater. I would eat at least 5,000 calories a day and sometimes I would eat over 12,000 calories a day. I ate all types of foods from candy to donuts to pizza to cheeseburgers and a lot of fast food. As long as it was deep fried and coated with sugar I would eat it. I would also drink at least two liters of soda and a gallon of milk a day.
My eating had a ton of negative effects on me that caused my health a lot of problems. I had a ton of acne because of all the sugar I was consuming and I was constantly easily fatigued and even walking or going up the stairs seemed like a challenge to me.
My self esteem also suffred. I hated myself and my body and desperatley wanted to be thin and healthy but never thought i could give up food. So i just accepted that I would be fat for the rest of my life.
My lowest moment came when I went out to a bar and started dancing with this girl. At first it went well but then I tried to approach her and then she loudly said in front of everyone at the bar: "Go away from me you fatass you're so fat and ugly and I would never in a million years wanna hookup with you".
I left the bar in tears but that was the moment I knew I needed to make a change in my life. I went to the bathroom and took a picture of myself without my shirt on. And i was disgusted at what I had saw. I had stretchmarks all over my body and I couldn't believe how overweight I was. I decided to step on the scale to see how much I weighed. I was shocked at the results. I was 5'8 and weighed 300 pounds. I broke down in tears and went to bed knowing I needed to make a change.
So, the next day I decided to do a challenge to strengthen my mind and body. I decided to see how long I could go without food. I went 10 days without food and only drank water. It was a challenge to myself to prove food doesn't control me. I went on the scale to see how much weight I lost and I couldnt believe it; I went from 300 pounds to 280. I was so happy with myself and I knew that if I could go that long without food I could definitely lose weight.
I decided to join a gym and get a trainer. I meet my trainer Nick who would soon change my life. He gave me all sorts of diet advice and weight loss tips; he told me to eat six small meals a day and he told me every month to take a picture of myself and weigh myself once a month and I did that.
We started off small. We did all the basic exercises like how to do a pushup and simple medicine ball catches. We then went on to more advanced workouts like how to do a squat or how to deadlift. He then taught me how to workout effectively and efficiently. He also taught me about proper form and technique while working out.
I would spend seven days a week at the gym; two hours each day, one hour of weightlifting and one hour of cardio. Ialso got into running and biking and swimming and even started to train for local 5ks and I am currently training for an iron man triathlon. The weight started to melt off and my first year of working out I lost 80 pounds.
My biggest challenge was dieting. I had to learn how to shop for food and avoid all the tempting and fattening foods such as oreos or cakes while shopping. So one technique I would use while shopping was keep a picture of me at my heaviest on my phone and look at it whenever I felt like overeating.
I tried all sorts of diets such as weightwatchers and the paleo diet and the atkins diet and I read dozens of diet and fitness books. I even tried having food delivered to my house but none of that worked so I decided to create my own diet.
I went on a gluten free, sugar free diet and vegetarian diet and I only drank water. I didn't drink any drinks with calories in them for over two years and that included alcohol. It was tough but it was worth it. I only started shopping at grocery stores that were gluten free and I also didn't eat out at all for two years. I planned and prepared all my meals the night before the next day so I would always have foods to eat the next day.
After the first year of working out iIhad weighed 220 and was only 70 pounds away from my goal weight of 150 pounds. My face had cleared up and I started noticing I had more energy to work out and become better at working out. Suddenly it became easier and I started to notice I had become faster and could bench more and I could do more excercises. So I started to do crossfit and muay thai kickboxing and I started doing the insanity program. I suddenly loved working out more and I started to notice how much progress I was making. And from 220 I went down to 210 to 200 then 190 then 180 and then 170 and then came the hardest challenge; the last 20 pounds.
I thought to myself 170 is fine and that's an okay weight but I didn't want to just settle for an okay weight; I wanted to be better than an okay weight, I wanted to be a phenominal weight. I thought that I had worked this hard at it I could go a little bit longer.
With only two months before my 22nd birthday I knew I had no time to waste. I got busy with working out. I did push ups, sit ups and pull ups. I ran, I swam, I biked, I did crossfit, I did muay thai, I did weightlifting, I did about every exercise imaginable. But the thing I needed most to lose weight was not diet and excercise; it was motivation. I thought about every time kids made fun of me and I thought about everytime I was ever bullied for my weight and I not only had my family supporting me I had my trainer and all the people at the gym and all my new made friends.
Then after two months of vigorous working out came the big day; my 22nd birthday. That morning when I stepped on the scale was the most nerve racking moment of my life. But i stepped on the scale and I couldn't believe my eyes I didn't weigh 150; I weighed 148. I had worked so hard that I had lost an additional two pounds. I jumped up and down and squeled with joy. It was easily one of the greatest moments of my life.
To celebrate my achievement my family baked me a gluten free, sugar free cake and it was the sweetest thing I ever tasted; the taste of victory. I put up a picture of myself on Facebook weighing 300 pounds and then a picture of myself at 148 and it got over 300 likes. I had inspired a lot of people.
I then went on to gain a ton of confidence. So much so that I managed to get my first kiss and then get engaged. So yes it wasn't easy and there were so many moments that I wanted to quit but I didn't; I kept on going.
My goal is to keep on inspiring people. I speak at weightwatchers meetings and I live to inspire people. I still consume food but food doesn't consume me. For those of you thinking "oh I can't lose weight" I am living proof that you can.
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