bro, the cut was crazy
Disclaimer: I am not a dietician. Please consult a physician/health professional before making any changes to your diet/exercise regimen. This post shares what worked for me and just summarizes my experience at the start of my fitness journey.
One of my favorite childhood meals was Neoguri Instant Ramen.
Surprisingly (and a little disgustingly), I had ramen almost everyday after school. I remembered how spicy and salty I used to make it — and I actually had it plain; no veggies or meat. Ramen was cheap and easy, it doesn’t get any better than that.
Of course the consequences of my instant ramen obsession manifested themselves in other aspects of my appearance and health. The excess salt, msg and other processed gunk in the food contributed to my cystic acne and the empty calories I was consuming were being turned into fat.
When I was younger, I turned to fad dieting. I realized that there were issues with my current diet (great!). To resolve this, I began to severely limit my calories and cut out whatever I could to keep ramen in my diet (so so so bad). As a result, some days all I would have was a cliff bar and a packet of ramen.
As I have grown older, I realized how horrible this was for my health and to this day I am still trying to rectify the consequences of my poor dietary choices. When I eventually began to gain weight in college, losing weight became a significant challenge because of my slowed metabolism, the very little muscle I had and excess fat. It’s almost like trying to start a fully-loaded car with an eighth of a gallon of gas — it will move but not for very long and eventually it’s going to run on fumes.
In my final year of college, I was the largest I had ever been at 220 pounds. At this time I realized I was in a sticky situation and cutting back on excess calories was not helping me anymore.
Then I came across a breaking point
While trying to get up off of sitting on the ground, I dislocated my knee 🤦🏻♀️
To be honest, I was embarrassed that I hurt myself doing something that I had done my whole life. I was also very alarmed. I knew something needed to change because now I was physically uncomfortable in my body. My partner and I both felt the effects of our unhealthy lifestyles and began our fitness journey at our local gym. Although he had experience in the past with a personal trainer, this was my first time having another person evaluate my physical health and I was completely terrified.
My whole teen-hood I was afraid of being overweight because of how others would perceive me and now I was being vulnerable with a stranger about my biggest insecurity.
But I totally hit the jackpot. My personal trainer was the most supportive and nonjudgmental human I had ever met. I was and am so lucky to have a trainer recognize that I was uncomfortable and help me realize that my fear of judgement was not so scary after all. I am grateful because I understand that this may not be others’ experience.
Initially the start of my fitness journey was slow and frustrating
I wasn’t seeing the weight loss coming fast enough. This is a common frustration most people have — in this age, we are all so used to instant gratification. We want to see things happen immediately! I couldn’t help but compare how slow my progress was compared to my 15 year-old self. 15 year-old me lost 20 pounds in a matter of a few weeks, but why couldn’t my 24 year-old self even lose 5 pounds in a month?
It was around this time when I began working in retail to fill in my extra time between graduation and landing my first job out of school. My weight loss pretty much sky-rocketed after this and so much so that I didn’t even notice it happening. I was on my feet more than ever: walking near 16,000 steps a day, eating properly and being consistent.
One day I woke up for an early morning shift. With sleep still in my eyes, I fumbled around looking for my favorite pair of jeans that I would usually wear. I pulled them up and realized they were looser. When I looked down I realized that I didn’t even unbutton them. At my biggest I was a size 16 in jeans, but at this point I was now a size 8-10.
My genuine advice for someone wanting to lose weight and kick-start their fitness journey:
Weight loss is not a linear journey. If you are coming from years of binge eating/poor dietary habits like I was, it will take time. Old habits die hard.
Be honest with yourself. The only person you’re cheating is yourself. Why be in the way of your own success? With that being said, do not punish yourself for having cravings or accidents. Work with yourself to identify the source of these cravings/accidents and come up with constructive solutions.
Example: I always craved flavored drinks and salty chips. Some great alternatives to help me wean off of these cravings were to substitute soda and chips with flavored sparkling water and pickles. Eventually I was able to go without it.
Educate yourself. Not a very sexy tip, huh? I avoided this for the longest time because I figured I could do without it. But knowledge is power!
Learn the basics of nutrition and how to calculate the macronutrients you should be aiming for to meet your goals
Identify the exercises that would help aid your weight loss. (Spoiler: it’s most likely going to be anything that builds muscle/low-intensity cardio)
Be at a caloric deficit — responsibly manage what you eat and incorporate exercise 3-5x a week
Meal prep. Plan your meals and pre-portion each meal. This prevents over/under eating and ensures you get the nutrients you planned for to meet your goals.
Live your life. Weighing yourself everyday, obsessive calorie counting and declining social interactions/life events is not constructive. That’s not a way to live your life!
ALSO understand that you shouldn’t ban foods that you like/that aren’t necessarily “healthy”. You can have them in moderation!
Understand that this is a lifestyle change. Be consistent! This is your chance to replace your bad habits with good ones. The quickest way you’ll see progress is to be consistent in creating your change.
I started seeing the greatest results about 1.5-2 years into my weight loss. I’ve lost 45 pounds so far and for the first time ever, kept it off.
To this day, I still have a few more pounds I want to lose but now my attention has shifted over to building muscle. Having more muscle can result in a greater metabolism and that means eating more food (🤩!).
Sooo no. I’m not there just yet. Maybe I want my final form to be LeanBeefPatty. Maybe I want it to be Larry the Lobster. I guess we’ll never know.
