I woke up one morning and I was huffing and puffing to just walk up the stairs to the bathroom. When I looked in the mirror I didn’t even recognize the person that was right in front of me. I was disgusted with myself. I made a promise right then and there that I would never look like that again. That was when I was 200 lbs. I decided that being overweight was something I did not want to be and I did something about it.
There were two specific methods I used to lose the weight, but there was a large part of the process where I had to learn to be okay with my body.
Diet is a crucial part of losing weight. Not only did I have to start eating smaller portions, but I had to change what I normally would eat completely. Now, this specific diet worked for me because I specifically made it by using bits and pieces of other diets that would help me. It may not work for everyone else.
For breakfast every morning I would start my day off with a piping hot bowl of oatmeal (not the fun bananas and cream oatmeal either; this was the plain stuff). Then at lunchtime, I would fix some type of sandwich on whole wheat bread, it could be peanut butter, turkey, etc. Paired with my sandwich I had water (I cut tea and sodas out of my diet completely), and I also had a granola bar, fruit, or vegetable. Finally, for dinner, I would cook myself fish and a vegetable.
Every single night. It was very hard on me because I would sit around and watch my family enjoy crunchy chicken tenders from Zaxby's while I was stuck eating fish and peas. Around the 2nd month, I was able to eat whatever I wanted, but I still had to change my portion sizing.
Getting up and doing cardio every day, several times a day, was the other tactic I used to shed off my excess weight. Mid-morning I would do a 20-30-minute session of cardio in my house through a YouTube video, mid-afternoon I would run up and down my outdoor stairs for 15-20 minutes, and before I went to bed I would run up and down the streets of my neighborhood for 15-30 minutes. Being consistent in doing this cardio every day was a challenge, but I kept up with it to get to my end result.
Diet and cardio got me to where I am today, but even when I got to my goal weight I was still critiquing every small thing wrong with my body. I had to learn to be ok with my body.
Body positivity is such an important element to this process. “Many people attribute life disappointments to the fact that they’re overweight, and they think, should they lose the weight, everything will be miraculously improved, but the reality is, you’re still you,’” says clinical psychologist Ed Abramson, Ph.D., author of Emotional Eating.
Even when I lost the weight I felt empty. It felt as if I was missing something. I thought I would become this new person, but you find out you are still the same person. I was still looking at my body so critically because of all the awful things people said about me when I was overweight.
Weight-based bullying is still very prevalent in our school systems and society. I know exactly how it feels to be bullied because of your weight and those harsh words were still circling around my head. After a little while, it clicked that I lost the weight. That slowly began boosting my confidence and made my senior year one of the best years of my life. I was not only living, but I was thriving. I could finally go to the beach and take my shirt off and not feel awful about my body. I could try on clothes and fit in the sizes that all of my friends wore. I finally began to learn to be happy with my body and when I did that it taught me how to be happy with myself.
With all three of these elements, I was able to succeed in my goal. I lost a total of 60 lbs in 3 months with the help of diet, cardio, and body positivity. I decided that being overweight was overrated and I did something about it. In conclusion, my weight loss journey has taught me so many things about myself and one of those is I am perfect the way I am no matter what anyone says, but maintaining a healthy lifestyle is important for me to live a long and happy life.