My Journey towards Health
I’ve tried a lot of different ‘diets’ in my lifetime. I’ve been overweight since middle school, actually technically in the obese category but that’s still hard for me to wrap my head around. When you’re overweight in middle school you try everything to figure out how to fix it. I was on the swim team, I was exercising regularly but I also ate what all my other friends on the team were eating. When you’re that age you don’t realize how important the food you put in your body is, even though I am swimming as much as other kids on the team that doesn’t mean I can eat as much as them, I didn’t realize that. No one teaches you these things so I just beat myself up I was working out for two hours everyday, high intensity cardio and I was still overweight, I was comfortable in a swimsuit but that’s because I wore one so much.
In high school I was extremely depressed, I was on the track team and trying to eat better but I still managed to gain weight. What I didn’t realize was how many sweets I was eating to try and cope with the feeling crappy part. This continued on to college where things with my health got a little crazy, without much money my friends and I made staples of Little Caesars pizza and whatever fast food coupons we found in the mail. We stayed up late drank cans of mountain dew and often went for late night dessert runs, I didn’t feel good. I knew what I was doing to myself but I didn’t realize how bad it was getting.
New Years 2014 came and I was going to a big music festival that summer, I knew I had to get ready so I started reading like crazy, later that month my friend sent me a picture he had taken of me and I was horrified I didn’t realize how bad it had gotten. I didn’t even recognize myself so I got going, I had tried South Beach, CICO, but they hadn’t really worked. So I went on a quest to figure out what would work for me. Up until this point I had been a vegetarian for the last six years, as I starting reading more about Paleo and Keto I was thinking about eating meat again. About a month later I did, it was difficult, but ultimately a good decision for me. I slowly dropped a few pounds here and there before the festival but after the festival that’s when things got serious. I had a realization while I was there and I knew something needed to change.
I had started getting into personal development and I knew that being the best version of me started with what I was putting in my body. I started following The 4 Hour Body created by Tim Ferriss, it seemed the most sustainable to me I had a cheat day so I didn’t have to give up everything. I could have wine once in awhile, beans, salsa, diet coke all things I loved. Oh and I didn’t have to exercise unless I wanted to, so I went for it and boy was it worth it if my timeline is correct I lost about 50 pounds before the end of the year and I felt great. I was the healthiest I had been in a long time, physically, emotionally, and mentally. It was incredible, I was happy, easy-going Leah again.
Holidays rolled around and like most the diet didn’t stick. As Holidays rolled around and I started seeing my now girlfriend and we went out a lot, we drank, stayed up late, had a good time. It was a blast but the last thing on my mind was my diet, and the food I was putting in my body, and my daily mental health practices. I just wanted to have fun. I was so in love I didn’t have a care in the world. Oh I should note that during this time I was still essentially intermittent fasting I was drinking a protein shake to get my 30 in 30 in the morning and then I was eating a snack around probably two and then going out to eat for dinner. I felt fine most of the time and the last thing on my mind was food which was definitely a change and it was nice. But six month later it hit me, I had gained fifteen pounds and I was disappointed in myself.
I tried going back on 4 Hour Body but it’s tricky when you are eating out all the time and with friends, my mental and emotional health began to suffer and I became a hell of a person to be around. I got a new job and had access to a great cafeteria with delicious hamburgers and started eating one of those everyday, I figured it was fine I didn’t feel like I had gained much weight and I while I wasn’t feeling particularly good I had this new fancy adult job. About a month later things changed and I tried and failed to get my diet back in gear, it was so hard to commit to this time, I started running, and I love running. It felt good and I felt like I could eat whatever I wanted. Holidays came around and you know how that goes, everything sort of just goes out the window.
Now, several months after that I am back at it again. I am two months into getting healthy. I say that because this time around I’m not just losing weight. I am getting healthy. I’m only putting food in my body that makes me feel good, I get outside and walk for an hour a day, I meditate. My journey is to good health, not weight loss. It’s certainly slower than your typical weight loss story. For me, this time around it’s about the journey, it’s about a sustainable change, and it’s about feeling fantastic in my own skin. It’s taken me an extremely long time to come to that conclusion, but life isn’t just about a number on a scale. There’s so much more to it. If want any advice from someones thats been doing this for a while here it is:
- Forgive yourself.
- Get outside, even if it’s only for 5 minutes
- Eat things that make you feel good
Share your health journey in the comments below. I’d love to hear it.