Good morning Steemit! 😊
This is the beginning of my journey to changing my lifestyle for the better. Welcome to my story. I hope you find it inspiring to make better health choices for yourself as well. Join me as I live happy!
█ The Backstory
Growing up, I have always been a chubby, overweight Asian kid. I hit the weight of 160+ pounds (72.5 kg) at 12 years old and stood 5 feet, 7 inches (170 cm). At the time, I never saw anything wrong with it, until I went onto middle school... then high school, and finally college. I was stuck at a solid 200 pounds. After graduating, I knew that I couldn't keep up with this lifestyle.
I was never happy with myself. My confidence was so low. I have been called ugly names growing up. By the time I hit 22, I had never even imagined the possibility of a boyfriend.
Whenever I took pictures, I would make the funniest faces to be the "comedic" friend for some humorous relief.
You know, to mask up my insecurities and pretend I'm perfectly fine with who I am. So, I decided to take a stand.
In 2015, I made some changes.
I returned from a trip to Korea in January and had lost about 30 pounds. I was down to 170 pounds! Unfortunately, it did not last long. I went back up to the upper 190's in the summer, and it was as if that progress never happened. Right after my birthday in August, I decided that this miserable life would be no more! I buckled down and stuck to a very strict 1200-calorie diet for 3 months.
- Weight (August): 198 pounds
- Weight (October): 153 pounds
These are what my meals looked like.
Crazy, right? I also trained for a 5K. In middle school - when running was required - my time for a 1 mile run was about 16 minutes. So horrendous. Since then, I had never run in my life for a long period of time. When I trained, I had gotten that closer to 8 minutes. I was so proud of myself. I finished the 5k (a little over 3 miles) in about 40 minutes. That was the most physically demanding achievement I had accomplished in my life. No words could describe the ecstatic feeling.
I was living the BEST moment of my life.
█ Who I was
At this point, I was at an all time low of 148 pounds.
I hadn't seen that number since 4th grade. My life had literally changed. I was constantly taking selfies and appreciating my body more. I hung out, partied, bar-hopped, and lived like a normal 20(ish)-year old girl who wanted to have fun with her friends. Get ready to be photo bombed. (Can't find any body shots... if I find them, I'll update this post!)
I was in a great place and I didn't want anything to change. It didn't come with just good things though. I had some health issues because I lost so much weight in so little time (about 50 pounds in 3 months). Here are some problems I had to deal with until I started eating more normally:
- A lot of hair loss (like seriously, I got scared)
- Anemia (I passed out, threw up at work, and got a call from the hospital that I was anemic)
- Constant tiredness
- I was always cold. Like always, even in the summer
- My stomach would hurt whenever I ate, no matter what time of day
- I was so, so weak; I couldn't lift a chair to save my life (no muscle training)
It wasn't until about October that I started toning down the extremities and eating closer to 1500 to 1800 calories to maintain my weight.
█ Who I want to be
So, stuff happened, broke up with a great boyfriend, and was in that "mid-life crisis" stage. I slowly gained back all the weight in the course of 9-10 months. I am back to roughly 195 pounds. The only difference is that... I gained back all this fat with no muscle.
At least before in high school & college, I did moderately physical activities such as sports, walking around with a 55-pound backpack, playing instruments for hours everyday, and so on. I had some muscle back then. This time, I have 0. Yikes!
But I have a chance to do this right.
- I'll be taking weight loss slower
- I'll eat closer to 1400 calories with a balanced meal plan
- I'll do muscle training on top of cardio
- This will be permanent