I know the topic of weight loss is a sensitive subject to most and I often find myself shying away from it as I don’t want to conform to society’s standard of beauty letting others dictate how I should look to feel beautiful. However, sometimes, there comes a point where we, ourselves, don’t feel good about the way we look and we have to make lifestyle adjustments, not to satisfy society, but ourselves. This is exactly where I found myself about 4 years ago. Although I’ve always been a short petite girl standing at 5’2 who ate what she pleased without a single worry, I had, slowly but surely, started to pile on extra pounds without even realizing I was gaining weight. I never really struggled with my eating habits or weight on the scale; until it happened.
Let’s take a trip down memory lane back to 2015 when the weight gain struggle started for me. I had just moved back home after graduating from college. I was having a hard time adjusting to the post-grad life and was struggling to find a job in my field of choice. As a way of coping with the stress and anxiety that came sweeping in with this new stage of life, I resorted to FOOD. I was doing a lot of EATING and SLEEPING. Now, anyone with common sense would tell you that this is a deadly combination when it comes to leading a healthy lifestyle, but I wasn’t too concerned about being “healthy” at the time. My concern was just forgetting my stress and anxiety. As this ever so satisfying habit of mine continued, the pounds started to pile on silently. Eventually, I started to notice I was struggling to fit into my pants that I once slid into comfortably. My cheeks were getting extra chubby and my arms were looking floppy. From then on, I became VERY self-conscious. The 20lbs I had put on felt like 200lbs. I was very unhappy with the person I saw in the mirror and all of a sudden found myself having self-esteem issues because of my physical appearance. I stopped wanting to take pictures or be anywhere near a camera. This was when it truly hit me! My weight gain was causing me some serious psychological issues because anyone who knows me well knows my obsession with pictures. It was time to make a change.
Now that the piled on pounds were no longer silent, I did what anybody would do and signed myself up for a gym membership. NOTE: If there is one thing you should know about me, let it be my hatred towards the gym. Although this is something I am consciously working on fixing, as it stands today, stepping foot in that place causes my anxiety level to jump through the roof. But like many, my mind had been conditioned to think the only solution to weight gain problem is the gym. So, I forced myself to my local gym and even dragged my best friend along for support. We did our routine cardio on the treadmill every time we went and even tried other weight training machines every now and then. But despite all the effort I was putting into the gym, I still was not pleased with the results I was seeing. I was still the same person in the mirror and my pants were still a struggle to get into.
So naturally, discouraged by the lack of results from the gym, my efforts of trying to get fit slowly decreased to eventually becoming none existent. But for the sake of staying active, I started attending yoga secessions twice a week. And to deal with my self-consciousness, I began to speak positivity into my life to accept myself just the way I was. I kept telling myself that my 20lbs of fat were a blessing from God and who am I to argue or try to fight it off? Even though I was not happy with the person I saw in the mirror, I began to accept the fact that my chubby cheeks and fat thighs were here to stay. But still, every day became a battle to rebuild my self-esteem. My roller-coaster of emotions with my weight went on for years before I discovered KETO last summer. With KETO, I lost 15+lbs in 4 months and my years of weight loss struggle finally came to a rest. My payers had been answered y’all! Hallelujah!
