Girls today are told that celebrities are the way to look. With female celebrities such as Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, and Angelina Jolie, girls see these women as getting thinner and thinner. With the Victoria Secret special each year presented on television, our young ladies are bombarded everyday with the idea that they need to be super thin to be sexy.
As our parents were growing up, today's average was yester-year's sexy. Having a little meat on the bones or an extra curve was ok. Their role models were women such as Marilyn Monroe, someone who still demands respect from today's entertainment world.
Today you see weight loss fad after weight loss fad after weight loss fad being advertised or flooding our Facebook walls. Everyone jumping on the next big thing by either taking it and ranting and raving about how great you feel the first couple days. Or someone who sees how great they feel the first week so they start flooding their Facebook selling the product themselves. Then all of a sudden its gone. Disappears as though nothing was ever different.
One of the recent fads was the Body by Vi. As I talked to people about it (at the time I was able to run all the time and I can't wait to start up again) all I could do was laugh. I saw people giving it to their seven year old children, I saw people using it to help cure ADD, I even saw people believing it was helping them with their diabetes. I am not saying it didn't do any of that because I am not in the medical field, but by the time I was over it, I swear this weight loss supplement was the answer to everything except AIDS and old age. I seriously heard it all. After about a week or so I had enough, I couldn't keep my mouth shut. I wanted to know why this miracle weight loss stuff wasn't on the market sooner if it was the answer to everything. Funny thing, Body by Vi was just that, a weight loss supplement.
Now the reason I preach about it, is because I have a serious issue with my weight. I am utterly obsessed with my weight. I have taken almost every single weight loss fad out there. I have done it all in hopes to cure my obsession and to be where I wanted. In the end, they were all a joke. A weight loss supplement is used to cure your cravings until you are able to eat your next meal. It is to take place of a meal if you can't eat. A supplement is a meal supplement, not to be taken in place of a meal. Weight plans that require you to take a pill or anything like that is nothing but a mind altering drug. Designed to make you THINK you're not hungry. Over time when you don't take in the proper calories and fat you need to survive each day, your body goes into starvation mode, which is what these weight loss plans are designed to do. Your body thinks it isn't hungry so you don't eat. As you take in less and less calories, your body starts to store all the food you eat as fat, which in the end, when you stop taking these supplements, your body continues to do and over time you are heavier than you planned.
When I came out, I was bombarded with more weight insecurities then I had originally had. The gay community is very big on outward appearances. You have to look a certain way, you have to dress a certain way, you have to part your hair a certain way (ok that last one isn't true, but I am honestly surprised). You have to be practically perfect to even get noticed. I was heavy at that time, nearly 180 pounds. I started to binge and purge. 6 months I wouldn't eat hardly anything, had just enough to say I could survive, and then 6 months of just eating everything I could. I did this for years. Then I started to do some minor modeling in Lincoln which caused even more insecurities in my weight. Add the constant need to be thin on top of the constant need to be perfect and you have a total mind "eff." Then to top it all off I had some fairly good looking boyfriends, so I felt the need to look even better for them. I was in a constant fear of not looking good enough. This happened for years. Then about a year or so ago, I couldn't handle my weight any longer.
As I said, I have done almost every weight plan out there. Pills, diets, mixes...I did it all. When I was to this point I was about 200 pounds. People see pictures and don't believe it, but being gay and needing to look good, I learned how to hide it well. It was a fairly hot summer last year and I was working at the Hi-Lite in Le Mars. It was a slow afternoon so I put my headphones in and I started walking. I did lap after lap after lap every day. No one would come in during the day so I would walk for hours. After about two weeks I saw the weight shift a little bit. So after my morning coffee I would walk to the golf course which was about 5 blocks from my house and I started to walk the 5k around the course on top of the walks in the bar. Weight just kept dropping.
Then I got myself a thin boyfriend. Someone I was happy to take out and about and a new obsession kicked in. I had to stay thin. Rather than jumping on the current fad (Body by Vi), I did the logical thing, I hit the streets. I started to run and I watched my portion sizes. Yes yes yes I know it's a diet just like everything else, but it was the right one. I munched on fruit, drank water, and I watched the AMOUNT of food I ate. Not once have I ever denied myself anything except most fried foods and soda. I still eat what I want when I want, I just watched how much. And I started to run. Everyday I would run.
Everyone who I tell this to tells me the same thing, I can't run. It's to exhausting. My response to everyone has always been, everyone starts somewhere. I started out running one block and walking two. I was determined to get thin again. I was gonna do it right. As time went on and I did it everyday for a minimum of 30 mins a day, I got a mile, then two, then three. By the time I moved to Omaha in December of last year I was up to 9 miles. My next goal, 9 miles in 45 mins. I was a running machine, and I started to love it. I saw the results. I was thin. I was happy to have my shirt off, and boy did I show it off.
Today I talk to people about how I lost my weight. Am I still obsessed, of course. I was "diagnosed," not officially, with BDD (Body Dysmorphic Disorder). Basically I see myself as fat no matter how thin I am. Today I weigh about 140-150 depending on what I eat the day before and how active the house arrest will allow me to be, yet when I look at myself I see nothing but fat. I know I am not, but mentally it is all I see. It is a rare mental eating disorder. I fit all the symptoms, but I won't get diagnosed. My eating habits are healthy and as long as I don't have to buy new clothes I have it under control.
I refuse to diet any other way then how I do it now. My reasoning is because I do it in a healthy, though obsessive, way it is still healthy. I don't deny myself anything except those two things, but I do it right. I have had many friends come up to me and ask how I stay so thin and I tell them the exact same thing. I run. No matter how busy I am I always run. If you have time to spend in front of the computer or TV, you have time to spend 10 mins doing laps up and down a small flight of stairs as much as you can. I then tell them if they want help I use two apps on my phone...MyFitnessPal and the Nike Running app. I don't get obsessive when I put in my information, I eye ball everything. As long as I don't get obsessive I feel great. I keep my fat content and I keep my calories out of the red and I run everyday. If I don't run I at least walk everyday. I do something to keep somewhat active. You do this and the body will take care of itself.
These two apps have helped me with my obsession and my BDD. I don't completely obsess, but I watch what I do. I track everything this way I can, in a healthy manner, keep the BDD under control without medication.
Today's society is so bent on keeping thin, yet all we have time for is fast food. Brandon and I hardly ever eat out. We don't deny ourselves fast food, but we prefer a home cooked meal. His body and health has gotten so much better since the sweets and grease has left the house for the most part. We do have ice cream or cookies every now and then. To help my metabolism I drink 16 oz of chocolate milk each day. It's high in protein so it helps keep the muscles fresh and helps burn fat. But I don't go over board. I have always told people to add me to their MyFitnessPal accounts and to their Nike Running accounts. This way we can keep each other motivated, and I especially suggest everyone here to do it as well.
It's funny how everything we are preached as a child for healthy bodies and eating, is actually what lost me my weight and made me look my best. Exercise and a good balance of food. It is seriously all it took. I took out most fast food, I took out most fried food, and I took out soda. Simple things that many of us live off of each day. Switch it to healthy home cooked meals cooked with Pam and baked in the oven (I bake almost all my chicken and pork chops), and switch soda to water and you have a major weight loss right there. Don't over eat and just have smaller portions more often and you will drop the pounds all in itself. Top that off with 30 mins of walking or jogging and your waist line will drop. (Below is a before and now photo to show you myself so you can see the results of doing what I did.)
Weight loss is a major issue with people today. I can't stress enough how unhealthy it is to take those supplements the way people are. It messes with your head and in time makes you look worse then you originally planned. A healthy life is only as good as you allow it to be. You shouldn't have to live your life denying yourself the food you enjoy, just enjoy it in a proper way. Don't skip out on ice cream and pizza and a chocolate chip cookie. Just don't go over board. I give myself 2 fat days a month and I allow it on every holiday. A fat day is a day where you eat whatever you want, whenever you want, how ever much you want with no second thoughts about anything. Track it, but do it. Eat it all. Indulge. Denying yourself is just as unhealthy because when you give into the cravings, you go overboard. The fat days allow you to indulge because you have 28 days to work it all off. Giving yourself one day and then back to the healthy stuff for 2 weeks, that one "fat day" won't hurt you the least bit.
I encourage those who want help to talk, add the apps and add me. You always need a support group to help you through the rough times. I have helped many friends and they have found the results they needed. And the best part is, I don't get paid for any of this, I just like to see people live a happy healthy life, something that took me 32 years to figure out. Many people who are ill out there is caused my weight problems. It's never to late to get yourself back on track and live a long happy life. It's just up to you to take that first step. And with a helping hand with a support group, that step is a lot easier to take. Lets talk, lets help each other. As with anything else, its up to you to take that fist step.
*disclaimer - this is not meant to preach, but with all the health issues I see in the news, I figured I would give my little bit of advice on how I did it and leave it up to you to take what you want from it.
No comments:
Post a Comment