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Like I've said in my other blog post OCD Got My Photography Hobby Started, as a young adult, thinking about the future after I graduated high school was really difficult. I didn't have any hobbies, was unhappy with myself and my body, had no grasp on anything that interested me, and had no motivation to even just start looking. All I did was hope that something good would just happen, that everything would just figure itself out and I'd become successful if I waited, but then I found myself in a worse situation.
I became depressed, more than I ever had been before, because being an adult with no plans made me feel like I had already failed. I refused to go outside. I refused to socialize. I hated myself. I hated my body, and due to having been diagnosed with ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) and OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder), I hated my mind too because it felt like everything was just more difficult for me, and I was predisposed to fail.
The only thing that I could be proud of was the money I had. I saved almost every penny I worked for over the past year at my restaurant job because I learned a lot of discipline and had a budget sheet I referred to every month to stay on track, more on this in my blog post Let's Grow Your Savings Together. I was able to buy my first car outright and even took myself on a graduation trip to northern California to stay with a friend just because I could.
However, while I was in California, all I did was eat. I had been struggling with my relationship with food for a while before this trip and unhealthily restricted my eating on and off. So when I started eating "normally" again, I started binging. Eating as much as possible anytime my stomach wasn't full. For most of the day, I was so stuffed with food my stomach felt like it would explode. I ordered as much food as possible and often didn't finish it all because it was just so much, but as soon as I wasn't full I'd stuff my face again. That's when I gained 14 pounds in just two weeks.
At this point, I began to not care about anything anymore. Anytime my friend wasn't around I'd cry in my own self-pity. Not only was I wasting money on food I couldn't even finish, but I also made my relationship with my body even worse. So I started researching. Any tips I could find on weight loss, healthy groceries, meal plans, assistive apps, and effective workouts I could easily fit into my routine, I read, bought, and wrote down in my notes app. I abruptly decided that I was not going to just feel sorry for myself this time, and I needed to take control of this part of my life.
When I got back home at the end of the two weeks, I got to work. I put my plan into action, and to my surprise, I got results. I went to the grocery store with a list that fit into my goals. I bought a Fitbit on Amazon so that I could track my exercise, steps, and how many calories I burned each day, more on that with my list of walking essentials. Then finally, I got a food scale and a calorie-counting app to track my meals and nutrition everyday, and again, more on that with my list of nutrition essentials.
Now, five months in, I've lost 44 pounds, which is over half of my weight loss goal. During this time, I've found several communities of others and also creators trying to reach their goals. From them as they've shared their journey, I’ve gained inspiration and tools to apply to mine. I have learned so much from other people who are or were in my position, but I've learned even more from myself and my body. This has been huge for me, because with ADHD, focusing long enough to learn anything has always generally been exhausting. Especially since I'm unmedicated.
For the first time in my life, I was losing weight healthily and consistently. I am the first person in my immediate family to have great stamina, blood pressure, and heart health. The best part though, is that it's not complicated at all. So as I've been educating my family and friends, I want to educate you too.
So many websites, brands, and even individual people overcomplicate the process, making it so stressful to think about genuinely starting. Doing things like selling several hundred dollar plans, and lying about random products being the secret to their success, especially on TikTok. Truthfully, they got me a couple of times. As many things as I've tried and succeeded with, I've also failed, admittedly. So, with absolute full transparency and out of respect for people like me with ADHD who don't want to read a lot and have their focus spread across multiple bases, I made an eBook on all the important parts, and more if you're just curious.
Disclaimer, I am not a nutritionist or coach! If you are looking for a coach or want to also build muscle in place of the fat you lose, I recommend Orangetheory Fitness, first class is free. If you are looking for a nutritionist or are vegan and struggle finding quality ways to get protein in, I couldn't recommend LivWell Nutrition more, providing plant protein products that are organic and free from GMOS, soy, gluten, and dairy. I'm just a person on the internet sharing what worked and is still working, for me.
About being transparent, I will also offer a look into what my everyday eating looks like with recipes, calorie counts, and even all of my cheat days so you can get a realistic idea of how much lenience you have, which considering I didn't track calories for an entire month (due to being on vacation), is a lot more than you'd think. Just make sure to send me a message through my contact page after you read my eBook, most questions will be answered there if not here at my beginning page. There are so many things I want to share because I am so insanely passionate about this, and there are so many things I realized along the way that I don’t see anyone else talking about.
Losing weight is not hard, but it does take dedication. You have to want it like I did, because if you just try for a short amount of time, or don’t give it your all, you will fail. However, it doesn’t have to be draining either, because like I mentioned earlier, I didn’t count calories for a month and still stayed on track. Sometimes I just take a cheat day, rest day, or lazy day. I throw my calorie deficit and exercise out the window during a holiday or birthday because, after some time, you learn how to listen to your body and come to terms with knowing a bounce back is always possible. Missing out on the food you enjoy, or a hangout with the people you love is not worth the little bit of weight you can lose tomorrow. It all works with balance and moderation.