“Thanks, Slim-Fast! Or is it Slim-Slow?” How I Lost 60 Pounds In A Year.
Hello, Maniacs! I hope you guys are well! This is definitely not a post that I ever that I would have ever make in my life, but people have recently been asking me how I’ve lost so much weight! They noticed my clothes are getting smaller, my face is slimmer, my jumps are higher etc.. Below I will tell a brief story on my journey because it doesn’t stop here in the present, so I’m still a work in progress. But I always say you must celebrate the victories in life; Lord knows many people languish in enmity and negativity. So, how did I do it? How did I shed the fat and get healthier? I can guarantee you, it isn’t exactly what you might think.
P.S. I am writing this in a local Applebees with a Strawberry Dollar-ita and some lovely dessert distracting me! Just thought that you should know. Okay, back to the post!
SECRET #1:
LOVE–
What’s love got to do with it? Did I starve myself? Did I wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and spitefully gaze at reflection with embarrassment? Maybe I obsessively perused the web for pictures of physical role models that I should aspire to? NO.
It seems a lot of people have learned to go off like that. We have been taught that in order to become better as ourselves then we must aspire to be like someone else, because surely we are not amazing on our own. I’ve never been that way. Granted, growing up all the doctors told me was that I was going to die early or have this and that problem. They spoke about me like I was a car about fail inspection. Because of the anxiety that came with that and some other unfortunate circumstances in life, food became a place of peace where I could hide between fluffy buttermilk pancakes, gleaming fried chicken and moist cakes–the tranquil objects that always brought my soul at ease.
I give this backstory to shine insight on how I handle my issues. If I can’t get them out through exercise and am afraid to write them down, I can swallow them like a bitter pill with every carb and calorie shimmying downward into my stomach. This was the case this time last year. In July of 2017, I was the heaviest that I had ever been in my life. Due to inactivity from an injury, I had blossomed in a hunky 360 pounds.
I loved me. Many question is bigger people love themselves because they assume that we eat constantly and recklessly to destroy our bodies so surely we must hate ourselves, right? We honestly aren’t different from anybody else. Just have to switch up the coping mechanisms is all. Some drink, do drugs, have many promiscuous rendezvous to dull the pain–we just eat. But one thing I never forgot was to love myself no matter the size. Love hard, strong, confidently, never ceasing. THIS was my big, favorite secret!
Did I watch what I ate? Sure. I figured out the reason why I had gained so much weight was because I was still taking in 5000 calories a day from when I was teaching classes two to three times a day. It helped to relinquish my prideful stubbornness and download the MyFitnessPal app. Tracking everything, seeing with my eyes what I put in my body was an eye-widening experience. I wasn’t working out and all I could do at the time was physical therapy and rely on my body’s natural metabolism to burn calories. The first week, I lost 2 pounds! 2 freakin’ pounds! Seems rather depressing, right? Well, NO.
Secret #2:
Patience–
With love for your body and the things that it can do, patience is paramount to the weight-loss process. You must grasp the fact that an elephant isn’t eaten in one bite, but piece by piece. I believe the word I used in one of my recent post was “Moderation“. I had thought that losing only 2 pounds wasn’t anything entirely impressive. I’d say “Jesus, I have such a long way to go! I’m never going to be able to do this.”
Miracles happen everyday; As I continued tracking my food and attending my physical therapy sessions for another three weeks, I was able to drop close to 12 pounds! Now we are talking, right? The patience was paying off and would continue to.
Elapsing time, February came around and I hit a plateau at 22 pounds. My podiatrist who was treating my foot injury had me in orthotics and officially released me from all medical treatment. So, what was I to do? I still felt pain, but not as much, walking was the most that I dared to try, causing me to steer clear of doing anything more strenuous. What happens next? I woke up one day and decided to try and attend a dance class with my orthotics on.
Weight-loss as a goal aside, it felt so great to move. My soul instantly bursted with joy and the light that fizzled in me brightened with a ferocious intensity. I was starting to feel like the old me, while being wiser, smarter and more in tune with my body. At the end of February I decided that I wanted to give teaching a shot again. I told my boss that 2 classes a week would’ve been ideal, but somehow, some way, I ended up teaching 5 a week the first week of April up until now, August 1st.
While tracking, dancing, and loving me for me each and every step of the way, I managed to drop that additional 38 pounds and am almost on my way back into the 200’s. I haven’t been this light in years!
So, what is my game plan from here on out? Keep tracking, keep dancing, keep laughing, keep loving and keep doing the things that make my soul happy, so that food won’t be the band-aid to soothe my heartaches. Where will I be this time next year? Who knows? But I’m not gonna stop.
Always remember, Maniacs: Love is a powerful thing. Love is the muscle for which I now base everything I do in my life. If love is absent in it, I won’t entertain it.
Keep being the best you that you guys can be–never in spite of who you are, but because you know that you’re destined for greater and better things and you want to be here to partake in such glory.
Love you guys! Have a great weekend!
–CAM ❤️
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CAMANIA 