I was raised in Lebanon until the age of eight and ate a healthy diet, but when I moved to America, I discovered fast food, and it was downhill from there. I was 220lbs in high school and got bullied by the other kids. Not just because I was fat, but because I was so big I could only wear my dad’s shirts. I was the laughingstock of the school. Food became comforting to me, I was so depressed because of the bullying, and the only thing that made me feel better was knowing I was going home to a stash of candy and chips under my bed. Although I hated how I looked, I felt so much better when I ate.
I was embarrassed to leave the house, and I made every excuse to stay inside apart from going to school. If my parents wanted me to go shopping with them, I either had a headache or a stomach ache, or I pretended to be asleep. I just couldn’t deal with people staring at me all the time because I knew exactly what they were thinking.
My wake-up call came during a doctor’s appointment. I was 405lbs, suffering from high cholesterol and liver failure. After running some tests, my doctor told me that if I didn’t lose weight, I wouldn’t have long to live and that he was surprised I hadn’t fallen into a diabetic coma by now. He gave me a load of prescription medications and sent me on my way.
When I got in the car, I just sat there and cried. I felt like a failure. If I died, my daughter would never know her dad. The thought of letting her down was all I needed to get started; I just didn’t know how I was going to do it. As providence would have it, that night, I watched a documentary about two men who lost large amounts of weight eating red meat. That sounded perfect. I could eat as much meat as I wanted and lose weight! I decided to give it a go, and when I lost 20lbs in the first week, I knew I was on to something.
Within 12 months, I had lost 235lbs, and all my health problems disappeared with the weight. My doctor couldn’t believe it when I went to see him. I started exercising a year after I changed my diet and got into powerlifting. I couldn’t afford a trainer but would watch other people in the gym and copy what they were doing. I told myself when I got strong enough, I’d deadlift my former weight of 405lbs. I trained really hard to achieve this and ended up lifting 425lbs.
My advice to anyone wanting to lose weight is to start by changing one meal and move on to two and then three when you feel comfortable. Invest time in researching the best diets and do what works best for you. But remember, the only way to lose weight permanently is to make healthy eating a lifestyle.
