Introduction
Just like a few posts here, I'll start by saying that during the pandemic I've put on around 6kg and this was all due to being inactive and eating junk on daily basis without exception.
As things started to slowly drift back to normal with the removal of the restrictions and so on, I took it upon myself to start working out and eat clean food and ended up putting on 4kg in the process (lol now what you expected), this time due to my addiction to junk food and food delivery and a few misconceptions that I had about dieting which I will go through in the following lines.
Please don't take this as medical advice as this what has worked for me and it may not work for you, so take everything I say with a grain of salt.
Addiction is synonym to nasty habits
I have quit a few addictions in the past, sleeping pills and smoking cigarettes to name a few and I learnt a thing or two on quitting addiction that benefited me greatly and I implemented in my weight loss journey.
The first thing that I learnt was addiction is some nasty habits that you develop during dire circumstances. I started drinking sleeping pills after I broke up and I started smoking due to loneliness during the pandemic. Junk food too.
Addictive substances have such a great effect in relieving the short-term pain and their effect unfortunately does not last too long. And there is the problem: they always make you come back for more and you find yourself in this loop where you know what you're doing in hurting your body yet due to your physiological dependence on them, you develop the psychology to accommodate to that. By psychology I mean habits. And here is the thing about habits: they take time to develop and they equally take time to get rid of.
So let's establish a baseline that your addiction is a cluster of nasty habits that build over each other and in turn trigger each other. The morning cigarette. The lunch cigarette. And the dinner cigarette. We also have the anxiety-stress cigarettes. When I watch a movie, it was a MUST that I'm eating chips or some form of snack; otherwise, I don't feel like I'm really watching. You get the idea. Things that happen in your life and you associate with the substance: the two have no relation whatsoever, yet you establish the relation and condition yourself to it. It becomes unimaginable to not do the thing without the substance.
So the first step to recover from these nasty habits to define them. Just like I did in the example, just sit with yourself and think about when, why and how you eat junk food. Establish your triggers. Understand how your habits are implemented in your daily life and (mentally) take note. You'll be surprised at how much you repeat the same thing over and over again.
Okay habits established, now how to quit junk food?
The first time I tried to quit cigarettes was to flush them all down the toilet before holidays during which the tobacco stores were closed. Needless to say, these were the most horrible days of my life. I was miserable and I was acting like a junkie experiencing painful withdrawals and right after the holidays, I went back to smoking more than I was used to. Same with junk food. Multiple times, I quit for a few days and the next thing I'm doing is binge eating on a Saturday night. The psychological defeat I felt and the helplessness were too depressing to live with. The worst experience when it comes to this was quitting sleeping pills. I flushed them down the toilet and my doctor knew I had an addiction problem because I was asking for frequent prescription and she said she agreed to not prescribe them anymore. Cue in a week of nightmares and late night hallucinations, not a pleasant experience. But I survived to tell the story.
I hope I drive the point home that quitting cold turkey rarely works and the damage you do to yourself is a whole lot greater than the benefits. So please for your sake, don't do that.
What you need to do is to form new habits while attenuating the intensity of the bad habits. You'll effectively be doing two things at the same time and you'll start to experience some good changes and effects that'll keep you going.
Let's put on some numbers. I used to eat a bag of chips and box of chocolate or a tablet at lunch, and then at night I'd eat two bags of chips. This has gone for over 6 months during which I put on 6kg. When I started dieting and working out, I started eating healthy. I implemented meat and rice in my diet replacing the junk food lunch I've had for a long time. This was a good step and it helped me slowly get into the habit of meal prepping and finding delicacy in healthy food. I was experimenting with sauces and spices and such.
In order for you to do this, just ask yourself this question: if you had the chance, what is the one healthy meal that you'd eat for the rest of your life? For me the answer to that was easy, rice and minced/normal meat. I enjoy its texture and taste and I like how it makes me feel, energetic and full. Once you figure out that meal, start cooking it on the daily.
You must ease your way into making a new habit. Everything needs to be easy, quick and effective. Cooking a 2 rice meal doesn't take me 15 minutes. When you think of eating your healthy food, it should be readily available because let's face it, we can be lazy. So forming that automatic chain of events that helps you implement the habit is a huge advantage.
At this point, I was eating rice and minced meat and 2 bags of chips every single day, putting on 4kg while I was training (another habit I was working on). I know it seems counterintuitive to eat healthy food and gain weight but the main objective is to form the habit of eating healthy food.
At some point, cooking my meals and eating them has become an automatic reflex in my daily routine. I can't remember a single day when I came back home after a day in uni that I didn't cook this meal. I felt good about myself and 50% of the problem was solved.
Hear me out. When you reach this point, you'll start to feel the changes that eating healthy food and junk food have on your body. Junk food makes bloated and exhausted, craving sleep and comfort, whereas healthy food pushes you to go out there and do something. I haven't felt as sharp as I did when I switched to a full-on healthy diet.
When you come to this realization, you'll figure that junk food has got to go, but your addiction and your nasty habits won't help you breaking free from it. This is when you introduce another "necessary" healthy food instead of a portion of the junk food. For me that was another 250g of minced meat at night. I was eating rice+meat then meat and finally two bags of chips. Eventually they were reduced to one bag of chips. Then chocolate bars throughout the day. And finally, I had the courage to pull the trigger on junk food and eat healthy food all day long. I replaced the last bag of chips with beans and peas I eat with the meat at night.
What I'm trying to explain is that the introduction of healthy food in your diet should be GRADUAL and unlike the misconception that it sucks, it's actually pretty delicious and it makes you feel awesome. It eases your way to better eating habits.
If you relapse or gain weight: it is fine. Keep your objectives in mind, that is forming new habits.
Doing this method is a form of self-inflicted psychological warfare, but it bearable. At some point, you'll feel scared of the introduction of the healthy food and it'll take some psychological grit to take in the weight gain like a champ. As long as you're reducing the amount of junk food you're eating, YOU'RE GOOD. And when you relapse, don't beat yourself up too much for it. It happens. We all have our weak moments and we curb in to our urges. When this happens, take a moment and reflect on how the junk food you are eating makes you feel as opposed to the healthy food you've been eating.
Relapsing is good. It gives you an insight as to how things should be (prior to the relapse) and reminds you of what you're trying to change about yourself.
Hunger and Starvation
When you're hungry, you're not at all starving. It's your conditioning fighting to get that junk food in. I had this misconception that when my stomach starts making that noise, then I'm depriving myself of food and starving and I shouldn't be doing this. However, as you'll realize later on, this hunger is the result of your previous eating habits. And staying with it rather than fighting isn't as bad as you think because eventually as you adjust to your new diet, it completely vanishes from your life. whole foods make you feel full longer and better.
Another point to make is that eating your BMR technically CAN'T kill you. You are literally providing your food with the basic caloric intake to function, and there is no way shape of form that this can cause some damage to your body (unless you have an underlying condition). So hunger at the end of the day is all in your head.
Hunger is caused by the release of the ghrelin hormone in your intestines that makes you think you need food. Here is the thing about ghrelin, it is released on the frequency of your eating habit. If you eat 3 meals a day on the exact same timing everyday for a week or so, your body at those timings will release ghrelin and will ask for food, no matter what. So if you decide to eat twice a day (like I do) and fast the rest (intermittent fasting), you will only feel hungry around the times you eat your meals, the rest of the day, you are good to go.
The application of this method on my own body
Okay, now I am going to give you a timeline demonstrating this method and how it worked for me, and hopefully it will give you some initial kick to help you lose weight.
Early 2021: In this picture, I weigh 75kg, for a 5'9 25M, this is healthy weight. https://imgur.com/a/C60wL6c
August 2021: In this picture, I weigh 82kg. This was after around 6 months of eating junk food and doing absolutely nothing whatsoever besides playing videogames. It was also the time I introduced rice and meat to my diet. https://imgur.com/a/9kPxt7T
October 2021: In this picture, I weight a whopping 92kg. Things went south because I was eating pork with 30% fat thinking it was only 7% (honest mistake). But nonetheless, I was eating junk food and cooking healthy food everyday. I was also lifting hard and it felt awesome. I would say during this time, I felt the best. I got into the habit of cooking and working out, but the rate at which I was gaining weight was alarming. It was also the time I realized the pork thing. https://imgur.com/a/HGEuvYH
November 2021: after correcting my mistake with the pork and starting to eat the 7% one (still eating junk food but at a much reduced rate that included chocolate bars exclusively) I maintained 92kg.
Today after just two weeks of going on a full-on healthy diet, I am at 87.5kg, effectively losing 4.5kg https://imgur.com/a/l6ZiFY3
For the first time in my life, I can confidently say that I have a full grip over the food I am eating. It feels amazing to be able to stick to your calories and experience weight loss. It is not easy, but trust me, it is achievable, and using this method, you don't have to hate your life doing it.
Conclusion
Guys, there is so much more I want to share on this sub. Like watching Spider-Man NWH without eating popcorn and drinking soda was actually amazing. For the first time watching a movie in the cinema, I didn't pass out.
Reading your comments, posts and encouragements kept me going. Seeing people doing wonderful changes to their lives and body is such an illuminating experience. I really appreciate all of you and the support you are providing.
I just wanna bring you back to the point of seeing changes in your habits and eventually your body will take A LOT of time. Patience is a virtue that is desperately needed in the game. Consistency is another key factor.
With all of that being said, thank you all for attending my TedTalk, and I realized I should've spent all this time writing up a research paper due to January 10.
