F22/ 5’ 11”/ SW: 348.8/ CW: 299.6
TL;DR: My BMI was too high for an engineering position I was offered at a mine site that I had previously interned at. After starting a new job in January, I started my weight loss journey and have lost about 50 lbs and counting.
This is my first post on reddit and I apologize homies, it’s a longer one!
My senior year of college I was offered an engineering position at a mine site. The position was in the middle of nowhere in a mine town that I had interned at that summer, but it was an amazing starting salary and would be great practical engineering experience I wanted to gain and use to move forward in my career. I didn’t love the idea of not being in any kind of real city, but I was excited to start and to continue the learning I experienced in my internship.
Come after graduation - around mid June (2019) - I had moved into a shack of an apartment in this town, and had finished moving all of my belongings over. My mom and I are killing time playing Pokemon Go and I receive an email from the health department of the company. This email said that I did not pass the physical required for the position because my BMI was way to high - 42.
The first time I read that I couldn’t believe it. I was shellshocked. Not only was I so morbidly obese that this number was my BMI, but it had actually prevented me from achieving a job that I had worked so hard to get for the last 4 years. I already had an apartment, moved my belongings over, and purchased a bunch of home goods and furniture thinking that I would be starting in this position in the next couple weeks.
I went back to my part time job at the pizza place I worked at through college and pathetically asked for my job back. I frantically started looking for another job that would use my degree - which was significantly harder now since I was competing with all the other recent grads in my class. In the months I was looking for another position I hated and resented myself for what had happened. How could I let something in my control compromise my career? How could I have screwed myself over not just with this position- but financially by buying all of these items and now have no income to pay them off? (Which was super financially irresponsible- life learning moment of “don’t spend what you don’t have”) I was honestly really sad and down on myself for months until I had an opportunity to start at a new position with the company I’m with now in January (2020).
Finally having a real, steady source of income I felt like I could really start to focus on what had happened with my previous job and my weight. I have always been obese since my later high school years. At a certain point, I stopped thinking anything of it since that’s “how it’s been”. I started associating my weight with who I was. I felt it was a staple if my personality instead of an attribute about myself I could change. I knew that I needed to forgive myself and treat my body the same amount of care, resolve and determination I had looking for another job. It wouldn’t hurt to be able to rub it in the mine company’s face that I lost the weight for myself and not for them!
Late February, I joined a gym after practicing CICO for the entire month. I got a personal trainer, and was putting my all into making myself happier and healthier. With COVID and the gym closes, I haven’t been able to go to my gym or see my trainer in months. And to be honest, I feel like I would probably hurt myself if I tried body weight exercises at home. What I have been able to do, is continue to track what I eat in MFP and hit my goals I set for myself!
I started practicing 16:8 IF recently along with my CICO, and I have gone from around 348.8 lbs in March to 299.6 lbs beginning of August- and I’m still going! I am currently still living with my family due to being terribly financially irresponsible that last year of college, so at times I am temped with a lot of my mother’s homemade baked goods she likes to make- and also ask me if I want some multiple times a day. But these challenges have made me more resilient and determined to lose the weight! Being able to have these items available to me and being able to say no or have a reasonable portion and be done with it only helps my mentality surrounding food. I am almost financially ready to move out on my own - by the end of the year - and will be even more excited when I can have complete control over the food I bring into my apartment.
If you’ve made it this far, I appreciate you reading ❤️ at times I feel like my family and friends think that my weight loss is something they support but don’t really believe can happen. I’m sure this is just my perception, but reading all of your posts and looking at your progress pictures keep me going so I figured I would share my story as well!
Catch me in progress pics when I hit my second stretch goal of 250 lbs when I lose the next 50 lbs for that 100 lb weight loss pic 💪🏻
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