I have attempted to lose weight several times over my life, and have succeeded and failed to varying degrees. Prior to this story, I had lost 80 lbs (455 lbs down to 375 lbs). After that weight loss, I decided to stop trying and, over the next 2 years, gained 140 lbs. I was the heaviest I had ever been in my life.
I started this leg of my weight loss journey back in November of 2020. I was 512 lbs when the company I work with took a trip to Florida. I was excited to go, but very apprehensive because getting on a plane at 512 lbs was not going to be fun. I was concerned that I was going to make anyone who sat next to me very uncomfortable because I was so big and would be, very much, in their space. Despite all my apprehension, I decided to go.
The flight wasn't terrible, but it was very uncomfortable. Luckily, the plane wasn't too full and there was an empty seat between me and the next passenger.
We landed in Miami and the humidity caused me to start sweating immediately, and I didn't stop sweating the entire time we were outdoors.
We stayed in a giant, 6-bedroom house with a swimming pool. Everyone else who went was incredibly fit, or relatively fit. They all went out and enjoyed the beach, walking around town, seeing the sites. I stayed in the house, sitting on the couch, playing the Nintendo Switch and swam in the pool. I felt weightless in the pool and it was a nice break from the incessant pain of my obese body crushing my bones and joints. During that week, I think I left the house 3 times. Everyone invited me out to go with them, but I new that I would be miserable at the beach and walking everywhere would just cause me to be a huge sweaty mess once we got where we were going, so I thanked them for inviting me and just stayed inside.
When we would go places to eat, I was too big to sit in a booth, the chairs for high-top tables are incredibly uncomfortable, and, for some crazy reason, all the normal chairs all had legs that stuck up higher than the seat, and it would stab into the backs of my legs. We moved a couple times so I could be comfortable, but after the third place we went to, and everyone asking me if we needed to move to another table, I couldn't be that guy anymore.
We went to a very nice restaurant and they seated us in a booth. I literally had to squeeze my stomach into the booth so hard that I could barely breathe. It felt like my stomach was in my chest. Everyone I was with could see that I was miserable and asked if we needed to move (they were very sweet about it). I said no. I'm not going to make us move again. Not only does it suck for the staff working to have to move us to another table, it is so embarrassing. This dude's too fat to sit anywhere in the restaurant so they have to keep moving to accommodate him. I couldn't do it anymore, so I just sucked it up.
The return flight was pretty much the same as the first, except I got an entire row to myself.
After we got back from the trip, I was ready to make a change. And, luckily, a friend of mine told me that the owners of a local meal prep and supplement company wanted to meet with me. I said, sure, and we set up the meeting.
The meeting went great and they said they wanted to help me. They provided me with about $1,000 worth of premade meals every month, as well as access to any supplements, protein, and anything else they had in their store. They said, whatever you need, just come in and get it. They gave me a unique coupon code, and I used that to get what I needed. All they wanted in return was for me to exercise (walking and going to the gym) and eat their meals.
So I did. I started going to the gym 4 days a week, walked 2-3 times a day and ate only their premade meals, their protein and took their supplements. I did that for 5 months and lost about 80 lbs.
The friend who told me about the meeting has a sister who is s personal trainer. I was talking with her one day and mentioned that someone told me that I should hire her as my personal trainer. She said, "I think you should too." So I did.
I hired her as my personal trainer to work out with me 4 days a week. She also gives me weekend workouts to do on my own, so I've been working out 6 days a week for a month and a half. She has also completely revised my nutrition to be mostly plant-based. The pre-made meals that I had been eating were mainly protein and carbs - basically beef, turkey or chicken and rice. My new trainer has me eating mainly whole foods: kale, chickpeas, black beans, tofu, all kinds of fruit, quinoa, broccoli - things from the earth.
This change in diet and exercise has quickly changed my physique, stamina, range of motion, and just my overall physical and mental health. I feel so freaking good now. They say to eat living things to feel alive, and I completely understand what that means now. Before, I was eating mainly dead animals and I felt sluggish and tired all the time, now I'm eating plants and I feel great!
Here's a TMI example of the improvement of my range of motion from the weight loss (I'll cover it up in case someone doesn't want the TMI.): I was so big that I couldn't reach around my body to wipe my own butt. I had to buy, and install, a bidet so I could take care of that. It's ridiculous to have that problem, but it helped me realize that I had been so lazy for so long that I ended up not being able to take care of my own basic needs.
So, here are the progress pics:
90 lbs down in 6 months
1 month with personal trainer
I'm incredibly excited about this progress over the last 6 months and can't wait until I hit my goal of 250 lbs.
If you want to see more, you can follow me at @_robfit on Instagram.
