The transformation of a lifetime (before and after)
About two years ago, my life was in constant turmoil. I had debilitating allergy attacks nearly every month, was constantly looking down on myself, and weighed in at about 180 pounds – at 16 years old. Although my life was still moving forward and I had lots of successes in school, I was in no way living the life I wanted to live.
McDonalds, Wendys, Tim Hortons, Panda Express… Chips, cookies, soda, and candy were all being devoured in large quantities, multiple times a day. My time sitting on the couch staring at the t.v. screen was at an all time high. My participation in school was at an all time low. From my eyes at the time, there wasn’t any possibility of change. This was all I knew. Although it sucked, the pain of staying the same was less than the pain of trying anything different.
The thing is, this isn’t some “high school depression story.” In fact, I was following the example of most of my peers. Unfortunately, I was, and still am, growing up in an age where everyone is trying to do as little as possible while expecting great outcomes. We crave instant gratification. We want to do less work at school and still get the good grades; we want to spend less time in the gym but use that “3-steps to six-pack abs in one month” scam; we want to stay comfortable and expect success to find its way to us one day.
The internet is full of tips and hacks to make life easier, more comfortable, and help you avoid anything that might lead to failure. We are living in a world that is fostering us to become weak and soft, less resilient and less skilled. I mistakenly chose to follow in the footsteps of those who were simply surviving, not striving and thriving. If something had not changed, I would have crumbled.
Time for change
In the winter of 2016, my mother stumbled across Homeopathic medicine and natural healing methods while researching how to heal her thyroid. She found hundreds of testimonials that show just how vital the foods we eat are to our health and longevity. People just like you and me, were able to put Stage 3 cancers, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, and nearly all of their health problems into remission by radically changing their lifestyle and diet. And afterwords, these people were looking and feeling 100 times better!
I was ready for a change, my mother was ready for a change; we dove right in. We started by gradually removing gluten and wheat as these were the two major substances that contain anti-nutrients that harm the gut-lining and cause serious autoimmune consequences.
This was by far one of the hardest transition of my life. All my life, I had only known of food that contained gluten; everything contains gluten! Even the “gluten-free” stuff has hidden gluten in the forms of additives, flavoring, and thickening agents. The learning curve to finding the right gluten-free foods, making meals, and making sure you’re not starving yourself was a big one, but after some time it became a piece of cake.
After those few months of learning how to eat gluten-free, we continued our research and removed soy (which undergoes harsh chemical and mechanical treatments, is sprayed with harmful pesticides and herbicides, and is genetically modified), dairy (except grass-fed ghee and butter; factory farm dairy has little nutritional value and cows are fed growth hormones and antibiotics while living in unsanitary and unnatural conditions), and sugar (which we all already know is something we should be avoiding).
Transformation
During the first few weeks of this process, I could already tell I was losing weight and looking more vibrant. It took just over a year to complete the reshaping of my diet and lifestyle choices but it was definitely worth the time and effort. I look better, feel better, and I have gained a surplus of confidence and courage that comes from knowing that I was able to completely revamp my life by sticking with such a large change.
As time moves forward, I continue to learn and experiment more with my healthy diet and lifestyle. It has been about two years since I began this health journey and since then I have transitioned to what most would call a Paleo diet. I now buy organic fruits and vegetables, grass-fed and non-gmo meats, and have even started looking into delicious sweets I can eat to treat myself. I am so glad that I committed to this lifestyle change and I am now more satisfied with the goals this change has helped me to achieve. I now know exactly what I’m putting into my body and how it fuels me – like Zig Ziglar said, “I have never accidentely eaten anything.”
One more note. During the transformation, I wasn’t even exercising! The results you see are from my diet alone (it wasn’t until the summer of 2018 that I started to consistently exercise and the results are exactly what you’d expect; I’m a physically fit powerhouse!
Want to learn more?
Let me know if you want to learn more details, or a step-by-step guide to help you take your health to the next level. Remember, what you eat is a choice that you make! Keep looking for information to make better informed choices and start leaning towards healthier food today.
If you're interested in going paleo, I wrote a tutorial that will explain everything and help you get started right now. In college? I've got a super detailed guide on how to maintain your diet and find the resources you need to stay healthy ! Have any questions about anything? I'm happy to help!
