My Weight Loss Journey: Eat well, feel well, look well!

My journey is not one of overnight success. I didn't take any magical pills or drinks. My journey has been more like a roller coaster ride of hardships, numerous errors, and a series of tiny milestones along the way, ultimately leading to more than I could have imagined.

I'm always not confident and have low self-esteem with how I look. Always wearing baggy shirts and stretchy pants and wants to lose weight to be normal. But I had no idea that this journey would result in self-discovery, freedom, and finding joy.

Growing up, many people always see me as a cute and chubby person. They always say that I'm healthy because I am chubby. But I'm not expecting my weight to continue increasing as I grow older. As I soon entered my Junior High School years, we always had a monthly check-up at the clinic school to check our BMI and health. This is where my nightmare began.

Whenever they check my BMI and health, I always receive negative feedback/comments, especially about my weight. My height is not compatible with my weight which results in being overweight. That's when I realized that my weight was not normal anymore, and I needed to start dieting. Unfortunately, I always failed. Whenever I'm trying to lose weight, my parents will always say that I don't need to lose weight since I am still young, and they will immediately give me food to eat.

I thought this was normal at first since my parents say that I will lose weight when I grow older. So I failed to lessen my food and was unable to start dieting. I actually regret that I don't start dieting as early as I can because people in my surroundings or whenever I go to public places, people constantly body shames me. And because of that, it gives me low self-esteem and low self-confidence. Sometimes, I am also scared of people. I'm overthinking that they will judge me again, and I'm sick and tired of it.

When the pandemic began, this hit me hard that I needed to focus on myself now, take care of myself, and lose weight for my health. I just feel bad to myself that I push myself to lose weight because of the judgmental people in our society, not because I want it myself. But, I don't regret every single decision that I made. I just took them as my inspiration and learned to accept my own flaws and imperfections.

For the first week of dieting, I thought my journey would be smooth, but I was wrong. My journey comes with ups and downs. I tried to lessen my food and drink more water for the first week. And fortunately, I can already see the difference, which motivates me to continue my journey. Moreover, I tried the no rice diet for the second week and started exercising every day. I continued this routine until the first week of my class as a grade 11 student. Doing the no rice diet and exercising every day helped me lose more weight, and it actually worked because my clothes came from 3xL to m-l size. This made me happy, and I started to gain confidence and self-esteem again.

To end this, I know that I have gone through many breakdowns and hardships to achieve what I want especially losing weight. I understand that this is not easy, but with the help of my family, their support made me continue to fight this battle I'm battling with. So a little reminder for the reader of this blog is that we should never give up, don't rush things, and be patient because all of the great things take time.