Roody, thanks for your comments. I had grown up eating fast food and was literally having it 2 or 3 times per day. subway, mdconalds, burger king, pizza hut and a ton of other fast food places were all near my house and that is what i would eat. I never did grocery shopping for YEARS in my teens and early-mid 20s!!!! Not to mention drinking at least a 2-liter bottle of soda per day, 1 or 2 starbucks venti frapuccinos PER DAY, numerous deserts and countless grams of sugar PER DAY. Growing up, I simply didn't know better. We learned about health in school but as a kid, I just assumed 'I am fat and I can't do anything about it.'
It got to the point where I was made fun of in high school and had a very tiny group of friends that I trusted. I saw other people leading more 'fun' lives and I said you know what, I'm going to do the same thing. It was a challenge for me and I fell off the wagon countless times. My father taught me to never give up which is why I always got right back on.
What I learned: the importance of water, vegetables and fruits. I had problems with self control and when I wanted meat, I bought a mcdonalds or burger king burger. There is nothing wrong with meat but in my case, I never cooked meat - i ALWAYS bought fast food. So the one challenge I gave myself was to give up meat. I'm not saying that giving up meat helped me lose weight but that meant that I wasn't going to fast food places and ordering combos (burger, fries and a coke not to mention a desert of course!). I gave up meat (i ate only eggs and seafood/salmon/tuna/etc) for a total of 13 or so years and it really wasn't too tough honestly. Just in the past year, i am back to eating everything. But the one thing that amazed me was how "light and efficient" my body felt when I ate eggs/vegetables. When I eat meat, it takes longer to digest and it makes my body feel sluggish overall.
I think the caffeine addiction also prevented my brain from truly "absorbing" or "understanding" what the fast food/chemicals were doing to my body. Like, I was caffeinated but never really truly understood the consequences of my actions. I started limiting my intake and now have a cup of coffee in the mornings and maybe a can of diet coke with meals (1 or 2x a week only).
When i gave up the caffeine and started eating cleanly, I truly FELT how different my body was reacting to different foods. this sensitivity to what food was doing to my body quickly became the reason i started eating more cleanly. (this is the single most important thing i learned. just wanted to highlight it
haha) I never ate vegetables until I turned 18. I would always remove all veggies from my burgers and maybe 1x a week i would eat vegetables. looking back, i feel so sorry for myself for not having the knowledge to do something sooner but at the same time, with maturity, my thoughts and motivations became more actionable and achievable.
as for exercise, i simply walked more to lose the weight. i would work long hours in my 20s and sit all day but then i started using the treadmill at the gym at work. I went from walking a mile in 23 minutes to running about a 10 minute mile which is good enough for me. walking was the best - i would put on a tv show on a laptop and watch it while on the treadmill. i would walk 4 miles at a time and i would force myself to do it in 1 hour (15 minute/mile). this was super low impact for me and allowed me to exercise nearly every single day without being sore/needing recovery time between workouts.
I lost the weight in my mid twenties and i am 35 now. I recall going to the doctor at maybe age 24 and i was at the risk of becoming diabetic, i had high blood pressure and high cholesterol. aside from that, the effect on my mind was the most painful....
Sorry for the rant/being all over the place. I should collect my thoughts and post them in a more structured way