my weight made me feel an outcast when you're 500 pounds and you're 6'3 like I am like you just get stared at my friends are like I bet you can't eat 18 hot dogs and I was like yes I can I can't tell dogs I bet you I can't so I ate the hot dogs my sister gives me a call and I told the story her first answer was just why'd you do it and it kind of made me realize that like I was just embarrassing myself this was just humidity and they were laughing at me not with me I finally clicked with me that to get the respect of what was wanted I have to first respect myself back when it comes to romantic relationship my weight was both a mental and physical blocker I don't think I was attractive at that size it's gone much better since I've lost weight it's insane like it's crazy to me to even imagine or even think about like I used to be that big I was almost 500 pounds here look at those tiny glasses I barely fit in my face I've been obese since I was about six years old a lot of it was just ignorance on my part my parents we just didn't know what the nutrition was when you are like a poor immigrant family that you go to is just what's the cheapest thing in your grocery store right bags of rice potato those sugary cereals I just ate tons of carbs and fats and not enough protein and none of vegetables either this picture really shocked me I was just like does the picture everyone looks at and was like wow I used to look like this I used to break so many chairs in my life like I've I've broken over 50 chairs in my life as an adult like my weight made me feel Outcast when you're 500 pounds and you're 6'3 like I am like you just get stared at I was always the first one to kind of make fat jokes I had to kind of disrespect myself first so other people wouldn't get to me when really the whole time inside I hated it and I just wanted to be fit and healthy just like everyone else I just don't recognize myself at that size anymore like look at this one here when I ate 18 hot dogs and kind of think like wow I used to be that big crazy my friends were like I bet you can't eat a hating hot dog and I was like I definitely can and so I ate the hot dogs and and I did it and after I ate 18 hot dogs I felt awful like I vomited afterwards I had to call my sister a couple months later and when I told her hey like eating hot dogs she kind of looked at me with that look of like why'd you do that kind of like almost like a freak show that they're making fun of you like you're just embarrassing yourself and that's honestly when it really clicked to me of like I'm the one who's distracting myself I was like this has to stop like this I have to lose this weight to like just so I can so I can gain the respect I want even as a kid I'm like I want to be fit I want to be healthy but I never knew how to do it the whole thing is about Hope like I knew that if I kept looking at it every single day eventually it'll get better [Music] I'm heaviest I was just a little above 480 pounds currently I weigh about 239 lost a total of 240 pounds I work out currently six days a week actually seven uh two of those days of yoga then three four of those days are running and then for those days of lifting the best exercise for losing weight has been just been kind of consistency just doing something every single day [Music] it wakes me up throughout the day it's like my coffee for the morning so I do every single morning it's work out so it's like I feel I mean I feel fantastic I was so limited what I can do right and not have lost this weight and climb a mountain go hiking and go snowboarding and skiing I'm going to learn to surf I just want to do it all when it comes to romantic relationships my weight was more of a it was both a mental and physical blocker I don't think I was attractive at that size I had skin removal surgery in May 2020. I had about over 10 pounds loose skin and when I would run it would hit me it would slap me it would get in the way when I put clothes on I think it would fit right I had a weird shape I could literally hold my stomach like a serving tray this weight loss really helped me physically but it also helped me mentally I miss India about five months ago now we've been together a lot trying to get here faster the biking is way faster than but she's way faster than me I'm running I love that you all right open to like trying new things the thing I'm most proud of is just being able to walk down the streets as kind of a normal person I tell people that I've lost this weight and they were like what like I don't believe you you don't look anything like that and that's like the happiest and craziest feeling I think Amer is weight loss the whole journey is honestly so amazing I actually had no idea when I first met him and he didn't tell me until maybe like a few weeks later I think he was like scared that I wouldn't like him if I knew but honestly when he did tell me it made it made so much more [Music] the biggest advice I give is to have a reason of why you're doing it I have a reason that's so important it beats everything else it's just so important to you that you can stick with it every single day every day you just have to tell yourself that you're going to lose the weight you're going to look amazing it's going to get better you just have to do it now back my parents saw me as bigger and that I needed to work on that it was like okay well I can't eat around my parents which then led to a really negative relationship with food being 300 pounds it was very immobilizing it literally hurts to sleep I can't go up a flight of stairs it was enough of a wake-up call for me to be like okay something has to change once I started doing research on bariatric surgery I knew this was my answer it is not the easy way out I have worked hard from day one at my heaviest weight I weighed 300 pounds I lost 165 pounds so the foods that I would typically eat when I was like closet eating and binging and stuff growing up um it was probably a lot of fast food I would hide it pretend like I didn't have that and then I would have dinner with my family so I'm essentially having like two or three meals worth of food in an evening [Music] oh here we are this is it this is the pool party I had this very cute like rainbow and Flowery bikini picked out I was so excited about it I distinctly remember the impression being left on me at this age that I I shouldn't wear that bikini because I don't look like someone who should be wearing bikinis I was made to feel like I had a major weight issue I think that was kind of the beginning of it for me I look at that photo and I just see a a healthy normal young woman but I know at that time I was made to think that I was very overweight I think my parents both come from families where thinness was idolized and so one of my earliest memories that I have is um being told that I need to go on Weight Watchers and that was when I was in second grade I do love my parents and I think that they truly thought they were doing what was best for me I just think maybe they went about it the wrong way but it's not necessarily their fault they're listening to diet culture they're listening to what Society is telling them to do I ended up at 300 by the time I was 24. that was the heaviest I had ever been in my life it was very immobilizing it literally hurts to sleep um I can't go up a flight of stairs I mean I'm basically I feel like I'm living in a 70 year old body at this point it was enough of a wake-up call for me to be like okay something has to change something major has to shift and it cannot be another diet I've done all the diets so I had vertical sleeve gastrectomy to me it can be a cure to your obesity if you go about it the right way it is not the easy way out I have worked hard from day one I was probably doing about three or four days of cardio and two or three days of strength Fitness has helped me with my body image pushing my body to the extreme and seeing holy crap I am so strong I am so powerful at my heaviest weight I weighed 300 pounds I currently weigh 150.
I lost 165 pounds Michaela's growth has been incredible um seeing her strength and her confidence increase in that amount of time has been unreal it was a hard workout but it feels good to just like get that out thank you absolutely I always love seeing you all right see you tomorrow invited mom over today um just to kind of talk about my journey so far and what she has thought of my journey and she was my support person when I had bariatric surgery my relationship with my parents it's really good now okay just to see you go through with it and and um just all your accomplishments I just me and your dad can be prouder of you we're just you know we love you so much and we are very very proud I've always kind of wanted to be a personal trainer I've always wanted to be a coach I built up my Instagram and then it was last year that I officially launched my coaching services and I typically work with bariatric patients and so I had help and guidance on my journey and now I want to give that to other people I look through your food log thank you for sending me your food log so how how has that been everything really well I really feel like the food journaling and it's really helping to to see also I mean like you said eating more dense breakfast really helps the rest of the day yeah no I think that looks great I am so proud of you I just love hearing the wins like on her call you know she had one of her big wins is she implemented some of the nutrition changes that I suggested it just fills my heart it makes my whole day the only reason I have been successful after weight loss surgery is because of the healthy lifestyle that I have adopted and because of the work that I have put in it is not about the numbers it's not about the size it's not about looks at all because looks fade so make it about health make your why why you're losing weight that should be a deep rooted all about wanting to improve your life genetically for me it was easy for me to get fat I was just eating a bunch of calories that kind of made me 300 pounds overall I just love video games I love being online with my friends so I'm basically sitting and all I was doing just putting food in my mouth whenever I wanted the lowest moment of my life January 3 2015 I didn't just look at myself and say 10 years from now is this the guilt that people are going to view I was 310 pounds and I've lost over 100 pounds that's when I was growing up I was always chubby kid in school you know I mean it was a little bit hard for me to kind of fit in in a sense just because you know I wasn't really comfortable I played games every single day in high school from like freshman year to like literally my senior year I'll play up to like eight to twelve hours I'm basically sitting and I wasn't really doing anything and all I was doing just putting food in my mouth whenever I wanted so that's what kind of played a huge role in my weight gain I would say the lowest moment of my life was January 3 2015. I remember going home from school I was really frustrated just with you know it's how the school day went stepped into my room I looked at myself in the mirror for an hour and I was just I realized I'm like hey things gotta change just look at myself and say is this the person I want to be in the next couple years 10 years from now is this the guilt you know people are going to view and if I don't lose weight now then I won't lose weight forever when I first started my fitness journey I just kind of went cold turkey and just ate really little food without even tracking any calories and this resulted to me losing like like 130 pounds in like a span of six months it was really fast really drastic after losing the weight I finally decided to step in the gym with my best friend at the time first day at the gym when I saw that bodybuilder in the locker room the very first bottom I saw he was completely you know completely lean his body just didn't look it looked like an action figure to be honest and I was just completely amazed of like I never knew the body could look like that too like I didn't know like like whoa is that even possible can I get that for me I was like I want to be able to attain that I want to be able to get that physique so that's what sparked the fire in me to really attain a physique like that so I started training a bodybuilding style so that's kind of what [Music] at my heaviest I was 310 pounds and I've lost over 100 pounds [Applause] [Music] decline double press it's one of I believe that's one of my lagging body parts in my physique I always start off with it another word I like to do is tell um why do you apply pull Downs I personally like it not only just because you know of what it can do for my you know my physiques I like the after effect of having a muscular back after a hit exercise foreign getting in shape I'm seeing all this muscle come in right but then I wasn't seeing like my loose skin go away and over time I kind of learned how to kind of accept it because I'm like man you know this kind of makes me who I am this is like my body I don't really need to get rid of my loose skin if I generally don't want to my first competition found it really rewarding because there's something I've always wanted to do and you know for a long time and I could have never imagined myself you know being an overweight guy wanting to compete in a bodybuilding stage and you know that moment I stepped on the stage you know hit my first pose I was just like no way I just did it right so me getting into it my goal was to you know do it for myself right I want to compete because I just had a big passion for bodybuilding I just wanted to step on stage impact people inspire people and say hey even though I have like these insecurities in mind of having new skin I still did what I wanted to do because you know it's what I truly love to do and that's why I want to put out there not for you know everybody else was awesome for myself I know those dark times when it comes to Fat Loss or like you're not seeing results I want to be able to help people you know give them a helping hand and say Hey you know I know how it feels I've I relate with you in so many ways let me help you and that's where I want to take you know take my career at you know especially in the fitness industry if I would go back in time I would definitely tell myself not to focus on others but focus on yourself because that's where you can actually find on your true love or true passion for what you do [Music] my biggest problems were using food inappropriately so anytime I felt nervous or scared I would eat eat I didn't have any willpower like I didn't have any control the moment I realized I needed to do something I was at a friend's graduation I was 445 pounds I couldn't even get for my car into the stadium I was like what am I doing I can't even live like the normal life at that point I knew I needed to do something drastic I have lost 300 pounds I have had two surgeries to remove my loose skin if sharing my story can help anyone else feel a little bit better then it's worth it from the time I was little I was already overweight and it increased gradually and by the time I graduated high school I was up to 300 and into my 20s all the way up to my highest weight I was 445 pounds when I was overweight I felt disappointed in myself I blamed myself and I felt weak like I didn't have any willpower like I didn't have any control I've been on every diet every workout routine every fad every everything and nothing had ever stuck I'd never been able to make anything work the moment I realized I needed to do something I was at a friend's graduation and we had to walk from parking lot to the stadium to watch the ceremonies and I couldn't do it I was 445 pounds I eventually got in there but it was already going on and I missed it the fact that I couldn't even get into the stadium I was like what am I doing I can't even live like the normal life so at that point um I knew I needed to do something drastic I decided to have weight loss surgery I pretty much felt like it was I either have the surgery or I'm going to die like very soon this was actually a little bit before I decided to make the appointment to go see the bariatric surgeon [Music] this was a month of surgery when I met Chris I had had my surgery a few months before but I hadn't lost all my weight yet I was still significantly overweight Chris has been my partner in crime throughout the entire thing supporting my wife I mean that's kind of as a no-brainer um you know we do everything together she started running one day and I decided I don't want to get left behind I see everything she's achieving and you know it motivates me to to get healthier it motivated me to lose a good chunk of weight already weight loss surgery is just a tool and it's the first step I was 445 pounds and I have lost 300 pounds when I come into the gym I feel like I'm in my own world I've made this time for me and I feel proud of myself that I'm doing something good for myself I have had two surgeries to remove my loose skin so far my skin stretched so far with my weight that it was no way it was going back so actually the stuff the skin that was removed from my stomach was 13 pounds showing my skin on social media was scary to begin with I was like I don't even want to see because at this time I have 19 followers and overnight the video had gone viral and 1.
