https://youtube.com/watch?v=Dvx0Xv2c4qU
Welcome back to my channel.
I hope you’re having a fantastic day. Today’s video is in all honesty, is super awkward for me to make I never thought I would talk about my weight on the internet As you guys may know, about 6 months ago, 5 and a half months ago, my husband and I went vegan overnight after watching Gary Yourofsky’s famous speech, and yeah, six months later, I can’t believe how much it has actually changed my life and I feel like my story, it may help some of you out there watching this so that is why I am doing this.
The Vegan diet helps to weight loss, showing the Facts
Even though I am not that comfortable showing you guys the pictures I am going to show you and all this kind of stuff, but if I can help someone out there that is struggling, then that is why I am making this video. I guess let’s start at the beginning, so growing up I was always a super skinny kid never really had like obesity really in my family or I was never overweight, growing up I was always pretty skinny, through high school, through college, when I started putting on some weight was when I got married, like a lot of couples, or not married, I would say, after I was in a serious relationship with my now husband, about a year in, we both started to put on substantial amounts of weight we met in Switzerland, and we moved to the United States together and that is when things started kinda go downhill, we started to go to a lot of drive-throughs, eating a lot of junk food, and and we were no longer getting, like, any exercise We met in Switzerland where we were walking all the time and our life was just a bit more balanced than in the US where all of the sudden we had cars and drive-throughs, and walking was no longer really something we did very often So I have some pictures here this is when, you know, we were engaged, super happy, but super unhealthy and we were both very self-conscious about our weight all the time and, yeah, it was just not good.
You Have to Want Weight Loss
The first great mental challenge to weight loss is that it has to be something that you want. No one can lose the weight for you and losing weight and keeping it off takes time and dedication. It’s much easier to put in that time and dedication if losing weight and keeping it off is personally important to you.
You have to really want it, the motivation can be extrinsic or intrinsic, the latter is the one that will really help you lose weight, since it is the one that is born from within.
If it is not something that you really want to do, you will not be able to follow the diets, the laziness will get you not to train and you will not achieve your goal. Having self-discipline is something of vital importance for an objective such as losing weight.
The Firsts Thougts
We were always just thinking we need to lose weight, we need to work out, we need to eat healthier, we need to diet, we need to try things, we need to restrict our calories and, I would go up and down, sometimes I felt really good about my weight but most of the times I felt like I had some pounds to lose. I was the typical person who always felt like they could always lose an extra 10 or 15 pounds. And as a person who was always very thin when I was younger, you know, when Matias and I first met, I was very thin, this was very frustrating, because I thought, I couldn’t really do anything about it other than work out all the time. But I’ve never been the person who enjoys working out, so I always just felt, kinda stuck, like, I don’t know, like wanting to lose weight, but not being motivated enough to work out and, there was just never a good solution for either of us.
Finding The Motivation
Even my husband is a super thin guy, he started putting on weight as well, and he just was feeling super self-conscious, and I could see that in him, and he could see that in me, and it just wasn’t good. And of course we knew if we eat healthy and exercise we will lose weight and be healthy and it won’t be a good decision, but we never had the motivation in us to do it and that is why going vegan has been so important. Because it gives you a reason bigger than just your own personal health and your own personal life. Going vegan you can improve the planet and you can save a million animals that get killed every year so we can eat them, even though they make us sick and overweight.
So we didn’t go vegan for the weight loss, it was certainly something I was hoping was true when everyone was talking about it. But we definitely went vegan for the ethics after I saw some of the stuff that I saw on the internet. I no longer could consider myself a reasonable person if I would continue to take part in the animal product industry and, yeah, after I saw what I saw, I just couldn’t partake in that at all, it was an easy decision overnight for both my husband and for me.
Showing Some Results
I have here a picture from the day 1 on our vegan journey yeah, this even isn’t me at my highest weight, yeah this was me actually feeling somewhat okay about my weight, which is funny now, because I will show you the after picture in a second and it’s quite a dramatic difference, but yeah, this before picture is not the worst that I have trust me, I couldn’t even take a picture at the worst point, but this is right before we went vegan so, yeah, this is quite surprising for me to look at. And after six months of being vegan, this is what I look like now.
Quite a big difference, and I am gonna go ahead and say I lost all this weight without exercising. I am not proud of that. I wish I exercised more, but I still do struggle with that department, however we do live a more active type lifestyle than when we were living in the US, so now we do walk everywhere.
Only With The Vegan Diet
You know, we go up stairs, we walk a good number of miles every single day. We live a little bit more active type of lifestyle, but working out unfortunately, we haven’t been able to get into our, daily routine yet, but we are getting really serious about it now, and I hope that in six more months I’ll have another picture after six months of working out included. But unfortunately, all I can show you is from dietary changes not from working out because we unfortunately haven’t been working out like I just said. So I can’t actually tell you the number of pounds that I’ve lost over these six months because I have not been weighing myself. Again it was not my motivation for going vegan at all. And I wouldn’t even consider us super healthy vegans. We eat potato chips all the time, mashed potatoes, french fries, candy.
I mean we do eat that a lot more than we should. But we do incorporate way more fruits and vegetables obviously into our diet than I ever have in my entire life And I think the main thing that made me lose all the weight was just the unhealthiness, high-calorie of these animal products that I used to eat, has been not an option anymore, so that is really helping. And the most amazing thing is when I walk, you know, through the streets of Berlin and I see these hot dog stands and these pizza stands.
How Your Mind Can Change
Those are things that used to crave me so much and I would just want it. And now I’m like, I don’t even want it, and I’m so grateful that I’m vegan and that I have a bigger reason not to eat those types of things other than just I know it’s bad for me, I shouldn’t but let me do it anyways It’s just not an option at all since we went vegan. We haven’t had a “relapse” or anything like that. Definitely not. I do not even crave that kind of food anymore because I just picture what I’ve seen on the internet and when I see that food, and yeah, I just don’t see it as food anymore. When I go in the grocery store I see the animal products, the dairy, the meat, to me this is actually not food anymore in my brain. And I can’t believe that that change happened to me, because I was such a chicken nugget, cheese, person.
But it feels amazing to eat better and it’s improving my health a lot. My husband and I have so much energy way more than ever before. We used to have to drink so much caffeine and red bull to get through the day and we haven’t had caffeine in a very long time now. Well, we might have an occasional treat, like a coke once a month or something like that, but, not three red bulls a day like we used to, which is amazing. My husband also used to suffer from debilitating digestive and stomach issues. Every time he would eat, he would have horrible cramping, and have to be in the bathroom for many hours. I don’t know, maybe not many hours, but it felt like it to me.
Weight Loss New Routine
Like he always had to leave, every time we went to dinner, or we were at family things or whatever. And that has been completely cured, which we were never able to cure. Before we took him to the doctor and got him tested for all sorts of things. You know, he tried cutting dairy, that didn’t work. He tried chicken, that didn’t work. He tried cutting out red meat, that didn’t work. But since going vegan six months ago he has not suffered from these digestive issues anymore which is really improving his quality of life, and our relationship as well. As for me, other than increased energy and weight loss, I just feel like happier, I feel good. I feel good every day that I am making good decisions with what I am eating. It’s allowing me to just, I don’t know, or not allowing me it is making me be more intentional human being and thinking about things before I eat them, obviously. And just being more aware of my impact on other lives, you know, animal lives, and I just feel really good at night knowing I’m not contributing to anything that is destroying my health, the environment, or animals lives.
Oh yeah, even though I can’t tell you how many pounds I have lost, I can tell you that before I went vegan I was a big size 10 in pants. So a US size 10 pants was pretty snug, six months ago, and at this point, the pants I’m wearing right now, I believe, are a size 6, and they are way too loose, and I’m ready to down a size again. So I don’t know how much that is in pounds, but I have lost a good amount of inches off my waist, thighs, legs. I would say pretty much everywhere and I feel really good about that.
It feels good to be back to a size that I actually see myself in my head, cuz, sometimes you get to that point in your life, in your head you’re one size, and you look in the mirror and you’re another size. And you just can’t really comprehend it. So I feel like I’m more at a weight where I feel like myself. And I feel like I look like I feel. I don’t know. Anyways, you guys, this video is not to preach, or anything like that.
You Can Start the Change, Be Healthy
I am not one of those channels, I hope you can see that. But I know a lot of you might be struggling with your weight and dieting and all those things, and I can tell you it’s not going to work, it’s not going to long term sustainable. But if you go vegan you don’t have to watch your calories, or calorie restrict. You can eat all the yummy vegan whole plant foods that you want and not have to worry about gaining weight. And this is a fantastic benefit of the lifestyle for me, personally, because I cannot “diet” and cut calories, it’s just, it does not work for me. I have tried it many times, definitely not long term sustainable and I love being vegan because I don’t know, so many reasons, but the main thing also is that you don’t have to watch what you are eating so much. You know? You can enjoy all the wholesome plant foods that you want, you know? And again, I’m probably talking too much, I am not a vegan expert at all. I wouldn’t even consider myself to be the healthiest vegan. I need to incorporate more vegetables, more whole foods, and more exercise into my diet and lifestyle, which is my goal going forward now that I’ve lost a good chunk of weight.
The Results of the Weight Loss
I have more energy, and I want to work out, it’s actually weird. For the first time in my life, I feel like I want to move and do things with my body. I feel like I don’t want to just be sedentary. I have this increased energy and I wanna, I wanna put it somewhere. I wanna move, I wanna work out So I just have to find a work out that suits me and I’m looking forward to, being a healthier vegan in the next six months. So I will check in with you guys probably in six months, cuz I don’t want to talk about this all the time on my channel. But hopefully it made some sense to some of you, helped some of you out. If you liked this video, give it a thumbs up. Hit that subscribe button down below. Thank you guys so much for watching, I love you so much, and I’ll see you next time.
Bye! And until next time, guys, don’t forget, every single day you have the opportunity to take your dreams and put them into actions, so work hard, be kind, make it happen. (jazzy trumpet & piano tune) .
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