I think there are a lot of people like me out there: a person that does not give a crap about anything else but eating. I ate and ate and ate, never stopped eating. Sometimes, I would eat ice-cream for breakfast, chips and soft drinks for lunch, and pizza, burger, and other unhealthy food items for dinner. I would always blame and justify my over-eating and eating unhealthy food on my stress over academic success, however, I was not even stressed out on it. Not even a tiny bit.

During my freshmen yearn in high school, I was about 5’10” and weighed around 200 pounds. I was heavy, and I looked heavy for a freshmen. Also, be in mind that I am Korean, and most people here are skinny. I mean, they are really skinny. Most girls would eat less then 1000 KCal a day to maintain their weight, and most guys would work-out after eating. Always. But I wasn’t like that. I hated going outdoors, I hated working out, I hated everything but sitting in-front of the computer and watching movies, YouTube and playing games.

That weight continued on throughout my high school life. As my grade level went up, my weight also creeped up. Then I hit my max weight during my junior year of high school: 300 pounds. I was 6′ tall and weighed 300 pounds. It was my biggest and my lowest part of my life. I looked pathetic. No clothes made in Korea would fit me. I always had to go to Costco to find extra large t-shirts and pants. I hated going outside because of how pathetic I looked compared to other more leaner, more cooler, more better, more handsome people. I was ashamed of myself. But I always went back to my good old excuse of academic success.

Now it was January of 2018. All of my college applications were submitted. I was now ready to have fun and relax. But there was one thing that I could not do: go outside and have fun with my friends. I stood out in the crowd of skinny people. I had to do something with my body if I wanted to have fun.

With no more excuse left, I dragged myself to my local gym. I knew some people there, and my coach was my mom’s personal gym coach too. He looked at me and shacked his head, sighing. Then he asked me one thing that changed my life forever.

Can you endure this?

I was not sure what he was talking about but I said yes. As soon as I said yes, he dragged me to the workout area and he started to hammer the crap out of me. I ran, I lifted weights, I ran again, I squatted, I ran again and again and again until my legs shook so much and my arms started to fall off.

As I was about to die, he threw me a bottle of cold water. I could not forget how that cold water felt as it trickled down my throat. I felt jubilated as the cold-ice water trickled down. My coach dragged me to his desk and he started to make me my breakfast, lunch and dinner menus.

Chicken breast and protein shake for breakfast, small portion of rice and assortment and side dishes (no fried or sweet food), and Chicken breast, beef and protein shake for dinner.

I had that exact menu for half a year. There were times where I cheated and ate a slice of pizza or ate a bag of chips or drank some soft drinks, but I would workout like crazy for the next few days. There were times where I was thinking of giving up the whole dieting thing, but the next thing I knew, I was already on the treadmill, running like crazy.

On January of 2018, I was almost 300 pounds. On August of 2018, I was 200 pounds. Over the span of six months, I have lost 100 pounds and gained 30 pounds of muscle. I was the ultimate winner of diet.

Many people would ask me how I did it. I always tell them the same thing: All I wanted was to look as nice as others, wear the same clothes as others and enjoy life to the fullest as others can. I now don’t need to go to Costco or Big and Tall stores to buy clothes. I could buy clothes anywhere in the world and I know that all of them would fit me. That feeling, you can not find it anywhere else in the world.