July 2021

Yesterday I have written my academic essay exam which I have managed to finish with a lot of confidence, despite my anxiety of what grade I am going to receive because I have worked really hard for it. After that, I rewarded myself with a two-hour walk while surviving on a shake I made out of vanilla soy milk, frozen berries, frozen berries with yoghurt, cereals, chia seeds, and flaxseeds. Today, this is the result of my efforts as I manage to currently weigh in at 11 stone 4.5 lbs (158.5 lbs or 71.9 kg), which is between over a pound (500 grams) more until I reach my highest healthy weight of 11 stone 3 lbs (157 lbs or 71.4 kg) and 3 stone (42 lbs or 19.1 kg) more until I reach my lowest healthy weight of 8 stone 4.4 lbs (116.4 lbs or 52.8 kg). To celebrate this recent achievement of my weight loss progress, I have decided to exhibit the two articles of clothing I used to wear as a supersize young adult from 19 to 22 but have now become really big on me. The IAFT shirt that I don served as my uniform when I was a 19-year-old in actor’s training in this particular film institute. After graduating the mad gauntlet that was high school, I thought I was free from the control I thought I had with myself and, of course, with food. Through IAFT, I have found a great cavalcade of friends and colleagues I shared so much in common with, but my weight skyrocketed from being a paunchy high school senior to a horribly obese student in actor’s training. Despite me wanting to lose weight with the diet pills and trying to avoid food, I was practically surrounded by food to the point where I became a binger, a comfort eater, and a confused calorista rolled into one major culinary conundrum. It also did not help that I ate huge portions whether I was with my friends or with my family. This horrid eating habit had a negative effect on my waistline as well as on my repertoire. Because I was the fat guy in my class, I felt like my track record in the roles I did my best in hampered whatever potential I could have had in doing more leading male roles let alone dramatic roles. At least some experiences I endured during my film school year served as one impetus to get my weight down and keep it off. By the time I was a twenty-two-year-old in vocational training as an actor in art of acting Schauspielschule Berlin, I was still obese being over 14 stone 4 lbs (200 lbs or 90.7 kg), but it was not as bad as when I was nineteen and weighing in at over 17 stone 8 lbs (246 lbs or 112 kg). My physicality might have improved, but I was still a calorie conundrum with both a love for good food but a lust for takeaway food, snacks, pasta, rice, and cheese. When my Christmas break came in full swing back in 2014, I celebrated the holidays in Canada with Christmas and Boxing Day in Toronto and New Year’s in Vancouver. I decided to spend my Boxing Day going into one of the shops to buy four pairs of 34×36 Old Navy blue jeans which were 75% off its original price and I am wearing one of them now. I remembered how snug it used to be on me at best; however, when I returned to the 17-stone (238-lb or 108-kg) mark as a 27-year-old done with my A-Levels and entering university, the jeans were quite tight. The now 6 going on 7-year-old pairs of Old Navy blue jeans and the colored, striped shirt given to me as a Christmas gift by my flatmate’s sister, brother-in-law, and grown-up children residing in Toronto served as further motivations for me to ensure that the weight stayed off for good. My weight loss odyssey was certainly no easy task at all, considering how much I had to redress all of my eating habits, finding out why I was so hungry, and fully realizing the horror of how much my lust for food was destroying all the potential I had as an actor, singer, voice actor, reviewer, and an overall person. Speaking to you as a 29-year-old man, I am so happy I have come this far in my weight loss. The fact that my IAFT shirt and one of the Old Navy blue jeans I bought in Toronto are now loose on me serve as battle scars and pieces of absolute catharsis which I am more than ecstatic to have acquired. The sheer sweetness of this recent progress has motivated me to never ever rest on my laurels and I will certainly keep the momentum up on a continuous basis. I am even tempted to donate this shirt and this pair of jeans to either charity or send them back to my family as mementos of how far I have come to lose this excess weight of mine. I may have over a measly pound (500 grams) to a whopping 3 stone (42 lbs or 19.1 kg) of excess weight to lose, but I cannot afford to be complacent by any stretch of the imagination. For my weight loss to keep on working, I have continue being as committed as possible to know that I have to do this for the good of my health. Doing it for looks, based on what I used to wear as a fatter young adult, is never going to suffice. Combining the health factors with how I look, the confidence factor, and the boost on my self-esteem makes my weight loss all the more worth fighting for. So join me as a I proudly proclaim, bon voyage, fatty bum-bum, and don’t come back!