Weight Loss

Hello, everybody, Antoni here, and I am really happy to tell you that I am now in my healthy weight range. After years of diet yo-yoing, the wavering motivation, the denial of my own weight, and the realization of why I had to lose the excess weight in the very first place, I have finally accomplished what I have wanted to pursue for the longest period of time. Barely two years ago, I was at my second heaviest weight of 17 stone 3.6 lbs (241.6 lbs or 109.6 kg). I realized that it was time for major change, which further propelled my realization that I can live on less food, avert binging, be more physically active, and find healthier alternatives to my overall lifestyle. Keeping up with my weight loss progress one year on, I ended up losing 3 stone 1 lb (43 lbs or 19.5 kg), thus making me land at 14 stone 2.6 lbs (198.6 lbs or 90.1 kg). Speaking to all of you today, I have now lost another 3 stone 1.2 lb (43.2 lbs or 19.6 kg), thus making me now 11 stone 1.4 lbs (155.4 lbs or 70.5 kg) and clocking my total weight loss at 6 stone 2.2 lbs (86.2 lbs or 39.1 kg). I am so ecstatic and proud of myself for making it this far and I am greatly elated to know that I have a new lease on life which will last for a long duration of time. My whole struggle with my weight has not been a story that was entirely new to me. I used to enjoy all types of food as a child, but the awareness of my weight started when I was doing ballet as a child from 5 to 10 years old. Being in ballet may have commenced my love of the performing arts, but I realized that I was one of the chunkiest children out of all my former colleagues in the ballet school I attended. Even when I looked back at the performances I was in, most notably one of the children from Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker”, I realized that I could be a whole lot slimmer and I was even told that I should endeavor to lose a bit more weight if ever I were to pursue a career as a danseur. Thankfully, this was not going to be the case because, as much as I enjoyed my ballet classes after school and on the weekends, I knew fully well that I was not going to be a danseur in the future although I had an idea of how I should be able to control my body, especially when it came to dance, when it came to my participation in various school plays, and getting myself into physical activities such as rock-climbing, soccer, and basically participating in playground games with my school mates, classmates, and friends. With my experience of participating in a multitude of school plays and immersing myself into playing the violin, I knew how much I had to polish my craft in order to gain a sense of passion and determination through the fields I liked. My weight might have been a part of how I was going to look on stage, but it took a backseat to how much I had to practice my lines and be familiar with stage blocking and my growing ambition to want to be in the entertainment world. The increased awareness of my weight began to perpetuate when I was a 12-year-old sixth-grader. Sure, I did start developing acne when I was an 11-year-old fifth-grader in the later stages of schooling, but the discourse of my youth was revolving around my weight. Ever since I tuned in to a lot of infomercials focusing on fat-free cooking, muscle-toning gadgets, and a huge bevy of weight loss products, I became more aware of what I was eating, even though I did not buy any of their products. A part of the motivation of why I wanted to lose weight and be acne-free mainly involved my passion for the performing arts, my dream of wanting to become an actor, a singer, and a voice actor, and how much scrutiny there was going to be should I step in front of the camera and/or go on stage. Coupled with my increasing love for anime and my first experience traveling as an unaccompanied minor to Oxford, I was starting to fully convince myself that I could and should be a lot thinner if I was more mobile and if I kept the will for independence top of mind as my motivation to keep losing weight and be healthier. This thought of me wanting to become thinner perpetuated when I was a 13-year-old seventh-grader from becoming more conscientious of calories to looking up to a lot of the Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, GMA, ABS-CBN, FOX, and ABC stars of the early to mid-2000s to even aspiring to become as thin as Jeff McCallister from Home Alone 1 and 2 and Edmund Pevensie from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe respectively played by Michael Maronna and Skandar Keynes. Stretching the thinness appeal was my fascination of goth clothing as a means for me to express my creative and artistic side, especially where my love of literature and anime was concerned, and the equal appeal of having a dark, prosaic, gloomy viewpoint of the world around me. I even remembered during my middle-school swimming lessons that my instructor noted how loose my swimming trunks became on me, considering that I also tried to flatten my belly with the use of a Nestlé cereal drink which claims to reduce bloating. My middle-school battle with my weight was not as egregious as I thought it was because of how it was more of a prioritization of vanity rather than the health implications I would have acquired if I did not maintain a healthy lifestyle. Things were about to change when I…

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!

Hello, everybody. I hope you all had a wonderful Fourth of July, Canada Day, and even Philippine Independence Day, even though this latter holiday was celebrated over three weeks ago. Regardless, I just want to celebrate these three holidays which have signified so much in my life and heritage the only way I know how; by showing my weight loss progress from January to today. This is specifically done by wearing my most favorite polo shirt that was given to me as a Christmas gift six-and-a-half years ago. On rudimentary terms, this shirt which used to be bulging on me is now a nice fit without problem spots whatsoever. I even have some room to spare just to add to my overall jubilation of how far I have come and how much I will continue to be in hot pursuit of being within my optimally healthy weight range of 11 stone 3 lbs (157 lbs or 71.4 kg) to 8 stone 13.8 lbs (125.8 lbs or 57.1 kg) as stated by the NHS and Get Healthy New South Wales. January of this year was when I affirmed that this new year meant a whole new me. Compared to what I weighed back in December 2020, I went from 12 stone 11.02 lbs (179.02 lbs or 81.2 kg) to 12 stone 8.38 lbs (176.68 lbs or 80 kg). Throughout January, I maintained my weight at best yet gained a bit at worst. Nevertheless, within the months of February until April, I lost weight very slowly ranging between a 2 to 3 pound or 1 kilo weight loss, then weighing in at 12 stone 6.17 lbs (174.17 lbs or 79 kg). May to June marked an acceleration of my weight loss. Within the entire month of May, I went from 12 stone 5.28 lbs (173.28 lbs or 78.6 kg) to 12 stone 1 lb (169 lbs or 76.5 kg). Subsequently, within the month of June, I went from 12 stone 1 lb (169 lbs or 76.5 kg) to 11 stone 7.6 lbs. I knew from there that this was direction I was so glad to have taken. Now, as of this month, I am 11 stone 7.16 lbs (161.16 lbs or 73.1 kg). For the first time, in my adult life and probably after years of being on the chunky yet see-sawing side of my weight as a teenager, I am now in the 11-stone line. I still have about 4.16 lbs (1.8 kg) to 2 stone (28 lbs or 12.7 kg) to lose, but I am on my way to live and lead the slim life I want and need to live full of vivacity, confidence, and the self-assurance to know that I am in great professional, personal, career-driven, healthy stead of a new lease of life. I have come this far to conquer my lust for takeaway food, excessive snacking, comfort eating, emotional eating, and mindless eating and I am never going back to being obese ever again. The results of what I have had to endure these past six months scream the results. These past six months have proven to me that I am way too gorgeous to be fat and there is no way that I am ever going back to being a massive fatty, a blobby and blubbery belly, an oversized wobbly bum, and/or lardy butter mountain of a chomper. I shall say this once and I will say this again. I am far too gorgeous, too independent, too confident, too outspoken, and too sociable to ever be a lardy, massive fatty!