Alexander’s story is truly inspiring! He decided to make a change and lost 85 pounds, through a Paleo Diet and exercise. Sometimes it just takes finding the right tools.
Throughout my life, I was never what you would consider thin. I always had a weight problem. I was the chubby, short boy who was chosen last for sports. I never thought about a way to change my life because I assumed that was who I was, and I needed to live with that.
I started high school and was always busy with musical theatre rehearsal or studying. I did not think about my weight until junior year when I started playing inline hockey with St. Paul’s School. I tried to lose weight. I hired a trainer hoping that working out would help me, but I didn’t know that the key ingredient was what I was eating before and after those workouts. Going into my senior year of high school, I weighed about 185 pounds, had a waist size of 36, and wore a 44S jacket. My weight didn’t fluctuate much over that year, and I weighed about the same when I started at Tulane University.
Tulane was when everything got worse. I dreaded the upcoming years knowing the “freshman 15” would soon turn into a reality. I tried exercising but studying for my Pre-Med classes and rehearsing for my musicals became so overwhelming that I resorted to eating very unhealthily. My diet consisted of processed foods loaded with high fructose corn syrup and sugar. I became accustomed to eating pizza in the cafeteria everyday with ice-cream for dessert. The “freshman 15” soon turned into the “college 80”. By the end of my junior year at Tulane I weighed around 265 pounds. I wore a size 44 pant and a jacket size of 50S. I was extremely heavy, but did not think anything of it. I was getting cast in roles that my weight worked for, and I wasn’t playing any sports that required me to be lighter. Then in May 2014, I knew something needed to change….
In college, I tried to eat “healthy,” but pizza sounds better than salad. After my sophomore year, I decided to go on a low fat diet and work out 4 times a week. I counted every calorie and fat gram. I didn’t eat over 25 grams of fat a day, most of the time even less. I ate so much processed foods. The weight wasn’t coming off so I stepped it up and cut out all red meat and pork. Finally 13 pounds came off in a two week period. I was tinier than I had been in high school. I thought I looked good, but now I realize I was too thin and hit an unmanageable weight. I went back to college and slowly put the weight back on. I didn’t give real thought to my weight or eating healthy for four more years.