Spotlight: Justin G.

I am a Chef.

Those are words that have defined me for the last 22 years of my life. My broken relationship with food began 40 something years ago when I was born. I was 200lbs by the time I was 13 and probably 330 by the time I graduated high school. Since then I have “dieted” and fluctuated somewhere between 350 and 410 lbs for the last 20 plus years. For so many years I blamed the fact that I worked 70+ hours a week and that I was surrounded by so much food all the time as the reason why I couldn’t get my weight under control.

In December I turned 40 and had just a miserable month. I looked terrible, I felt worse and I was slipping into a depression during the holidays. When I returned to work in January, I was putting away a food delivery and after lifting just a few cases of product I was already winded, felt light headed and had to sit down. Enough was enough. At that moment I was unsure what I was going to do but changes had to be made. I gave myself time to start doing some research and in the meantime I decided that for at least the first week, I would give up fast food, fried food and sweet tea.

On January 11th of this year I weighed 390lbs. I stuck to my guns that very first day but as it turned out, I ate very few carbs at all that day as well as the second. By that night I was diving head first into the world of Keto. Podcasts, articles, books. Anything I could get my hands on. The more I read the more I felt like this was my path to success.

For the first time in my life I was educating myself about my body and what it would actually take for me take my life back from the control I had given up to food.

You have to understand that food was my obsession.

Food network, Instagram, travel channel, food and Wine Magazine were my literal food porn sources. Eating one meal while simultaneously thinking about the next. In the kitchen creating the most glutinous of creations. I wasn’t eating. I was gorging!! I wasn’t even taking the time to enjoy it. It was consumption for consumption sake and it was killing me.

Six weeks into my journey I had been doing pretty well in the gym and decided to take my first hike. Kennesaw MT just outside of Atlanta. A 1000 foot climb in 1.1 miles of path. I huffed and I puffed but I made it up that damn mountain. A sense of emotion rushed over me that I still get every time I reach a newer higher summit. I was taking control of my life!!!

When I got down to the base I sat on a park bench and posted on Instagram for the first time in over a year. The words just poured out of me and I had this epiphany. The process I was taking was “the reverse engineering of 40 years of fucked programming in regards to my relationship between food and my body” Months later I still say this to myself several times a week. This is my mantra. It’s not just diet. It’s not just exercise. This is changing the very core of the person that I have allowed myself to become. As if this process weren’t difficult enough just trying to overcome my obsession with food, being surrounded by it for my profession but also the fact that I travel for work and spend 200+ nights a year on the road.

In the months since I have committed myself to a clean Keto program while introducing various workout styles as well as intermittent fasting. I avoid processed foods (including any “keto” products) and I work every day to build better eating habits. When I used to go out for dinner I could easily drink 4 glasses of sweet tea with my meal. I now make my own monk fruit sweetener syrup and travel with a small bottle but here is the difference. Even though I Iove the mink fruit sweetener and it has zero impact on my glucose or state of ketosis, I limit myself to just one glass at a meal and I only have it once or twice a week. I have learnt that just because you can have something doesn’t mean you don’t need to moderate how much you have of it. In 5 months I have chosen to have a few indulgent meals. I do not refer to them as cheat meals. They are just me enjoying foods that I love but doing it in a responsible way and holding myself accountable to getting right back on track the next meal. Food to me always needs to be treated in a positive light even when it’s not something that is on my plan.

As my weight keeps dropping I continue to learn more about myself physically, emotionally and mentally than I ever have in any other point of my life. As of today (5 months since I began my journey) I am down 82 lbs. My waist size went from a 52 to a 44. My chest from a 60 to a 52. My shirt size from a 4X to a 2X. I have used Instagram as I took to share my journey and to try and aspire others. I have focused on healthy food and habits rather than just promoting the same food porn I used to be obsessed with.

My journey is still so new but I have changed in so many ways. Initially my goal was to drop 150lbs by my 41st Birthday. That number still may be true but I have come to realize that the number is far less important as to how I want to feel when that day comes. I had a saying in my professional world for many years the the guests perception of us in the kitchen is our reality. In my personal life I have come to learn that what others think has doesn’t have to have any impact on me at all.

Whatever I perceive for myself can be my reality if I stay focused and consistent.