AFTER experiencing two traumatic events on the same day, Chris decided to turn his life around and lose an incredible 180lbs. In 2016, Chris, 29, from California, weighed 380lbs. The motivation for change came from a moment of personal hardship: a friend's suicide and his mum being sent to jail. Chris told Truly: “I found out about both things on the same day and I was really depressed and felt like a prisoner in my own body.”
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00:00At my heaviest, I weighed 380 pounds.
00:03I had lost a friend to suicide,
00:05and my mother had unfortunately gone to jail.
00:08I was really depressed, felt a prisoner in my body.
00:11I had a friend who noticed that I was really being affected,
00:14and he reached out to me.
00:16He gave me a diet plan.
00:17Within the first six weeks, I lost 38 pounds.
00:20Since beginning my weight loss journey,
00:21I've lost a total of 180 pounds.
00:23Since lockdown began, I've spent time
00:25getting back into healthy shape and building up my muscles.
00:31I would say that I've been overweight
00:33since about 11 years old.
00:35Being overweight had pretty big issues on my health as well.
00:39At 16, I had back surgery for a slipped disc
00:42because I was just carrying around too much weight.
00:44A lot of times, I just felt depressed,
00:46kind of felt a prisoner in my body.
00:48I had lost a friend to suicide,
00:50and my mother had unfortunately gone to jail.
00:53It all kind of happened at the same time.
00:55I found out both things on the same day,
00:57and I was really depressed.
00:59I probably put on another 20 to 40 pounds
01:01within a span of two months.
01:02I was eating pretty bad.
01:06At my heaviest, my diet was a lot of fast food,
01:10a lot of pizza, just a lot of carbs,
01:12a lot of dairy, a lot of cheese,
01:14a lot of sugar, and a lot of soda.
01:18It was extremely difficult to make a change to my diet.
01:20It kind of just makes me feel happy that I got over that,
01:24that I got more willpower, more confidence in myself.
01:30♪
01:35So this is typically what I would eat all the time.
01:38I'm also having this in between pretty much each meal,
01:41sodas in between each meal, heavy doses of that.
01:45And then we move forward to now,
01:47and I'm getting better at eating in moderation,
01:50smaller tacos, whole wheat tortillas.
01:52I had a friend who noticed that I was really being affected,
01:55and he reached out to me, he gave me a diet plan,
01:58and he kind of gave me some basic exercises
02:00and some basic cardio to follow along with the diet.
02:03Within the first six weeks, I lost 38 pounds,
02:06and I was locked in ever since that point.
02:09My diet, I was strict for nine months.
02:11I didn't deviate, I didn't have any cheat meals.
02:13I tried to go on a two-mile run every day,
02:16and I tried to do a workout of at least an hour.
02:20And it's usually a high-intense cardio workout
02:22with some dumbbells mixed in there to do some strength training.
02:25At my heaviest, I weighed 380 pounds.
02:28Since beginning my weight-loss journey,
02:30I've lost a total of 180 pounds.
02:32Since lockdown began, I spent time getting back
02:35into healthy shape and building up my muscles.
02:37I was like, I'm going to commit myself to getting back on a healthy diet,
02:40and I'm going to commit myself to exercising.
02:42I was 266 when the lockdown started,
02:45and I got down to 200 pounds.
02:48Hello.
02:51Hi, how's it going?
02:53Good to see you.
02:55I haven't seen you in forever.
02:57Good to see you.
02:58I'm going to get you something to drink.
03:00Do you want me to get you tea?
03:02I do.
03:04My mom has taught me my weight-loss journey
03:06by serving as a source of motivation and inspiration.
03:09She was an alcoholic for quite some time,
03:11and it really took its toll on her.
03:14But she didn't let alcoholism win.
03:16She fought back, and she's been sober for over five years now,
03:19and that motivates me to better my own self
03:21and battle my own addictions with food.
03:23I know you do the workout here,
03:25but I didn't know you were out running,
03:27especially when it's 105 out.
03:29It's worth it.
03:31Definitely, in my mind, I knew he would lose it.
03:34You know, he's just got that kind of drive.
03:37He's definitely an inspiration to me,
03:41that if he can do what he's doing,
03:43I can do what I set my mind to.
03:46Thank you for coming.
03:48We finally got together.
03:49Of course, it was good to meet you.
03:51I'm very proud of you. I love you.
03:53I have no interest in getting skin removal surgery.
03:56This is my badge of honor, my proof of hard work.
03:59The proof that I put everything into it is this excess skin.
04:02This is always going to push me to go forward
04:04because it's always tightening,
04:06and it's always going to keep me on track.
04:08I don't have a plan to get any rid of the loose skin.
04:10The only plan that I have is to stay committed
04:12to my healthy lifestyle.
04:14My can't really isn't in my vocabulary anymore.
04:17I believe I can do anything,
04:18and anything I can set my mind to.
04:20If you want to lose weight,
04:21and you feel like it's making you depressed
04:23and literally weighing you down,
04:24then you can lose the weight,
04:26and, you know, the world is yours.
04:28You'll look back, and you'll have, you know,
04:30nine months and 170 pounds behind you like I did.
04:38For more information, visit www.FEMA.gov