Metabolic and Mental Health
Here’s How Julia Lost 30 Pounds After Changing Five Habits
Her desperate situation motivated Julia to take corrective actions.
Julia’s life was initially dismal and unsatisfactory, with emerging health conditions hitting her physically, emotionally, and mentally.
She lost control and started looking for viable solutions in desperation. Awareness and acceptance of her dire situation was a decent start. She stopped being shy and hiding behind her ego by seeking help from others.
When we are desperate, our minds look for solutions from multiple sources. Julia started solution-seeking with her friends, family doctor, and supportive community members.
Their combined input helped her find sustainable solutions to her debilitating physical and mental issues. The vital point of her transformation was replacing bad habits with good ones.
Julia’s story was close to my heart as it resembled numerous other friends who ended unnecessary suffering by taking personal responsibility and seeking help from others.
In this story, I provide a high-level perspective of Julia’s transformation with critical points to reflect valuable takeaways from her life.
1 — Neediness and Approval Seeking Behavior
Julia’s close friends kept telling her to stop being needy, but she did not take notice of the teasing, considering their words friendly jokes.
However, losing a few friends made her think about her behavior. She was concerned about why her best friends moved away from her gradually.
In addition, Julia’s colleagues kept their distance from her. Whenever she started a new job, people in those workplaces welcomed her warmly and guided her to succeed.
Nevertheless, after a while, people stopped talking and interacting with her. They did not invite her to team parties. The sad part was no one frankly mentioned her blind spot.
Julia was unaware of her approval-seeking behavior until she met a counselor who identified and articulated with examples without hurting her feelings.
Noticing this blind spot in her life opened a new opportunity for her to change her behavior with a supportive plan devised by her coach.
In addition, the advice from her counselor to stop comparing, competing, and envying people around her was invaluable. She learned to convert envy into admiration in this process.
2 — Emotional and Binge Eating
Overeating has been a big problem for Julia for a long time as she has struggled to control her appetite. She did not know her body had become insulin and leptin-resistant.
Her body was not communicating satiety signals to her brain. Her cortisol levels are at the extreme.
Consequently, she accumulated significant visceral fat, especially in her abdominal area. She got offended when a close friend teased her about whether she was pregnant.
Since Julia couldn’t connect with people easily, she numbed her emotions by eating comfort food. One of her weaknesses was chocolate. She carried a large piece in her bag every day.
Whenever she felt rejected, she grabbed a piece of chocolate following a bottle of diet coke. She thought diet coke would not have calories, so she drank several bottles a day until she was warned that excessive artificial sugars could harm her digestive health.
Julia’s eating regime changed when her mentor introduced her to a dietician who created a customized diet.
Julia eliminated offending food from her diet, improving her leaky gut. She stopped drinking sugary or artificially sweetened beverages, including refined fruit juices.
Cutting snacks and later practicing a time-restricted eating regime improved her metabolism, helping her to lose visceral fat and strengthen her muscles.
3 — Smoking and Excessive Alcohol
Julia disliked smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol in her younger years. However, her body got used to them. Smoking and drinking habits shifted into the addiction phase. She used to smoke and drink socially.
After a while, she bought packets of cigarettes and bottles of wine stock in her small apartment. Whenever upset, she lit a cigarette or took a glass of wine at home.
When her workplace put stringent rules about smoking, she wanted to quit, but she couldn’t. Whenever she took a glass of wine, she craved a cigarette.
After a few glasses of alcoholic beverages, she consumed a box of cigarettes. Sometimes a pack a day was not enough to satisfy her. Her skin got worse.
She knew smoking had poisoned her body. Unfortunately, she did not know how to cope.
Her family doctor, concerned about Julia’s regular health check-ups, referred her to a counseling service to help Julia quit smoking and reduce alcohol consumption.
Fortunately, Julia obtained outstanding support to stop smoking and reduce alcohol consumption. As a result, she learned to drink only socially and occasionally in moderation.
Interestingly in later years, she became a teetotaller like me.
4— Sedentary Lifestyle
In her childhood, Julia was very active and joyful. However, she lost interest in exercise in her adult years as none of her friends were into fitness.
As a result, Julia was unaware of the importance of movement for her physical and mental health. Fortunately, she learned about the significance of daily workouts for her health and fitness.
The counselor referred Julia to a fitness center. Thus, she joined the club for only $2 a day. It included a gym, swimming pool, sauna, and spa.
The club also had social fitness activities like bushwalking for members once a fortnight. Julia loved walking in the outbacks of Australia.
She started making supportive friends by joining swimming, sauna, and spa sessions. Walking with a group of people, especially after resolving her approval-seeking behavior, significantly improved her fitness, social connections, and mood.
Moreover, since she couldn’t afford a dog in her tiny apartment, she volunteered to walk her friends’ dogs living in big houses with inspiration from Amanda.
5 — Obsession with Social Media
Social media addiction was another blind spot for Julia. She was unaware of its harmful effects on her mental health, indirectly affecting her physical health.
When she joined social media sites, she got elated with many followers, which she found later, most of them fake.
Nevertheless, finding her childhood friends on Facebook excited her.
She loved chatting, but those conversations felt meaningless to her. Nevertheless, she continued to search for new social media friends. Some fake accounts even abused and bullied her, affecting her mental health.
Being a victim of several scams encouraged her to eliminate this addiction. Moreover, seeing affluent people on social media always made her envious.
During a conversation with her mentor, she understood that social media was a time-waster for her. She desired to build meaningful relationships with people she could meet face to face.
Therefore, she decided to take a serious social media fast. It was the best decision for her as she succeeded by saving substantial time to allocate for her health and well-being.
She finally deleted all her social media accounts which were unnecessary in her life.
Conclusions and Takeaways
We must build good habits and eliminate the bad ones to enjoy life and succeed. However, flawed habits may harm our health and threaten our well-being when bad habits turn into addictions.
Noticing her poor habits was an excellent start for Julia.
SHE SHARED THE FOLLOWING POINTS when I asked her the takeaway points from her inspiring story.
1 — Refrain from approval-seeking behavior.
2 — Don’t use food to numb emotional pain.
3 — Stop smoking and reduce alcohol as much as possible.
4 — Move the body joyfully by joining jubilant friends.
5 — Replace social media time with building meaningful relationships with real friends instead of fake followers.
Changing her bad habits and gaining healthy habits transformed Julia’s life. In the first year, she lost 30 pounds, giving her great relief.
After reducing elevated cortisol levels, her sleep quality improved. She gained not only a fit body but also a sharp mind. She even trimmed and defined her body by eliminating loose skin.
Consequently, she finally created an excellent balance, which gave her a satisfactory life. Moving from a needy state to a compassionate person increased her emotional maturity and social and spiritual intelligence. This was a critical lifestyle change for her.
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