My name is Fougeley Denis (@leleygetsfit), and I am 21 years old. I’m from Maryland, and I work at a non-profit that supports people with intellectual disabilities. To stop my prediabetes from progressing, I overhauled my lifestyle by changing the way I looked at food. I lost over 100 pounds and overcame my binge eating disorder in the process.
I had been overweight my entire life. I was raised by a single mother who worked two jobs, so I was always eating on the go. We didn’t have much time to prepare a nutritious meal every night, so fast food or quick meals were usually what I ate. I knew nothing about the importance of health, nutrition, or fitness.
As I grew older, life got hectic, and food became my comfort. I constantly ate my feelings, and this led to binge eating disorder. Every year, my pediatrician would reiterate that I needed to urgently lose weight before I developed diabetes (I was already prediabetic), but I did not care and kept gaining. Food was the only thing that made me feel whole as I struggled with body image, depression, and anxiety into my teen years. During a lot of times in my life, food was one of the only things I really looked forward to.
My family was constantly reminding me how big I was getting, so I would go on fad diets to please them. Those diets would only last a few days before I drowned my feelings in food again. This led to a cycle where I sought comfort in food, then immediately felt disgusted for making myself feel so sick.
At 18, I weighed almost 300 pounds.
I wanted to make a change, but I started my freshman year of college out of state. While dealing with the adjustment, I decided to not think about my weight. I wanted to experience college and make new friends, so I did what I wanted and ate out all the time. But my weight only added to the depression that I was dealing with.
When I was walking with my friends to class, I struggled to keep up with them even when they were walking at a normal pace. I couldn’t walk up more than one flight of stairs without being completely out of breath. I was never able to cross my legs. I couldn’t participate in much physical activity because I was terrified of how fast my heart would beat after any slight movement.
By spring of my freshman year, I was tired of living the way I was. At my 2018 annual physical, my doctor told me that I only had a few months or weeks even before I became completely diabetic, and would most likely develop further complications along the way.
I seriously needed to turn my life around. And the first thing I did was change how I viewed food.
Previously, I loved food for the comfort it brought me, but then I would hate it for how it left me feeling after binge-eating. So, I realized I needed to take away the power that food had over me.
I did a ton of research and learned everything I could about nutrition and exercise. I was surprised by how little I really knew. I always thought exercising was for thin people who wanted to become Olympians or something. I had no idea that exercise should be a normal part of life. I was completely unaware of the importance of moving your body and the benefits it could bring.
I also redefined what food meant to me. Food was fuel. It was not this “good” or “bad” thing. I started simple and ate less food in general, incorporated more whole foods, and limited the food that was not fueling my body. Although eating an entire bag of Hot Cheetos was very satisfying and eased my hunger in the short term, it was not really providing my body with many nutrients.
Eating less was much easier said than done.
As someone who had never eaten healthy, I had no understanding of what a balanced diet was. So, I downloaded MyFitnessPal, a calorie counting app to help me stay on track. On my first day of using the app, I tracked a normal day of eating and realized that I ate over 3,000 calories. This was far too much for someone of my height and size who lived an almost completely sedentary lifestyle. Moving forward, I entered every single thing that I ate into the app and tracked my weight every week. For the first month of my diet, I went completely cold turkey and stopped eating out and buying snacks. I saw results, but I still had the urge to binge after not having my comfort foods for weeks at a time.
As I embarked on this new journey, I turned my new diet into a lifestyle change. I realized I did not have to completely restrict myself from my old pleasures. I just had to learn portion control. I could still enjoy my favorite foods in moderation. It was not realistic for me to eat boring salads every day, but it was also not realistic to binge on fast food every day. I let my body eat what it craved, but not in excess. I finally learned what it meant to live a balanced lifestyle.
I also started to exercise. I started off slow with walking. After a few weeks of watching my eating and walking, I saw drastic changes—I lost 10 pounds in the first 10 days of my new lifestyle.
Here’s what I eat in a day now.
- Breakfast: Two scrambled eggs, an avocado, one slice of low-calorie bread
- Lunch: A protein shake and fruit
- Snacks: Yogurt, granola, and honey
- Dinner: Four ounces of chicken tenderloins or salmon, 1/2 cup of rice, and broccoli
- Dessert: One or two Outshine bars
At my size, it was hard to do much movement, so I started off with walking.
I went on walks every single day. I did not set a duration or pace for myself. I just did the best I could at my own pace. I would just walk until I no longer felt like walking. Sometimes this would be 15 minutes and sometimes it would be three hours. It was hard to stay motivated, but I made sure to move my body every week.
Now, I work out regularly at the gym five to six times a week. I run at least five miles a week and lift regularly. When I first started to exercise, I could not walk for more than 15 minutes. I never would have thought that I would be running miles in a million years. I have fallen in love with moving my body.
A normal week for me includes heading to the gym early in the morning at around 7 a.m. before going to work. I always start off with 20 to 30 minutes of cardio and then start lifting. On my rest days, I still try to be somewhat active and go on long walks.
These three changes helped make my weight loss a success.
- I started eating in moderation. Having too much of any one thing isn’t good for your health. As someone with a huge sweet tooth, I absolutely satisfy my craving for ice cream and cookies, but now I know when enough is enough. There will always be tomorrow. Food is not going anywhere!
- I started moving my body every day. Moving your body is so important for your physical health, mental health, and overall well-being. My mental health has improved just as much as my physical health. Having exercise as my new healthy outlet eliminates my desire to binge.
- I worked on loving myself during every step of the process. My weight loss journey started off with a lot of self-loathing, but I realized no matter how big or small I am, I need to love myself for me. Physically changing my body will not change what is on the inside. I am more than my physical appearance. I deserve to feel loved no matter how I look.
Over the course of two years, I have lost 116 pounds.
Losing weight is one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life, but I am also the happiest I have ever been in my life. I have found a new love for exercise and nutrition, something I never thought was possible. I truly believed it was impossible for me to lose weight. I thought I was meant to be morbidly obese for the rest of my life. Never think this! No one can determine your outcome but you.
There were so many times when I wanted to give up after not seeing instant results, but like reaching any other goal in life, you have to be consistent. Take control of your health if you are able to do so! I am the most confident version of myself. I no longer try to hide away from others in layers of clothing. I am boldly me.
