I HACKED my Environment to Drop 94 Lbs in 90 days

I'm going to tell you about the time that I lost 94 lb in 3 months. And my goal here is to share the way of thinking that I had to develop to be able to beat obesity and control my weight. Weight loss is a mental battle. It's a mental battle. It's between the part of your brain that wants to lose weight, the weight loser, and the part of your brain that wants to gain weight, the weight gainer.

Let's call them Slinky and Chunky. For people like me, Chunky pulls when you're sad. When I was 7 years old, my family had moved from Iraq to the United Arab Emirates. I had a tough time fitting in, and food was my only companion. It made me feel comfortable, and Chunky started pulling. So now, we had Chunky pulling in with some sadness.

I gained a lot of weight over the next 6 years. When I became 13, Slinky got a fighting chance using fear. Now, I'll preface this story by saying that I love my dad. Very patient guy, extremely patient, maybe even too patient. We were out buying pants for my school uniform. The pants that were recommended by the school only went up to size 42.

Those did not fit me. I was embarrassed that I let my dad know, and the words [clears throat] just escaped him. "Oh, come on." I thought, "If somebody who loves me and is so patient is upset at me being overweight at this age, just 13, I'm afraid to see what would happen if I continued down this path and see how strangers would treat me when I'm an adult."

And so, I became afraid of this future. And so, that fear allowed Slinky to start pulling hard. Previously, I only had Chunky pulling in. Now, I also had Slinky pulling in, and for me, it was with fear. So, I started dieting, but my weight would yo-yo. So, I'd go down 10 lb one month, then I'd go up 15 the next month.

And I'd do that again. Chonky would motivate me to do exercises ABC, eat foods XYZ. This happened so many times that eventually I thought or I told myself that it was impossible. And all the evidence of others doing it was fake. So, I'd be watching The Biggest Loser and I would think, "That's fake. Or maybe they were getting surgery.

Or maybe it's because they get to focus on losing weight for 6 months. Or maybe it's because they had those trainers making all the decisions for them. And all they had to do was follow instructions." And so, that's when I realized that Chonky was taking advantage of my decision-making. Whenever I had to make a decision, Chonky would use it to try to make me gain weight.

And that's just basic human psychology. It's why supermarkets put sweets and calorie-dense foods like nuts in between the vegetable aisles. You made a tough decision and now Chonky can pull you towards the chocolate bar. So, if there was a way for me to remove decision-making, I should be able to lose weight.

Like, weight loss should be much easier without having to constantly make those tough decisions. And so, I would make all my diet and exercise decisions at the beginning of my summer break. For food, I decided to just eat green apples. And for exercise, I decided that I was going to run at least 30 minutes every day.

By making these decisions in advance instead of every day, I was able to lose 50 lb. 50 lb. For the first 50 lbs, it was like this. Then eventually I began to get hungry and that allowed Chunky to pull in some more. Everything would smell delicious. If I saw a chocolate bar, I had to run away, lock myself up with some very stimulating video games.

I had to make it impossible for Chunky to act on that hunger. So, let's recap. Chunky was playing with some hunger and it was really hard to resist. And the only way for me to fight back, for Slinky to have a fighting chance, is if I reduced access to junk food. Cutting off that food access helped get me to the end.

By the time school was back around, I had lost approximately 94 lbs and it felt amazing. Everybody was so impressed. It was everything I could have dreamed of. They treated me like royalty. But I really didn't expect one of my teachers to call my mother and tell her that I must be sick. I thought it was funny, but also awesome that this happened.

And looking back, the path I took had pros and cons, but I'll focus on the main ones. The biggest pro is that it worked for me. I can't say for sure whether another path would have worked for me and it working was the most important thing to me. I didn't care that I might get sick or that I might gain it all back.

The cons include that it slows down your metabolism and increases your appetite for a while. Long enough such that without the right habits, you may end up gaining the weight back like most of the contestants from The Biggest Loser. It's been over a decade for me, so I've solved that problem, but I'll talk about that in another video, so you know, subscribe.

Well, mate, you made it to the end of this video. Look, I really appreciate your time. I wanted to make it a quick video, but there was a lot to cover and I wanted to make sure you're well equipped. You've got to appreciate how Chunk and Slinky alternate on emotions. For me, it was sadness and fear. Don't forget how Chunk and takes advantage of your decision-making and how you can remove that by removing decision-making.

How Chunk and tries really hard to pull you towards food and how you can remove that by removing food access. Now, these are important detail, but the most critical part is that you remember that weight loss is a mental battle.