Growing up, we didn't have a big variety of vegetables or fruits. My parents could afford it, but neither of them knew how to cook and didn't really care to try. On top of that, any time I was apprehensive about a new food, they would say "okay, whatever" and give me mac and cheese.
Once I hit puberty and I developed severe mental illness, my diet got even worse. But all this time I never thought about how actually damaging my diet was. I never cared about how my body reacted to fried foods and dairy. I felt sick all the time growing up and I was so exhausted.
I became overweight when I hit puberty. My diet was terrible. But not once did anyone say anything about changing what I was eating, because it just never seemed to matter anywhere I looked, outside or within my family. All I heard was "you need to start exercising". Especially after my mental health issues developed, exercising was touted as the cure for every common ill. I'd go to doctors and complain about how sick I felt, and time and time again they'd tell me nothing but to exercise.
What a surprise, then, when years later I decided enough was enough and stopped consuming dairy and fried foods altogether, that I started feeling really good and lost 25lbs in 4 months. It was significant for me, because I had been teetering at 225lbs for about 2 or so years and suffering from severe psoriasis (which has basically gone away since I stopped eating dairy and processed foods).
Then I moved into my own place and really took hold of my diet and continued to lose weight as I cut out all processed foods and ate healthily 98% of the time (once a month or so I HAVE to eat chips. I cut them out for 4 months but the addiction was ... insistent).
I have SO much energy now, and I'm below 200lbs for the first time since I was 18 years old (am now 22). I've learned a lot about my body and my mind, the nutrients in what I eat and what is important and what isn't.
Fuck the normalization of poisonous foods for the sake of convenience! Fuck the predatory systems that price healthy foods higher than processed, and fuck the long hours people have to work just to survive (making processed foods more appealing).
I visited my mother's today and the only vegetables she has are a bag of frozen peas and a moldy head of broccoli. I'm not knocking frozen vegetables - those are the heart of my diet lol - but she doesn't even eat them! She's so tired from work and she never learned how to cook, so she eats processed foods all day which make her more tired and sick.
I just wish there was more emphasis on eating well and education about why that's so important. Because I knew I was supposed to eat fruit and vegetables, but I had no idea how much of a positive impact they actually have on your body when you consume them instead of the bland, processed shit I grew up with. I would go weeks, MONTHS without touching vegetables, and my plate every day would be piled with beige processed shit that did nothing but ruin my life. Not even doctors care. When I told my doctor I was losing weight, she said "oh, you must be exercising a lot!" ???? No...... actually I haven't been exercising at all.....
Recap of what I did: in June I cut out dairy, fried foods, processed foods. In September I moved out on my own and only stocked small amounts of food so that I wouldn't overeat. Since the beginning of December I started calorie counting and that has helped dramatically. Down about 6lbs in one month, whereas I was losing much slower before that.
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