This is how this guy quit drugs, alcohol and fast food and lost 60 kg

This is how this guy quit drugs, alcohol and fast food and lost 60 kg.
No hunger strikes, exercise equipment, and nutritionists. He did it all wrong.

Stephen Odom is a 28-year-old photographer based in Houston. He developed his own concept of a healthy life and told it to Buzzfeed. Here is his story.

When Odom finished school, he became addicted to recreational drugs. Subsequently, he turned into a real drug addict.

This is how this guy quit drugs, alcohol and fast food and lost 60 kg.

He started smoking weed as a teenager. Then she was for him a great way to get rid of anxiety. With her help, he relaxed.

But drug use is a reckless method of self-medication. "It all started with a fun party surrounded by nice people. But the end turned out to be absolutely terrible," Odom writes in his blog. tried to stifle his inner illness. "

In the end, it all ended with the guy actually losing control of his addiction and almost getting kicked out of high school for absenteeism.

When Odom turned a little over twenty, his whole life was one continuous despondency. He understood that something needed to be changed.

This is how this guy quit drugs, alcohol and fast food and lost 60 kg

For example, at 22, he began to drink 2-3 liters of whiskey a week. By oneself. He took tons of antidepressants. His therapist ended up giving the guy an ultimatum: either he abandons his old lifestyle, or he never comes to see him again.

It worked! Odom became a member of the state rehabilitation program to get rid of addiction. The fight was not easy: it lasted for years, relapses happened, but by August 2009, the guy was able to learn to lead a sober lifestyle.

Nevertheless, even after completing the rehabilitation course, Odom felt that he was still missing something.

This is how this guy quit drugs, alcohol and fast food and lost 60 kg

By that time, he had already realized that he wanted to do portrait photography, and everything seemed to be fine. But Odom was not happy. He tried to figure out why, what was wrong with him. And he came to the conclusion that he needed to drastically change his lifestyle.

He realized that he urgently needed to lose weight. Since childhood, he was a chubby child and during his school days even once tried the Atkins diet on himself. When all attempts to lose weight were in vain, Odom simply stopped worrying about him. And he began to eat everything. And he recovered to 140 kg.



He didn't know what healthy eating ("I've never eaten a salad in my life") or training.

"When I decided to change, I was a little scared. But sobriety was not easy for me. So I prepared for another battle. I realized that I needed to go the same way. And I began to immerse myself in studies on weight loss, began to read a lot I started going to the gym. At first it was nauseous, but over time I liked it! ", - he says.

The changes were hard for him and were rather slow. But now Odom likes the way he looks and how he feels.

This is how this guy quit drugs, alcohol and fast food and lost 60 kg

He started working on the simulators 4-5 times a week for 30-45 minutes. Some of the excess weight is gone. Encouraged by his results, Odol decided to speed up the process and change his diet for this. He just removed soda, fast food and candy from it. “I didn't know how to eat right, but I knew these things were very bad for my health,” he explains.

Changes were hard for him. Odom learned to cook for himself on his own. Now he buys healthy foods once a week, starts cycling and says it "cleans his head very well." A couple of months ago, he even developed his own training method in the gym and sticks to it.

Just four years after such training, Odom began to weigh 79 kg. Here's what he has to say about his success:

“It seems to me that people do not kill themselves deliberately. Most are rather naive and believe that all problems can be solved somehow later, later. But you have to start right now. It only seems at first that it is difficult to lead a healthy lifestyle. But the main thing here is to start. You get involved pretty quickly. And keeping yourself healthy is very cool. Life will not become "insipid", as you probably think, but very comfortable, cool and beautiful in everything. "

Here's how this guy quit drugs, alcohol and fast food and lost 60 kg.

Here are six lessons Odom believes helped him overcome himself and change his lifestyle.

This is how this guy quit drugs, alcohol and fast food and lost 60 kg

1. Reward yourself.

“You don’t have to do anything with excessive strain. I eat healthy food 6 days a week and enjoy pizza with my friend on Sundays. It's a little pleasure that you NEED to allow yourself to keep motivated to move on,” he says.

2. Focus on a short term goal.

"Don't get hung up on the big picture. I had to do something with my weight and sobriety. It's hard to start when you set the goal of" Losing 50 kg "or" Staying sober for the rest of your life. "You will help yourself if you set simple goals, and think only of them. "Today I want to be sober, go to the gym and not eat anything harmful at night. It's simple, and it will give me self-esteem. ”

3. Start small.

Don't skip junk food altogether. For starters, just cut back on your intake. If you can't give up soda altogether, start by giving it up once a week. Thursdays, for example.

4. Learn to cook some simple and healthy meals that you enjoy.

“As for me, I love Asian cuisine. I started by learning how to cook Thai chicken with vegetables and sauces. Dedicate at least an hour or two a week to cooking. It had a therapeutic and meditative effect on me. Today I really like to cook. I do not need to force myself: on the contrary, it is difficult to find time for cooking delicacies. Therefore, I cook something simple, but myself. "

5. Come up with a plan of action in case of depression.

"If you decide to change yourself, you should know that this will not be an easy walk. Sometimes it will be very difficult for you. Sometimes I feel so depressed that I cannot leave the house. At such moments I start cleaning the apartment, doing the laundry or I’m starting to cook. Can't even go to the grocery store? But you can, for example, call a friend. Or write to him in a chat. These little things just seem pointless. In fact, they are the first step to improving your self-esteem. In the end, they will help you get out of the stupor. "

6. Reward yourself for a job well done.

"After you have achieved in the gym, for example, the results that you have been striving for for a long time, go and buy yourself some gift. Buy yourself what you have wanted to buy for a long time, because you deserve it. Sometimes for this reason I buy a new pair of shoes, sometimes something like a blender. This self-rewarding habit allows me to move forward. "