Two Years - My Story of Losing 133 Pounds the Natural Way (By G Dustin Sanborn)

Two years. It has been two years since I first started my diet. Never did I expect my life to go in such a direction as it has in these last two years. I started my journey on what I consider to be the absolute second worst month for any one on a diet to endure, or start on—December, with November being the worst month. I remember the day that I met Giselle Willeford, my dietician at the time. She asked me a question that I imagine a lot of people get asked: “What’s your weight loss goal?”

My answer was simply a pat on the belly and me saying: “I want to lose this.”

Before I started my diet, I weighed 352 pounds. I chose the non-surgical path in losing weight. I had two reasons for going this route: Fear of surgery and I didn’t want to take the easy way out. I had been told by some people that the surgery could reverse diabetes and you feel better quickly. But I never found it worth the potential risk—because frankly, I find even the most simplistic operation to have risks. I consider surgery to be the equivalent to letting someone lay siege to your body. With those reasons in mind, I began my journey.

At first, all I really did was drink the protein shakes and eat the protein bars for breakfast and lunch, with my dinners actually being what you could call a meal. I was told early on by Giselle that I would have to work harder to lose the weight as I began to shed the pounds. Before May of 2013, I had only plateaued once, but what Giselle had said had sort of stuck with me. My only real form of physical activity was my going to physical therapy twice a week. Now, two years later, my weight is 219 pounds.

On May 29th, 2013, my life really took a turn in the right direction. I began training in the martial art of Wing Chun under Sifu Adam Williss at The Dragon Institute. I always had an interest in martial arts, but I had never heard of Wing Chun before. I took Tae Kwon Do at a very young age—even got up to a green belt! It eventually fell through though, and I don’t quite know why. I hadn’t entirely given up on the martial arts though. When I was thirteen years old, I tried Karate, but after I had broken my left Tibia, the Karate eventually faded away as well. But at that point, I was already dealing with weight issues—doing even the easy exercises was very challenging for me and was quick to get me out of breath. Fast forward to 2013… I’m now doing martial arts for the third time. I’m twenty years old and still over three hundred pounds. And to top it all off, my body is riddled with physical limitations such as poor posture, lack of functional flexibility and more. It could sound like a recipe for another failed martial arts attempt. But what ‘s the difference between before and this time around? For starters, I was already very much committed to my diet. I wanted to go off of what Giselle said—to work harder to lose more as I shed the pounds. Additionally, I wanted to make this actually work. Lucky for me, my Sifu was very accommodating to my limitations. Sifu Adam has always given me the encouragement to dig deeper to find my inner power, something I refer to as a “sleeping dragon”. A “sleeping dragon” is always cultivating his or her martial skill and finding ways to incorporate the warrior concepts into their everyday life. Every morning, I go out onto the very small porch that I have, and practice. I REALLY wanted to make this work. Plus, there was just something about Sifu Adam’s approach that empowered me to want to strive to actually practice—something I had never done with the Tae Kwon Do or the Karate!

Then on June 19th, my life took yet another turn in the right direction. I decided to also take up Ballroom Dancing. Actually, I get asked about why I started dancing a LOT. Until very recently, all I could really answer was that it was completely spontaneous. I was sitting at home on a Saturday—feeling pretty bored actually. Suddenly, I got a mental image of a couple doing a dance, which I believe was a Corte from the Tango. On a whim, I looked at studios that were close to where I live. Sure enough, I found a place, which now goes by the name of Dance United LH. My instructor for the Ballroom, Katya Marshukova has been immensely supportive of me in my strides in Ballroom, just as my Sifu has been. Katya has always pushed me to be a better dancer and I couldn’t ask for more in an instructor. My answer as to why I took up Ballroom was, until very recently, “the most spontaneous choice in my life to date”. But I never elaborated on it that much. Over time, however, I slowly found better answers as to how I took my start. The first realization I had was that my footwork has ALWAYS been a very big issue in my life when it came to anything involving me to be active. I thought to myself “Hey! Maybe I can instill the fear of stepping on women’s toes to help my footwork out!” To be honest, I was never against the idea of trying Ballroom Dancing, but I never actually saw myself doing it.

At this point, I was less than a month into the Wing Chun, so to add Ballroom practice along with my Wing Chun seemed like it might overwhelm, but fact of the matter is that I had a want to lose the weight, I wanted to get out more and meet people, but I wasn’t in any rush to lose the weight. I had a motivation to lose weight! Before I started the Ballroom, I was practicing my Wing Chun every day in the morning for about a half hour roughly, but after I started the Ballroom, it went up to around an hour. The amount of time increased, but I still do it—everyday. There are exceptions though (there always are!) There have been times where I was sick and took it easy, or days where I had zero energy and could not do a thing. I always say to myself to know your limits and to push them, but never try and break your limits, because breaking your own limits can lead to more issues later on, but pushing your limits lets you gradually build up your stamina. The best way to describe it is if you were running along a straight line and came up to a wall, you could try breaking through the wall, but when you do, you find that there’s another wall behind the first one, whereas pushing your limits would be climbing the wall. Once you reach the top of that wall, you see the second wall as you reach the top and see that the second wall is sturdier than the first wall, as well as taller, but you feel ready to climb that wall as well. I found that with pushing my own limits, I’ve learned a great deal about myself—my strengths and my weaknesses. I was already aware of some of my weaknesses before starting both the Wing Chun and the Ballroom, but as I went along, I learned about my hidden strengths and weaknesses. I now have a more defining answer as to why I began the dancing. Wing Chun is what led me to Ballroom! The very first thing I learned in Wing Chun was Siu Nim Tao, which translates to “The Little Idea”. Ballroom Dancing is my Little Idea. A way to better understand this term is to think about a flower seed. It starts out very small and with time and care, blossoms above the ground. I never expected to be so involved with the dancing, but since Wing Chun and Ballroom Dancing go together so well, I have found so much motivation in honing them both.

I found that one of my biggest factors in keeping myself committed to my weight loss was that I never really thought about it. I still don’t to be entirely honest. I am aware of my progress, don’t get me wrong, but I have always felt—even from the beginning—that thinking about the weight loss progress was never really a smart idea. Some people out there really obsess over losing weight, and unfortunately, it can actually turn off people interested in losing weight. I just live my life one day at a time. I also have found that weighing myself once a month is plenty, and I don’t do it at home. I do it at The N.E.W. Program only. I never liked those square scales that you can buy for home—I always thought of the Garfield comics whenever I stood on one of those whenever I tried weighing myself. Plus, weighing oneself frequently can be demoralizing, which could lead to comfort eating. And that is bad.

Through this journey, I’ve had my ups and downs. There’s no denying it. Losing weight is never sunshine and daisies. To be honest though, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’ve had times where I’ve felt that I’ve made no progress, but when losing weight, the one who is actually losing the weight is likely the LAST person to see their progress—because they’re with themselves for every second of their lives. Even if you happen to be living with someone else—they will be seeing the progress before you do! When I say that you are the last person to see the progress, I speak from personal experience. I was nearly a year into my diet before I noticed the difference. I COULD have seen it sooner, but I was too dedicated to what I was doing to see it. In a way, I sort of chose not to.

I feel that I have learned more about myself as I have shed the pounds. I gave my diet the nickname of “The Snake Diet” out of a small portion of my sometimes very twisted sense of humor. I call it that for two reasons: the first one is to get reactions from people. Then I explain the actual reason… because of the shedding that snakes do. When snakes shed their skin, it is a process for them. As they begin to wriggle themselves out of their old skin (with the assistance of rough surfaces, like a tree for example), they cast off the old skin like a sock. Like the snakes, I am “shedding” my weight! After the shedding process is done, the snake has brighter layer of scales. Although, I don’t have any bright and shiny scales to show, I feel more energetic and brighter, so in my case, the new layer of bright scales represents my new lifestyle. My old lifestyle—my old and dry scales--was pretty much to eat, sleep, and just stay inside—no socializing except online. My new lifestyle—the new scales—represent my change in weight, my commitment to Wing Chun and Ballroom Dancing, and my wanting to get out more and socialize with people I can see face-to-face.

Well, this has been my journey. In just two short years, I’ve lost 133 pounds. People and methods I used have played such an instrumental role in my success. I couldn’t have done it by myself. It has really made me treasure the symbolic nature of what it means to be on a journey. But despite the fact that I've been walking this path for two years now, I have a feeling that the journey is only beginning!