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6 min read<\/p>\n6 min read<\/p>\n
When Jesse Ramos, Jr., was in his twenties, he began to notice that he didn\u2019t look like the other guys around him. He began feeling insecure about his looks but it didn\u2019t really hit home for him until he got rejected over it by his crush. Now he\u2019s 39 years old and in the best shape of his life. He turned his rejection into a lightbulb moment to make a change\u2014and love himself again in the process. <\/p>\n
I WAS BORN<\/strong> a chubby baby. My nickname was “Gordo,” meaning “chubby boy” in Spanish. It was meant as a playful term of endearment in my family. It didn\u2019t help that the weight didn\u2019t come off. I was roughly between 170 to 190 pounds growing up. In my defense, I didn\u2019t have guidance on nutrition. In Mexican culture, it\u2019s commonly thought that men should eat more. My grandma was always feeding me back then.<\/p>\n In high school, I did lose weight when I joined the swim team. At 16, I lost about 15 pounds. That was one of my first real exposures to consistent movement. Looking back, that\u2019s when I started to understand that movement is medicine, even if I didn\u2019t fully realize it at the time.<\/p>\n The small improvement to my health stalled when I started splitting my time working at Carl\u2019s Jr. fast food restaurant. I did it to help my family with finances. The cooks loved me and made me anything I wanted to eat. I was eating triple cheeseburgers with bacon and egg, loaded cross-cut fries with cheese and bacon bits, and fried spicy chicken sandwiches. I also drank chocolate\/strawberry milkshakes and I loved my Dr Pepper<\/a>.<\/p>\n I kept eating whatever I wanted and however I wanted. It did catch up to me. Before I hit my heaviest, I was around 190 to 205 pounds. I eventually got up to 255 a year after graduating high school. It didn\u2019t happen overnight\u2014it was small habits adding up.<\/p>\n Still, the weight didn\u2019t bother me. I was too busy having fun drinking alcohol with my friends, and just living the carefree life of a 20-year-old.<\/p>\n Everything changed when I turned 21. My quality of life started to deteriorate when I looked around and realized\u2014 I didn\u2019t look like the other guys. I got extremely insecure and started drinking more to cope. I began fighting a downhill battle with my self-image<\/a>.<\/p>\n I only started to lose weight when I was trying to get someone to like me. They were athletic and in great shape. When I finally worked up the nerve to express my love, I got rejected<\/a>. They didn\u2019t explicitly say it was because of my weight but I could read the room.<\/p>\n The rejection was embarrassing. It also forced me to look at myself honestly. I had only started to lose weight to impress someone. But I should never do something for someone else, only myself.<\/p>\n The self-reflection helped me acknowledge some harsh truths. I had no real discipline, self-respect, or clear direction. That was when it clicked for me: nothing changes if nothing changes. If I wanted a better life, I had to start making better decisions. The same year, I started a new weight loss journey.<\/p>\n My Slow but Steady Changes to My Diet<\/p>\n First, I focused on making small changes to my diet. I typically ate a double cheeseburger with bacon, a lot of fries, and a milkshake. The milkshake alone was probably 800 calories!<\/p>\n I modified the meal to a double cheeseburger with lettuce rather than bacon. I downsized to a small order of fries and skipped the milkshake.<\/p>\n I learned how to cook my own meals and focused on high-protein<\/a> whole foods like chicken, fish, and sweet potatoes. I also started eating my food with small forks\u2014and dropping it between bites in order to not pack more food in. As my cooking skills improved, I made a strong effort to stop eating fast food completely and cut out meals rich in sugar and refined carbs. I also stopped drinking beer<\/a>.<\/p>\n To keep myself on track, I avoided food shopping when I was starving because I was more likely to buy junk. In terms of portion control, my rule of thumb for a meal became a fist and a half of protein, a fistful of carbs, and two fistfuls of fiber.<\/p>\n I Exercised Even on the Busiest Days<\/p>\n In the beginning, I had no clue what I was doing. I was basically on the treadmill every day for 30 minutes to an hour, and did a few biceps curls<\/a> with 5-pound weights. I had no idea if my form was right.<\/p>\n My workouts evolved by watching my stepdad, Martin. He was a bodybuilder\u2014big chest, big arms and I wanted to look like that. I tried P90X<\/a>, but it was too advanced for me at the time. I just focused on showing up and copying what he would do.<\/p>\n I started walking for 15 minutes, then built up to 30-minute runs, eventually up to an hour. I\u2019d put music on and get in the zone. Motion is lotion\u2014the more I moved, the better I felt physically and mentally. Later, I prioritized lifting weights, focusing on proper form, and progressive overloading.<\/p>\n
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