Isaac Lost 150 Pounds And Found Happiness

An unfortunate childhood trauma turned Isaac Velarde's life upside down. "I was abused when I was about 9 years old," he explains. "Ever since then, my crutch has always been food."

Battling the horrors he faced in his past turned Isaac from a healthy, happy kid into a depressed and overweight teenager, hitting 240 pounds by the time he entered high school.

As he got older, Isaac continued to deal with his emotions by using food as a source of comfort. Junk food like burgers were his go-to. "I didn't address my issues at all until I was an adult," he says. "Until I actually got help, I just always turned to food. I would eat whether I was happy or sad. Food was my escape. It was my drug."

By the time he was in his 30s, Isaac had developed type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol, and osteoporosis. All of his medical issues were direct results of his obesity. But with mental and emotional healing came the motivation to turn his physical health around, and Isaac underwent a massive transformation.

This is Isaac's story.

How did your trauma affect you mentally?

It affected my whole adolescence and my teenage life. I never went out with girls, because I thought something was wrong with me. I was always suicidal and depressed. I just wasn't a normal person. As I grew up and started my adult life, the depression got worse. Through it all, food was my constant.

And how did that affect you physically?

My weight fluctuated. I played sports in school, so I would lose weight during the season, but then in the offseason I would gain it all back. In college, I got down to about 195 pounds, but even though I was working out, I couldn't keep my weight stable because my nutrition wasn't right. I wasn't eating for my goals, and that was always the missing piece. I always went back to using food as my escape and ended up gaining back more weight than I lost.

Every year, my threshold kept going up. By my 30s, I was over 300 pounds. At that point, I couldn't even look at myself; I stayed away from mirrors when I brushed my teeth. I would shave my head, but without looking. I always turned the other way. I was just so disappointed in my physical appearance. Everything was starting to hit me, and I knew that I needed to start finding out what had gone wrong and how to fix it.

When were you able to take control of your past?

The man who molested me started trying to contact me on Facebook as an adult, and I had a breakdown. I got suspended from work, and I fell apart. I really did. Emotionally, I just broke down. That was when I started to get help. I had never told my parents what happened to me. I was able to come clean with them, and they wished I'd told them earlier.

I was sick. Being so overweight made it hard to get through a day of work without hurting at the end of the day, and spending time with my family or playing outside with the kids was impacted by my limited mobility. I started to connect the dots and realize that I was using food to try to fix myself.

That year, I had a friend die of sleep apnea. He weighed over 360 pounds, and he was just a couple of years older than me. I felt like my time clock on life was expiring—I couldn't say for sure how much time I had left, but I wouldn't be surprised if I only had a year or two at that point. I had to make a drastic change.

Who helped you make changes to your health?

I have a friend who is a nutritionist, and she saw that I was struggling. She worked for a company that sponsored me on a weight-loss challenge by supplying nutritional counseling. They monitored my weight and body fat and taught me how to eat again.

I learned about the nutritional side of things: How to make my meal plans, adjust my macros, and prep my meals. Ever since then, I've never looked back.

What changes did she make to your diet?

One of the first things she did was put me on a higher-protein diet. She also started giving me better options for carbs and healthier fats. I'm Hispanic, and we eat a lot of bad carbs and fats and very little protein. My nutritionist friend taught me how to balance my macronutrients so I had a concrete plan.

How did that compare to your diet before?

I used to starve all day, then pack in 3,500-4,500 calories at night. That was my meal plan. In the beginning, I remember sitting at my desk and literally crying because I was craving a burger or an unhealthy snack.

After I had a balanced meal plan, I ate seven times a day. Eating small meals every 2-4 hours helped me curb cravings because I was never hungry. Now, even when I have a cheat meal, which is rarely, I get sick because my body can't handle those bad fats and bad carbs anymore.