THE WORST WAY TO LOSE WEIGHT

Okay, so there are much worse ways to lose weight than the one I'm about to discuss, such as dehydrating in the middle of the desert or some other similarly gruesome fate. What I'm about to relate happened to me just over a year ago, and yes, it did make me lose a lot of weight in a relatively short amount of time, but it's the weight loss method I'd recommend the least.

In early 2009, I was accepted into a prestigious company in my country, and given the typical office desk job. My qualifications were pretty god, so they gave me a lot of responsibilities. It was really fun for the first 3 months or so, but after that, things became extremely hectic. The company was completing a project that was extremely grand, and a guaranteed success, but it was very much behind on it. The company was also brand new so it had very little employees at the time. Put two and two together and you see me handling the job of at least a dozen employees.

WORST. JOB. EVER.

Don't let this happen to you!

It became so bad that I was eventually working from 9 in the morning to midnight, every day for 6 days. Without any overtime pay. I, of course, burned out after a few weeks of doing that, and took a sick day because of it, but still went back to work the very next day like the good, little lap dog that I was. Going through something like this stresses a person out to extremes. One week was bad enough with this sort of pressure, but I had to endure it for two whole months! During this time, I thought long and hard if this was what I wanted to do the rest of my life, and two straight months of my superiors telling me that "this is going to get better, just be patient", didn't really help me too much.

I, of course, turned in my resignation and got the hell out of there as quickly as I could. The job did have a promising future, but if it was already seriously costing me my health after only 4 months, then I didn't want any part of it. I had tried to keep in the best shape I could at the time, as I'd already valued health and fitness for years on end, so sacrificing my body and my beliefs for a steady paycheck didn't sit well with me. At all.

WEIGHT LOSS THE WRONG WAY

Christian Bale from "The Machinist".

Aside from overall health and self-esteem, the other thing that I noticed drop was my weight. During the two whole months of office hell, my weight went from 210 to 199 pounds. 11 pounds in 8 weeks! Not bad. Or, should I say, terribly bad. I really don't think that sacrificing all your health and happiness for 2 months justifies  losing 11 pounds in 8 weeks, especially if much of that is most probably muscle. I looked like a real zombie back then. And some of my superiors and co-workers didn't fare any better. Good old lap dogs.

WEIGHT LOSS THE RIGHT WAY?

After I left that horrid job, though, I bounced back, weight wise that is, by fighting through depression with cookies and ice cream! Yeah, take that, bad feelings! I went back to exercising every day, but I ate like a farm animal every day, just shoveling any yummy treat in my mouth to make me feel better. Because of my constant exercise, I didn't balloon ridiculously like some people do while fighting through depression, but I did become very fat (emphasis on VERY). So, I quickly went from 199 to 214 pounds.

Jon Pearlstone, aka "Mr. EET".

Very recently, though, I discovered the EET Fitness Plan, and, after only 6 weeks on it, I lost 10 pounds of body fat! So, not only did I maintain all my muscle mass, I feel happy and full of energy every day! Take that, weight loss from stress! The health part is the reason for the question mark in that subtitle, though. Many of the people in the fitness community have voiced out their disgust for the plan, since it allows its participants to eat any sort of junk food literally every day. So, the questions about my long-term health on this plan are still really up in the air.

So far, though, the plan's going great. I feel excellent, and the plan has generated tremendous long term health improvements from some of the other members, so hope remains positive for me.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Stress in society is very commonplace, and it's a serious cause of decline in public health. Having gone through some tremendous stress myself, I really recommend that anyone who feels close to burning out completely remove themselves from the source of the stress immediately. If you're in it for the long haul, then it's not worth it. Get out now! I'm not forcing anyone, but that's what I did and I don't regret it for even a second.