Ever struggle to balance two or three important things at the same time?
For Nathaniel Young, it felt like he had an eight-pronged candle that was constantly on fire.
I was trying to work through childhood and teenage traumas while simultaneously working two jobs, establishing my own business, moving out of my parents house for the first time, planning a wedding with my then-fianc, training for a bodybuilding show, and replacing my car with a more reliable one, he says.
What prompted Young to handle so much at once? During his childhood, he experienced a lot of anxiety from body image issues and trying to please his parents. At 14, Young started bodybuilding as a coping mechanism.
At 22, he thought that filling his life with more money, a better relationship, and other seemingly positive things would allow him to let go of the disappointment he still carried.
But not long after Young turned 23, while he was trying to juggle everything, he started experiencing manic episodes.
A doctor prescribed him medication to help him cope with depression, which was his initial diagnosis. I didnt realize until it was too late that the medication I was taking actually enhanced my manic episodes, panic attacks, and anxiety.
The breaking point for me was when I was hospitalized for a week in 2017 for having manic and suicidal episodes as a result of taking myself off my medication without consulting my doctor, he says. During that week, Young realized that he needed to make a change, because his way of handling his life was not working.
Young didnt make the change right away. Four months after his hospitalization, Young was at his heaviest, at 50 pounds overweight (weighing in at 230 pounds). He was spending his money erratically, like putting non-refundable deposits on his wedding without consulting his ex-fianc and spending hundreds of dollars on designer colognes.
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Then, the realization that hed made in the hospitalthat he needed to make a changereally set in. He started consistently going to therapy and he ended his engagement with his fianc. Theyd both come to the realization that they were just not meant to be together, especially after the stress hed felt he put on the relationship with his previously deteriorating mental state.
I also began to train as if I had a bodybuilding competition lined up, he says. Young ran around his neighborhood in the mornings, and lifted weights in the evenings. He returned to the gym hed gone to when he was 16 to start his own training business.
Over the course of the next year he lost the entire 50 pounds hed gained, he placed in the top 5 of his division in a body building competition, and he quickly built his training business.
What kept me motivated was that I had completely severed my ties to my past life. I was making a fresh start and I was determined to create a life for myself I never had. As a result, I started living my life like I had everything to live for as opposed to living like I have nothing to lose.
By working on his mental healththrough therapy and at by transforming his overall health through fitnessYoung feels like hes now living his best life.
I have much more confidence in myself and what I am doing with my life. I can walk with my truth, proudly knowing that what I have done does not define who I am, and that I am bigger than my mistakes.
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Fitness and Therapy Helped This Guy Drop 50 Pounds - Weight Loss - Men's Health
