La LUCHA de Ibai contra su propio CUERPO | Ibai Llanos | Documental

These were Ibai's words after trying to lose weight once again.

It's not that easy. You keep saying that there are very cruel people who go beyond the limits with the issue of overweight and making jokes that you'll have a lot of money but you'll die next year.

And sometimes it's not easy, man. You feel ridiculous as a human being. After a couple of times of having published his attempts to lose weight, many people began to stop believing that he could achieve it. And instead of support, they began to throw comments and teeth, making fun of him for not having enough willpower. The words in the podcast are very forceful statements. But Ibai does not plan to give up, because he still has a little more to give.

After this podcast, he tried one last time, on a training trip, diet and effort that culminated in 8 days of daily walks to complete the Camino de Santiago. One of the biggest challenges I had done so far. And when I saw how this ended, I was deeply moved. On March 26, 1995, in a town in northern Spain, Ibai Llanos Garatea was born.

A cheerful and restless child who does not like school very much, but football. Since he was a child, he has become a fan of Bilbao Athletic and Real Madrid. He follows the Spanish League and the Champions League closely, and not only enjoys it as a spectator, but also as a player. At the age of six, he joins the school team, where he meets the one who will be one of his greatest friends, Ander Cortés. The attraction of football is the way commentators like Manolo Lama and Andres Montes narrate the games, with so much passion and emotion that they make the audience feel the same. That's why not a single episode of Carrusel Deportivo is missed,

a program where commentators joke and leave their heart in the narrations. But this childhood receives a hard blow in 2008, when a global economic crisis shakes the whole world, including Spain. Many companies go bankrupt, the economy slows down and entire families start to struggle to get to the end of the month, including the Yanos family. Debts begin to accumulate, money begins to run out, banks keep calling the father to collect and all this stress begins to harm the relationship of his parents, until one

day the love, tired of resisting, gives up. When Ibai is around 13 years old, his parents make the decision to take different paths. This is a dark moment in Ibai's life, who after that event feels completely lost. He has no money to go out with his friends and the situation he lives in is complicated, but fortunately he finds a shelter that keeps him busy. And these are the video games, especially Call of Duty, a game in which you spend whole afternoons having fun with your friends,

including the good old Ander. All this happens between 2010 and 2011, when on YouTube the commentated gameplays start to gain strength. That is, record a game while the player narrates or reacts to what happens, something very similar to what sports commentators who love Ibai do. With his passion for videogames and narration, Ibai is encouraged to try his luck and opens, along with his friends, a Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 channel. By that time, Ibai was still a very active boy, he tries to try football 11 but let's say

he doesn't love it. In addition, by those dates he met the video game League of Legends, he had a strong ankle sprain and was already tired of having played sports with intensity all his life. A combination of factors that resulted in him stopping to exercise completely. A decision that will have repercussions in the long term. Although the first videos hardly have visits, Ibai and his friends enjoy doing them. But the content changes when one day Ibai and Ander comment on a League of Legends game while a friend plays. Despite this loss, the narration is so funny that his friend suggests doing it more often.

So they start narrating maturely matches at the Bronze level, the lowest edition of the game at that time. The players are terrible, but the way that Ibai and Ander tell each play makes bad matches become entertaining. All this on Twitch, a live streaming platform. And when Ibai turns 19, he comes across an announcement that will mark his destiny. The Spanish Professional Video Game League is looking for narrators for League of Legends. So he and Ander are presented to the casting on the last day.

And to his surprise, they are selected. His first experience with the LVP, the most important video game league in Spain, arrives in August 2014, when Ibai and Ander narrate a League of Legends game online in season 7. But they still don't know what it's like to face an audience live. That winter, they are chosen to narrate the Gamergy tournament, their first face-to-face event. At first, the nerves are felt, but little by little Ibai lets go, improves with each game, catches people's attention and even dares to throw a couple of jokes.

In addition to gaining experience, that day he meets Ernesto Folch, better known as Barbecue, and Antonio Pino, one of the best players of the LVP, known as Reven. He gets along very well with both, which gives rise to a friendship for life. Thanks to the potential that Ibai shows, the LVP offers him to become a full-time commentator in the Super League, the main League of Legends competition in Spain. Unlike before, now he would narrate the best players in the country, but the opportunity comes at a high cost. To join the LVP, he must move to Barcelona, that is, leave Bilbao behind, his family and his friends. It is not a easy decision. He's only 19 years old and he's very attached to his things.

Even so, he knows he has to take the step and accepts the offer. At the beginning of the year, Ibai moves to dedicate himself completely to being a commentator. He narrates in the Super League and also in the broadcasts of the League Championship Series, the most important professional league in the United States and Canada. However, something very complicated is about to happen in his life. Ibai realizes that one bad day he decides to go to a restaurant to eat.

Everything was going well until he suddenly begins to feel that he is choking. As much as he tries, he can not breathe. And when they try to help him, they realize that there is nothing in his throat. That feeling of suffocation was actually due to a panic attack. Since he arrived in Barcelona, life has not been easy. The distance from his family, the weight of new responsibilities such as caster and the exposure to the public

begin to cost him. But for now, he does not know that it is a psychological problem. The only thing he knows is that he feels worse and worse. So much so that he chooses to stay at home whenever he can, because going out overwhelms him. He says he was aware that people on the street didn't recognize him, but since he started narrating with the LVP, he felt that they were watching him all the time. Anxiety grows, accompanied by numbness in the arms and arrhythmias, which leads him to visit a doctor. He assures him that he has nothing physical,

but he doesn't explain to him that it's a mental issue, increasing his concern. But for the boy's fortune, he ends up finding the explanation for his discomfort. And this is that he has begun to suffer from anxiety and panic attacks. When he finds out about his diagnosis, he gets a little obsessed with the subject and spends his free time looking for testimonies on the internet of other people who have gone through something similar. This calms him down a bit, because now he knows that he is not going to die and that he is not alone. Later he begins to go to therapy to learn how to manage those attacks and manages to keep them under control.

Despite all this, Ibai continues to put an incredible effort into his work and manages to keep all this hidden while he casts. With time in therapy, Ibai manages to be much better and that is also reflected in his work as a commentator. His narration has always been passionate, but now humor and emotion appear more naturally. That same year, the LVP asks him to open a Twitter account to share the links of the games he narrates. At first he only publishes that, but little by little he shares other types of things. One of the first times we see this new side of him is in a video where, with a commentator's voice of football, he gives his mother bad news, that he rejected a subject.

The tweet went viral and from then on, Ibai continues to upload this type of content more and more often. For example, another video that goes viral is a clip of him narrating in the way of a sports commentator how to lie on a bed. Meanwhile, his career as a commentator continues to rise, and in the 2016 League of Legends World Championship, it gives us one of the most memorable moments in the history of the LVP

and the cast of the Spanish-speaking League. The confrontation of ROX against G2. The game flowed naturally while Ibai narrated what was happening. However, when the 33rd minute of the game arrives, ROX turns the teamfight around and eliminates the enemy team in a crushing way. Ibai's passion overpowers him and he can't help but scream

SON REBORN! SON REBORN!

This clip goes viral and crowns Ibai as one of the best casters in all the League regions. It also gives even more visibility to the World Cups in the Spanish-speaking community, so in the next World Cup, the entire League community gathers, yes, to watch the games, but above all to see them narrated by the good Ibai. That is why many people are expecting the narration of the next year, and it is precisely in that 2017 World Cup where magic happens again. Now the SKT team has a thrilling team fight against EDG, which makes Ibai once again start screaming.

They are robots! They are robots!

This is an iconic moment in the League of Legends world, so much so that years later it would be included in the opening ceremony of the 2023 World Final. The following year, Ibai fulfills one of his dreams when he is invited as a commentator to the game between the Athletic of his hometown Bilbao and Barcelona. This marks the first time he narrates a professional football game, but not the last. In addition to this great achievement, Ibai continues to grow in networks. He realizes that he can do anything entertaining

through his narration, so he continues on that path. He narrates from some competitive things like the Tetris World Cup final, where he makes a relatively simple game become a show, to marbles competitions on a small track, and also dog obstacle races. All with the same seriousness and charisma with which he could narrate a FIFA game.

And how fast he passes the tunnels! This dog is sure that his owner's leg doesn't fuck him! This dog is sure that he doesn't shit at home like mine does! Because look how good he is!

And it is precisely that charisma that begins to make people stay to follow him. He speaks with so much naturalness that it seems that you are listening to a lifelong friend, and that makes his content even more connected. The clearest example of this is one of his most viral videos, where he appears in a suit with a pen in his hand and speaking as if he were the technical director of a team, with the intention of giving you the strategy and motivating you to pass your exams. And all these factors, especially charisma, begin to make whoever sees Ibai begin to feel a kind of closeness with him, but we will talk about that later, because at the moment, although from time to time he turns on live on Twitch,

it is not something he does systematically. In 2018 Ibai promoted one of its most important projects so far. During the Fun & Series festival in Bilbao, he organized a charity event that brings together YouTubers, casters, streamers and League of Legends coaches in a face-to-face tournament. Thanks to that, they manage to raise 36,000 euros for the Juega Terapia Foundation, dedicated to creating gaming spaces for children hospitalized with cancer.

Thanks to its growing popularity, in 2019 it launches its own television program called Hoy no se sale, a late night of dynamic interviews with people from the world of entertainment and video games. As we have seen, the priority of Ibai has always been work. That dedication has brought him great results, but it has also had a very high cost, and that is his health. For years he has been dealing with problems with his weight, but with the increasingly

intense rhythm of his career, the problem has worsened. In addition, he seems to be a kind of vicious circle because his profession and the dynamics that accompany it have pushed him to lead a sedentary life and have bad habits. If he is not narrating a game for the LVP, he is on Twitch streaming, uploading content to networks or planning the next videos. He spends almost all day sitting in front of the computer, and for the little time he has available, it is more efficient to buy fast food to be able to continue working.

Over time, the problem with his weight became an obesity and the situation has reached the point of causing him sleep apnea, forcing him to sleep with a CPAP mask. In addition, his mobility is increasingly limited, he is already starting to have problems tying his shoelaces and his self-esteem has also suffered a hard blow. For these reasons, Ibai comes to the conclusion that he cannot continue like this, and proposes to have a physical change, promising his community that if he does not lose between 10 and 15 kilos, he will jump from a plane in parachutes. But the passage of time reveals to us that this was a proposal that he could not fulfill. And the most discouraging of all is that when he tries to find a company to fulfill his promise and make the jump,

he discovers that it weighs more than what is allowed for security, so he fails to fulfill any of his promises. Of course, before going off the page, he makes it clear that he will not give up on his way to better health. In January 2020, an era comes to an end when he announces his departure from the LVP to focus on a new project. This new project was announced through a video on YouTube. There we see how it will be a kind on YouTube. There we see how it's going to be a kind of interview. Then the interviewer turns in his chair and reveals to be Carlos Ocelote Rodríguez,

owner of G2, who welcomes the G2 team. G2 Esports is a professional organization of electronic sports and compete in several video games, including League of Legends. But Ibai is not hired to compete. His job is to create content,

mainly through Twitch. But he's not alone. Ibai is accompanied by his friends Ander, Reven and BarbeQ, who are now also his roommates. The G2 rents a big house to them outside Barcelona, so it's easier for them to create content together. With this begins a very nice stage in Ibai's life,

as he spends his days and nights creating content with his friends. But these good news come with a historical event that will change the world and the way of consuming the internet forever. Just a month after its beginning with G2, the pandemic by COVID arrived and the whole world is in confinement. Consequently, young people who can no longer go out to socialize are looking for other ways of connecting to the community, and this is found on the internet. Of course, it is not the same to talk to someone in person, to have a screen in between, but for the historical moment, you can't ask for much either. Seeing other people on the internet talk or do things begins to be a kind of substitute for socializing,

and one of the platforms that begin to grow the most in users is Twitch, because the fact that they are people transmitting live gives an even greater feeling of closeness, and it is the coincidence that Ibai was doing the right job at the right time. Knowing that many people are alone and having a hard time, he decides to contribute his grain of sand, starting a season that he still remembers with affection. In March 2020, Ibai organizes with the Santander Bank a beneficial FIFA 20 tournament broadcast on Twitch, with which he raises 180,000 euros

for the fight against the coronavirus. He also creates the IbaiVision, his own version of the European music contest to entertain people during the pandemic. At the same time that he organizes these events, Ibai spends his days streaming, where he plays everything with his friends, from games already known as Fortnite to simpler ones, but sometimes more fun as Pinturillo. Ibai also starts uploading his streams to his YouTube channel,

which helps him grow his audience on this platform, increasing his number of views and followers. Now, like Ibai, many other creators began to put effort into doing live streams, which made the community even bigger, so it was normal that streamers would invite each other to chat in their live broadcasts. This resulted in Ibai starting to frequent the Argentinean freestyler Papo on his streams. In one of his talks, he has a conversation

that they called Fat Anecdotes. The video begins with the two of them assuring that this time they will keep a strict diet to lose weight. Then, both share what it means to live with obesity and how that complicates many things on day. There they say that it is not that they want to lead a unhealthy lifestyle, but changing eating habits that have been around for so long is much more difficult than people think. This conversation motivates them and a couple of weeks later they make a bet.

Both commit to losing weight and reach 90 kilos or less in a year. But if one does not achieve it, he will have to donate 30,000 euros to the other. For Ibai, a complicated period begins. He has to change many habits all at once, and although at the beginning he trains constantly, food is his Achilles heel. Because although at first he says goodbye to everything he loves to eat, more than once he ends up breaking the diet.

With the passage of the months, Pbai continues to do live streams almost daily. He plays with other streamers, Fall Guys, Monopoly, Uno, reacts to food videos or to millionaire houses of Korean real estate, and even opens mysterious boxes. But what really marks this stage is the boom of Among Us. Like everyone else, he joins the fever of the game

and spends hours streaming it on Twitch, bringing together hundreds of thousands of people and forming a very special community. Thanks to those streams, the Twitch streamer community becomes even closer. Its name begins to sound much stronger and becomes one of the streamers with the greatest growth and popularity on the platform. In the midst of all this, Ibai announces a new section on his Twitch channel called

Charlando Tranquilamente. The idea is to invite sports figures and celebrities to have a relaxed chat. It starts strong with Gerard Piqué as the first guest, and the section quickly becomes one of the public's favorites. This is largely thanks to the fact that they are much more casual and relaxed chats than we are used to seeing with celebrities of that caliber. Among the guests are Ronaldinho, Raul Alejandro, Ed Sheeran, Sergio Ramos and J Balvin. He even manages to get Zeta Ngana to go to his house to chat and play Among Us together.

But the beginning of something even bigger is about to come. And this is the first time of the year. It all starts in a League of Legends stream when Reven and Elmiyor, another popular streamer on Twitch, lose a game. And in between jokes, they say they will solve the problem by force. It was just a joke, but when it got to Twitter, things exploded more than expected. Ibai sees it and thinks they could make this joke real.

A amateur boxing fight that they can broadcast on Twitch. So he invites several content creators to join the fight, although the main course is the fight between Reven and Elmillor, who physically prepare for the occasion. But setting up an event like this is not easy, especially when there were still restrictions due to the pandemic, which complicates the process. Even with these difficulties, Ibai does not give up and after weeks of preparation he manages to get everything ready for the first night of the year,

celebrated on May 26, 2021 in Barcelona. One of Ibai's main goals is to create quality entertainment, and this is no exception. In addition to the fight between Reven and Elmillor, two other fights are carried out, one between Mr. Jagger and ViruSs and another between Future vs. Torete. To increase the factor of the show, Ibai contacts three artists to be presented that night, Blon, Roju and Piezas. The result of all this effort is an event that turns out to be a resounding success, becoming the second most viewed live of the platform with more than 1.5 million viewers.

Between streams and talks, the months continue, until the day comes when the bet against Papo ends. After a year, Papo and Ibai make a stream in which Papo weighs himself live, where he lets us see that he has managed to lose between 40 and 45 kilos, radically changing his life and improving his health. An achievement that Ibai celebrates with affection. However, Ibai's story is another. Although he manages to lose some good pounds, he does not reach the goal. Even so, he keeps his word and transfers the huge amount of 30,000 euros. By this point, Ibai was already looking to take bigger steps, and that meant making difficult changes.

Although G2 had given him a lot, in December 2021 he decides to leave the team to form his own along with Gerard Piqué, whom he already considered a great friend. This is how Cody is born, at the same time he is still very active on Twitch, and joins Tortillaland, a Minecraft roleplay created by Auronplay and Perchita, where dozens of streamers participate . This project works incredibly well, as the creators have a lot of content and the interactions between them help strengthen the community and to generate views and followers. To end the year, Ibai says goodbye to 2021 by ringing the year-end bells on his channel,

accompanied by Ramón García, a Spanish television presenter who has already rang the bells many times. There Ibai stands on a balcony in front of the Sun Gate Clock in Madrid, where he show the most special moments of the year of Ibai. This becomes his second most viewed broadcast so far, so from this year the bells become a tradition on the channel. The following year is even better, the great event is the second edition of the year's carnival, much more produced than the first. With the restrictions raised by COVID-19, Ibai gets the Olympic Pavilion in Badalona with capacity for 13,000 people. The evening is celebrated on June 25 and the jump in quality is evident.

It goes from 3 to 5 fights. The main fight faces David Bustamante against Mr. Jagger and also participate Ari Gameplays against Paracetamor, Virus against Momo, Carola against Spursito and Luzu against Lolito Fernandez. And if this wasn't enough, between fight and fight, the show is completed with artists like Relsby, Niki Nicole, Duki, Quevedo and Bizarrap. The second show of the year breaks a historic record by becoming the most viewed transmission, reaching a total of 3.3 million viewers.

Ibai has created the biggest event on Twitch, leaving a mark on the platform. But, although in his professional life he has been breaking it, in his personal life it is another story altogether. By the end of this year, Ibai reaches the highest weight of his life, more or less 166 kilos. And although a few years ago he publicly failed in two attempts to lose weight, he knows that he cannot give up.

To achieve his goal, this time he does things a little differently. He sets up a gym at home, assists the nutritionist, and decides to share this difficult process more openly with his followers, exposing himself completely. He shares his weight, his exercise routine, even takes his personal trainer to his channel. He does it in public with the aim of being a motivation and support for the people who are going through the same thing.

Ibai starts with everything, training without fail and eating well, but after a few months he gets demotivated. Between work and not seeing the results he expects, he slows down a bit. But when people see that he has not uploaded an update of his progress in months, there he goes and comments, mocks and even insults about his low willpower and how pathetic it is that he has not achieved it. Soon he has an appearance on the Wild Project podcast,

where he is sincere about how truly difficult it is to lose weight, and speaks with complete transparency about the situation he is experiencing. There he says that for a person who has been eating badly for many years of his life, it is very complicated to make changes in habits. He also says that living with obesity is waking up every day with body, back, knees pain, and that mental struggle is also very complicated, because as he himself says, you feel ridiculous as a human being. In addition, having opened up in the way he did it has brought him good things, such as motivating others,

but also many bad ones, such as jokes, in many quotes, and negative comments from some people who take advantage of any space to make fun of him and remind him that he has not achieved it. When you lose weight, you fight against your insecurities, you fight against the pain, you fight against people's comments. And sometimes it's not easy, man. But it's true that there are very cruel people

who go beyond the limits with the issue of overweight and making jokes that you'll have a lot of money but you'll die next year, you have a lot of money but you'll see in six months when you have this disease. They are comments that leave you a little shocked by the malice, by the evil that people have, right? There are many people who have a hard time looking in the mirror,

who feel guilty for how they are, you know? And that's shit, man. Why is being fat something that can make you cry for how people treat you, you know? Don't go, it's just that being obese can lead to more serious problems, etc. I agree.

Why do you have to tell him he's going to die, or bully him, or tell him you're a cow, and repeat it all the time? The one who is fat knows that he is fat. Because it's hard for him to get out of bed, it's hard for him to tie his shoes, he gets tired climbing stairs, it's hard for him to put on his seatbelt, he can't climb stairs with many people, he already knows. But man, you feel ridiculous as a human being.

You go to the gym, it's hard for you to do a squat and then you see another guy doing, I don't know, 24 push-ups. And behind a overweight problem, sometimes there are many other problems that we don't understand. There are people who start eating a lot because their parents have separated. There are people who start eating a lot because they have a brutal anxiety at work. And that, sometimes, they start eating donuts and croissants to simply forget about the problems that that overweight comes from other things in their life that we do not know. Socially, it is often thought that if someone has a lot of weight it is because they do not controlled. But from psychology we know that it is not necessarily like that. And that this is one of the most harmful beliefs today, because it reduces something complex to a simple problem of will.

And let's see, clearly will matters, but it is far from being the main factor. First we have the genetic factors, because there are people who accumulate fat more easily or feel more hungry. Then the issue of metabolisms, then the issue of the environment, where today it is easier than ever to have access to highly caloric foods. Another factor that influences the lifestyle where there are people who, due to their work, may have poor sleep conditions or be forced to spend a lot of time sitting. But one of the most important are also the psychological factors.

As we have already seen through the very words of Ibai, someone who has obesity, having this condition comes with a strong social stigma. It is not like other mental health conditions where you respect or sympathize with those who suffer from it. For example, I think it would be very difficult to make fun of someone with depression, bulimia or post-traumatic stress. But with obesity it seems to be another issue. Comments with mocks, looks and prejudices make many people feel judged constantly. What can generate guilt, shame, insecurity and perhaps in the end, anxiety.

The paradox is that this anxiety can lead to eating even more, because food works as an immediate emotional regulator. Eating high-calorie foods activates the areas of our brain that reward us with a little dopamine and make us feel good, so it gives comfort and calms that anxiety. Which at the same time creates a vicious cycle where food calms you momentarily, but then makes you feel guilty about eating, increases your weight, which in turn generates more anxiety, and you resort to food, restarting the cycle.

And beware, this is not only due to anxiety caused by social issues, but it can have origin in many other sources of mental discomfort. It can be chronic stress from work, family problems, broken hearts, loneliness, traumas or emotional wounds from the past that were never fully worked out. In many of these cases, the substances can comfort or alleviate those difficult emotions to sustain, and food can work like any other substance.

It can fill the void or anesthetize the pain. So for all that, we cannot reduce this problem to simply lack of willpower. Because deep down it is a strategy of confrontation against an emotional suffering that finds no other way out. And although this is an explanation, it is not a sentence. But we'll see that later. Despite not having achieved it, Ibai knows that this is not the, it is not a sentence. But we will see that later. Despite not having achieved it, Ibai knows that this is not the end of the road, it is just an obstacle that he must overcome.

But he takes a break from his exercise regime and his diet, because the truth is that he feels exhausted mentally and physically. Instead, he focuses his energies on his professional career, as he has several very important projects planned for 2023. At the beginning of the year, Ibai joins a project of his friend Gerard Piqué, the Kings League, a football league in which he participates with his own team, Porcinos FC. But the big challenge of the year is the third edition of the holiday of the year. With the public waiting for something even bigger, Ibai decides to take the event to the Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid,

with capacity for 60,000 people. And this play goes very well for him, since in less than an hour the tickets run out. The format remains, although now with more music, including María Becerra, Eladio Carrión, Quevedo, Fade and Osuna. In the ring, the most popular and seen fights are those of Marina Rivers vs. Rivers, Fernanfloo vs. Luzu and the stellar fight between Cosku vs. Germán Garmendia.

The result is historic. The broadcast reaches 3.5 million viewers on Twitch, breaking the audience record of the platform itself. Here we have to talk a little about Ibai's YouTube channel, as the content has changed gradually. In addition to uploading some of his streams,

like the second season of Tortilla Land and videos reacting to a variety of things, Ibai also uploads more content related to Kings League, especially about his team Porcino. After a brilliant year, Ibai keeps up with the fourth edition of the year's eve, which this time is held at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid,

with capacity for almost 80,000 people. The result is once again historic. The broadcast reaches almost 4 million viewers on Twitch. On the other hand, although Ibai had stopped uploading content about his physical change, he continued training at a much calmer pace. However, on June 26, 2024, Ibai makes a promise to his followers,

he will resume his challenge to lose weight, but now he is serious. And once again, the criticisms do not take long to arrive. In the comments of the video, they suggest that he no longer publish anything because he has failed many times, that in a few months he will again release videos from day 1 and sarcastic comments that this already seems like a series that goes for seasons. These comments, in addition to unnecessary, seem a bit unsatisfactory to me, because I think they are not contemplating something important. Many people think that a relapse means failure, when in reality it can be seen as a stumble along the way to recovery. In the psychology of addictions, we usually explain that the brain, after getting used to a certain stimulus or habit for years,

generates very strong connections around that behavior. And breaking with those patterns requires time, effort and patience. I'm not saying that the case of Ibai has an addictive component, because not all cases of obesity have it, nor am I his therapist. However, in the case of obesity, when there is a component of addiction in the relationship with food, previous habits are also relapsed as if it were a substance. But the important thing is how relapsing is handled.

If you live with extreme and self-critical guilt, you run the risk of abandoning the process. But if it is understood as an opportunity to learn, what caused it, what lack of support and what emotion perhaps was not managed, then it can become a step forward. And apparently that is just about to happen. For a whole year, Ibai uploads a video every day showing his constant training. But he has said it many times, beyond physical change, his real motivation is to improve his quality of life. In his TikTok and YouTube updates, we see how he trains four times a week in the gym,

walks the other days and in general looks for a more active lifestyle. And from what his videos show, this time his progress is greater than in previous attempts. After several months of this new lifestyle, Ibai is ready for the next challenge. He is going to complete the path of Santiago. Ibai wants to face this challenge because it is possibly the biggest challenge he is going to face in his entire life until that moment. He says that months ago walking 165 kilometers was unthinkable for someone like him, but he wants to try it, he also recognizes that the effort does not guarantee

that you will succeed, but he thinks it's the only way to achieve things. Starting this adventure is for Ibai a way to prove to yourself that no matter how many times you fall, you can always get up again. Ibai is accompanied by his personal coach, his friend Xocas, also a streamer, and Xocas' personal coach. The path is divided into 8 sections that they will have to go through for several days. After 8 days of a tiring but satisfactory journey, the group arrives in Santiago de Compostela.

But before reaching the cathedral where the pilgrimage ends, Ibai and Alxocas are joined by hundreds of people who chant their names and him and appreciated him, and who have accompanied him on the path of his career and his weight loss, closing with a touching, golden, unforgettable journey. At the end of that year, he uploaded a video to his channel where he shares the results so far. Thanks to a good diet, exercise, and above all, never throwing the towel, in just 6 months he managed to lose 50 kilos and go for more. We can see how much it has changed his life. Now he starts every day going out for a walk and even running

something that was impossible for him before for his weight. But now it's like another person, because he says he has even learned to love his time in the gym and his walks. And yes, I know that at the beginning I said that will itself was not enough, nor is it the only factor, but it will always be necessary and important. Because although it is not the only step, it is the first. Think about it, if there was not even will, there would be no attempts or desire for change. What seems important to me with the force of will is

channel it well. And how would that look? Well, perhaps focusing on working on the different aspects that support the thing that wants to change. For example, the psychological aspect, going to therapy to be aware of what is at the bottom and discover that emotions or experiences are pushing us to take refuge in harmful habits. Also to cause that will to analyze our environment, because many times what surrounds us is conditioning us more than we think. And above all, to learn to treat us with less harshness and more compassion on the way.

So, although by itself, willpower is not enough, it is essential to achieve it. As Ibai himself said before starting the path of Santiago, effort does not guarantee success, but it is the only way to achieve things. Because although nothing assures the result, a well-directed will makes what used to seem impossible become much more achievable. And coming from him, these words made me very strong, because his story is that of someone who tried many times without succeeding, but he is also someone who kept getting up after each fall. And here we can also extract something very important that can be useful to us.

Not because we have ever tried something and it has not worked, it means that it cannot work at a different time. Because each different moment has different circumstances. Like for example, you are different, you have learned from the past. And therefore, each attempt can have different results. I think what remains is perhaps to work on the different aspects that we have mentioned, learn from previous experiences, to ensure that each attempt is better. And finally, it seems to me that perhaps the bravest thing Ibai did was to publicly expose all this, document it knowing that the criticisms were going to arrive,

whether he achieved it or not, and that today is very rare to see. Normally we only hear the stories of success from the perspective of those who have already reached the goal. Very few times do they let us see so closely the real rawness of a process, with its setbacks, doubts and internal battles. And yet that was what allowed thousands of people to accompany him in the process, to empathize even more with him and that they find inspiration in his struggles. Well, it seems to me that many of us saw in him many of our own battles.

His weight loss is just a small part of the change he has implemented in his life. His motivation has always been to improve his quality of life, and now he realizes that to achieve this he needs to have a more relaxed work rhythm than the one he he had for so many years. This does not mean that he will stop working, but he does seek to prioritize his health. For example, 2024 is the first year in a long time in which the New Year is not welcomed with the 12 bells on Twitch. Instead, he decides to spend this moment with his family, so he returns to his childhood home to spend the holidays with his parents and grandparents. After this, Ibai did the fifth evening of the year where about 80,000 people attended in physical

and in the broadcast there were more than 9 million people present. Now he makes more varied content and that has not been seen much in Spanish-speaking as lie detectors and role-playing games, all this with his healthier physique. From here, what I have left is to recognize the strength that Ibai had when speaking to the world with such honesty. Just like he once found comfort in the videos of people who shared their experience with anxiety, now it was he who gave peace to many who went through the same as him, reminding them that they were not alone.

And that, just like him, they could start trying to change things. And that's why what seems most inspiring to me is not so much that he has achieved the physical transformation, rather it was the whole process that was needed to achieve it. The one that showed that there are no shortcuts or guarantees and that no one is free to stumble. But as long as you have the strength to keep trying, But as long as you have the strength to keep trying,

maybe there is always the possibility that things will be different this time.