90 Day Fiance alum Jorge Nava has detailed how he lost 133 pounds in prison and what originally inspired him to go through such a dramatic physical transformation.
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Jorge said he weighed 185 pounds when he was released early, May 11 2020.
"Being in solitary confinement for a little bit, you kind of get to think a lot. You get the opportunity to read a lot of books and kind of change your mindset on things," Jorge explained.
"I kind of got the taste of success a little bit when I was able to change my mindset to change my personal appearance, like, with literally a small seed, [the book]... What I learned from this book, it kind of gave me the motivation to change myself."
Jorge revealed the book that "inspired" him to make a conscious effort to lose weight was Tony Robbins' bestselling 1992 book, Awaken the Giant Within.
"In prison, you have access to purchasing food and still maintaining the outside weight, and some people never change or they get bigger in there," Jorge said.
"It has to be something that you choose to do. At the very beginning when I was going through it, I felt hopeless, I felt powerless."
Jorge continued, "It wasn't until going through all of this that I was able to see that I shouldn't try to control what's going on out in the outside, but try to change what was within, and that little small change sparked everything that has happened now."
Jorge admitted he had a tendency to procrastinate in his past but decided to set goals and focus on achieving them.
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"[In my past] I was like, 'I'll get to it when I get to it,' and now I'm just with the mindset like, 'I have to get it done, there's only a little bit of time,'" Jorge shared with ET.
RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE' COUPLES NOW"And if you keep procrastinating, you never get to accomplish any of your goals. And now I'm like, no matter what -- even if I fail -- I still try; I still plan another way to do it. And to this day, I feel like I accomplished mostly everything I've envisioned when I was locked away."
Jorge said being behind bars was "a time of growth" for him, adding, "It was able to change me to a better person."
And now, Jorge is a father of a newborn baby girl, whom his new girlfriend and "the love of [his] life" welcomed last month.
Jorge gushed about how he feels "blessed" and is currently "living a dream" with his girlfriend -- whom he debuted on social media in June 2020 -- and their relationship is "perfect."
Since becoming a father, Jorge admitted he has "gained a little bit of daddy weight," but he seems perfectly content with his 35-pound weight gain.
"I still feel healthy. When I was 185, I felt really, really skinny. I don't feel like I've overdone it. I guess it's kind of just maintaining a healthy diet, really," Jorge said.
"That's what it really comes down to. Like, weight loss comes down to 95 percent diet and five percent in the gym."
RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE: BEFORE THE 90 DAYS' COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER? WHO HAS SPLIT? WHERE ARE THEY NOW? (PHOTOS)
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"I'm glad that I'm able to inspire even to the very least, at least one person, because I have gone through and read comments and stuff like that and they talk about my experience inspiring them at their very lowest," Jorge told ET.
"And it's definitely a great feeling knowing that I'm able to change at least a little bit of somebody's life."
Jorge found fame when he starred on Season 4 of 90 Day Fiance with his estranged wife Anfisa Arkhipchenko.
Anfisa filed for divorce from Jorge in August 2020 after being separated for months, according to Us Weekly.
Jorge insisted in April 2020 his dramatic weight loss definitely contributed to his breakup with Anfisa.
"I think she was just jealous of the attention that I was getting," Jorge previously explained to In Touch Weekly. "The news about my weight loss didn't sit with her very well."
Jorge was a 27-year-old from Riverside, CA and Anfisa was a 20-year-old from Moscow, Russia when Anfisa arrived in America on a K-1 visa to be with her love.
RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE: HAPPILY EVER AFTER?' COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER? WHO HAS SPLIT? WHERE ARE THEY NOW? (PHOTOS)
Anfisa didn't exactly deny she was in the relationship for Jorge's money, but she believed he, in turn, was dating her primarily for her looks. Regardless, the pair got married in a simple courthouse ceremony.
Jorge was arrested at age 28 in February 2018 with nearly 300 pounds of marijuana in the trunk of his car in Arizona.
Jorge claimed around that time his prior criminal record -- which includes two previous convictions for cultivation of marijuana -- is why he didn't receive a lighter sentence to begin with.
"With the charges against me, I was looking at around 24 years or something like that. [It was] some ridiculous number," he told TMZ in 2018.
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After originally appearing on Season 4 of 90 Day Fiance, Jorge and Anfisa -- who met on Facebook -- were also part of the cast of Seasons 2 and 3 of 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After?.
Jorge and Anfisa, however, confirmed in October 2018 they wouldn't be returning to 90 Day Fiance.
Anfisa dedicated her time to fitness while Jorge spent his time in prison, and she has since become a competitive bodybuilder.
"To fill the void that I felt after Jorge was sentenced and I was left on my own I decided to try to stay busy and do what I enjoy the most and it was working out," Anfisa previously said on Instagram.
RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE' COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER? WHO HAS SPLIT? WHERE ARE THEY KNOW? (PHOTOS)
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
