8 months and 30+ pounds ago, I made a post about the lessons I've learned through various weight loss attempts.
To sum up:
- CICO. It works, b*tches.
- Make an actual plan. Failing to plan is planning to fail. A flexible plan is still a plan.
- Make your plan sustainable. That means changing your relationship to food.
- Resistance training is very important. Maxing out your cardio without lifting weights may not be sustainable.
Lastly, but by far the most important element:
- MENTAL HEALTH. A ton of us in this subreddit have had trouble with our weight because we don't feel good about ourselves, and we fill the hole with food (and possibly alcohol). It's hard to keep up a sustained weight loss attempt if you're not addressing underlying depression, anxiety, or self-esteem issues as well.
I'm happy to report that learning these lessons did the trick.
2 years ago, when I first bought a FitBit, I plugged in my first goal into the app--170 lbs. I picked that number for a reason: it was about what I weighed for the first couple of years of college, though I was hanging around 180 by the time I graduated. 170 was never my ultimate goal, but it was an important milestone. At that weight, I'd be able to fit into all my old clothes, and I'd be able to fit back into the mental self-image I'd established for myself in the first few years of adulthood. I'd still be a little overweight--both on the BMI scale and in the mirror--but I figured that when I reached 170 lbs, I'd finally be able to feel like me again. The person I'd imagined I'd be after college, not the person who got fat and out of shape, and got constantly derailed from taking care of himself or reaching his goals by depression and anxiety and self-loathing.
That weight loss attempt fizzled out at about 190, and through the latter half of 2018 into the first half of 2019, I ended up gaining most of it back. I started to get back on track in July 2019, and really got serious in August.
Since my last post, I've learned a couple of other important lessons--a couple of new tools in the toolbox.
DIET BREAKS
Around the holidays, I was getting close to 190 again, and I started to hit the same wall that I'd hit the last time around that weight. Lifting at the gym was getting harder, and I was struggling with hunger pangs again. Worse, I'd hit a plateau with my lifts at the gym. I wasn't getting any stronger, and some of my lifts were going down. I was starting to struggle with some joint issues.
So I took a diet break for a month. I still kept track of my calories, but I bumped them up to maintenance instead of a sustained 500 calorie deficit. I didn't track at all for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year's. I started getting stronger in the gym again. My knees and shoulder stopped complaining so much. That gave me the rest I needed to start cutting down again in January. That brought me down past 190. I took another couple of weeks in February, and then back to cutting in March.
Short, controlled diet breaks allowed me to maintain discipline--staying in the mindset of health and continual improvement--without driving myself to the point of binging or hurting myself in the gym. That allowed me to get down to around 183 by mid-March.
I hit another milestone around when I ended my first diet break. For over a decade, I hadn't been able to run. My knees are terrible. They've always been terrible. They just couldn't take it. I tried multiple times, but ended up just limping home feeling like my calves were hanging from my knees by loose threads made of pain.
But the Sunday after Christmas, I was taking a walk in the park when realized that my knees were feeling pretty good. Months of heavy squats and deadlifts had my quads and hamstrings stronger than ever. So I decided to give it another try. I started jogging. A hundred feet, and I had only a little pain in my knees. I adjusted my form slightly, and the pain went away. Incredible. I walked another hundred feet, and broke into an actual run. And then, after another rest, a sprint.
It was exhilarating. The wind rushed past my ears, my heart thumped in my chest. I hadn't felt this in years. For the rest of the walk, I alternated running and walking, grinning like an idiot in pure glee.
Of course, I wasn't wearing running shoes, and I ended up catching my toe on a piece of gravel and took a nasty spill right at the end of the walking trail. I roadrashed my hand, and my left knee was left with scabs that haven't completely gone away until this month. It was bad enough that I had to go get a tetanus booster.
Worth it, though.
I bought running shoes the next week.
ADAPTIBILITY
In March, the world fell apart. The gyms shut their doors. My employer had everyone take their laptops home, and we all started working from our couches, kitchen tables, basements, and various other impromptu home offices.
This posed a serious conundrum. My previous plans all revolved around weightlifting--picking up heavy things to maintain muscle mass and force me into losing weight at a slow, steady, sustainable pace. But I'm on the second floor in a tiny apartment. Now that the gyms were closed, I couldn't set up a serious home gym even if I could afford it.
I already had a couple of dumbbells, though. And I was able to pick up a decent kettlebell before all the home exercise equipment got bought out. I still have my home VR setup, and all the walking trails at the parks were still open--the local government was encouraging everyone to get outside and stay active, as long as we maintained appropriate social distance from other people on the trails.
I'm not going to say I didn't have a couple of bad weeks. I certainly did. The stress and uncertainty was pretty trying. I really like my coworkers, so it's sad not getting to see them every day anymore. I was feeling leaving the apartment as little as possible, and feeling pretty paranoid about other people very time I did. But see above comments about mental health? I did some meditation, worked on my schedule, and made sure to reach out to people as much as I could to get my head straight.
It helped somewhat that, while this kind of blindsided most people, I'd been expecting something along these lines since the Wuhan lockdown in January--especially when it was clear that it hadn't been contained within China. It was only a matter of time before it came here. I was just glad I worked for a company that had had the forethought to give everyone the ability to work from home in case of emergencies.
So I adjusted. I continued doing whatever resistance training I could at home--body weight, dumbbells, kettle bells--but since heavy lifts were out of the question, it was time for cardio. My VR headset came in handy there. I also started getting out to the parks and running, whenever I could find one that wasn't too crowded to allow for social distancing.
The shelter-in-place orders also provided another opportunity. If we weren't going anywhere, then I would only be tempted to eat junk food if I had it in the apartment. And it wouldn't be in the apartment if I didn't buy any on my grocery runs. I would only have to avoid temptation once a week for about 15 minutes. It was a golden opportunity to cut my calories just a little bit further. No more figuring out ways to squeeze a Popeye's Spicy Chicken Sandwich (It's better than Chick-Fil-A. Fight me.) into my daily calorie goals.
By maintaining a flexible mindset and shifting my goals when the original plan was pushed off the rails, I was able to not just continue my weight loss, but super charge it.
In the last month, I've managed to lose 9 lbs and run my first 9 minute mile since high school.
My birthday is a little later on this month. This week, I was able to give myself an early birthday present.
I finally hit 170 lbs.
I'm still a little overweight. This is not the end goal--let's get down to 160 and see how we feel. I'm pressing on until I completely get rid of this gut I've been growing since I was 15. But that goal is finally, realistically, visibly in sight. When I look in the mirror, I feel like me again. I feel proud of myself. I feel like I don't have to wince at myself every time I look in the mirror. I don't feel afraid of having photos taken of me anymore.
And if you clicked that link to my old post, I know what you're wondering. It's true. My sister is still jealous.
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from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/3fZaU5g
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