TL;DR- I bought a shirt 7 years ago when I was in denial about my size. It finally fits! Progress pics that are backwards, sorry!
This post is long, and I'm sorry for that. As many of you know, weight loss can be a very emotional process. It almost seems so silly to me that fitting into a shirt can mean so much.
This shirt is special because I got it 7 years ago and I have never worn it outside the house. I was normal weight until after I graduated from high school. From 18-19, I gained a bit slowly. 19-20 was a rapid gain. I didn't always have access to a scale, but judging by my tight size 16s, I was north of 200 lbs. I was also heavily in denial about how bad my weight was.
I went to see a band I had long loved, and enjoyed their opener immensely. They were selling $5 t-shirts so heck yes I bought one. I bought one in the size I lied to myself I could still wear. I bought a small. When I tried it on the next day, I cried. It did not fit over my massive stomach and I looked disgusting. I made a commitment then to lose weight. I would fit into this shirt.
Sadly, at that point, I knew nothing about calories really. I deluded myself into thinking I ate pretty healthily and not that much. It must have been my genetics that made me fat. I didn't lose any weight then.
I got out of the toxic relationship I was in, lost some weight from that, and finally had access to a scale. At 21, I weighed 165lbs. And this is where I called home for a long time. At 24, I finally discovered this subreddit and MFP. I stuck with it for a while and got down to 155.
Life happened and I gained back. A year later, I was 165 and tried again. I got down to about 150. And then I got married and gained it all back.
At 26, I tried again and it was much shorter lived. I lost a few pounds and a real tragedy struck and so I gained from 160 to 182 in the course of about a year and a half.
When I weighed myself in April after not having done so for at least a year (despite the scale sitting in my bathroom), I felt sick. 182 pounds. I know I've been bigger, but that was the highest number I had ever seen on the scale. I checked my BMI and I was OBESE.
May 1st of 2018 was my Day 1. Again. Only this is the longest time I have stuck to it. And going through my closet, I realized I still have that shirt. That small shirt that made me cry so long ago. I tried it on. And it's kind of tight, but I'm not embarrassed to wear it. In fact, I'm going to wear it to run errands today.
It doesn't seem like a big deal, but to me, it's huge. I might be 7 years delayed, but I have kept the promise to myself to lose enough weight to wear this shirt.
If any of you made goals to better yourself, it doesn't matter how long ago it was. It doesn't matter if you failed to make it in times past. The only real failure is not trying.
That's really the only advice I have. I still go over my calories sometimes. I still drink soda. I walk a little but most days I'm around 7-8,000 steps so it's not much. But I treat every day as a new day. It doesn't matter if I mess up 3 days in a row, I don't count that. I just have to try each individual day. It really starts to add up.
There are many members of this community that I have to thank for inspiring me to continue trying. Even when it's hard and even when I get in the way of my own success. Your kindness and encouraging words are what I carry with me in my heart and keep me keeping on.
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from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/2xdL7Rj
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