So I made this account specifically for this sub because weight loss has become a new (and necessary) aspect of my life. I want to share my journey here, as well as some of my current frustrations, in case it helps someone else one day.
I am 22 years old and have been overweight my whole life pretty much. My mother used to say she would shove cookies and cheetos into my mouth when I was a child just to keep me quiet, and I was an extremely picky eater just like my father. As you can imagine, healthy eating was not really an option at home, or at least one I was not mature enough to pursue. I consistently would go up and down in weight throughout my teen years and my grandmother would comment on my weight, worried I would get diabetes (it runs in the family of course) or even high blood pressure (which my father has). Needless to say, we all talked about weight, called ourselves fat, knew about these genetics, and I had a bunch of body image issues, but the way to change it seemed impossible. I would get discouraged so easily when I tried hard and didn't lose any weight. I distinctly remember after my grandmother passed, I worked hard and lost 20 pounds, but it was like a plateau I couldn't get over. I gained it all back and steadily continued gaining throughout my college career.
In my second/third year of college I was the heaviest I had ever been, nearly 250 pounds. So I hit the gym hard and watched my eating and got down to 214, only to have a new semester slap me in the face and make things far more stressful than they already were. I used it as an excuse and stopped working out, went back to eating terribly, and I gained all the weight back. It seemed that I could never maintain a routine and lose more than 20 or 25 pounds. Then health issues changed everything drastically.
I started getting extreme pain on my right side and through my back, had to go to urgent care and to an ER the pain was so bad. That was when I found out I had a gallstone and my gallbladder was inflamed from eating fatty/greasy foods and having the stone block the bile duct. I began experiencing gallbladder attacks that were so extremely painful, I had to change something. I am female (more likely to get gallbladder issues) and my aunt had her gallbladder out before she was 30, so part of it was genetic, but a life full of eating terribly didn't help of course.
Since I am so young, I did not want to get surgery and opted to try avoiding the symptoms by eating healthy and exercising. But I always find new things that trigger gallbladder attacks, such as alcohol. So I will probably get surgery to remove my gallbladder soon, but I will still have to eat and exercise as if I have gallstones even after the fact.
As unfortunate as it is, it has kind of been a blessing in disguise. It is good motivation to eat right and exercise to avoid being in extreme pain. I cannot have pizza, nuts, avocado, fatty meats, any fast food, chocolate, cheese, whole milk, anything fried, excessive amounts of alcohol, etc. I have to stick to under 4 grams of fat per serving in everything I eat, so I have had to turn my habits around entirely. I say it is a blessing in disguise because I truly would have struggled to lose weight again if I could still indulge in all of the greasy options that I crave. My willpower just would not be strong enough, especially when I stress eat. But now my willpower is stronger than ever, and I can go out to eat and get the best options, I eat smaller portions, I avoid fast food altogether, because nothing is worth the pain.
Back at the end of July, I was back up to 239 pounds when I went in to the doctor. Now, after changing my eating habits and having a good exercise routine, I have lost 34 pounds and am down to 205. Part of me feels like I can't be proud of my weight loss because it required extenuating circumstances to get me to this point rather than my own decision to cut back. But I think it has been a necessary journey because I feel better when I eat healthier and when I exercise, I feel bad if I have days where I skip a workout especially. It has been an extremely difficult adjustment going from being able to sit and eat potato chips and cookies to not being able to even have a little bit of that kind of snack. I cut out soda way back when I moved away from home, so that has not been an issue, but I am still working on finding alternative recipes and snacks that I love, so if I have cravings then I can eat something similar but healthier.
I go to the gym on Fridays with a friend of mine to do circuit training and targeted workouts (abs, arms, etc.) and other days I do interval jogging and exercises at home (squats, push ups, crunches, etc.) One of my biggest frustrations right now (Tantrum Tuesday here at this sub, right?) is that I never notice my own weight loss, and people around me haven't really noticed either. I feel like maybe it will be more noticeable when I hit the 50 pound mark, but I am almost under 200 for the first time in maybe 6-8 years. If anyone reads through all of this and wants to chip in their opinion, when did you start to notice your weight loss and when did others start to notice?
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