Weight loss is the easiest thing in the world. Just don't put that doughnut, that bag of chips, that ice cream, that pizza in your body. Just leave it where it is. You don't have to eat to join in. You don't have to have a snack to enjoy the latest episode of Game of Thrones. Your nighttime routine isn't empty without a plate of food and a joint to accompany it.
That was my attitude for around weeks 2-10 of my weight loss routine. I was lucky, I started dieting after a long family vacation. That vacation upended my schedule enough that when I set out, the changes came thick and fast. The first two weeks seemed like hell, I remember. But then I got into the swing of it. I finally got on the scales after about 6 years of scale anxiety and liked what I saw. I enjoyed totting up the calories on MFP, using my scales so I could measure down to the last grain of rice. I wanted to hit my FitBit goals every day. Walk 250+ steps every hour to get that little red dot. Drink my two liters of water a day. Hit my steps, even if it meant going for a walk at 11.30pm.
I got to 15kg lost. I was so happy. There is a contributor here who posted some before and after photos. She'd been losing for a long time and the weight loss so far equally the size of her dog, who she held in the photos. That was one of the first things I saw on here that really inspired me to make a change. My dog is a lot smaller than hers - just 14kg - but I couldn't wait to meet that milestone. To hold my dog up and think "gosh I've lost a whole one of him."
And then things slowed and they've been slow for 4 weeks. Maybe its a plateau, maybe I'm just eating too much. Well, I'm definitely eating too much. Not over maintenance most days - but some days. My TDEE is around 2500. For the last three weeks, I've eaten anything from 1000-3000 calories a day. It's not the end of the world, I haven't put any weight on (per se), but I feel out of control. The focus I had is slipping. Yesterday I knew I was going out for a big dinner, but I got hungry earlier in the day and instead of having a light snack I had a bag of fries. And then once I'd done that, I thought f*** it, I'm going to eat over maintenance today, might as well have a bag of chips too.
I feel really gross today, I'm coming down with a cold which I'm sure is related to my poor food choices of the last week. Even the days when I've eaten under my goal 1400 calories a day, these calories have mostly come from processed foods - oven meals and bags of chips.
So why am I posting this? I've been using LoseIt less and less as each week goes past and I get more confident. That was a mistake. This community is invaluable for reminding me that what I'm doing isn't abstract, which it can sometimes feel like and I'm not going it alone. This community is full of people who are either ahead of me, showing what I can achieve, the same place as me, keeping me motivated and offering amazing advice, or a little behind me who I can cheer on as others have cheered me on. I hope this post makes me confront the reality of what I'm doing, what I risk losing if I don't refocus. And I hope if anyone else is like me this post will help them as well, get back on track.
I want to go back to Day One, while I'm still on the bandwagon. I don't want to allow myself to fall off and have to clamber back on 6 months or 6 years down the line when I've wasted even more of my youth on this horrible disease of obesity.
And Day One, way back in January, was baby steps. So here are my baby steps:
For the next 5 days I will:
- Track every single bite I put in my mouth. No more squirreling a bite of my housemate's pizza and calling it "free calories." No more thinking "oh I have no idea how to track this so I just won't." If I don't want to track it, I won't eat it.
- No more "oh I'll eat more calories today and then have a 1000 calorie day tomorrow." Every day = 1400 calories. That's the rule.
- Drink some goddamn water. I've so quickly fallen back into my habit of drinking exclusively diet soft drinks and stevia coffee. It is making me constipated and lethargic.
- Go to bed at 11 pm, wake up at 8 am.
- Only smoke joints outside. Smoking in my room encourages snacking and makes me wake up feeling drowsy from sleeping in the smoke.
After five days; review, tweak and repeat. Forever. No more slipping off the side of the bandwagon.
And I've also set myself a new goal, with a new reward. When I hit my next big milestone - which will be 100kg and roughly half of the total weight I want to lose - I'm going to buy myself the Millenium Falcon collector lego set. I've been hankering after it for a couple of years now, and I want it so bad that I really think this will help motivate me.
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from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2DUWFx1
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