One thing I’ve learned from a 70 pound loss that has taken me over ten years to achieve....

TL;DR - strive for consistency over perfection and find something that is sustainable!

Consistency! That’s what it boils down to for me. During my ten years of trying to lose, I tried EVERYTHING! Different diets (sometimes extreme sometimes not) exercising like crazy, OTC pills, even Adipex prescribed by a doctor. I’d lose a little, gain it back and sometimes even more. I started at 230ish and got under 200 fairly easily. But then it was nine solid years of bouncing between 198 and 182. I’d occasionally get into the 170s if I did something really strict and restrictive, such as two straight months of Whole30, only to go back up shortly afterwards.

Now, I am sitting in the low 160s, where I haven’t been since racing by this weight when I was pregnant with oldest.... 14 years ago! It wasn’t until recently that I’ve been able to lose weight slowly, steadily, HEALTHFULLY, and not bounce right back up after any significant loss.

And it’s just being consistent. I really think that (within reason) it doesn’t really matter how you curb your calories - paleo, vegan, straight CICO, keto, IF - as long as your intake is below maintenance. For me, I have definitely been able to find what works best for me, physically and mentally, so there is definitely an aspect of doing what is best for your body, but I don’t think there can be a blanket statement that one way is absolutely the best.

So find what is sustainable for you and just stick with it! Consistency is NOT perfection! There’s a lot of stress and guilt that comes along with the weight-loss perfection and it is absolutely detrimental to mental health and weight loss efforts. Slipping up or choosing to indulge once in a while does not mean you’re bad or a failure. It also doesn’t mean that you need to abandon all your efforts or that previous efforts are somehow now null and void.

Consistency is sticking to your plan for the majority of the time, for a long time. One day is not make or break; it’s the aggregate that counts!

I don’t mean to sound preachy and maybe you all already know this. For me, it’s been a lesson that’s taken a long time to learn. And the idea of weight perfection led me into a really bad mental state where foods were good or bad, feelings of guilt accompanied my efforts, and my self-worth was connected to my food choices. Now, I have a lot more freedom in my “diet”, enjoy “bad” foods more frequently, and still see weight coming off easier than it ever has before. It’s not fast, but it’s effective. And I’m so much happier, that I will gladly do it this way rather than doing crazy things that may result in faster, but more temporary, weight-loss.

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