Comparison pics to start off. The before pics aren't necessarily my highest weights but close. Same with the afters. But it still gives a good view of how far I've come.
I posted here when I was just getting started on my journey. I was 25 lbs down at that point. So I figured I'd post an update. Original post here.
As I mentioned in my first post, this is my second big weight loss journey. I lost a little over 100 lbs when I was like 20. Over the next 12 years I gained almost 200 lbs. That made this weight lost journey extremely daunting because I was 12 years older and way fatter. Luckily it hasn't been bad at all.
Like last time I started in the spring. Losing weight in the summer is hard. So many excuses to cheat. I've done my best to limit my cheat days though. Save them for holidays and vacations where I know it's going to be hard to eat properly. This has usually led to cheat weekends instead where I just eat whatever I want for 3 days. It's nice to eat without the stress of tracking everything. Honestly it's been working for me so I can't complain. I think knowing that I'm going to have a cheat weekend coming up helps me not cheat at other times. I want to be as strict as I can until then so I can make the most progress before my weekend of food begins haha.
It's very interesting seeing how my cheat weekends actually effect my weight. Sometimes I'm actually shocked at how little I gain back over the weekend. Honestly, I can't eat what I used to even if I tried. So usually cheating just consists of eating unhealthier food and not tracking what I eat. But I'm physically limited by what I can consume. I definitely noticed this on my first cheat. I went out of town Memorial Day weekend to visit a friend and we ate out a meal every day. However, I never finished a meal. I usually ate half then saved the rest for dinner at the hotel later. This is something that never would have happened before. I would almost always eat just a little too much then tell myself there's no point saving the rest. Finish the rest and hate myself. Rinse. Repeat. So it was a real nice change of pace to not feel disgusting after meals and to save money by not having to buy dinner every night as well.
There was one cheat day recently that I definitely ate way too much. We went to my wife's work party. Her boss is Polish and a doctor so they had a giant spread of great food. And it just kept coming out. I had 2 huge plates of entrees. I was completely stuffed already but couldn't resist a sampling of all the deserts. At this point I was so full and didn't think I could eat any more. Then the cheese and sausage and bread comes out. Delicious cheese and sausage platters. This huge loaf of bread and a spread for it that was apparently just some kind of lard. I ate a little bit of everything. I haven't been that full in a long time. It was worth it though. And the fact that it was actually good food I was eating and not just stuffing myself with shitty frozen food like I used to made it worth it.
Like I said, the overall journey really has not been bad so far. The benefits are endless and keep coming. I'm down from a 3x shirt (should have been in 4x but didn't want to make that leap) to an XL/2X. Size 54 pant to 40/42. My energy level is insane. I mentioned in previous post that one of my biggest motivators was my daughter. I have so much more energy to do stuff with her which is definitely needed since she is 20 months old and full of energy herself. There's so many things we do now that just weren't an option 100 lbs ago.
One of the biggest things I noticed so far is just how bad of shape I was in. I mentioned last time that watching My 600 LB Life is what gave me the final kick in the ass to start my diet. Even then I saw a ton of similarities between myself and the people on that show. However, looking back now, it was way worse than I ever realized. I was just in such denial. I always wondered how you can get to the point where you can't take care of yourself but now I can see that. It isn't a overnight change. It happens over time. You start doing less and less. Hell, I was to the point where I would avoid going upstairs whenever I could. I would be so out of breath just running upstairs for something. I avoided anything with a lot of walking. Little things like these start happening and you don't think much of them or even realize you're doing it. Then it just gets way out of hand. Luckily for me, I took action a little earlier than them. However, I wasn't far away from that. I gained the last 100 lbs within probably 3 years. If I didn't do something now, I easily could have gotten to 600 by the time I hit 40.
This ended up being way longer than I thought it was going to be. You don't realize how huge of an impact losing weight has on your life until you sit down and let it all out. I'm extremely excited to continue this journey and get my life back. For me and for my family. I don't know what weight I plan on getting down to. Last time I got down to 185 and was thin for my build. I mainly want to get under 200 this time. However, if I get down to 186.5 I'll have lost half my weight so we'll see haha. Obviously this time I have to focus on maintenance. Last time I let my 20's take over and ate and drank whatever I wanted. Luckily now I'm settled down with a family and I think maintaining will be a lot easier. Fingers crossed.
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