It's my 2 year logging streak on myfitnesspal, and I celebrated by logging a cosmic brownie. It was fantastic. I started using mfp a little bit after I found this sub. I had an account from ages ago, but if I'm honest, I didn't really think calorie counting worked until I came here. That said, calorie counting wasn't even the best thing I got here. No, the best thing I picked up from here was probably the advice, "Go slow, and add one new habit at a time". It's advice you see thrown around all the time, but you never really see the effect of until you're 730 days in, and you're just like "shit, when did I become a healthy person?"
As a bit of backstory, I grew up in a big family, and when I left for college and got a job, I was ecstatic. I was used to eating the barest minimum whatever bizarre concoction my mother cooked for dinner (zucchini-squash meatloaf as an example). But now, I could actually buy tasty food without it being filched by my 8394823 older siblings. So, I uh, went a bit overboard, as you tend to do. It didn't help that all the friends I made were either very tall men or badly overweight.
I gained weight slowly but steadily, and went from 130 pounds to 195 in 2.5 years. I was in complete denial. I used to google different measures of obesity and try to find one that didn't set me as in the overweight category. Somewhere around 175, my (now ex, obviously) bf told me he'd like me better if I lost 10 pounds, and my mother and sisters started trying to foist crash diets and "cleanses" on me, as well as constantly telling me how fat I'd gotten. I started exercising a lot, but I didn't start to truly panic until I went to a doctor in my senior year for what I thought was a kidney infection, and got told I possibly had diabetes (for context, I was 23, bmi of 28, and very active. There was almost 0 chance I had fullblown type 2 diabetes). That caused several prolonged panic attacks, which actually spurred me to think more seriously about my weight. It wasn't diabetes in the end and the doctor I went to for a second opinion laughed in my face, but it didn't really matter, as I already was determined.
I went into a depressive funk about my weight for about 6 months. I had tried logging (without a scale), I'd tried keto, I'd tried several weird crash diets, I'd tried running and exercising for hours. I just kept gaining despite all this, ultimately ending up around 194-195 in august of 2017. That's when I found loseit and that advice. So I decided to try logging again, but this time with weighing my food, and using a custom TDEE.
Then, as a second step, I said to myself, "why am I drinking all these (soda/coffee/juice) calories? I don't even enjoy them", so I swapped those out for bubbly water. A couple weeks later, I decided to add in a weight lifting program. I added the following changes one-by-one in increments of every few weeks:
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Cut eating out to twice a week, then once a week, then "occasionally". Picking healthier options when I do eat out.
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Switched to eating primarily lean proteins, and essentially cut buying my weaknesses: baguettes, hazelnut chocolate, and cheesecake.
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Added mindful eating to my snacking habits (stopping to think, "do I really want this", before eating something) and logging/weighing all my snacks.
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Started up loose IF, because I hate lunch and don't love breakfast.
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Started eating veggies every day (after I found ones I liked).
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Took up running for the sake of athleticism/heart health and took exercise calorie logging off mfp.
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Cut back on drinking and cut out binge drinking.
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Started putting away or throwing out food left on my plate when I was no longer hungry, even if it was budgeted.
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Started eating less/exercising more before a cheat meal, but not trying to compensate afterwords.
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Started replacing food as a reward mechanism with a list of other stuff.
There's other stuff, of course, I started trying to fix my sleep and I started going to therapy for anxiety, but those are the big ones.
I bring this all up, because July and August have been exceptionally rough for me. We lost a (young) member of our family, I got surgery and had to recover, I did some traveling, it's too hot to walk or run outside, and like 80% of my friends had birthdays. So, I went on a maintenance break for most of that time. After all that, I fell back into my routine this past week like nothing. I actually longed for going back to it. It may have taken me ages to get where I am, but damn it's ingrained as hell now. I even miss my salads when I don't eat veggies for a few days. It's just normal.
The crazy thing is that it doesn't seem that different than my old normal. I still eat the food I want, I still eat out with friends, and I still make nice cocktails to drink while gaming. I'm not perfect, and I don't think my weight loss or healthy habits will be, but I'm definitely a heck of a lot better.
I'm camera-shy (although I will post a final progress picture when I hit my ultimate goal weight), but I will include a picture of my accountability buddy/partner-in-crime.
I still want to hit my weight goal, but I'll get there. My next big habit (my last one was switching to eating out only "occasionally") is probably going to be working on hitting 7-8 hours of sleep consistently, and also probably going to start cutting back on sodium. And of course, keeping up my streak in myfitnesspal. :P
Also, final friendly reminder to check your body measurements if you're lifting weights or doing any resistance exercise. I lost like 5-8 inches off all mine, despite only losing 35lbs.
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