Hello people of this sub.
I've been lurking here and on r/progresspics for a while now, and I finally decided that I wanted to share my story as to why I decided I needed to lose weight. Firstly, for health reasons, and secondly because of a recently horrible time in my life. (TL;DR at the bottom)
So, over the Christmas period, like many people I put on a bit of weight, and combining that with some pre-Xmas holiday weight I'd gained, I tipped the scale at 174 lbs (12 stone 6 in old money) - just squeezing in at being obese for my height. Obviously, something had to give. With dry January around the corner, it seemed like a perfect time to do something about it and start my progression to my goal weight for my size.
"But, ghdskejuvn3856, what's the second part of this story?" you may (not) ask? Well, I've spent the past 5 years or so a university student, making the most of many opportunities to get drunk as fuck and eat a lot. This is where the second part of my story comes in.
2016-2018 was one of the worst periods of my life so far. In 2016, I embarked on a year abroad that went horrifically wrong. To cut a long story short, I ended up returning home early. After coming back, I stayed for a week with some people I'd lived with for my first two years, but soon discovered that they had been mocking me behind my back in a group chat, making horrible comments about my mental health, my weight, my sexuality, and so much more. There were some comments I could pinpoint down to exact conversation/moments in time.
Anyway, for reasons I still can't quite explain (probably fear of what they'd do to me) I decided to continue living with them for my final year of uni. During this time, my relations with them got even worse, and by the end I was terrified to be in the same house as them while pretending I still liked them. By the second semester, I only had classes three days a week, so I would stay in university for 3 nights a week, before spending the rest of the week at home.
For the 3 nights I was in university, I was too sacred to use the kitchen in case they accused me of doing something I hadn't, so I would by fast food to feed myself, and most weekends i would end up drinking, probably to deal with the double whammy of depression and anxiety from the year abroad and my living situation. No wonder my weight piled up.
After somehow making it through the year (and losing some close family members along the way) I managed to graduate from my degree. I applied for a masters at the same university, deciding to travel in, and I left those people far behind. However, the psychological effects of what I went through with them stayed with me.
Even though I was getting better mentally, I kept up the shitty eating and drinking habits. I would occasionally discover that the people I used to live with would still make horrible comments about me from time to time, but I tried my best to ignore it. My decision to finally move on from them came in the middle of Dry Jan, when I discovered that one of them (who I'd seen over Christmas) had described me as "even fucking weirder somehow", and another one of the group had asked whether I'd killed myself yet (in a tone that implied that he wanted it to happen), and not for the first time either.
That was my lightbulb moment. I've never, ever been suicidal, but after reading that I made a vow to myself to stay alive and healthy for as long as I could. I'm mostly on this weight loss journey for myself, but the horrible things they've done to me have given me extra motivation to prove them wrong and be the best version of myself I can be, in spite of the horribly depressed, fat creature they think I was.
Over the past month or so, I've cut down on drinking for the most part (I'm largely over it, but I won't turn down the occasional drink in moderation), and I've cut down on how much I eat and drink (soft drinks etc), paying particular attention to sugar intake because I have a major sweet tooth. I've managed to lose nearly 14 lbs, down to 162 lbs, and I'm nearly a third of the way to my goal weight range. I don't beat myself up if I eat a lot on a family meal out, I just make adjustments for the rest of the week. I also try and exercise where I can, trying to fit in running as my main form of exercise that I enjoy.
Seeing people's progress on this sub and on progress pics has been a major psychological help, and while I've still got a long way to go - both mentally and physically - I'm finally in a place where I'm happy with my direction in life and not afraid to share my story with people.
TL;DR: I'm turning five years of student levels of eating and drinking + some horrible mental health issues in to motivation to better myself.
Best of luck to all of you on your weight loss journeys, no matter what points you're at.
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from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/3bSh7y6
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