Tuesday, March 31, 2020

General update and observations

I've been losing weight for about a year now. 18 Y/O F, 5'4", SW: 224 CW: 196 GW: none, just until It feels right and I can do a pullup :).

some interesting and occasionally obvious things that have surprised me -

- push-ups are exponentially becoming easier, in part by muscle gain, but mostly the weight loss

- My stomach doesn't look significantly smaller or anything, and I'm not positive I even look much different. But how I feel and physically and mentally MORE than makes up for it. I feel thinner, and that's a cathartic feeling

- eating sweets is... hard to do in quantities larger than Halloween size? I don't know if I can stomach a full kit-kat bar without feeling like shit, which is kinda unthinkable.

- man, I can walk SO much further. 4 mile walk? not easy but not painful either.

- Once I changed how I viewed food, it was not hard to eat more vegetables and the like to actually take care of myself.

- man, social eating makes it HARD to keep on your diet. Corona is probably gonna let me lose another 10 lbs faster than I have ever before (but still in a healthy manner).

some tips for those still struggling -

- once you untrain habitual eating, it becomes SO MUCH EASIER to lose weight. For me what worked was a couple of weeks/months of IF and CICO totally re-worked how I thought about meals. now, even when I'm not following IF and CICO strictly I can eyeball stuff, and generally just eat within that range without thinking too hard. (still have to stay on top of myself to not overdo social eating though)

- never try to cut anything out all at once! focus on slowly reducing consumption of x, instead of "I vow never to eat this again". Set yourself up for success, not failure. so much easier to try to reduce something than unequivocally cut it out.

- don't get sad if your Plateauing! Happens to everyone, and is super natural. I Plateau for a week or two before dropping another 5 pounds over another week or two. It just depends on when I focus on losing weight and restrict a little more.

- It is perfectly fair and valid to lose weight for aesthetic reasons, but in my experience, it becomes harder to lose weight in a healthy way if my reasons are tainted by insecurity. For me personally, I had to lose the notion of losing weight to be pretty to begin losing at all. I began to understand that not only did I love snacks, but /I/ was the real snack all along. Losing weight was/is a health endeavor for me. again: totally fine to lose for aesthetic reasons, but for those who find aesthetic reasons to be a mental block, try finding other reasons to lose weight!

- sub tip, setting a goal related to but not directly tied to weight loss helps me a lot too - like wanting to do a pull-up. sure, I could gain massive musclez which is part of my goal, but losing weight would be just as if not more effective.

A note: I've been talking about weight loss since my early teens, I mean, a LONG time. it was until I made these shifts in thinking and went to years of therapy that I was able to finally implement the changes necessary to lose weight. I made shifts for months before I saw any real results, too. Taking it slow is how I found success, which meant I had to change my goals from short term aesthetic ones to long term health ones.

Posting this update is just keeping my spirits up and keeping my eyes on the prize. I hope everyone is feeling good at home, and everyone is staying safe. Stay on track gang!

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