This is my onederland post! Finally made it to my first goal!
M26 H: 5' 7" SW: 255 lb CW: 199.8 lb GW: 150 lb
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Little bit about my journey
I have been overweight for most of my life and I’m finally doing something about it. I always assumed that being overweight was just my genetics, I was destined to be fat. My parents were heavy set, and I didn’t really look *THAT* fat, so I was just average. Moreover, growing up every show, every story, there was the nerdy overweight character, and that was me. I played video games, not sports, that’s just the way it was. And honestly, I was normal, I didn’t feel severely overweight, just normal. I watched the Ted talks and documentaries telling me that there is no way to change permanently, that my metabolism would require I always be hungry to keep the weight off. But my family also has a history of diabetes (my dad, his dad and aunt all had it), along with heart issues and strokes. All health/weight related issues.
I started grad school 4 years ago and my weight steadily rose from 210ish to 255, basically going up and down following when research was going well or poorly, respectively. and a couple years ago, one of my best friends introduced me to the weight loss subreddits and I began to realize just how bad I was eating. All those times I said “I am normal, eating normally, nothing too crazy, I shouldn’t be that unhealthy” were based on a wrong assessment of what “normal” is.
So I did what I have been training for in grad school: I just began experimenting with my diet. I used MFP to count calories somewhat loosely. Basically, I would eat the exact same thing everyday and about every month, I would asses how things were doing. I threw everything at the wall until something worked.
The hard part was a lot of foods I ate would not keep me from eating the bad stuff too. Like salads for lunch were healthy, but 2 hours later I’d go get a starbucks frappe because I was starving and couldn’t concentrate. But also, if I ate some things I liked, like chicken tikka masala with store bought sauce, or adding a whole avocado to my salads, I didn’t realize just how much sugar and/or how many calories were in those things. The thing that finally worked was sweet potatoes. They make me feel full pretty easily and for a long time. And once I found the foods that worked for me, it was like hitting a critical point, the weight would just drop off. (Figure 1)
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But I still have cravings for things like peanut butter cups, and this subreddit (these stories in particular), have helped me stay the course and walk by the vending machine outside my office without buying anything. So I am glad I finally get to make one and maybe help someone else as well.
Now I am halfway to my final goal. I am 2 jean sizes down (38 -> 34) and one shirt size (XL ->L) and I can’t believe how different I look so far (figure 2). I honestly couldn’t see how bad it was until I put the pictures side by side.
If we get out of this quarantine, my reward is going to be a hiking trip with my brother. And if I reach my ultimate goal, we are going to take a trip to hike someplace really cool (TBD) (I live in the Midwest, so exceptional hiking places are few and far between). Suggestions are welcome!
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