Advice + Previous Failures and Current Success

From my own experience I’ve never really liked my body and was always thinking about my weight. But never did anything about it long term. Not sure how helpful this is but:

Things I previously did incorrectly (Failures) --> probably 20 times

• Restricted calories with very low targets (800 to 1200)
• Didn’t allow myself to enjoy food
• My target weight felt like it was on a schedule and felt out of reach and exhausting
• I was more fantasizing about how I wanted to look than how I would get there in a healthy and safe way
• This was unsustainable and I would inevitably fail, and say “fuck it” then gain the weight back and more
• This also didn’t give me energy to exercise and made it difficult to sleep because I was always hungry.

Things that I feel have made me able to start and continue (Successes)

• \**My motivation is in the present, meaning I am not only motivated by how I will feel AT my goal but rather how it feels to be WORKING TOWARDS my goal and make progress****
• My calorie target is based off of my height and next target weight and allows me to feel (closer to) full after a meal
• I have divided my target into smaller increments (10lbs)
  • Goal one: 160
  • Goal two: 150
  • Goal three: 140
  • Goal four: 130
• I focus on one goal at a time and stop myself from thinking of anything further by repeating my little mantra of keeping motivation in the present. Taking on too much is extremely daunting
• Trending/ Graphing my weight loss allows me to notice a downward trend even on days my weight is higher
• I also kept a journal initially to express frustration and stuff when things weren’t going well or day one when I was annoyed with myself and lack of motivation previously
• The most difficult thing: Not letting myself compare myself to others. I don't want to be motivated by jealousy or frustration, nor do I want to try to achieve someone else's body type. I want to work on mine! and my health and my confidence :)

Accomplishment

SW: 169, CW: 149.2 --> next GW 140

I had been hovering around 151 for a week! And it was so frustrating, so now that I'm finally under 150 I feel successful.

I had set a goal for calorie intake of 1500 cal. But the last couple weeks would get to around 1800 every couple days. I still tracked them and would run or walk more to burn it off, but I've noticed my progress slowing. Sometimes if I eat 1800 and burn 400, I still end up not seeing a huge difference in the scale, so I have made a note to ensure that my calorie intake target is taken seriously. I don't "eat back" calories but some days if I eat more I will "burn off the extra" except it doesn't work as well that way. Plus I often feel quite bloated if I eat that much.

So the day after my most recent 1800 cal day, I limited to 1200 in order to get back on track and motivate myself once again by seeing a larger scale difference the next day. The day after that I went up to 1450 and feel like I am back on track.

I have clothes from a couple years ago that had slowly gotten too tight. Then remained tight and unusable, so when I get to my next goal weight they should fit again! So It'll be exciting to go through them! Right now all my clothes are plain dark colours and quite boring.

I didn't really reward myself for each milestone before because I was still overweight and didn't really feel like I could reward that. Plus the main reward I want to give myself is clothes, and buying clothes for that weight would be wasteful since my target is lower and I will likely achieve it in a couple months.

Rewards:

• 140lbs --> go through old clothes, buy new workout outfit
• 135lbs --> go through wardrobe and donate old clothes
• 130lbs --> buy new pants! (especially since it will be good pants-weather by this goal)

Then: Assess whether to try to lose more weight or if content with 130lbs. Assess body fat% to determine changes to exercise regimen.

Method

• Track diet: measure all food (weight or via measuring cups/ spoons)
• IF: Eat between 10am and 6pm ONLY
• Intake target BMR-100 =1600
• Target deficit: Walk 1hr or 6km (360 calories), Run 2km + walk 20 min (approx. 270 calories)
• Exercise >2hr after eating (for comfort )

Tracking

I LOVE tracking everything and charts and graphs and it makes me so happy to have things logged

• Daily: weight, calorie intake, approx calories burnt, net calories, hours fasted, hours between first meal and last
• Weight is recorded on a line graph
  • one graph has weight loss tracked from day 1 Comprehensive Graph
  • the second has weight loss in 30 day periods (provides more accurate assessment of proximity to next goal First 30 days then Day 30 to 60 (Current)
• Weekly: weight loss/week (day to day fluctuation is sometimes misleading for progress)
• Biweekly: body fat%, measurements (waist, hips, thigh, arm, neck)

I'm hoping this was helpful.

I often see a lot of posts about how to start and how to get motivated and that's really difficult but I think it may be easier to JUST START and THEN be motivated by the result.

If anyone wants an accountability-buddy message me/ comment

I feel like I need some of that most days and feel being that for someone can also keep us on track.

submitted by /u/1351levi
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