Friday, July 17, 2020

It's Been 6 Months Since I Started My Weight Loss Journey, and I've Lost 90 lbs!

F23 5'8 SW: 325 CW 235 GW 160 (I have PCOS as well!)

I made this alt account with the cheeky name in January (started my journey 1/17/20) and it's strange how time has flown. In January I was seriously depressed, had symptoms of pre-diabetes/diabetes from the thick grey skin on my feet, itchy extremities such as the ankles, some acanthosis nigricans, frequent stinky urination, and constant exhaustion. My feet and back hurt when I washed the dishes for a few minutes. When I weighed in on the 17th, I saw exactly 325.0 lbs on the scale I felt the perfectness of the number was a call to action to start.

So yes, it was imperative to reverse potential diabetes and I feel that was what helped me really focus.

Before you ask about progress pics, I do have a starting one. BUT, the screen of my phone (iPhone) broke a few months ago. The phone works, but the screen doesn't, so I don't know if I can get my starting pics off of it unless I fix it (have a new phone) and since I don't think I backed photos up. If you have any tips, do let me know. I probably will just have to fix the phone.

Then when COVID hit, I got even more serious. I live in the Northeast US which had a lot of cases. When it was surging, I was waking up at 6 am and going for 2 hour walks before most people got up. It felt like everyday would be the last day I could go out (fearing a total shutdown) so it focused me even more for the next couple months. I was also really focused on eating healthy despite everything (froze meat, eggs, cheese, yogurt, fruit, frozen vegetables). I knew the risks of obesity and COVID and I was laser focused to get the weight off due to the increase mortality rates for morbidly obese people like me.

But I want to remark it's impossible to be perfect and it's something that ended up costing me a lot of time looking back. I have come to realize I struggle with binge eating. I am not really a spontaneous overeater and don't really have trouble with portion control, but I crave the out of control feeling of binges. I actually had two cheat days that turned into a 3 week binge and a 3.5 week binge (second binge was definitely a oh, you've bounced back from a 3 week binge fast, you can keep going). That's 6.5 weeks out of these 6 months + the collective 2.5 weeks it took me to re-lose the weight. That's when I realized being perfect rarely ever works out. Adding more balance has really helped me :)

But yeah, I have nobody I want to share this with. I'm extremely private and haven't told my friends about it. Would rather love to surprise them in person when all this blows over. And I don't talk to my mother about my weight since she can be overbearing and I just love having this journey be for me completely. I am not sure I will tell anybody that I've lost 165 lbs maybe except doctors.

Before I get asked a million times what I do. I just do a low carb diet with walking especially to help my PCOS. I learned about the whole blood sugar theory/insulin before keto became mainstream. I focus on whole foods that are minimally process and low sugar. That's it. I generally eat two meals a day with no snacks so I mostly fall into an IF window. But don't see my diet as an IF thing. Identifying with strict diets doesn't help me. I started with a goal at around 100g of carbs and have slowly wound my down intuitively. In the beginning, ate three meals a day and snacks if I was hungry. As my appetite mellowed out, I'm down to two meals. I don't track calories or macros anymore since I don't like tracking and it's kind of a disordered "race to the bottom kind of thing."

I probably am somewhere near keto (have done it in the past semi-successfully, but hate the GI issues), but I don't particularly care to follow it (love 2% greek yogurt and dried cranberries too much) and it's not sustainable for ME. In the first month I didn't do any exercise, then started walking like 20-30 mins, and upped it to 2 hours a day. I also do a lot of walking, pacing, dancing in my house which can sometimes amount to 10,000+ steps. This is either by itself if I don't go out to walk or much less in addition to the two hours outside I do . I'd recommend if you are starting out, start gradually. I think that's a huge reason why this time feels so good. In the past it would be New Years and I'd bust my ass at the gym and then burn out. While being super strict with a diet. This time I took it slow, and somehow it's been fast. I like to tell people enjoy the initial water weight woosh. It will come off even if you don't feel you are going crazy.

I don't want to make this post too long, but maybe later I'll share some tips at 100 lbs lost or something. It's crazy that I could be in the 220s by the end of the month.

But yeah, I just wanted to celebrate.

I still have a chunk of weight to go (75 lbs), but I'm still shocked about how I was able to tackle a huge chunk of it. If there was any doubt that I can lose the next 75 lbs, well, I've already done it!

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