Hey guys! Long time lurker, first time poster, I've attempted two Lose It Challenges with meh participation on my part, and I've always loved popping in and seeing everyone's success stories or motivational advice. So thank you to everyone in here for being so nice and supportive. I just wanted to share my story and first little victory
I've been unhappy with my weight for the last 3 or 4 years... I've made numerous half-hearted attempts at losing the weight. I spent most of my teenage - adult life at 5' 8" and about 135-140 pounds. That was always comfortable for me and I was never consumed by food obsession or weight concerns.
I turned 24 and started a new relationship, began dining out more than I was accustomed to, was introduced to beer and I just packed on the pounds. I hit 150 and felt very uncomfortable--this wasn't what I was used to seeing, and I didn't like this newfound bloating that plagued me. I joined the gym and tried to make a habit of going 3 x a week and using the elliptical for 45 minutes. I stuck to it for the better part of a year but I fell off the gym habit and never changed my eating habits. So I saw maybe a 5 lb loss but used the gym as an excuse to keep eating out, also citing bad days at work, wanting to be social, or general exhaustion for further justification.
So, as you would expect, my weight continued to climb and I tried dieting attempts at 155, 160, 165 and kept losing and re-gaining 5 or 10 lbs. I could never seem to stick to a diet for longer than a 5 pound loss, plateau and then quit. Rinse, repeat. From age 25 - 28 tbh.
I had to get real with myself and work on my mental health before I would be able to commit. I worked with my doctor and therapist, got off the pill (which was honestly like depression in a pill for me personally), and a few months later started on Wellbutrin which was a godsend for my depression (and newfound seasonal depression after moving to a colder climate-yay!).
Armed with all of these steps I had to take to get my mental health in a better place (including a career change and going back to school) I was ready to take myself and my goals seriously. I hit my highest weight at 170 in December 2019 and I successfully got down to 161 by February, which was honestly the largest loss I'd completed in one shot before.
I was feeling great and I visited my family in early March (I flew back home like 2 days before everything shut down) and I was maintaining that ~160ish weight. Well, after COVID hit and the world felt uncertain and frightening, I went back into a bit of a hibernation and my boyfriend and I were eating really processed, sodium laden foods, and in complete excess of what I was even hungry for. So, after a few months of coping/reactions to crisis I was looking down 171.6 on my scale at the end of May.
This time, I was just mad at myself. Totally angry that I couldn't keep this promise. I re-framed my goals in my head: "Wouldn't you keep a promise to your boyfriend? Your mom? Your best friend?" And when I started to think about how I'm not respecting my own requests to myself, I was really getting it. I think it's important to note that while I'm holding myself accountable to keep my promises to me, I'm also affording the kindness and grace that I would if my boyfriend tried to keep a promise and couldn't. So I'm not like berating myself lol. Just like, an ounce of accountability.
All of that to say, I started dieting for real, mindfully, and for myself on June 4th. I officially lost 10 pounds as of today--I'm at 161.6 and it's the most I've ever lost in my (many) weight loss attempts!
What I did:
I wanted to just make a few rules about my eating and not get too strict or unrealistic because sustainability is the #1 goal.
- I do IF 16:8 most days of the week
- I log my calories and stick to about 1400 a day (My maintenance is estimated to be 1800 with no exercise so it's a 400 cal deficit)
- I will only drink alcohol on Friday and Saturday. I've found that a lot of the time I only drink one day because I'm not as interested in it anymore. I've noticed a huge difference in how I feel when I'm not drinking, far less bloating and I prefer to feel that way.
- Added 3 kettlebell workouts a week, some weeks I've only done it twice, and this last week I was on bedrest because my chronic back pain flared up so I didn't exercise at all.
Losing 10 pounds is not a huge deal for a lot of people, its only the beginning for me, I have about 20 to go. But this feeling, of being super proud of myself, happy with how some clothes are fitting, and treating myself with kindness and respect are all pretty unbeatable.
Thanks for reading, I just got really excited and I know y'all are supportive and nice in here and felt compelled to share.
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from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/2CIeCBL
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