This is my little rant on how weight gain had literally snuck up on me and things that are kinda working for me.
So a little bit of background about myself. Up until around age 22, I've never had issues with my weight. I wasn't super skinny or super fit with a 6 pack, but I maintained a healthy weight. I didn't have the healthiest eating habits...I was at university at the time, so I skipped a lot of meals (mostly breakfast) and when I did eat, I ate whatever I wanted. I tried to work out when I had the time but it was never consistent. At 24 I got married and the weight gain began.
I guess the weight gain kind of snuck up on me because I honestly did not notice me gaining weight. In fact, it was first brought to my attention when the family started to point it out. I don't know if it's my particular Indian culture, but relatives ( even distant relatives that you see once every 5 years) have no problem commenting on your weight. But still, I figured it was relatives being nosey and I didn't think the weight gain was THAT bad and I went on to live my normal life. I usually wear loose-fitting clothes, so my clothes were all fitting fine. I was back at school full time, so I mostly wore tights or leggings. I did notice some of my jeans were starting to get tight on me so I started to work out a little bit more, but I didn't really restrict my diet. We don't eat a lot of junk food, but we do drink A LOT. Not hard alcohol, but mostly beer and wine. The first thing I noticed was that my butt was getting bigger and for the girl that always had a flat butt, this was kinda a win! Anyways, fast-forward to some family event months later and I saw the pictures. This probably sounds really dumb and unrealistic, but I literally did not believe my eyes when I saw the candid photos of me. My stomach was bulging out, my thighs and my arms had gotten substantially bigger. I was surprised I squeezed myself into those pants because from the picture, my thighs looked like it was about to rip my pants. I think the biggest shock was my face...it was so puffy! I couldn't believe I didn't notice this. I swear I look in the mirror every day but how could I have not noticed this much of a weight gain? Why did my husband not say anything? When I confronted him, he said I looked healthy to him (bless his heart) and he didn't think the weight gain was that substantial that he had to interfere. I ran upstairs to my parents' bathroom and weighed myself. I had gained close to 25 pounds. When I look at my body, I do notice that there has been some weight gain here and there but honest to god, I thought it was probably an extra 5 or 7 pounds. Is this some psychological response to the weight gain that my brain won't process the real image of my body or am I just stupid for not noticing? Since I was back at school, I hadn't really worn my dresses or "nice" clothes in a while. I went home that evening and tried on my favorite dress. Lo and behold, it won't go up past my thighs. Obviously the first thought that I had was " Oh my god, I'm pregnant" and immediately followed by, " wait...I have an IUD." Just to make sure that I was not the 1% (or whatever percentage it is) of the population who got pregnant with an IUD, I took a pregnancy test and it was negative. So it had to do something with my lifestyle. So began my weightloss journey.
Naturally, my first google search was " how to lose 10 kg in less than a month." I got super excited watching girls on Youtube go from 65 kg to 50 kg in less than 2 weeks or seeing tummies go from being bloated to having a six-pack by eating gummies. For the past couple of months, I've had an on and off relationship with workout videos, have tried laxative teas, gummies, tried yoga, tried starving myself, and probably had 2 or 3 meltdowns along the way. But after reading some posts on Reddit, one thing finally stuck to my thick head. And that was that weightloss had to a lot with changing your lifestyle. For the girl with 0% willpower, I knew that I couldn't make a sudden drastic lifestyle change. So I started slow. The first thing I did was cut back on alcohol. As much as I LOVE getting tipsy with my husband, I knew that working out all day and gaining the calories back in a couple of beers or a few glasses of wine was really no point. This was SO HARD for me. It took a couple of weeks, but I restricted myself to drink only on the weekends and limited myself to 1 or 2 drinks max. I also found these great Smirnoff vodkas and Soda drinks that are 0 carbs and 0 g sugar for 90 calories.
Second, I started to work out more efficiently. Trying to work out for 1 hour every day was an unrealistic goal for me. So, I went and found different videos on Youtube and I basically committed to doing 2-3 of the videos for 3 days out of the week. Doing different videos helped me because I didn't get bored easily and it was a new challenge. I also got some resistant bands and maybe one day, I will take it out of the original packaging.
Third, I had to do something about my diet. Like I mentioned earlier, we don't eat a lot of junk but I realized my diet consists of a lot of carbs like rice or Indian bread. I also don't eat a lot of veggies. One thing that actually helped me is cutting my veggies ahead of time, like red peppers or whatever veggie that can be eaten raw, and store it in the fridge. As lazy as this makes me sound, I realized that if I know that food is already cut and ready to be eaten, I am more likely to snack on it. And it worked.
I still have a long way to go but I have noticed some changes to my body. I am bummed that I don't have 6 pack abs after 1 week of working out ( a big shocker), BUT I feel like I am getting closer to my goal weight without completely restricting my lifestyle. Anyways if anyone is reading this, thank you for your time. If you too are going through a weight loss journey and have any tips, please let me know! I could use all the help I can get.
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