What have you accomplished already? Don't wait to appreciate your work.

Inspired by u/thatguyalex2018's post about not putting your life on hold while pursuing your goal weight. See post here.

CW: Pregnancy .

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Just want to start by saying I am so grateful and I am aware of how lucky I am.

I am pregnant. We stopped preventing in July when I got my IUD taken out. I assumed I'd have at least a few months before anything happened, but no. Took us all of six weeks. And I am grateful that I was able to get here with basically no effort, and I'm excited about Baby Cafe-aulait and I'm not really worried about the changes I'll experience. I have the tools to gain the proper amount of weight. (Thanks, CICO.)

But damn. I had JUST gotten to where I was proud of my body and how fit I looked. I was 5-8 lbs away from UGW (my weight fluctuated a lot more once I got my IUD out, thx hormones). I was running 10+ miles for fun--something I never did before, even when I was "fit" in college 10 years ago. I have nice angles in my face and shoulders and even getting there in my hips. I'm not showing yet and probably won't for awhile, but I'm a little sad that I don't get a chance to enjoy my hard work. First summer in like 8 years that I've felt comfortable in my body, and I didn't even get to show it off because of dumb COVID. But there's a catch: I wish I had more time to appreciate the aesthetics of my new lean and shapely body, I have done things to enjoy what it's capable of. And that's the most important thing.

It's so easy to get caught up in how far you still need to go. That's kind of the nature of goals, especially quantifiable ones like weight loss. But don't forget to look at how far you've come and the other benefits you're experiencing. You may never reach your ultimate goal weight, but that does NOT mean you failed. If you wanted to lose 30 pounds and you've lost 20, that's great! You've lost 20 pounds and you're 20 pounds healthier and more agile than you were before! You have not failed. Think about all the ways your body feels better now than it did before and appreciate the good things you've done for yourself in this process!

Enjoy your progress now. I am so glad I slowed my fat loss pace these last three months and enjoyed what my new body can do fitness-wise. My long runs were the highlight of my week. The 30+ mile bike rides showed me parts of my city I wouldn't have seen otherwise. Have you ever tried a 30 mile bike ride on 1200 calories/day? Yeah, it sucks. A deficit means you don't have as much energy, and you need energy to run long distances or bike all morning. So no, I didn't get to see my UGW and get down to that smaller pant size. I instead chose to give myself enough fuel to do things I've never been able to do before. My new healthy body got to do some awesome things in my last child-free summer. And that's so much better.

I plan to keep running and biking as long as my body will let me, although at shorter distances and a remarkably slower pace. That fatigue really hits you early.

(Final numbers since things are about to go haywire: SW 218 lbs, CW 150-152 lbs, for a total of about 68 lbs lost.)

submitted by /u/cafe-aulait
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