Thursday, December 31, 2020

Finally made it to One-derland SW 262lbs / CW 199

I'm M 5ft 10 and started my weight loss journey at the end of May. Aimed to reach One-derland by the end of 2020 and I made it losing 63lbs in total in 7 months so far.

Not only that, but started running and completed a half marathon distance and started strength training.

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone here for the advice, support and comraderie!

Anyone who says weight loss is easy or that it suddenly 'just clicked' either aren't in it for the long haul or are incredibly lucky.

What has worked for me...

  • Eating approx. 1300-1500 calories a day on average and getting use to eating healthier, breaking bad habits and working around life (i.e it is not worth worrying about calories when I have a big meal / gathering with family on Sat nights so I plan around it by doing more exercise on those days or eating less - a cheat meal but in a planned way). Rule of thumb has been to have a big plate half filled with salad / vegetables and quarter protein and quarter carbs. With a half plate of salad my plate still looked full and I could still eat the same food as family (albeit smaller portions).

  • Starting with walking building myself up 3-4 miles on weekdays and 7-8 miles on weekends. Realising that 1 mile roughly = 100 calories burned helped me so much in planning how much I would eat, etc. I know that if I tried going to the gym or running outside I would have stopped due my social anxiety that flares up every now and then. I also know that if I went too hard to begin with I would have stopped and started to make excuses. Walking is easy and I had the time.

  • Developing a routine and sticking with it and keeping the momentum going especially during the first month.

  • Variety... Firstly, to prevent a plateau as you lose weight (luckily I have lost weight every week except for one week and then a couple of weeks in a planned way when I was focusing on building muscle), but also to stop yourself from becoming bored. I listen to podcasts, music, audiobooks, etc. while exercising, but I also changed exercises and goals over time. So started with walking during June-July aiming to get to 10 miles comfortably. July-Aug I started to incorporate Couch to 5k into my walks for variety. Sept started running 5ks instead of walking. Oct started to do some 10ks. Nov completed half marathon distance and since then focused on improving my 5k times. In Nov-Dec I started to add strength training. At the moment I am fine with that as I have set goals for running I want to achieve. But I am already planning on going further with strength training, starting to cycle and start water sports in the Spring.

  • You can only do so much. Weight loss is hard especially over a long period of time. If I overate or didn't exercise I either just forgave myself and moved on or planned to a bit of extra exercise each day to counteract it.

  • You can only do so much. Weight loss is hard. One of the best advice I heard when I was feeling tired and irritable is that if you are in a calorie deficit your body can only cope with so much when exercising. As a result, you either need to eat more, rest more or do less exercise to recover and function properly.

  • You can only do so much. Weight loss is hard. If you have a lot on in your life that really think through if a weight loss journey is right for you now. For me back in May it was. I was working from home, which meant I no longer had a long commute for work (i.e leave home at 6.30am and return at 7pm, eat, watch TV for an hour and sleep). If I didn't start to lose weight then I knew it was going to be almost impossible when I have to go to work again. For me the question is one of being honest with yourself. If not now, then when? Don't worry about a New Year's resolution if Jan looks like a difficult month for you. Start your weight loss journey when there will be the least amount of barriers possible.

I think that is all the advice I have to give. Here's to 2021 and carrying on till my other One-derland of losing 100lbs so I can be in a healthy weight range for the first time since childhood and then maintaining!

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