It's been a year since I started my weight loss journey, but beyond the number on the scale, my life and health improved in many ways.

Hello, fellow losers!

If you are reading my post and considering going on a weight loss journey this year, I wanted to share my story with you and tell you that there is more to find through it than just weight loss.

Here's a bit of a rant of how I got there. You can skip to the end to see how this improved my life.

In December 2019, I got back home after a boozy Christmas party. Mildly intoxicated, I was dancing in my bathroom while removing my make-up. Suddenly, I realised that I was out of breath just after a few hip swings. I looked at my body in the mirror and I didn't like what I saw.

At that time, I was already trying to lose weight but wasn't really successful. I always struggled a bit with that. I started gaining after my 21st birthday when I met my ex and by the age of 25, I was officially obese on the BMI scale. It was a wake-up call, I dropped the weight and the boyfriend but even after that, I was still overweight. During that time, I lost around 20lbs and kept it more or less off.

Now, I'm 31, dancing, or trying, in my bathroom and I'm wondering what I'm doing with my life. The next day, I was installing MFP again and that's how I started this one year journey.

While I don't have the most impressive numbers, I more or less reached my goal. I started around 164 lbs ( My size is 5.54 ), I reached 140 lbs last summer thanks to a lot of outdoor runs and walks. Now, I'm up to 147 after the holidays, but I'm starting this year as motivated as ever to go back to my summer body.

But beyond the number on the scale, my life and health improved in many ways:

• I stopped smoking. It's been since March! I would have never even think about stopping before but when you start taking care of your health and exercising, you start thinking about the rest of your body.
• I'm drinking less alcohol. I was quite a regular drinker before, constantly tracking my calories made me realise that I needed to cut off my drinking. Actually, I'm doing Dry January now.
• Barely any binges in the last months. I have binge eating disorder but maybe soon, I will say " I had a binge eating disorder". It's been a while I didn't binge, the last time I did, it was a binge on hummus and carrots?? Does that even qualify? Seriously, I might have healed my relationship with food
• I'm into sports now, I guess. I started running and swimming regularly. I never liked sport, never exercised, what the biggest couch potato of this planet before. I was even too lazy to just walk somewhere so imagine running. Now, I really enjoy it and wouldn't see my life without it. I also try to do 6000-10000 steps a day and do yoga or HIIT workouts when I can't run or swim.
• I eat my greens. I learned a lot about nutrition this year. I have never eaten better. I'm mindful about getting a bit of everything and eating nutritious food.
• I'm more patient. I'm not jumping on whatever sweet treat I can find when I'm a bit tired or stressed. I learned to control myself better.
• I feel happier. Not insanely more, I still have my issues but overall, I do feel better.

The big takeaway from all this is that it's never really over. I want to spend the rest of my life exercising, eating well and protecting my health and my body to live a long and happy life with my loved ones.

Good luck to all of you, I look forward to reading about your 2021 milestones, on the scale or not.

submitted by /u/FabulousSolid
[link] [comments]

from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/3nfUXdx