TL;DR life happens and sometimes it takes a while to lose weight. But as long as you're making small lifestyle changes, those baby steps add up over time. Don't lose hope.
And for the nerds out there, I've got a link to my Libra charts & explanation near the bottom.
Long-time lurker, yada yada, so I got dressed this morning and actually noticed the weight loss in my mirror for the first time since starting on my journey almost 3 years ago. I got so excited, I wanted to make a post about it. I always found it inspirational to read stories from this subreddit about people who lost their weight over several years. Because life happens and sometimes it throws you some curve balls and you fall off the bandwagon. And sometimes all you can do is make little baby steps.
For some reason, it won't let me post my flair, so 28F, 5'2" | SW: 200 lbs | CW: 170 lbs | GW: 163 lbs. I'm literally 7 lbs from my goal weight of crossing out of the Obese category and into the Overweight category. I thought of waiting until then, but I was way too excited this morning, lol.
What I found worked best for me
- Intermittent Fasting - I am not a big breakfast person. I literally can't eat first thing in the morning. Most foods make me nauseous. I've been that way since middle school. So, I usually don't start eating until lunchtime.
- Clean Plate Mentality - like most of us, I grew up being forced to eat everything on my plate. Most of the time, I just use smaller plates so I can still fill up my plate. When at restaurants, I have forced myself to not eat everything, and almost always box up some of my food. Side Note: I live in the US where portion sizes are ginormous.
- Mindfulness - I try to be mindful of how full I feel & definitely have worked on slowing down and chewing my food. Sometimes, I'll record how certain foods make me feel, especially when I get an upset stomach or acid reflux. I now have a list of what foods to avoid. I have learned that all types of peppers (including bell peppers) give me acid reflux.
- Eating Whatever I Want - to counter my earlier bullet, I do not have a "bad food" list. I still eat burgers & pizza & ice cream, just less often and a smaller amount. Those days I usually do OMAD (one meal a day) to counteract all those extra calories.
- CICO - find out what your maintenance is and eat less than that to lose weight. For my height & activity level, my maintenance is around 1500-1800 calories. So, to lose weight, I try to eat 1200-1400 calories. I do look at a weekly average. And overall, I end up eating 1200-1400 calories for about 3 weeks of each month, and about 1 week at 1500-1800 calories. Since I'm still obese, that lets me lose about 1 lb/week. I know as I lose more weight, I'll need to be a bit more strict, but right now what matters is making sustainable choices.
- Lifestyle Change - cannot stress this enough. I didn't quit any foods cold turkey. I've tried all the fad diets out there. The only thing that has worked for me is making small, sustainable choices. For me, that was ordering a smaller burger & fries, choosing to eat fewer slices of pizza or sizing down the pie, and not forcing myself to eat "healthy foods" (sorry if this upsets anyone, but I actually hate eating salads).
- Stress/Emotional Eating - this one was a tough one & I still do this from time to time. But instead of eating a giant bowl of ice cream, maybe I'll eat 1/2 cup. Or instead of eating a whole box of oreos, I'll only eat a single row. The more often you make small adjustments, the easier it gets, I promise. But ultimately, the only way to help here is to work on your mental health. It has taken a lot of self-reflection & talking with my therapist to combat this particular vice.
- Working Out - I really hate that term, lol. But no, I don't work out. And since covid, I've been averaging about 6,000 steps a day. Sometimes I'll go on a hike or walk around my park, but that's all for my enjoyment & mental health. You do not need to work out to lose weight.
Here are my quickly edited images from Libra, somewhat to-scale of my journey so far: 3-Year Journey from Libra
2018: Journey starts. Weighed in at the Doctor's office at over 200 lbs with clothes on. At my height (5'2"), this puts me in the Obese Class 2 category. Immediately started changing lots of things to try to lose weight. Also, to add more stress, I decided to go get my MBA, while working full-time.
Total weight lost this year: -17.4 lbs
2019: Lots of ups & downs this year. Mainly due to stress. Finished my MBA in August & moved across the country in September. Ended up gaining some weight back.
Total weight gained this year: + 5.1 lbs
2020: Lots more stress, thanks to covid. Probably gained and lost the same 5 lbs until August. Started getting serious about the weight loss again. And then my spouse & I decided to separate & get divorced.
Total weight lost this year: -12.0 lbs
2021: Stress has decreased significantly (taking care of mental health is important). Aiming to hit the overweight category by the end of May. Haven't been this low since undergrad.
Total weight lost so far this year: -6.6 lbs
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