(Photos attached below!)
I’m just over halfway through my weight loss journey and am taking it slow and steady, as I started in January 2022 (just over 1.5 years ago).
I am a busy student so I alternate between periods where weight loss is my top priority and periods where it cannot be my main focus - when it isn’t my main focus, I stick to some of my new habits and always manage to maintain without tracking for a few months until exams/ important events pass and I enter the next weight loss period.
This system has worked a lot better for me personally than attempting to rapidly lose all of the weight over a certain period of time as it allows me to not stress and to enjoy vacations/ focus on school when needed.
I started at 242, which at 5’1”, is about double my ideal body weight. I’m now at 181 and I feel like a different person. The “healthy” BMI for my height is between 98 and 132 lbs - I’m aiming for anything below 132, as I’m more concerned with being healthy than aiming for a particular goal weight. Honestly, 131.9 would be enough for me.
I don’t track exact calories with an app or log everything, but I do keep a general ballpark going in my head throughout the day. For instance, I know the calories of the typical breakfasts I make, so then depending on what I have for breakfast, I can ballpark adjust my lunch/ dinner choices to reflect breakfast. If I know I’m having a larger dinner, might have a healthier lunch, etc etc…
I’m sure as I get smaller I’ll probably have to start exact calorie counting, but right now this method is working for me. I should also say I have a number of new habits that I have consistently formed over the past year and a half that consistently contribute a great deal to my weight loss.
These habits are:
- only drinking water, coffee, and alcohol. I know how that sounds lol. But I love coffee and I am a student who parties a bit, so those are my non-negotiables. Outside of a daily coffee and a couple weekend drinks, I drink water 24/7 and have completely eliminated soda and other sugary drinks that I don’t care about as much. I can count on my hand the exact number of times (4) I’ve had soda since 2021 which is crazy because as a teen I drank it daily.
- Only eating what I love. If someone offers me a cookie, I will take one, because I love cookies. Ice cream is just meh to me, so I’ll usually say no, because I would rather save those calories for a cookie the next time I get offered one. That’s a generalized example but you get the gist; instead of eating everything, I’ve been prioritizing my favorite foods.
- Eating out less. I’ve found that sometimes I can make “unhealthy” meals at home for fewer calories than the “healthier” meals I can buy out. I just cook what I enjoy at home and the lack of added salt makes me feel so much less bloated. I didn’t realize how shitty fast food made me feel until I stopped eating it regularly. Now when I get fast food I feel like crap for a few days.
- Listening to my hunger cues. This one is hard and I’m still learning. I used to stuff myself until I couldn’t stop; now I try to stop eating when I’m full. In the same regard, I try to wait until I feel actual physical hunger to eat, instead of eating whenever I’m bored or just because it’s “time to eat.” This one is a work in progress but I’m much, much better at it than when I started.
I hope this helps some people by showing it’s not about perfection but about realistic habits. I’ve always tried to be as sustainable as possible with my habits and I definitely think it’s working. There have been a few occasions where school got busy and I completely stopped tracking meals or focusing on weight loss for a few months, but never gained anything back because my new habits have become so engrained. I’m not too worried about maintenance at the end because I’ve ended up sort of “testing” maintenance every 20 lbs and haven’t found it difficult to keep the weight off at all.
Hopefully I am able to continue losing and eventually reach a healthy BMI!
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