Monday, January 29, 2024

I successfully lost the weight!

Hi everyone,

This is going to be a long post. I am a 26 y/o female and went from 85 to 65 kg (healthy BMI now). I wanted to come on here and share my experiences with my weightloss.

Background

I was always this fluffy and chubby child. During high school, I grew out of the chubbiness, but going into adulthood, I got big again. Early into my new life as an adult, I got into a relationship and gained about 20kg. Since then, I had always been in the lower to mid 80kgs. At my highest, a bit before the summer, I was 85kg.

My journey started a bit accidentally. In the summer, I traveled around the Balkans. It was hot, I walked a lot, drank liters of water, and lost a lot of my appetite. If I was hungry, then the last thing I craved was sweets and deep-fried food, because that was too heavy on my stomach. Otherwise, I ate whole foods. The Mediterranean cuisine is infamously among the healthiest in the world. Then I came back home and stood on the scale: 78kg. "That can't be true," I thought. But it was. Then I decided this is my sign to take weight loss seriously. They always say starting is the hardest and I didn't even really have to "start". I just had to continue what I did for the past summer.

There were many reasons why I continued with the weightloss, but overall, I wanted a better quality of life for myself and my future family. A combination of a better diet and exercise were the keys to my success. I eat anything I want in moderation as long as it fits into my schedule, do weightlifting 4 times a week to tone up my body, and training for a 14 km run in April. If someone had told me I would be doing a 14k, I'd have laughed at them in their face.

How did I do it? * I tracked my progress in an excel sheet, including my weight and chest, waist and hip measurements. This excel sheet also included a graph, which really showed me my progress visually. * I did not count calories, but I did have some indicators. For example, having half of my plate be veggies, a quarter carbs, and a quarter protein. I read into the function of fibers and realised the importance of veggies in my diet. * I allowed myself a few moments where I could have something nice and I romantisized that moment. For example, instead of buying boxed brownies and eating it at home by myself, I went out with my friend for a nice coffee and a nice piece of homemade cake from the bakery. This way, you can really limit yourself to that one piece. * I did not beat myself up if I ate an extra piece. For me, there's no bad food - there's just good choices and less good choices (within reason, of course). * I started running and made it a thing to run +/- 4 times a week for a few kilometers. I didn't have money for a gym membership, so running was the most accessible thing since I could do it outside. * I loved my body, even at a heavier weight. I realised that I don't want to waste my 20s being sad over my body and this change of attitude and genuinely loving life made the journey so much easier. This was how I lost the first 7 kg without realising it. * I divided up my weightloss goal into increments of 5. So every 5th kg I lost, I could buy myself something nice.

Observations

I am very happy with my body and cherish my freedom of mobility. My quality of life has improved significantly. Here are some of my observations, categorized into negative and positive:

Negative: * Body dysmorphia is a THING! I look in the mirror and still see overweight me. But when I look at gym videos of myself, I see a thin person. I am also contantly confused about what I size I need to get off the rack to try on; * People treat me better. Men especially are more inclined to have small talk with me, help me out and date me; * Constant anxiety of gaining all the weight back. I can't deny that every kg I gain makes me a little nervous, even though it may be muscle gain.

Positive: * My relationship with food has changed. I actually enjoy food way more, because I make better choices. My meals are healthy and the thought of putting all those healthy nutrients in my body make me happy; * Other people are as excited about my weightloss as I am; * Oversized clothes actually look oversized on me, not just a bigger size on a big body; * I shrunk a shoe size lol; * I am never sick anymore, not even a stuffy nose; * I have a new wardrobe with all kinds of cute clothes (although I feel for my wallet); * I feel comfortable wearing shorts and a sportsbra in the gym; * I feel more open to meeting people (and go on dates).

I am excited for the future, especially for the 14K run. I get emotional thinking about it, because I can't believe my body can do that, that I made it all that way to that point. It will be the cherry on top of this whole journey.

I hope this post brought some inspiration and motivation. Keep it up, it is within reach. All the best for you all!

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

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

No comments:

Post a Comment