Telling yourself the whole truth

I haven't posted for a while, but I've been maintaining a significant weight loss for around 8 months now. There have been some challenges, primarily due to an injury I sustained that meant I had to give up my favorite exercises (running and walking) for 3 months. But I'm getting back into running now and am feeling good. While on a run today, I was talking to someone about my weight loss and I was articulating an idea to them that I just wanted to share in case it helps anyone. A big rule I have now is to tell myself the WHOLE truth about things.

Example: "Food soothes/calms/comforts me when I'm feeling upset"

This is absolutely true. I've known this for a long time and using food as a coping mechanism was a primary reason I was so overweight. And I think if you say this to yourself, it's easy to see why eating would be appealing when you are upset. But while true, it's not the whole truth.

The whole truth: "When I'm eating, food makes me feel better IN THAT MOMENT. Once I stop eating, those bad feelings and the situation are still there. But now I've added some other bad feelings on top (shame, guilt, fear about the future, physical discomfort if I really overeat). And I've added weight to my body, which makes me less healthy, embarrassed about my appearance, etc. I trade temporary relief of negative feelings for more negative feelings and worse health"

Telling myself the whole truth about my behavior and choices has really helped me. Sometimes I might still decide to soothe with food; it's rare that I do that if I tell myself the whole truth, but it's happened a couple of times. But at least then I acknowledge what I'm doing and am making an informed choice. Food = comfort is simplistic and makes it seem like a pretty easy and benign choice. Why would you say no to comfort? The whole truth makes the choice different. I can choose to soothe that way, but then I have to acknowledge what I'm really choosing. I apply this to a lot of situations and it's been transformative in my thinking!

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from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2Dk0efg

I didn’t plan to lose weight, but now I am.

I set out this year to develop a better work-life balance by spending more time looking after myself and fueling my body with what it actually needs. I work from home, running a small business, so I don’t get any incidental exercise.

Last year, I would work 10-12 hour days everyday, eating whatever I could just grab and eat at my desk and my version of exercise was throwing a ball for my dog at the park.

When my boyfriend brought home some bathroom scales, I was so distressed when I saw it hit 99kg. In fear of hitting 100kg, I started walking my dog 2kg every morning. After 6 weeks, I mentally felt better, but I also developed plantar fasciitis. My physio told me that I shouldn’t go for walks but rather try swimming until the pain went away. So I took up swimming and it made the pain disappear. And I realised how much more productive and stable my days were becoming with this new morning routine. I get up, I walk my dog for 2km (now that my feet aren’t in as much pain), go home for a light breakfast, change into my swim hear and hit the pool for 10x100m laps.

I think the best part of my new routine is the balance. Ive decided that mornings are for me. I use my mornings to work out, plan my meals for the day etc and then the rest of my day is spent working. This new balance means that I dropped 3kg in January, even though I spent 4 days with family interstate and multiple celebrations such as Australia Day just eating junk food. So far this month I have lost another .5kg.

This morning I weighed in at 94.8kg. I haven’t been this light since before I started my business. I have spent my whole life trying to lose weight for the sake of losing weight. Now that I am trying to simply find balance, weight loss is just a side effect.

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from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2UOqndd

I ate a cookie... now what?

Does anyone else feel a sense of guilt or shame when they indulge in a moderate portion of something that doesn't perfectly fit into their meal plans? I'm about 89 calories over my target for the day so it could have been worse.

I have a feeling that eating sweets in moderation and not letting it throw everything off track is where sustainable, long-term weight loss lives. But I still can't help but feel like I failed myself.

The silver lining is I'm no longer purging to compensate when I eat something "unhealthy". I'm trying to focus on how positive it is that I'm slowing healing my relationship with food. But it's still hard not to beat myself up over it. Anyone else struggle with this?

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from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2MSkYyX

NSV - My best friend of 8 years didn't recognise me today.

19 / Male

SW: 301 CW: 230 GW: 195

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I haven't seen my best friend for 3 weeks due to both being busy and ususually we would usually see each other daily at the gym we both go to.

In that time I have lost another 6lbs, but much more importantly I have brought a new outfit for the first time since starting my weight loss 7 months ago. I was wearing a large jumper and 34" skinny jeans, instead of the usual 3XL jumper and 42" jeans, and it did a lot better job of showing how much my body had changed to the point where my friend didn't recognise me at first when he saw me walk into the gym today!

I have kept putting off buying new clothes for a while as I didn't want to waste money by them not fitting in a few months but just getting a single outfit that fits me well has given me a huge confidence boost. I have struggled to see the change in my body before as I have been wearing the same oversized clothes for months now but now, I have never felt better about my self.

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Just for referance:

I have gone from a 46" waist jeans to 34" jeans which are skinny and the first pair of skinny jeans I have ever owned

I have also gone from a 4XL to a L-XL, depends on brand and fit (slim, regular, ect)

I have gone from a 21" neck dress shirt to a 16.5" neck

I have also lost nearly 3" off my wrist too

I have even dropped half a shoe size!

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from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2Bp6i5K

Living for the mini-goals and already feeling like it shows

I started CICO and regular exercise on January 13. I set my starting weight to be 175lbs, since I was fluxing in the high 170s while I was home for the holidays. Since I started logging and tracking my calories and weight, I've gone down to 167.5 (-6.5lbs)! The lowest I remember weighing in recent years was ~163, so I'm just a few pounds away.

Thanks to the Love Yourself Challenge, my first goal was to hit 169lbs by Valentine's Day. I achieved that goal on February 1. That changed my next goal to hit 167lbs by Valentine's Day. I'm half a pound away! If I hit that goal any time this week, I'll probably make my next Valentine's Day goal ~165.5.

After Valentine's Day, my next goal will be to hit 162 by my birthday (March 1), so that as a gift to myself, I will be my lowest in years!

My next goal will be 159 by St. Paddy's Day. That will put me at a healthy BMI and 16lbs down overall!

My first long-term goal is 145 by June 1. This is a goal I had to set for my kickboxing class. Overall that's 30lbs in 5 months. Today I realized I'm 20% into the 5 month time period and I'm down 27% of the weight I wanted to lose, just by focusing on all these mini-goals.

I know weight loss rates can change. I know it's crazy that I'm losing 2lbs/week. (My goal is 1lb/week.) However, I keep setting these mini-goals and I see how achievable they are. It's making it easier to skip that second beer or size out my portion a little better. With each mini-goal I achieve, whether I achieve it early or on time or eventually later, I can reassess and set my next mini-goal.

Happpy Scale (and I assume Libra) are great for this because of the milestones they give you. But I'm picking my own numbers, what those numbers mean for me, and when I want to hit that number, not when I should based on my current rates.

In case anybody is curious, my BMR is 1600 and my TDEE is 2000. I aim for about 1500calories per day, but I also aim for 6-12k steps per day and 10 hours of martial arts classes per week.

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from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2Tz0td1

Why do fake science, fad diets and easy fixes have a strong footing in social media?

So I saw this family member of mine share some video about a drink consisting of boiling lemon slices and ginger being the "key" to weight loss and you could lose 10lbs in a week drinking this water. I didn't really pay attention to it except when I scrolled it got so many likes and comments about people who say they're going to try it out and such.

This person has asked me about weight loss before since I've lost a large portion of weight and my goals have changed more towards bodybuilding so my physique is changing drastically, so my body is "the end result" most people expect from just losing weight without exercising (doesn't happen that way unfortunately)

You can skip this part, its all the things we talked about

I went to talk about the basics of weight loss with CICO. Then the topic of paleo came up, which I personally find pointless, its just CICO with a lot of dietary restrictions. Then Keto came up. I tried to give a summarized abridged college biochemistry section on metabolism in the course of an hour or two. I explained that it does work and you do lose weight but you just shift your metabolism from using Glucose to using Free Fatty Acid/Ketone Bodies, but in the end it is just CICO and the laws of thermodynamics that causes weight loss. Keto isn't really special, unless the types of food you eat in keto helps you keep adherence to a consistent caloric deficit diet or if you have neurological issues that ketone bodies as a source of fuel instead of glucose could help with, such as reducing seizures. Then the subject of bodybuilding came up and I gave some broscience tips on the amount of protein to eat, programs to start lifting. 5x5 stronglifts is a really good program to start with for beginners by the way. What and how macros work. And I even shared some studies from the Journal of Physiology and the Journal of Biological Chemistry about hypertrophy, various studies on muscle activation, muscle protein synthesis and misc things like the protein timing myth. I told them to message me if they wanted to know more stuff and such. They have randomly but it doesn't seem like they listen to anything I tell them so after a while I don't really comment on those posts about weight loss fixes.

Continue reading here

After all that and almost a year later they still look the same. They share things about drinking a tea to slim down. Here's a recipe of some sort of water with a random fruit and ginger in it to lose 10lbs. Here's some fat burners that will make you lose weight.

TDLR; I just don't understand how people believe those fake weight loss posts. If you really tried those water recipes or spent money on those pills, they would still give you zero results. Drink some lemon ginger tea or swallow a questionable pill with your daily caloric surplus and end up at the same weight if not more. Yet people eat it up and get stuck in putting their faith in it even after being given some sound information that does work if you implemented it.

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from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2SDeCsJ

2019 is my self-improvement year. I'm not just starting weight loss, I'm changing my life.

I've been overweight for about 10 years now, and I've suffered from depression and other mental health problems after living in an abusive household in which my weight was ridiculed until I became very overweight for my size.

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I've moved out since then, been out of it for 6 years or so, and I'm in therapy and taking medications for my mental health. This helped me gain back my confidence and motivation and I'm starting to be good to my body by eating healthier and walking every day.

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I just wanted to share. I'm kind of proud of myself and I'm hoping for friends and encouragement on my journey to be a better version of myself. Thanks for listening!

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