Hello there,
I'm new here, but I would like to share my weight loss journey with you!
2 years ago I lost around 15 pounds (went from 180 to 165 pounds) by doing CICO and not exercising at all. It felt great, I was able to enjoy my body on the pictures again and such, but it slowly went to hell once Christmas started. I pretty much stopped counting calories, started overeating and gained it all back. Food and cooking itself is my hobby, and it is not easy to not want to eat those delicious slowly baked ribs that have been marinated in tons of sugar overnight.
Another "problem" is that my long life partner sees me as beautiful no matter how much weight I put on. He says he enjoys my curves and loves my body, even when I feel ashamed of it. He himself is really slim and same height as me (has a desk job and does not work out at all) and I swear that if I eat the same he does, I gain 5 lbs while he still weighs the same! Not sure how he does it, but it is so unfair, haha.
Well anyway, this year I decided I've had enough. I'm getting old after all, I suffer from back pain when doing chores and I can't go for longer/harder hikes, because I simply don't have the stamina for it. Which really sucks, because we have beautiful nature surrounding us, and I want to do those!
And so I started not only doing CICO, but also exercising 5 days a week. I decided to follow one of the Fitness Blender programs, and let me tell you, that it was pretty hard the first two weeks. Everyone tells you that you feel energized and happy after exercising, right? Nope, not the case for me! Even when I tried to take it easy + eat high protein meal within an hour after exercising, I still felt like shit for the rest of the day, I honestly hated it. Every day I had to have an inner dialogue to push myself to exercise.
This (third) week my body is finally slowly getting used to the routine, and I actually feel good after exercising, yay!
I still gotta convince myself to exercise every day, but what really keeps me going is that I noticed a lot of good changes in my body (which didn't happen before when I was only doing CICO) in such a short time! For example, I don't have as much back pain anymore, I am way more flexible (I can touch my toes without cheating and bending my knees!) and sex life has dramatically improved too - I can finally do certain positions without my thighs killing me after a few minutes. I am also stronger and my arms don't feel like completely useless noodles anymore.
And this is what is important for me. Not the fact that I am gonna look better and be able to wear my old clothes (even though that's definitely a good perk!), but the fact that I will be able to do activities I love without running out of breath and feeling completely dead afterwards. I also want to start skiing next season (since I finally have some money to buy the gear and season pass) after being on slopes again this year (after a 15y break) and finding out that I still REALLY love mountains! The only problem was that I could barely walk for the next two days and took almost a full week to recover from just one full day of skiing, so that really needs to change, lol.
I must admit I still have food cravings and go to my favorite sushi restaurant once a week (I'm a sushi maniac), so I end up eating at my maintenance level that day, but it helps me tremendously with my diet for the rest of the week. Sometimes I am still 200 calories under at the end of the day and don't feel hungry at all. I don't limit myself to certain meals, I just modify them a little bit and take a LOT of time eating it. That way I end up enjoying the food and eat only half of what I used to. For example, I still enjoy eating pizza (I make my own healthier version), I can have roasted potatoes (I just barely use any oil and they still taste delicious) and my protein bars I eat after exercising are coconut/dark chocolate flavor (only 190 calories with 20g protein), so my cravings for sweets are satisfied then too.
I also do 24h IF on Saturday or Sunday when I take a 2 day break from exercising, and just drink a lot all day. Surprisingly it has been really easy for me to do so, even though I never tried IF before. Hot tea is a game changer!
So yeah, while CICO is definitely important in weight loss, don't forget to move a bit too, haha! Don't exercise to lose weight, exercise to be able to enjoy activities you couldn't before and to make yourself stronger.
Thanks for reading all this, I am gonna go work out now, even though I would rather continue sitting at my computer reading Reddit, haha!
P.S. If you own a VR headset, try Beat Saber! If you exaggerate your every move, it is a great and extremely enjoyable exercise (with custom songs). I play sometimes on my off days or when I still have a little bit of energy left after working out :)
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