Hello everyone!
It’s been 91 days since I began my endeavour into proper and committed weight loss. There’s been thrills, spills, pain and pleasure. It’s been fucking difficult, to be honest, Here’s my 90 day report,
I actually started back in May of 2018, where I was 271lbs/123kg. I didn’t put my entries in properly until around the 10th December, which is where the 90 days starts, You can see my full chart since the beginning here.
As it’s coming up to the end of my 91st day of proper committed weight loss, I thought I would impart my top 5 learned tips and tricks for steady loss here upon this wonderful community.
1. Go easy on yourself.
As some of you might see if the chart shows it properly, I took weight loss a little too seriously at the beginning. There’s a fine line between good, steady progress and crazy fast detriment. To be honest, I felt an immense amount of pride in the weight I’d lost to begin with, losing lbs and lbs. However, as much as you can lose A lot of weight very quickly and feel great about it, problems arise when sustainability is pulled into question. I found very quickly that I would crash and begin to creep over my maintenance calorie limit almost intermittently. Be careful with the speed of your weight loss and be aware that while losing a lot quickly is rewarding it may not be the best choice long-term.
2. Cardio and weights is the best option.
This one may be a little bit subjective but it has also been proven that individuals trying to lose weight, when under a program of cardio and resistance training, have lost substantially more weight than one or the other. I personally work on a program of six days a week training, where every day I’ll begin a weight session with 20 minutes of cardio. Sometimes it drops back to 5 due to fatigue but I’m always getting those sessions in. I’ve seen a significant improvement in my confidence due to my weightlifting efforts which I feel as though would not have come if I’d of been doing cardio alone.
3. Watch what happens in the kitchen.
As much as training as much as I do is beneficial for me, something that I’ve become increasingly aware of during my time of losing weight is that everything is done in the kitchen. If I’m on a day where I’ve done 12 miles of walking and an elliptical session and weight training, none of it will matter if I’m not getting the right nutrition. Nutrition is everything. Knowing what works for you in terms of calorie intake versus calorie expenditure is incredibly important. Aside from this, knowing what macros you prefer to intake can be beneficial but that’s not for everyone. One of the things I overlooked at the beginning was what macronutrients I was taking in. I quickly realised that I needed to increase my protein consumption in order to maintain a good level of muscle.
4. Forgive yourself for messing up.
I’ve had days where waves of depression and anxiety have washed over me and I couldn’t escape them in any other way than to eat. I did what I knew worked best and through that, I gained and gained lbs. You will see from my chart that I had ups and downs and that my loss has been very staggered. I am a stress eater, and the last couple of months have been very very difficult, This reflected in my weight loss. I have overeaten, I have spent money I couldn’t really afford on takeaways to fulfil my unhappiness, and I have regretted. One of the important things you must account for is that this will happen. You will have days where habits of old seep through the cracks and it’s hard, god knows it is - but to grit your teeth and fight through it, you must allow it to happen every now and then. It will become like a buildup and you will eventually let it all out at once, and I found that that is how individuals give up as quickly as they sometimes do.
5. Self-love is key.
One of the things I think a lot of people enduring weight loss don’t do frequently enough is reward themselves. Now I’m not talking about letting yourself have another roll of chocolate in the chocolate bar, i’m talking about looking in the mirror and feeling good about what you’ve done regardless of how far you are from where you want to be. God only knows that some days I would get up and look in the mirror, wanting to give up because I felt like I was getting nowhere. But I learned to look and find the positives. Despite my slow weight loss I’ve seen a significant improvement in the way I look and the attention that I get. I have developed an ego - which is not always a bad thing. As long as it is under control to have an ego is to reward oneself for the hard work put into achieve the goals achieved. While rewards that are physical - most specifically, edible - are beneficial, it’s important to let yourself know how well you’ve done.
That’s it, that’s all the tips that I have personally. One of the things you shouldn’t be scared of is to share how you feel about what you are doing. I’ve learnt this and this is why I’m here, to help individuals like me to feel comfortable with what they’ve achieved already, and to let them know that the light at the end of the tunnel does actually come.
In April, I will be doing something I have termed “Active April”, where every day will be a deficit day. Every day I will walk the required amount of steps. I will clean eat. I will train on my schedule days. I will work harder than I have been to get where I want to be. I’m thinking of doing it for charity and trying to hit 15lbs of weight loss during that period.
I think we should all try and have an active April, especially those of you reading through these Reddit posts wondering how are you going to start. Start now and join me in having an active April, and we can all just lose a few more pounds together.
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