First of all, picture, since that's the first thing I like to look at on these posts: https://i.imgur.com/Jp9yOr1.png
To make a long story short, after high school I dealt with some intense anxiety and depression that led into a food and alcohol problem. I avoided weighing myself and getting my picture taken for YEARS. At my highest weight, I was becoming extremely physically uncomfortable. I carried my weight really heavily in my torso area and it was getting hard to do stuff like tie my shoes. I basically gave up on life for a while. Early last year, I finally hit a wall where it felt kind of "change or die." I completely cut out the alcohol, which was the best decision of my life. Honestly, my hats off to y'all who manage to lose weight while still getting drunk regularly, but it always derailed me. Over this experience I've learned a shit ton and I thought I would try and type up everything I thought might be helpful for you guys.
-I did this through CICO. I started out cooking a lot of low cal dinners- my fav site for recipes is skinnytaste.com. It's been harder for me to cook lately so I ended up transitioning to really lazy CICO where I ate whatever and just tally up the calories. I would warn you, though, that if you eat foods with low nutrition and have a deficit, you will get cranky/weak/etc. So I try to pay attention to protein, mostly.
-In the beginning, when I was really sedentary and run down by alcohol, I started with long walks. I HIGHLY recommend walking as an exercise! It was a great way to get my stamina up without feeling like I had some crazy routine I had to force myself into. Make a good playlist, download a podcast, download an audiobook from your library. Nowadays I am working a physical job and I just treat that as my exercise. I have vague plans to get into lifting and/or running now that spring has sprung.
-A mental framework that really works for me is treating yourself like you would a friend, or a kid in your care. I would never look at a friend and be like, "You're a hopeless, lazy, gross piece of shit" yet I did that to myself all the time. Anyone struggling, I would just tell them to set some small goals and go one day at a time, and that they had so much potential and inherent worth. So I try to do that for myself. And it's funny that when we are in charge of a kid and they have a meltdown, we can be like, "Oh, he's only had chips today, he needs some real food" or "she needs to sleep a couple more hours," but when we're having a meltdown, we sometimes just give in to those feelings.
-Going along with the "treat yourself like your own kid" thing, setting limits and boundaries for yourself feels so much better in the long run. I was so used to self soothing with alcohol and food, but the joke is that those are the shittiest coping mechanisms that leave you feeling worse.
-One thing that can be hard to realize is that the scale is NOT a direct reflection of what you did the day before. If you ate great and you're up/stalled out, then just continue eating great and it will come off- you just gotta trust the science. Plateaus stressed me out every step of the way, but the weight will come off if you're being honest about the calories. My weight loss tends to be a few days of big "chunks" and then stalling.
-Track your menstrual cycle (if you have one obv) and compare it to your weight data. I'm embarrassed for how long in my weight loss journey it took me to realize I almost always plateau when ovulating, I get more intense hunger when PMSing, etc.
-I have loose skin on my stomach, breasts, thighs, butt... Honestly, it is mostly fine. The worst thing is I have deflated boobs now. If anyone has bra recommendations for boobs with no volume on top, I'm all ears! I see people post sometimes that they're scared to start weight loss because of loose skin, and as someone who has some, I think it's insane to let that get in your way. I feel so much more conventionally attractive now, regardless of my weird boobs. That's not even to mention the health benefits, lol. I've toyed around with getting some sort of consultation with a surgeon, but I don't think I can justify the cost at this point. I'm honestly surprised by how little it bothers me, although sometimes if I have a horrible day and I'm and I'm in unflattering lighting and my loose skin folds weird or something, I get pretty depressed!
This is everything I could think of, please let me know if you have any questions!
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