Made it to One Year!

April 3rd marked one year since I took my very first (pre) Progress Picture. It's the only really concrete date for me really starting down this road, so I'm calling it my 1 year. One Year

I started at 230+lbs (104 kg?), standing 5'8" on a good day, with terrible posture, a growing hunch, an ever persistent depression and a crawling anxiety that never used to exist. I had a number of false starts along the way, but none of them really had a directed purpose. Just eat and/or do things "better" or "healthier" was some of the worse advice I had ever received.

I started working out (running little circuits with dumbbells I had), bombarded myself with fitness videos, which very quickly turned into learning about TDEE, Macros, and Calories, and within like a week, I was tracking calories.

I lost my first 30 lbs (13.5 kg) relatively quickly (4-5 months), and maintained at 200 when I started taking strength training more seriously. I found the exercise sucker punched my depression, and really helped flush away a lot of the anxiety. I had a few big things happen this past year that if they had happened a year before would have crippled me mentally and emotionally, and I was actually able to handle in a healthy way.

I just started the process again a couple weeks ago, and am down around 5 lbs (2.25 kg). Between that and my gf starting to count right after I shared what a year looked like for me, I've been taking stock at all of the things that made it work the first time. I thought maybe someone else might be able to gleam something as well. (I get wordy so uhh... sorry)

Here's what I learned/what works for me:

Do it for yourself - There are so many amazing things that happen along the path, (easier to tie your shoes. your center of balance changes, heat tolerance totally changes, etc.) and you are going to be the one that notices 95% of them. Don't give someone else the power to derail you by not living up to an expectation they did not know you had.

Learn & Engage your brain - I knew calories were a how much energy was in food, or something like that, but didn't really understand any of it. It wasn't until I found myself down a rabbit hole on youtube, learning about TDEE, and Marcos, and all of that, that it really came together for me. Like I felt like I had discovered the secret to everything wasn't 42, and here is the real tangible equation. I know the way my brain works, if I surround myself with something, I can get excited about it. Youtube gave me that. Old Obese to Beast videos had a ton of information, and fitness channels like Jujimufu got me excited to workout. Game your brain. Find a way to get it on board.

Weigh Yourself Regularly: Personally, I like weigh myself every day. I can see why it is not for everyone, but I found it really enlightening. Heavy on sodium one day, weight would be a little up the next day. Got a good workout and feeling stiff and sore, probably see another 2lbs on the scale. Little dehydrated? Going to be a little lighter. If found it helps me get a bead on where my baseline is, and understand how my body responds to things.

Track Calories- Even if you don't do it forever, really understanding your eating habits and the calories in things are so important. I discovered I was probably flirting with a binge eating disorder after a year of eating "better" by skipping seconds, and eating lighter during the day. A large iced cap is like eating a simple sandwich calorie wise, but that sandwich will have some staying power.

You can make anything work: You can fit almost anything into your diet, especially if you're just looking for weight loss.Don't over do it, and find a portion you can fit into your calories for the day. Over time, I think its pretty natural to get away from certain foods that make it difficult to balance it, but if you want beer for breakfast, and tatertots for supper you can make it work. You're gonna be hungry, and probably miserable, but the option's there.

Find a system that works for you: I find I want to eat more food at night, so I structure my days (breakfast/lunch) to be around half my calories during the day, and the rest around supper. It also gives me more wiggle room if something comes up, a last minute dinner, etc. My gf is the complete opposite, and loves that big breakfast.

Bad Days: There will be some. But it actually takes a lot to undo the work you have done. Like you'd have to go over your target calories something like 4000 calories in a day to put on a pound. Have the bad day, dust yourself off, get back to it the next. Realistically you probably only just ate over maintenance.

Plateaus: are you body catching up. You asked a lot of it, it'll be ready to go again soon.

Exercise: It was probably one of the biggest things for me. It knocked down a ton of bloating, the act itself makes me feel good, and as an added bonus it allows me to eat more food. Biggest of all was the mental health benefit that came from it. Like when our dog is acting a little crazy our first reaction is to go take them out to burn some energy, but if I'm feeling a little crazy I'd go about as far in the other direction as possible. Burning energy in a positive way is important.

Rest: Your body needs to rest after exercise. Especially in the beginning. It's sooo easy to feel like committing to it means you have to do it every day, but you need time in between for your body to build up. Especially if you're reawakening long forgotten muscles. I tried jogging every day, I tried walking every day, and my body just fell apart. Very nearly repeated it again when I started at the beginning of the year. Give yourself a day between.

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My biggest take away from the year:

Doing things that make my body feel better has a massive positive affect on my mental health. Trying to get to bed on time so I get a solid 8 hours, drinking 3+ liters of water a day, strengthening my body, burning energy, drinking less alcohol (who would have thought, drinking a depressant less might make you feel better lol). Weight loss removing the little annoying things like chaffing for little to no reason, or belly weight making it uncomfortable to sleep on one side. They don't always take bad days away, but man do they not crash ashore as hard when your foundation doesn't feel cracked.

Edit: Oh! And progress pictures.

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How I visualize my weight loss.

"I lost a kilo." "I lost 50 pounds." "I lost 3 stone on Mercury." Those are all great, but I need something more concrete and visual, so I came up with this.

Every Wednesday, I weigh in. I don't weigh in any other time during the week. I log my weight on the LoseIt app and on Reddit (and in any challenges that I'm doing).

On Friday, I go grocery shopping. When I get to the dairy section, I stop. I pull 1 box of butter for every pound that I've lost since the beginning of the year. At first, I just stacked them, now I grab a box to pile them in. Then I pick it up and carry it to the end of the aisle and back. Then I take a picture of the pile/box before carefully putting them away.

An American box of butter (4 sticks) is 1 pound of basically (only?) fat. I know that my weight loss can't possibly be 100% fat, but it's a great feeling to heft that box of butter from one end to the other.

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Old friend of mine commented on my weight loss.

For starters, I was not terribly heavy before I started trying to lose weight. But when I put on weight it goes almost entirely to my face and belly, so after holidays I was looking pretty bloated. Yesterday I finished a tutoring session in my University's library and as I walked out to head home, I ran into a friend I hadn't seen in a couple months. We hugged and talked for a bit and eventually she said "you've gotten really thin, are you feeling okay?" I told her I'd been trying to lose weight and that I was glad it was objectively noticeable. I'm about a month into losing wieght and lately I've been swamped with cravings for carbs and sugar, almost giving in on several occasions. Hearing her point out my weight loss really brightened my outlook on what I'm trying to achieve. I think the cravings are mostly a mental thing at this point in the process, because hearing that surprisingly helped curb them. Just felt like sharing (probably bragging to be honest :/) because it really made me feel good.

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The weight is coming off now that my mind has changed?

..using a throwaway I save for really personal stuff...

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For me, the breaking point was my family beach vacation in 2017. I hated how I looked and felt. I was panicking as I realized I needed to by larger shorts and t-shirts. I was in my early 40s, male, 5'10" and about 217 lbs. According to BMI, just this side of obese, for the first time in my life.

I felt embarrassed, worthless, and hopeless. but I am a doer, and an experimenter. I didn't think about it this way at the time, but I began experimenting on my own body and mind.

When I got back home, I immediately threw myself into weight loss. I made some mistakes. I started by ordering a meal replacement shake online that is still heavily advertised. I dropped a few pounds right away, but I suspect this concoction gave me a case of gout.

I tried intermittent fasting. Again, three or four pounds here and there, but here is what kept happening: I would "successfully" fast until 10 or 11 a.m., and at 4:30 I would devour everything in my pantry, and then feel like hell for the rest of the night.

I tried just cardio, just weights, cardio and weights. Can't stick to an exercise plan for more than a month. Still can't.

Recently my wife has had a kind of awakening. She has changed how she thinks about food, especially meat, and has begun flirting with plant based diets. I also have had some long, hard thinks about meat and my relationship to it, and I told her I would join her. So, we've been slowly cutting down (not eliminating) meat from our diets. The meat we do eat is grass-fed, pasture-raised, etc. etc.

I've had terrible acid reflux , on and off, for many years, even before I became obese. It's gotten worse despite meds, despite sleeping on an inclined pillow, despite being somewhat fanatical about not eating past 6:30 p.m. I have been seeing a chiropractor about back pain. He wants to talk to me about my diet, but I don't want to discuss it with him. I just want him to make my back make terrible noises and then I feel slightly better for a few more days.

But, he suggested eliminating dairy. While I was already cutting way down on meat, I thought, sure, why not. So I cut way down (did not eliminate) dairy.

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Meanwhile, and here's a curveball: For about two months, I experimented with microdosing LSD. It's interesting! But it was unsustainable for me, so I stopped. When I did, something happened. I have nearly quit drinking without realizing it, and without consciously meaning to.

I love drinking. But I find weeks zing by without it crossing my mind. I'll have a drink or two to be social, but I'm not reaching for it after I've had a long day, for example.

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The pounds started dropping.

This morning, I weighed in at 195. No longer obese. My face is noticeably less round. I have a smaller neck. There are some, um, personal attributes that just look better. My reflux is receding (but not gone).

It feels easier to get up and go for a two mile walk.

I'm not craving the things I've been cutting out.

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I don't know what happened or how this all fits together, but, at least today, I can't imagine going back.

Be well everyone

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Down 65 Pounds Today - Feels like a Second Chance at Living

I'm going to keep this short and sweet. Today, I'm celebrating a 65 pound weight loss since I began my journey on September 24th, 2018. From a life of double cheeseburgers, fries with extra salt and large sweetened iced teas to now waiting for the sweet potato I'll eat for lunch to cool from the microwave. I wouldn't have it any other way.

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I'm going to share tips with you and keep this short and sweet. Cut out the crap. Eat more fruits and vegetables. You can and should fit them into every meal.

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Do your research about snacks. You're better off just eating fruits and vegetables than some granola bar that is packed with crap, but advertises themselves as "healthy."

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Cook for yourself. Anything you can buy at a restaurant, you can make for yourself and it'll most likely be healthier if made at home, even if it is the same thing.

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Look into 16:8 and other fasting methods. Other than weight, I've lost nothing by eating within an 8 hour timeframe.

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Don't let your inspiration/motivation/self-worth/idea of success depend on anyone else's praise or opinion. Hardly anyone else is going to care and with the obesity epidemic we're experiencing, they're sure as hell not going to be happy for you for becoming healthier. (While they're most likely going the other way.)

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Read Lost Connections by Johann Hari. There's great information in there about the connection between obesity and anxiety/depression. This book was the key book that started my weight loss journey.

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I'm a 26 year old female who started this journey at 301 pounds. I am 15 pounds away from my lowest weight in college. (220)

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I'm 15 pounds away from the lowest weight of my adult life. And I feel great. I'm happy. That's what's most important. And you can do all of this too. Just start! Don't wait for the perfect pair of gym sneakers or some kind of magical motivation. It isn't coming. No one (okay - maybe close family or a spouse or something) is going to care about your health or your weight loss, but you should want to improve your quality of life for YOU.

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Use the internet to learn about what you're eating and find some kind of physical activity you enjoy. (Or just learn all that you can about food because exercise is such a small part of it anyway.)

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Note to Self

At my highest weight, I was 250lbs. About 4 years ago, I got my act together and tracked calories diligently at approximately 1500 calories per day. I went to the gym 4-5 times per week and lost almost 60lbs. Getting into one-derland was triumphant!

After a few months of hard work, I started slacking. My drive was gone. I would try to track calories, but it was like I was burned out and could never get back on track with that. I started over-indulging in food again. The scale started creeping upward to 215lbs and it has stayed there ever since.

I never stopped going to the gym because I enjoy it and have an awesome personal trainer. I like the challenges, pushing my body. I know that my consistent gym attendance is the only thing that kept me from completely losing control of my weight again.

I took up running last year and ran my first 5k last fall. I used to HATE running, but discovered the proper way to start so I didn’t get discouraged (hint: run very slow to start, build your speed through time and training... don’t rush it!). I was slow with my finish time, but I did it and got the medal to prove it! Despite this success, my weight still wasn’t significantly changing because my eating is my greatest self-sabotage.

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how the hell I got into the proper mindset during my first bout of weight loss. I looked back at my food records to see what I was eating. It wasn’t anything unusual, just less. For the life of me, I couldn’t recapture that drive that I had.

A friend of mine wants to do a Spartan Race this year, so we started training together a couple of months ago. For me, my participation was contingent on me losing weight because Spartans are super tough. With our training, I was getting stronger, but not lighter.

This past Monday, it clicked in my mind that I only have a few short months until decision day. Will I physically be able to participate in a super badass race? If I didn’t change what I was doing, I definitely could not join in no matter how much I exercise. You can’t out run the calories.

After years of repeatedly telling myself, “this is Day 1 of my weight loss journey!” and “I am really going to do it this time!”, on Monday I put MyFitnessPal in a prominent spot on my phone’s screen and got to work. Over the years, reliving that Day 1 over and over felt really discouraging. Like I was drowning and couldn’t swim to the surface for a breath of air. But this time is different. I can feel it because I have felt it before. I started pre-planning what I was going to eat for the next day. I have plans for what to cook this weekend in preparation for next week.

Today is day 5 of a perfect streak of tracking and exercising. Even a general meal plan is far easier than entirely winging it when mealtime comes and I have given food no thought until I was suddenly STARVING.

The last time that I was successful at weight loss, I knew that I needed one “cheat” day on the weekend, so that I didn’t feel deprived and end up binging. Knowing that day is coming helps with the strict days when I just want some damn french fries! I am looking forward to having some pizza tomorrow while watching hockey, but I also look forward to Sunday when I will be preparing healthy food for the week.

It is coming back to me how I was so successful the first time because this all feels familiar and like it’s the beginning of something amazing. I am writing this to remind myself of how that feels and what I need to do to get to this place for when I forget in the future because I know I will. If this post helps others, then that would be incredible.

To summarize for myself, Trisha816, here is what you need to do when you feel things are going off of the rails or are feeling helpless:

1. You stress eat. Find your calm. Snuggle your fur babies, hug your partner, read a book … anything to distract you from feeding your anxiety.
2. Track your damn calories. Yes, one indulgence isn’t the end of the world, but when you fill each day with many small indulgences, that adds up. Tracking helps you see that.
3. Something about tracking, seeing the numbers / hard evidence, signals something in your brain that you are not as hungry as you think you are. Seeing the number of calories you eat reminds you that yes, you have already fed your body a sufficient amount of food so you do not need to keep eating. Suddenly, you aren't as hungry as you thought you were.
4. Have achievable workout goals. Last year was a 5k. This year is the Spartan. Never stop setting goals.
5. Plan your food, don’t just wing it.
6. Cook all the vegetables. ALL of them. In bulk. You love the protein part of your meals, so you know you will get that done no matter how tired or busy you are. But when you are feeling ravenous and pressed for time, you consider vegetables optional when you should be filling up on those instead of the foods that are healthiest in moderation. Buy vegetables pre-chopped (organic grocery delivery is the best!) and just toss them in the oven with some seasoning. Very easy. No excuses. You just need to do it! The more vegetables you eat, the less room you will have for empty calories.
7. You don’t have to eat your entire meal at once. Eat a little bit until you are satiated, and then wait until you are feeling hungry again to eat a bit more. Slowing down and being mindful about your eating works wonders to stop the snacking and eating all the treats co-workers leave in the kitchen.
8. If your friends want to have junk food / fast food, you don’t have to join them. They know your struggles and support you, so you don’t have to worry about them pressuring you. Just… you do you and reap the rewards. If you don’t, you will definitely binge eat when you embark on that slippery slope.
9. The scale doesn’t know you. It measures your weight at one particular point in time. It does not know that you had a little more sodium than usual the previous day, it doesn’t know that you just finished your cheat day and are right back on track today, it doesn’t know you just drank a big glass of water an hour ago. It doesn’t know you and all the variables that affect your weight, so use those measurements to drive you further but don’t let them define your progress.

For everyone who has made it this far, I have one last recommendation. I thought I understood food, but there is so much false information out there, fad diets, fake “healthy” foods, people giving advice that is well-intentioned but misleading, and so on. The single most useful source of information about food I have found is a book called “What to Eat” by Marion Nestle. In my opinion, it was incredibly well researched and contained simple truths as well as direct information that guides my every day healthy eating choices.

Best of luck to everyone, today is a new day and let’s all live it to our best!

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I weighed myself for the first time in 6 years and I’m not afraid of the scale anymore

I apologize if this is the wrong sub for this but from what I can tell, the loseit sub is for all weight loss journeys- no matter the trajectory.

Between 2006-2013 (14-21yo) I was weighed by high school and college coaches twice a week (at least) and had an official weigh in every Saturday. If I was over 110lbs, my position was docked and someone just under 110lbs would get my spot until the next weigh in. 110 was referred to as the perfect weight for 7 years. Not too heavy to be extra “dead weight” , but not too light that I would have to carry sand with me to get my “dead weight” to 110. When I quit the sport, I threw away my food journals, threw away my scale, and tried to adjust to being a 21 year old girl who was 5’8 and had no one monitoring my weight. It was hard. It was SO HARD. For my entire adolescence I had associated my weight with success, scholarship money, and attention. Now what? So For 6 years I’ve been quite literally afraid of the scale. When I go to appointments I turn around so I can’t see the number. I just didn’t want to know. I didn’t want to know how much I had gained or how far off I was from *the perfect weight * . I’ve obviously gained weighed over the last 6 years and I have work to do to get myself toned and my fitness level to where I want it (fit >skinny) but on Wednesday I got on the sale for the first time. And it wasn’t scary. I now weigh 134.3 lbs. I’m relieved to say that after the weigh in, I’m aware of the number, but I’m not obsessed with it and that’s worth more than any medal I’ve won.

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