30lbs down and feeling "good" for the first time since I can honestly remember.

I've been having some serious stomach and digestion issues for so long now that I don't remember what it was like without them. They are the reason I got into nutrition in the first place. I'm pretty sure they are also the reason I'm a senior in college studying biochemistry to learn more about my issues and maybe fix them. Through all the time I've put into figuring it out, only one guy really helped me. Not all weight loss is healthy. I had to figure out on my own that I gained weight because I was unhealthy, instead of I got unhealthy because I gained weight. It lead me to look more into metabolically stimulating diets instead of weight loss diets (a lot of these are very bad for the working of the metabolic system). Nathan Hatchs' book "Fuck Portion Control" both in theory and biochemically (I brought some of the more scientific material to my professors and they all agreed with it) made so much sense to me. His ideas seem to be the most correct to me if you define health by metabolic function. I highly recommend this book over anything else for health and, as a result, weight loss. Picture maybe nsfw??: http://imgur.com/a/U8wP9c9

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NSV: Mom noticed my weight loss

I love my mom, and she knows how I've struggled with my weight, but doesn't comment on it unless I mention it. She definitely follows her own mom in baking a lot of food/treats for her kids and grandkids while never eating much herself.

I was at my heaviest at 267 at 5'9" earlier this summer but managed to lose about 30 lbs through CICO using my FitBit and MyFitnessPal, exercise about 5 days per week (doing P90 and occasionally riding bike), and being in the LoseIt challenge (currently at 234 lbs, shout-out to Cassiopeia!). I also really love diet soda and have used it to suppress my appetite, though not to replace any meals, and to use it as a snack (Diet Dr. Pepper and Coke Zero mostly). Also keeping my alcohol drinking to a minimum.

I visited her recently and she said pretty nonchalantly "I can tell you lost weight." Told her that I want to lose even more, and she said "Do it! Keep it up." She proceeded to tell me about her own weight and how she wanted to lose (she's in normal BMI range but 5'2" and somewhat self-conscious about her weight). She ended by saying we could exercise together (we live in the same city) and I thought we totally should.

Anyway, totally low-key conversation but I was super happy to get recognition of my weight loss so far. Good luck, all!

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Finally hit "normalweight" after a deliberately long and careful weight loss plan

I've posted here before but now that I've been in the "normalweight" category for exactly 1 month I'm going to share my findings of this whole weight loss thing. I'll also share progress pics, but since I didn't take any until I lost 30lbs I can't show the full transformation. I started my journey on February 6th of 2018, so this has all taken place over roughly a year and a half.

I'm now 33 years old and 5'10". I started this whole journey when I realized I had a PROBLEM with eating. I'm not here to shame anyone for eating what they want, when they want. If you are legitimately happy doing what you're doing that is 100% your business and nobody else's unless you are causing harm to others.

That said, it took a wake up call for me to realize that my "status quo" was not healthy. In my head, I was fine. I might have been a "little chunky" since grad school, but that was fine. I might have cravings for food at strange times, but that also was fine. I was just hungry, people get that way right? It wasn't until my wife thought I was cheating on HER because she found a receipt for two breakfasts (in the same sitting) in my pocket that I had deliberately not told her about when she was looking for my truck keys. At that point I had to sit back and ask myself "why did I not tell her about having breakfast that day?". The answer was simple. Deep down I knew I had a problem with eating too much and too poorly.

So despite my early statement saying that what, when and how much you eat is not anyone's business but your own. MAKE IT YOUR OWN BUSINESS. I was objectively overweight, had poor blood pressure a general lack of energy and my love live was suffering for it and had my wife not been loving and supportive regardless of my size she may well have left me since I struggled to do any of the activities she fell in love with me doing.

That day I sat down and researched weight loss. I found Keto, Atkins, Veganism, IF, Weight Watchers and a whole pile of free, paid and restrictive plans. I know for a fact I wouldn't stick with Keto. I like carbs, and I don't stick with stuff I don't like doing. I am fine eating a plant-based diet, and 90% of the time I do simply because it's cheaper, healthier and easier than cooking meat, but I do like a steak and I didn't want to "fall off the bandwagon" everytime I wanted some meat. I also often work remotely for weeks on end, so a plan like WW or JC would probably not work out for me. That left IF and counting calories. IF is simply a way of restricting calories. I can't guarantee that I'll be able to eat in the same window every day so I decided plain old vanilla CICO was the ticket. I downloaded my app and set a goal of 1.5 lbs per week. This is a slower goal than most but I wanted to minimize the impact on my life and reduce the chance for loose skin. I still have a little, but not bad considering a weight loss of 80lbs.

At first, it was easy. At 260lbs my base calorie intake was still pretty high to hit my target. It was easy to still have 1000+ calorie treat meals in the day while still having 1200 other calories throughout the day. As I dropped below 200lbs I really had to be more selective about what I ate and have consequently begun eating healthy as well as lower calorie, almost by accident. Once I hit 190lbs I dropped my goal to 0.5 lbs per week so that I would gradually transition into maintenance rather than bounce off the bottom so to speak. It gave my body time to acclimate to increased intake without starting up cravings.

Throughout this journey I have gotten back into cycling in a big way. I'm actually faster than I ever was in my early 20s. I've competed in 3 races this summer with another one scheduled in September with over 1400m of climbing in a single day. My bike actually works properly now that my suspension doesn't have to be inflated to the max pressure just to keep from bottoming out on every little bump and I have SO MUCH ENERGY. Like, I'm one of those people I used to despise. I used to be "tired" after riding 15 minutes to the store and back for a pack of candy, last month I rode Silverstar bike park 3 days in a row, drove home to Calgary and rode another bike park for 2 hours before going home. Then proceeded to drive back out to the mountains the next day to go for a 30km ride with a buddy and haven't missed a day of riding since. I've gone and pedaled up Moose Mtn 3 times in one day, then just as I was about to leave a friend showed up and asked if I wanted to shuttle for another 4 hours and I while I was exhausted afterwards, I still felt good.

People I know don't recognize me anymore, and I've gotten some snarky comments from overweight friends and family. They all shut up quickly when they realized I just simply don't care what they think. I'm happy, healthy and energized and eventually that just sort of wins people over. A few of them have decided to start their own weight loss journeys and I'm all for it. I provide help when asked and support when needed but I will never push my own ideas on anyone.

I'm lucky in that I never had a back slide. I credit this to finding a sport I love again and to setting very conservative goals. To say I was targeting "healthy" over "weight loss" is incorrect. I absolutely wanted to lose weight first and foremost. But I wanted to do it in such a way as to improve my performance in every aspect of my life. I wanted to be a better rider, a better geologist, a better husband and a better dog owner.

So, long story short: do what you can do to get healthy and lose weight. But if my experience is any indication it might be easier to make it stick the first time if you are OK with the long-game. Crashing a bunch of weight in a short period of time may feel awesome, but never having a back-slide feels pretty stellar too.

Progress pics (I'm a pudgy topless dude in this so be warned).

235-178lbs

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Running Planner with Day and Weather free printable

Hello! How’s it going? I have a free printable Running Planner with space for you to note the day and time of your run AND what the weather forecast is for that time. This is super important when you’re training for a race and the weather adds an additional challenge. Extreme weather conditions affect your […]

The post Running Planner with Day and Weather free printable appeared first on Run Eat Repeat.

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I know this was a terrible idea but its done now so wish me luck!

Bridesmaid for a wedding in mid-February. Went dress shopping at Davids Bridal a few weeks ago-bride said we can wear any full-length style as long as its our assigned color, mine is dark green. Loved one of the dresses, decided to wait to buy so I could hopefully finally restart my weight loss journey and buy it in a smaller size. I tried on a size 20 which fit around my bust but had some extra room everywhere else.

​

Well, I got an email from DB yesterday that they were having a bridesmaid dress clearance sale and of course my dress was in there so I had to pull the trigger. And I ordered...a size 16.

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Worst case scenario I can find a long dark green bridesmaids dress last minute if it doesn't fit (since this wedding is choose your own style) and I'll just be out $130 but I'm hoping it'll be the motivation I need to finally kickstart this thing once and for all! I've dropped a bit before with CICO and exercise and just didnt keep it up so I already know what will work for my body, just need to do it! Wish me luck... :S

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1 Year Anniversary - 30lbs down - M 37 / 5'11 / SW: 195, CW: 164 - Progress Pics (NSFW)

TL;DR: 195ish to 164ish in 1 year, 37M 5’11

Pics: https://imgur.com/Lqn9pZM

Happy Scale Weight Graph for the Year: https://imgur.com/Kwmfmqg

One year ago, I decided to “go on a diet” for the first time in my life. I had just returned from a couple of days at the beach. I had felt pretty uncomfortable in my own skin and that put a damper on what would have been an otherwise pleasant vacation. I was feeling that discomfort with my appearance more and more. It bummed me out. A lot.

Earlier in the year, after nearly 3 years of Crossfit, I injured my wrist and had to stop working out for a while. I didn’t change my eating habits during that time, so I saw the muscle I had gained during Crossfit disappearing and getting replaced with fat. Because of my eating habits, I was always a bit chubby throughout Crossfit (195-205lbs). The workouts tended to counterbalance my bad habits rather than lead me to getting really fit. Without that counterbalance, I saw where my habits were ultimately leading me, and I didn’t like it. I happened to come across a /loseit post in early September and decided to make a change.

I have neglected my relationship with food my entire life, so learning about CICO, TDEE, and what drives me to eat has been a very elucidating experience. Before, I was approaching every meal as an eating contest and consuming way past feeling satiated. I would sit down and finish a big bag of chips on a whim. When I started trying to lose, I started asking questions like ‘why am I eating this when I am not hungry anymore?’ And those questions lead to deeper questions and realizations about unhappiness, depression, etc. I was over eating for a lot of reasons, none of which had much to do with hunger.

So this weight loss journey has been a bit more than just seeing the number on the scale go down. It’s been about becoming more conscientious concerning my health (both physical and mental).

That being said, I am happier with what I see in the mirror nowadays. I was taken aback when I saw my old pics next to current ones. I was expecting a subtle difference, but was surprised to see I had made more progress than I thought. I am feeling more motivated than ever to take this as far as I can.

Regarding methodology, I was able to lose without tracking in MFP. I was willing to track if I had no other choice, but I wanted to try to do it by feel first and found that I could. I jumped around a bunch of different strategies…I tried various types of intermittent fasting and eating on different schedules. Weighing myself every day helped me a lot. I was able to spot trends and cut my self off from bad habits before doing too much damage. I used the weekly Weigh In Wednesday thread as a journaling device to keep track of what I was trying, how it made me feel, and what effect it had on the scale.

Looking at the Happy Scale weight trend, I went from losing pretty quickly at first to a much slower pace in early 2019. That is because I eventually landed on an eating schedule and strategy that worked for me and didn’t interfere with my productivity. I had reached the point where I didn’t really want to eat any less, so instead I wanted to try working out harder (since my wrist had healed). I couldn’t afford to go back to Crossfit, but I ran into a buddy from my old box that was in the same situation, so we started doing Crossfit-style workouts at our gym. That has kept going and gotten progressively more intense as the year has gone on. Those hard work outs have kept me losing while also causing some positive changes in my body composition.

I finally made it back to the beach at the end of July, and I’ve tried to return once per week since that visit. It felt really good to enjoy myself without a specter of self consciousness.

Thank you to everybody on this subreddit for sharing your experiences and knowledge. I tend to lurk more than participate, but I came across many insightful posts that helped me over the past year.

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Survived a Week of Travel & a Family Wedding Weekend - Here's The Successes & The Pitfalls

TL;DR - I've had a crazy week and a half. I've slept in four different beds in three different states, I've been on airplanes and received certifications and attended a wedding. My calorie counts have been over, under, and just right. I logged everything religiously.

On August 23rd, I drove an hour to the next big city over (Madison, WI) for an all-weekend training that had me mostly sitting at a table or standing to present/work with a small group from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. Friday, Saturday, and part of Sunday. I squeezed in a couple of short walks around the block, but we didn't get many breaks and I had to drive back to my hotel each morning/night, so time was crunched. I focused on eating smart instead, and brought along an arsenal of healthy snack options in appropriate portions for myself.

I'm budgeting around 1350 calories/day for weight loss, and over that training weekend I went over my calorie budget by an average of 200 calories each day. Not terrible, not beating myself up over that.

I got home Sunday, then Monday morning I hopped on a plane to Dallas, TX for a three-day work meeting. I had very little control over the food available to me during this time, as we were being driven everywhere by a local coworker and meals were being provided by the company. I had said I preferred high-protein, low-carb options when available when they asked for any dietary restrictions. Mostly that was ignored. Dinner on Monday night was at a fancy bowling alley entertainment center, and Tuesday night dinner was at a local fried chicken restaurant that serves all food family style and only serves four entrees: fried chicken, smoked chicken, chicken tenders, and fried fish. I budgeted for some smoked chicken and two biscuits, and I stuck to it. I was vocal about my food choices and the reasons behind my restrictions, and nobody gave me any crap (for the most part). People were respectful about my choices and it was relatively easy to stick to portions and choices that better fit into my plan. I also chose to drink coffee with creamer during this work trip, when lately I've generally been drinking tea instead.

During the work trip, I went over my budget by an average of 114 calories each day.

I got home from the work trip late on Wednesday night. I took Thursday off work and had a nice deficit day where I also got plenty of physical exercise and enjoyed some outdoors time.

Friday, we were scheduled to leave town again for a family wedding in Iowa, returning Monday (Labor day). This time, we'd be driving about four hours each way. Places to stop for food were kind of scarce along the way, and we didn't have the bandwidth to have planned ahead and packed our own food, so we stopped for fast food on the road.

We were staying at an Air BnB, which gave us the option to cook. We started off Saturday on a healthy footing, making ourselves avocado toast with poached eggs and veggies on top, probably about a 400 calorie per serving meal. It was delicious! Then we started helping the family set up for the wedding, and we got so tired and hungry that we grabbed McDonald's. I managed to do portion control - my stomach has "shrunk" since I've been tracking my food and losing weight, and I only have room for one cheeseburger and a few fries now, instead of two cheeseburgers and an entire medium fries.

We basically did the same thing Sunday (the wedding was on Sunday), plus someone showed up with donuts on Sunday morning. Saturday night we ended up ordering a couple of big pizzas. I sort of had two dinners each day of the weekend, in a way. Food timing was very weird. I was super hungry a lot of those days - we worked hard setting up tables, putting out decorations, cleaning things up, etc.

I've also been off alcohol for a few months (just to save calories and be good to my body), and recently started a new medication that I take for 14 days at a time and that does not allow me to drink alcohol while taking the medication. I finished my most recent course mid-week last week, and decided to indulge in a couple drinks over the wedding weekend. I had a great time, drank responsibly, avoided getting sick or hungover, and allowed myself to splurge on those alcohol calories without loading up a bunch of sugar.

From Friday through Monday, I went over my calorie budget by an average of 800 calories each day. That's a scary number to me, but it's also a good reality check of just how much "normal" eating adds up if I'm not tracking and if I'm not exercising regularly. It was a good reminder to stick to my tracking!

All of this is to say that it doesn't phase me that I had a "bad" weekend in terms of going over my calorie counts. I learned from that, it got me through the weekend, and I'm moving forward.

The "reward" from all of this was the reinforcement of knowing that my good habits are paying off, and that gives me momentum to keep going. Some of my family members commented over the weekend that they thought I had lost a lot of weight - they could really see it, they said, and for the first time I can really see it, too. I've lost about 17 lbs since I really started trying 99 days ago. I'm aiming for slow and steady, and it seems to be paying off. My goal is to get down to 170 (or even further if it's going well!). Today I fit into a pair of size 14 pants that I've had in the bottom of a drawer for months. Here's to size 12 in the future!

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