5/14/14 - Now
SW: 178 lbs - CW: 143 lbs - GW: 130 lbs
I've tracked my weight for over 5 years!! I'm proud of this and I consider it to be a huge part of my weight loss success and how this subreddit has changed my life...So I wanted to share it and some of the things I've learned from it.
I love this graph.
I understand that weighing yourself often doesn't work for a lot of people. In the beginning, it didn't even work for me. I weighed myself daily and felt sooo demotivated by the fluctuations. My mood would be greatly affected by whether the scale went up or down overnight. Sometimes I felt like I was torturing myself for no reason when I was bloated and the scale jumped up 2 lbs overnight and that made me want to quit.
But 5 years ago, I saw a recommendation on this subreddit for a weight tracking app called Libra. I decided to try it out and I liked it because it generates a trendline and statistics from your weight data rather than just documenting single points. Over time, I learned to focus on the trends rather than the fluctuations.
Looking at the whole picture now, I can see so clearly how the data tells a story of my continuous healthy lifestyle journey.
There's big ups and downs when I started and I was trying to figure out sustainable diet changes that would work for me. There's consistent downward trends when I motivated myself with the goal of wearing a bikini on vacation or wanted to look good for an event. There's gaps when I did go on vacation, huge dips when I got sick, huge jumps when I went all out on beer and cookies over weekends/holidays. A big jump early in 2018 when I started traveling for work. And a slow increase since the end of 2018 when I started dating my boyfriend and going out for food and drinks (a lot) more.
But no matter what happens, I still step on the scale again and face the reality of what my choices are doing to my body. And with this graph, I can see the path I’m on.
Right now, I've gained about 10-15 lbs from my lowest weight point and I'm tickling the edge of going back to “overweight BMI land.” Which isn't ideal...but fuck it. I'm not a perfect person, none of us are. All of those jumps and dips in the data are part of my life. I'm adjusting to changes in my career and my social life and trying to find diet changes that work for me now as I increase my exercise and start lifting weights. (And play on two rec league sports that are more about free pizza and beer than athleticism 😬).
Life changed so now I have to adapt and keep trying. Life will most likely change again (career changes, pregnancy, injury, new friends, family changes, the invention of new Oreo flavors), but no matter what... my health is a priority so I'll make it work. Awareness of what is actually happening to my body is a big part of that.
I would NOT still be at a normal BMI without this app and my scale, without facing the reality of how my eating habits affected the trends, and reigning myself in as many times as I have. That's the reality of it for me. It's not easy. It's probably never going to be easy for me to maintain a healthy weight and love my body. But that's life! It isn't easy… But it's worth it.
The journey will never end for me and there will always be new goals. I spent 20 years of my life learning unhealthy eating habits. It's not going to become effortless overnight (or even over 5 years). But, I know that if I hadn't made the choice to change, I would be unhealthier now. So I just have to keep going because being as healthy as I can be is always going to be important to me.
I know that if you are just starting now, that idea can seem terribly daunting. That the fight may “never end” for you like it hasn't for me. But...the rest of your life is going to happen regardless...and I promise it is worth it to make better choices for yourself. It does get easier over time. And even the little improvements will make such a positive impact on your quality of life. Even though I've gained 10 lbs back, shit is much easier and I feel soooo much better than when I was heavier.
Also, another tip. Since it's a long journey, give yourself a break sometimes. You don't have to be perfect, just do better. You can fall off the bus 100 times and it doesn't matter. Forgive yourself and then just keep going, keep getting back on it, keep fighting to do better. You only have to do better on average to make progress. Slow progress is still meaningful progress. Trying your best and gaining 10 lbs is better than saying “fuck it, I give up” and gaining 50. Don't ever give up on yourself. (Hey, I wouldn't give up on you. You're pretty cool.)
People like to throw around statistics about "diets failing" and the futility of maintaining weight loss long term. Some people even use that as a reason that they shouldn't try. I see it differently. I strive to be one of the people that CAN maintain a healthy weight for the rest of my life and prove that it is possible. But even if I can't, even if I regain this 10lbs again and again, even if I have to go back to logging calories periodically for the rest of my life and have to mindfully tell myself 1000 times to stop "intuitively eating" all the Oreos.
I. Don't. Care.
It's worth the fight. I'm worth the fight and you are too.
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