Sunday, February 2, 2020

Best tip from my weight loss experience: Small goals

So I just wanted to talk a bit about my weight loss, and what I found to be the most successful to do so, which is setting a number of small goals. These were not official, written, or anything like that all the time, just continued to do more and more.

For context, I have been overweight/obese my whole life until I started my weight loss at the end of college, where I focused on it hard. I never had extreme issues with food, just ate too much, and snacked too often, so I just slowly put on weight. I reached a tipping point with a picture on a badge I absolutely hated, and started from then. I started with exercise before big diet changes, just getting exercise everyday in a way I could or would consistently do. This was my first goal, exercise everyday. Once I had that down, I started on my next goal around time, starting with 30 minutes, then 60 minutes, then 90. I probably even had some 75 minutes or 45 minutes in there as well, just incremental goals to get even higher amounts of exercise.

Obviously exercise was not the only thing I needed, diet is even more important. I worked from larger things, like going from larger to smaller snacks, to no snacks, or just certain healthy snacks. At meals I focused on cutting portions, and then focusing on specific meal habits. Eventually getting down to a certain routine with my eating, and while limited in food types, regulated in a way I could consistently do.

This also transferred over to my weight as well, when I started I thought maybe I could get down to 190 lbs, from my 244 starting weight. Well I hit 190, and I still thought I could maybe get to 185 or 180, then I hit 180, maybe 175, and so on, until I got to my current weight which hovers around 150.

There is no way I could have ever felt like I could lose around 95 lbs at the start, and no way I thought I would be exercising daily, and no way I thought I could eat as little as I do now, and feel good. It was all those little goals of trying to do better, that let me do it. I did have slight plateaus, but since my goals were small, it never felt like a huge deal; why get concerned when I was already doing much better than I thought I would originally. The same with eating a few bad meals, or missing exercise. There has been a slight downside mentally to this, where it becomes so regimented that you can be dependent on that, which I have gotten almost all the way over in the last few months. However you can turn this way of thinking to your advantage, make a goal to care less, or eat one meal you think will be too bad for you, not worry when you have to miss exercise, that kind of thing. So that is my tip there.

I guess basically my thought process is similar to how an athlete or what I'm more familiar with, video game speedrunner is, you always want to be improving, you will constantly get close to some limit that is possible, in games that is a hard limit from many mechanics, for a person that is a healthy weight/diet. But you don't get close to that limit instantly, you have to work at it, learn your flaws, and work on them one step at a time. I know this is kind of a ramble, but felt like this was important for me, and might be important for others as well.

tl;dr: Make small goals for everything on your weight loss journey, because it will let you hit higher goals than you thought possible.

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Getting through first personal crisis without food as a crutch

I've been doing keto and IF since the end of September and have been doing really well. My weight loss has slowed down lately, but I knew it would eventually and I've been adjusting and I'm still losing, just a little more slowly.

I found out about a family crisis today that is going to impact me for a while to come. I've been sad and close to tears for much of the day and all I really want to do is to eat to numb my feelings. I've definitely eaten too much, and haven't logged what I'm eating, but I'm probably only slightly over my maintenance calories. I'm just having a really hard time dealing with the feelings without my usual drug of choice to dull the sadness.

I had some momentary temptation to use this as an excuse to chuck the diet, but I decided I didn't really want to do that. My emotions feel much more intense than usual though, and I know that's not uncommon for people who have a history of using food to deal with their emotions.

So talk to me, please, about how you dealt with your first crisis while trying to lose. How did you do it without turning to food?

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A never ending spiral?

Hi all! Welcome to my first ever reddit post haha.

So I have noticed something and am hoping there's some wisdom out here that might help. I am quite overweight (probably well into the obese range again sigh) aa a woman at 5'10" and 260 lbs, but I find my weight loss issue is more psychological than craving based. I can be very strict with myself and successfully did keto/omad for 4 months and lost 80 lbs year before last, but I seem to always hit the same issue. I'll cheat a little one day, then beat myself up about it till I end up stress eating, which compounds the self image issue, and creates a spiral into added pounds and a negative view of myself.

Anyone have this same issue and have some creative ways to combat it? I try to stop the mental barrage when I notice it, but that only sometimes works 😬 I'm starting to try a softer approach to my diet that leans more on healthy foods than calories/carbs, but I know a low carb diet suited me best and I want to get back at it. HELP!

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50lbs down; finally out of the ‘obese’ range!

It’s the end of my 7th month of weight loss. I’m a 5’4” woman, and I started out 220lbs. Now I’m down to 170, and for the first time in years I’m officially overweight instead of obese. This landmark has been one of my major goals since I started loosing, and it feels incredible and surreal that I’m finally here.
It feels so good to be physically able to do things I wasn’t able to before. I have absolutely fallen in love with running, and being a healthier weight makes me able to go faster and longer. I still have 30-40lbs to loose before I reach my goal of being a healthy weight, but now that I’ve come so far I have faith that I can reach my end goal. I’m just trying to take it slow, and treat weight loss as practice for maintenance. If you’re somebody just starting their weight loss, trust me when I say you won’t regret it— as long as you do it in a healthy and sustainable way.

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Can weight loss exacerbate depression?

I've had depression my whole life and have gained weight in the last few years. About a month ago I decided I've had enough and started to commit to losing weight and I've lost 8 lbs so far and I'm happy about that but at the same time my depression has gotten really bad. I'm constantly having negative thoughts about how I'm fat and worthless and lazy and I feel guilty whenever I eat because I feel like it's too much and if I were normal and disciplined I would be doing better with diet and exercise. It's emotionally painful and exhausting and I have days where I struggle doing basic things.

Is this a temporary/normal thing? I want to/need to lose weight but I hate feeling like this.

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January down, on to February!

Meant to post yesterday but didn't have the time, so I guess today will do. We're officially over a month into the new decade and just wanted to see how everyone's progress towards their goals or new years resolutions is going. Speaking from previous experience this is the month were I usually fall off with resolutions and revert to old habits so I figured this post could be a good way to make sure myself and others don't fall into that trap.

I myself have been hitting the free weights a lot more in attempt to build up some strength following good weight loss in 2019, doing a day of push, pull, legs and core each once a week, and outside of a shaky first week when the gyms were overcrowded I've been pretty consistent!

What about everyone else? Lets start a conversation!

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Just wanted to share my little victory!

Hey guys! I’ve been on my weight loss journey since early November. The holidays were a real struggle for me since I compulsively eat if there’s food in front of me and between holiday parties, work potlucks & the holidays themselves, I found myself in a battle half the time. January was a little easier, and I’ve settled in a routine and lost 15 lbs so far!

My real victory was when my department had a potluck on Friday. I brought my lunch and didn’t eat the potluck food (I actually avoided it entirely so I wouldn’t be tempted) and after my lunch I was full but I did wander over to the potluck (nachos and quesadillas with alllll the toppings) and started to get a plate to get chips and some guacamole.. and possibly everything else. I stopped, considered that I already felt full and would feel even more full if I overate, and I put the plate down and went back to my desk. I told myself if I was actually hungry later I could have a tiny plate - turns out I was full all day and was even able to go get a beer after work since I hadn’t gone over my caloric goals and had eaten healthy all day! I’m super proud of myself and wanted to share with others who understand.

Keep at it guys, progress not perfection is my motto. :)

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