Thought I'd share about my weight loss "journey," now that I'm officially out of obesity. This is really long but maybe it helps somebody out there!
5'2"F, SW: 199, CW: 163
I gained weight slowly over about a 10 year period. It comes out to something like half a pound a month - Definitely didn't gain the weight overnight. As a result, I didn't really realize how much weight I was gaining. I knew I was overweight, but I thought it was stable. Also, I thought I wore the weight relatively well. At my highest weight, I definitely looked fat, but at my current just-under-obesity weight? I don't think I look bad at all, the fat mostly hits in the "right places." So for years, I didn't watch what I ate at all, and I let myself get to an unhealthy place.
I did know I was very out of shape in terms of fitness. A couple times over the years, I've wanted to be able to attend an exercise class with friends, but I knew that any kind of cardio activity would make my heart rate shoot up, and I'd be out of breath and feeling like I would die within 5 minutes, so I could never participate in social activities related to fitness. My heart rate would get pretty high just from walking. I'd try now and then to exercise at home, to get more fit, but never kept it up for more than few weeks, and it was always miserable. I never played sports much growing up, and most of my experience with exercise was in high school gym class.
I also was working long hours at work and had a long commute, and at the end of the day, the last thing I wanted to do was cook.
In 2020 I set a New Year's resolution to exercise more ("more" had a low bar - anything is more than 0). I started doing a 10 minute YouTube low impact workout once a week.
Then, coronavirus happened. Suddenly I had a lot more time in my day, with no commute for work, and more free time since everything was closed. I started cooking more for myself (in part because there were some questions about the safety of getting takeout, early on). I knew overweight people were more at risk of getting seriously ill from coronavirus, and I don't have family in the city where I live, which made me worry about what would happen if I got sick. I also worried about my mental health, living alone with limited social activity. I decided to get more serious about getting healthy and try to lose weight.
I bought a scale, and realized I weighed 199 pounds. That was a wake up call.
So for the next few months, I started cooking, watching what I ate, and exercising more often. I lost about 10 pounds.
In June, I decided to get a bit more serious about it and start weighing myself on a regular schedule. I started counting calories. I bought a yoga mat. I started going on daily walks.
I was miserable counting calories - I only did it for a couple weeks. I was thinking about food nonstop and it didn't feel healthy (for me). So I quickly stopped counting calories, but from my short time doing so, I had a good sense of how many calories are in my favorite foods, good portion sizes, etc. Sometimes I lazy count in my head. Or if I'm going to have a new food, or getting something I know is calorie-dense like fast food, I'll google the calories to make sure I'm not completely blowing through a day's calories in one food.
But since June, I've been losing weight at a slow, consistent pace. I usually lose a pound a week, except for November and December where I ate more over the holidays and didn't exercise as much.
My weight is sometimes the same for a few weeks, and sometimes it jumps down 2 or 3 pounds all at once. It usually goes up during my period, and if I eat fast food or a heavier dinner, it temporarily goes up, but I know by now it's just water. I'm pretty used to slow and steady progress, and if it does stagnate for a while, I "guess and check" and eat a little bit less until the scale starts moving.
Here's what's worked for me:
Exercise:
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I do 10 minutes of yoga almost every morning. My favorites are Yoga with Kassandra, Sarah Beth Yoga, and Yoga with Bird (all on YouTube). It is a great, low commitment way to start my day with some movement. Some days I do longer than 10 minutes, but "at least 10 minutes" is my goal. I sometimes join live Zoom classes on weekends for a longer session, but it took me a long time to get up the courage to do this!
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I target 6000 steps per day. Most days if it is nice out, I go for a walk outside on my lunch break or after work. I work at home at a desk job, and don't get in many steps if I don't make an effort, but I try to keep the goal reasonable and not out of reach.
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I keep a schedule of planned "other workouts," and I try to hold myself to it. I give myself planned time off, like vacations or around the holidays. I keep a Word document of exactly my planned exercise (what YouTube video? what strength training exercises?) on what day, so that when it's time to exercise, I don't have to think about what to do - I just do it. I've slowly built up the frequency of exercise over time.
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I don't do much cardio because I hate it and it makes me miserable. But I do a 10 minutes Fitness Blender low impact Youtube cardio workout twice a week. It's actually a 20 minute video but I only do half of it.
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I try to do 2 days of upper body strength training per week and 2 days of lower body. Nothing crazy. A session is 25-40 minutes (average 35). I do the same exercises for months, to keep consistency. Body weight exercises and dumbbells, all in my apartment. I started with very light dumbbells (3 pounds), and I still can't lift too heavy, but I go for the consistency. When I first started, I wasn't doing 4 days a week, either.
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Overall, I do things that I like and that don't feel "hard" to me. I mean, when I lift weights it is hard, but not "my heart rate is racing and I'm about to die" hard. More "tough, I'm getting stronger" hard. I used to think exercise had to be sweating, panting, out of breath, miserable. But I couldn't keep that up with any kind of regularity. Starting slow is fine. Even if it is just walking!
Food:
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I eat what I want, no restrictions on food. Like I said, I don't count calories. I do watch portion size, and I weigh myself every day to make sure I'm making progress over time.
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Breakfast: Usually either cereal, or a mix of eggs/sausage/potatoes. I recently started eating avocado toast sometimes (I am cringing as I say that but it actually is good). I don't fear cooking things in oil, but I try not use a ton. Also sometimes I have lunch for breakfast, since I like lunch food more than breakfast food. Somedays I have juice, but not every day, and it depends on how big my food portions are, whether my weight has been stagnating for a few weeks or not. Sometime in the morning, I will often have a black coffee or an Americano from a local coffee shop. I always drank black coffee pre diet so this wasn't a change.
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Lunch: I like sandwiches and chips. Some combination of cheese, roast beef, salami, tuna, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, etc. I like white bread. I watch the portion size on the chips especially. I used to always eat extra slices of cheese when making a sandwich, I don't do that anymore. I don't use mayo or anything on my sandwiches (unless with tuna), but I never did pre diet either, so this wasn't anything I needed to change. Other days, I have leftover dinner. Sometimes juice but most of the time water.
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Dinner: I cook a of lot stir fry/ saute style simple dinners. I will pick a meat (or sometimes fish or shrimp), google "what spices go with this meat" and cook in some garlic and oil with miscellaneous vegetables. It is pretty low effort, and I always feel like following recipes is a lot of work, and this doesn't really require a recipe. Sometimes I try different sauces. Other days I will have meat loaf or mac & cheese or some casserole style dish. I have a lot of mashed potatoes. Canned vegetables like green beans or corn sometimes. Tacos are good. The main thing for me is portion sizes. I usually cook a whole pack of meat or large pan of food, but I say, this is enough for a family of 4-5, so it should take me 4-5 meals to eat. I don't like cooking much anyway, so I usually cook a couple times a week and then eat leftovers the other days. Also, I try to switch up the meat and vegetables so that I'm getting variety in my vitamins and nutrients. Some days I have fast food or takeout. I usually try to eat a lighter breakfast or lunch if so. If it's a large takeout meal, sometimes I split it into a couple days. Usually I have water with dinner. Occasionally juice or diet soda.
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Snacks: I snack less than I used to, but nothing off limits. I started baking cookies - Weirdly I found that if I required myself to put in the effort of baking the snack food myself, I would eat the food slower than if it was just a store-bought snack. I alternate between healthy snacks like a piece of fruit, or processed stuff like Goldfish. For boxed snack foods I am particularly careful with the portions. Also I am a chocolate addict so I always have some chocolate around, but again, I limit portions a lot. I try not to eat just out of boredom (I used to easily eat a whole box of cookies or crackers just watching TV). But if I'm really craving a food, I just have it.
Point being, consistency is key. I feel like I eat pretty normal foods, and this hasn't been too miserable of a process for me. I think I'll be able to keep it up.
Also, over holidays or when visiting family or on vacation, I have no rules about what I can eat or how often I need to exercise. I know that isn't sustainable for me. I don't go crazy and binge eat everything I can on those days, but if my portions are higher than usual, that's okay, and I know that when I get home, I'll return to my normal routine.
