Hey /rloseit!
I made a huge despairing post here a few months ago. At that point, I was actually lighter than I am now by about 5 pounds (I hadn't weighed myself and over-estimated my weigh gain in that post at the time). In that post I detailed struggling extremely hard with my weight, quarantine, and my sleep disorder etc. I had lost 40 pounds 2 years before, and I was close to gaining it all back after successfully keeping it off prior to quarantine.
I'm still struggling with weight/quarantine/sleep, but a switch finally went off in my head, and the last two weeks have been great! I finally got back into a rhythm, and I've bucked off about ten, or maybe twelve pounds in two weeks. I don't expect the numbers to keep falling off that fast forever, but I'm enjoying the extra motivation it brings.
Before this, I did gain all my weight back...with a touch of interest. I weighed the heaviest I ever had in my life at 250 now, when before my highest was 247. It wasn't my fasting weight, but it's still a number I never wanted to see.
It felt terrible to see that number; a huge failure. But physically day-to-day? I felt worse. A constant all-encompassing lethargy and brain fog. I was overheating a lot from the extra weight, getting heat rashes where new padding between my armpits and my upper arms had formed because of fat. As an a chronic AD eczema sufferer, this sort of experience is unbearable. It's painful and highly disruptive for sleep and work.
I'm back on IF, with some days of CICO instead; I am being kinder to myself than I was the first time I had to lose weight. By being less black-and-white, all-or-nothing, I think my path will be more sustainable to lose not just forty, but the full ninety that's left for me to lose. I'm still strict with calories and food intake, but I lead a very busy, high-pressure lifestyle with lots of long hours and weekend work. Stress and pressure have been the biggest detriment to my IF routines, and my food choices.
I realize now that if I allow myself to use CICO on my more stressful days instead of IF, my progress may not be as fast, but it will be sustainable when my stress is high and the urge to eat is only making it worse. Before, I was very strict about my IF and would get really frustrated and mad at myself when I started to fall off the weight loss wagon and keeping up with IF became a source of anxiety.
For example, as I type this, I have not had a day off in twelve days, and will continue to not have a day off for at least another seven. I work in the entertainment industry, and I'm in crunch time for a deadline. The money I make reflects what I work at least, which can't be said for everyone in my line of work, where a lot of abusive practices are rampant.
For at least 2 of these last two weeks I've been changing my habits again, I have allowed myself to do CICO when it was too hard or stressful due to my lifestyle. Waking up at 6 Am to get an early start on work, only to be so hungry all I can think about is food but can't eat until noon? Unsustainable, especially early on while I'm making new habits.
So I switch to CICO. This week during an early start, I ordered some chicken fingers (300 cal,) and eating just the protein kept me from being hungry until at least noon. Then I ordered some veggie soup in the 500 cal range. Dinner was small, and I stopped eating at 7. Meal prep during these periods is hard for me, so being in a position where I can comfortably order food is a boon and a bane here. Anyways, this adjustment so far has been successful, kept my stress down and prevented me from overeating.
I found the EatThisMuch website/tool and that was also very helpful. Seeing an attainable date to reach 150 pounds in a healthy manner has made a huge difference. Adapting my body back to IF and CICO has been amazing. Psychologically, it takes 11 days to form a habit and I cleared that milestone. I think it takes about 90 to lock it down neurologically. I did do it before so adjusting back to my old fasting windows hasn't been a terrible experience, but I did have to work back into it slowly.
Before I got strict in the diet part, I was on-and-off fasting a lot, gradually increasing the days I was fasting vs the days I didn't. But my meal choices weren't good, so the scale kept moving up instead of down. Now it's habit again, and it's finally -easy- again.
Anyways, it's only the first ten pounds, but it's been two weeks of consistent dieting and success. I'm off to a good start, and finally I can do this again. I've been visiting these subs daily and weighing myself almost daily to stay on track, too. I look forward to having the face gains I had 40 pounds ago! And then face gains after 40 more pounds after that :)
Thanks for listening. I know this post is a bit free-form/scattershot. I'm too shy to post pics, but maybe when I have more dramatic results to show off I will.
