What has surprised you most about your weight loss journey?
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That I'm not as angry at myself as I thought I should be. Due to unforeseeable circumstances, I had to eat at McDonald's and kind of eat like crap all day without the possibility of working out. But I'm allowing myself today and I'm actually really excited to get back on track tomorrow, instead of kicking myself and feeling defeated.
I bet you also made better choices at McDonald's than you would have in the past too.0 -
I found that I could eat a lot more and still lose. I was trying to be way too aggressive for my last ten vanity pounds, trying stay around 1000 - 1200. I wanted it to happen fast, but I found I was binging on the weekends becaus I was restricting too much during the week. Being short I thought I would have a ridiculously low calorie allowance. With the help of my fitness tracker, I have realized that I can eat between 1500 - 1800 and still remain in a deficit, and feel sooooo much better lol.0
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I actually dont dislike working out! I used to curse out working out and sweating, but I have been working it into my schedule, almost like a routine....So now I enjoy it somewhat.
Also, I can still eat some of the foods I used to like
Also I used to eat a LOTTTTTT of sugar and calories. How the HELL did I stay 150 back in the days of college and pure take out food morning, noon, and night?!?!?!0 -
That I actually enjoy strength training. I always thought of it as for muscle brained jocks (no offense to any jocks, muscle brained or otherwise!). Won't say I enjoy cardio, but I certainly enjoy the improvements in my energy and in the cardiac parameters I can measure (heart rate, heart rate recovery, blood pressure).0
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The things I once "sacrificed" (ie. TV, fast food, sweets) weren't much of a sacrifice once it became a habit. Good habits are awesome!0
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That I don't need drugs to control tachycardia, hypertension, GERD, insomnia, and triglyrecides! All I had to do was change diet and lose weight.
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It's so agonizingly slow. It's like a watched pot. And, since this isn't my first time around, I get incredibly frustrated and disappointed that I'm having to do this AGAIN. I know it's my fault and it doesn't go any good to whine about it but I have to constantly be mentally reminding myself to just shut up and keep at it.
On the positive side, I really love working out and being active and I feel a bazillion times better.0 -
For me, the big shock was learning which different foods worked better for me. When I thought that all calories were the same, I didn't realize that I could have such a DIFFERENT reaction to certain foods. But I started experimenting with different elimination approaches and was SHOCKED by how some of them really were true for me. I was initially pretty skeptical because I really thought a lot of it was hooey, but found out that some of it was very true for me.
So, when I started adjusting WHAT I ate instead of just HOW MUCH, it was a night and day difference in how I felt and that made it much easier for longterm adherence for me. Feeling so much better made it much easier to continue to eat well -- it was a completely positive reinforcement loop rather than a restriction loop. And I found as many substitutes for my old favorites and many new favorites -- spaghetti squash where had you been all my life!!! So I could get all the taste I love without the negative feelings (bloating, lethargy, etc.) afterwards
I also found that I really liked lifting and just throwing in a single session of hill sprints really helped me during cuts. It was only 15 mins extra work per week but really showed great results.0 -
azulvioleta6 wrote: »azulvioleta6 wrote: »How much I have come to hate the phrase "weight loss journey."
I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks it's cheesy. I just see it used so much that it must have rubbed off on me. They're in my brain!
Oh yes, I use it too, for lack of a better option.
Perhaps we should all just call it "the ordeal" or "the pain."
I call it a process. You either love the process of getting into shape or you hate it. Learn to love the process, makes life easier.
I don't love it or hate it, I know I have to do it so I am. I've learned that I can lose weight and still eat food. I don't have to starve to lose weight. I don't love or hate exercising either, but I know it's good for me and I feel 100% better. I also feel guilty on days I don't exercise so I usually do so everyday, except Sunday0 -
Eating less works
No fad diets or pills, really it is free!
No need to buy anything
Except a food scale....
I look nothing like I used to. It is wild to see people I have not been around for 3 years and they don't know me.
I never knew how much body fat changed me on the inside and outside
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Surprised at how little food I actually need to maintain, how much I enjoy exercise now (hated the very idea once) and - most of all - surprised to find I've got enough willpower to leave sweet treats in the cupboard and eke them out a little at a time. Still get these treats daily, just a lot less of them and it's enough, will savour a couple of squares of chocolate, for instance, when once I'd have eaten the whole bar.0
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TrickyDisco wrote: »Surprised at how little food I actually need to maintain, how much I enjoy exercise now (hated the very idea once) and - most of all - surprised to find I've got enough willpower to leave sweet treats in the cupboard and eke them out a little at a time. Still get these treats daily, just a lot less of them and it's enough, will savour a couple of squares of chocolate, for instance, when once I'd have eaten the whole bar.
Wish I was you! I sometimes day dream of all the awesomeness I could have in the house all the time if I was at this stage yet. I'm trying some things that could specifically help that now, but I'm also much further ahead than where I was, say, three years ago
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I can't believe that I was in such denial before! I have never been "fat" but when size 12 crept up I really only went on a diet "because I didn't want to buy new pants". Now I'm a size 6 and approaching a 4 and it feels so right! I'm amazed that losing 30 pounds meant that big of a drop in sizes.
I also realize how wrong I have been about eating before finding this site!0 -
That I can have this much fun along the way.0
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Plantar fasciitis sufferer here too. I've resigned myself to spending 75% of my waking hours in running shoes with orthotics. My shoe closet misses me, but I've learned I really can enjoy changing up pendants, earrings and scarves as much as shoes. I walk 100k steps a week, and have never felt more happy & balanced. Distance walking is like two Motrin, some Airborne, a vitamin C gummy, and a Xanax all rolled into one for me.0
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That its easy to eat the food I love and still lose weight, but also that I really should eat healthier as i am not getting enough vitamins from my diet.0
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Learning that weight is a range, not a set number. You'd think I'd already know that, but. . . . . I didn't!0
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I am down 80 lbs so I look like a totally different person I would say that for me its how different people treat me. I hate it . the men who used to tease me are now really nice to me. I know its ONLY because I lost the weight and that on the inside they are terribly ugly people.
I am still the same girl.0 -
Soooo thisGillianSmith2 wrote: »That its easy to eat the food I love and still lose weight, but also that I really should eat healthier as i am not getting enough vitamins from my diet.
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What has surprised you most about your weight loss journey?
How quick and easy it was.
There have been difficult moments, of course, but overall it was surprisingly quick and easy. I'm still having trouble believing I'm actually back to the weight I was 10 years ago ... as evidenced by the fact that I'm still trying to wear my "heavy" clothes!
My brain hasn't caught up with my body!
This^^^. It took me over 6 years to go from 197 to 247. It took me 8.5 months to go from 247 to 196, and be in the best shape since I graduated college. I'm wearing 34's for crying out loud! Who would have thought.0 -
Like a lot of you, I now realize I enjoy exercise (most of the time). Funny thing is, I have gym friends...people I actually do social activities with outside of the gym. Before I started this, I was terrified to go to the gym and now I have gym friends 0
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That I simply can't eat the way I used to without feeling sick. Whenever I overeat (like Halloween), I just have a stomach ache. It's not even fun anymore. I never thought I would be one of those people.0
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How easy it was to stop drinking too much alcohol. First 15 pounds fell off!0
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Some have already mentioned it. I called it my "last straw" moment when something clicked and I made the decision to lose the weight. That mental decision coupled with the MFP tool made the loss process successful for me--I was surprised by how profound the mental decision was on controlling my behavior. However, the journey does not end. I came within 1 pound of my goal and then I had some serious turmoil at home that increased my stress level and I also sort of "lost my weight loss mojo". I think you can get exhausted putting so much focus on achieving weight loss (it is not easy or anyone could do it). I think I got exhausted. I gained back about 20 (out of 66 lost). Some, I hope, is muscle gain from regular weight training but most is just retreat into original bad habits (like nocturnal grazing). I am now working on getting that mental click back so I can achieve my original goal that I missed by 1 pound. Reading these threads is part of that process.0
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Easy: weighing a potato and seeing what a "large" potato looks like. Soooo sad!0
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cdcllcga01 wrote: »What has surprised you most about your weight loss journey?
How quick and easy it was.
There have been difficult moments, of course, but overall it was surprisingly quick and easy. I'm still having trouble believing I'm actually back to the weight I was 10 years ago ... as evidenced by the fact that I'm still trying to wear my "heavy" clothes! My brain hasn't caught up with my body!
This^^^. It took me over 6 years to go from 197 to 247. It took me 8.5 months to go from 247 to 196, and be in the best shape since I graduated college. I'm wearing 34's for crying out loud! Who would have thought.
Yes that was it for me too.
To reach my peak weight from my weight 10 years ago (which is what I weighed a good portion of my adult life) I gained, on average, 5 lbs/year. Of course it didn't quite work out exactly like that because there was a lot of up and down in that time, but it was a long gradual subtle progression.
And then, like you, it took me 8 months to drop back down to what I was 10 years ago!
If I'd known it was going to be that quick and easy, I would have started it earlier.
I also wouldn't have gotten rid of all my "skinny clothes".
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How effing cold I am all the time... Down to my bones.0
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I'm only a few short pounds away from my goal, and I'm still not happy with what I see.0
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satanicbunny wrote: »I am down 80 lbs so I look like a totally different person I would say that for me its how different people treat me. I hate it . the men who used to tease me are now really nice to me. I know its ONLY because I lost the weight and that on the inside they are terribly ugly people.
I am still the same girl.
They may not be ugly on the inside, please keep an open mind....sometimes people just find it easier to talk to/deal with healthier people, which you now are. That doesn't excuse them from teasing you, tho, unless it was good-natured teasing, which happens to big and small people alike.0 -
Kimegatron wrote: »How effing cold I am all the time... Down to my bones.
Me too..unless I'm trying to sleep, then I'm like a furnace...0
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