What has surprised you most about your weight loss journey?

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  • Alidecker
    Alidecker Posts: 1,262 Member
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    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 :)
  • SingRunTing
    SingRunTing Posts: 2,604 Member
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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.
  • GettingThere62
    GettingThere62 Posts: 83 Member
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    How easy it was to stop drinking too much alcohol. First 15 pounds fell off!
  • mulecanter
    mulecanter Posts: 1,792 Member
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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.
  • NewMeSM75
    NewMeSM75 Posts: 971 Member
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    Easy: weighing a potato and seeing what a "large" potato looks like. Soooo sad!
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,180 Member
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    cdcllcga01 wrote: »
    Machka9 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! :lol: 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. :grin:

    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".
  • Kimegatron
    Kimegatron Posts: 772 Member
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    How effing cold I am all the time... Down to my bones.
  • JustMissTracy
    JustMissTracy Posts: 6,338 Member
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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.
  • JustMissTracy
    JustMissTracy Posts: 6,338 Member
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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.
  • JustMissTracy
    JustMissTracy Posts: 6,338 Member
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    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...
  • Kimegatron
    Kimegatron Posts: 772 Member
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    JustMissTracy wrote: »
    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...

    I wear my winter coat in the office :/ And then at home, my husband is in a t-shirt with bare feet, while I am in flannel pj bottoms, slippers, a hoodie, and a thick blanket on the couch. It's driving me nuts lol
  • JustMissTracy
    JustMissTracy Posts: 6,338 Member
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    lol..I'm sitting here in my full on ugg booties, tights and a hoodie RIGHT NOW! I totally hear you!
  • Khovde07
    Khovde07 Posts: 508 Member
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    That I'll still have days when I just can't get full. I'm having one today and trying not to eat my weight in whatever I can get my hands on.
  • seltzermint555
    seltzermint555 Posts: 10,741 Member
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    The reaction of others has been disturbing to me. I felt outgoing and well liked before. But now it's like everyone's so approving of me and my body. It makes me see how much they apparently didn't approve before, and it ticks me off tbh because it is MY body. I've really had to work on that (feeling resentful and angry) and I've started to accept it finally...but it's taken years through this so-called journey to get used to the very drastic change...
  • Khovde07
    Khovde07 Posts: 508 Member
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    I'm still struggling with being ok with fluctuations on the scale. I understood that they happened but I never expected they could happen to such a large extent. I expected a fluctuation of maybe a couple tenths of a pound, not a couple pounds! I'm trying to track them based on my TOM and salt intake so I can better understand them, but it's still hard to not get a little disappointed when you see the scale jump up when you've been working so hard.
  • Asher_Ethan
    Asher_Ethan Posts: 2,430 Member
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    How much I hate getting, "health advice," from people that don't know what the duck they are talking about.

    "I can't believe you orders a burger with no bun and still got the fries, that's ridiculous and you're going to gain weight again."
    "You need to change your ab routine because your abs are going to get use to that routine and you're going to start gaining fat in your abs."
    "Don't lift that much, it's going to make you bulky."
    "You should be on 20g of carbs a day not 100."



  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    JaneiR36 wrote: »
    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


    I have a lot of awesomeness in my house too, I just can't have much of it because I'm actually hungrier now than I was when I was still losing. That's the main thing I didn't expect and I have to say that it's a huge bummer. So much for being able to have more treats with more calories!

    I have to add though, at times all those yummy treats don't even appeal to me. Like now. I went for a clementine instead.

    The biggest shock? You don't notice when you're losing weight. I mean, yeah, your clothes start falling off, but if you're like me, all you can see in the mirror are the areas that still need work. Even if you don't really realize that there are less and less of them...

    Then one day you find an old pair of shorts that used to be tight, and you put it next to you, and you realize that thing is about twice as wide as your body. That was a shock.

    So I'd say that it's EASY to forget how bad it was when it's not staring at you in the face all the time anymore. And I have an old family picture of my highest in the dining room, but still.
  • wonko221
    wonko221 Posts: 292 Member
    edited November 2015
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    i dragged my feet about getting healthy because it would take a lot of work, it would require big changes, it would mean making tough sacrifices.... Dragged my feet for years.

    Once i started learning about it, i quickly came to learn I was wrong:
    • it would take a lot of work: i can eat foods i love, i just need to prep them ahead of time and have them ready;
    • it would require big changes: i can eat foods i love, I just needed to learn mindfulness while eating; and
    • it would mean making tough sacrifices: i can eat foods i love, i just needed to learn portion control and balance.

    What surprised me - i can eat foods i love and still attain and maintain a healthy body.

    I started noting when i made bad choices, how my over-eating was tied to mindlessness, how my ignorance of caloric content made it easy to over-eat. I realized that fast food everyday was NOT a time saver, or money saver, or flavor-saver. I recognized that the extra portion i often opted for was simply indulgent, and that what i thought "felt good" about it was not actually a "good feeling", and led to an overwhelmingly "bad feeling" in the long run.
  • Khovde07
    Khovde07 Posts: 508 Member
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    wonko221 wrote: »
    i dragged my feet about getting healthy because it would take a lot of work, it would require big changes, it would mean making tough sacrifices.... Dragged my feet for years.

    Once i started learning about it, i quickly came to learn I was wrong:
    • it would take a lot of work: i can eat foods i love, i just need to prep them ahead of time and have them ready;
    • it would require big changes: i can eat foods i love, I just needed to learn mindfulness while eating; and
    • it would mean making tough sacrifices: i can eat foods i love, i just needed to learn portion control and balance.

    What surprised me - i can eat foods i love and still attain and maintain a healthy body.

    I started noting when i made bad choices, how my over-eating was tied to mindlessness, how my ignorance of caloric content made it easy to over-eat. I realized that fast food everyday was NOT a time saver, or money saver, or flavor-saver. I recognized that the extra portion i often opted for was simply indulgent, and that what i thought "felt good" about it was not actually a "good feeling", and led to an overwhelmingly "bad feeling" in the long run.

    Well said!
  • juggernaut1974
    juggernaut1974 Posts: 6,212 Member
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    stephanieplztrain wrote: »
    Anyone ever heard of this diet? Sounds interesting...

    http://internethealth.org/the-fastest-way-to-lose-weight-in-3-weeks

    Sounds like a ridiculous bunch of woo, to be frank.

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