When did you start to notice...

ravensoundslikejoy

The changes in your body?
What about your energy and happiness?
Your strength or stamina?

Moxie42

I've only lost 9 lbs so far (out of the 80ish I have to lose) and have working on it for about a month. I already feel less bloated so my jeans feel like they fit better, though there's no visible difference from what I can tell.

I actually started feeling happier as soon as I started but that's because this time I decided to think of everything completely differently. I started doing this for myself and was actually excited about the changes that were about to start happening, and I've been looking forward to accomplishing non-scale goals like going backpacking. Before, instead of looking forward to the positive effects of losing weight and getting healthy, I was desperately focusing on negative goals. I would tell myself "You NEED to lose weight- you're such a mess!" but that just made me miserable, made the process miserable, and ultimately led to always feeling frustrated and giving up because nothing was "good enough." Now I'm focusing on the positive side of this, and accepting that some days will be bad! I might gain even on a good week, and there will be days I make awful choices...but accepting that as simply a part of the process keeps me from beating myself up and going through that cycle of misery, frustration, and giving up.

I started getting more energy right away because I started taking B vitamins, but my energy and happiness further increased when I started working out, especially swimming. The strength and stamina I notice improvements every time I work out or go hiking, but I think that's partially because I just barely got back into regular exercise so I started off pretty "weak" and it didn't take much to improve...also because I just got back into it, every time I do work out, I feel more confident that I can do this, and that helps me during the next workout.

ogtmama

Very similar story here! I used to focus on cutting things out, make myself miserable thinking I could never have my favourite things again.

It's amazing when you change your focus what a difference it makes! I wake up early with the baby with tons of energy, I've explored my city on walks almost every day.

I see the numbers change on the scale but more importantly on my clothes, I've gone down 2 sizes in about 2 months and I feel awesome.

Congratulations on your loss! But more importantly congratulations on finding the right frame of mind!

lorrpb

I did strength training with a personal trainer and walking. Within 2 weeks I noticed improved strength & my clothes fitting better. 2 years later, I'm still noticing improved strength & looser clothes weekly or bi-weekly. When I started, I couldn't walk more than 1/4 mile without severe foot, knee, and hip pain. Now I'm running 30-40 min 2x week with no pain. It's nothing short of amazing.
SW 301
CW 161
GW 150

__leis__

Energy and happiness - day one for sure!
Changes in my body - two weeks! My faced thinned out a lot and my lower back/spare tire area shrunk so quickly!
Strength and Stamina - I haven't noticed much yet. I'm 6 weeks into it though and I've just been walking. However, I've always had a mental block with running, my brother is a marathon runner and I really want to start running too. Today I ran twice for two minutes each time. It's not much but if I can stop the little voice in my head that keeps telling me that I can't run then that is a huge victory to me!