Lost 50 pounds firmly, my takeaways, and need accountability partners (female)

ricelean

Hi guys,

How are you doing? I've lost 50 pounds, and I'm working on losing the last few extra, maintaining, and getting toned. My biggest barrier used to be the busy schedule - working in the fast-paced Consulting industry and dealing with the long working hours and stress, I found it pretty hard to find time to cook the healthy meal or exercise every day.

However, I've managed to lose the pounds gradually, and it largely owes to one single success factor, which is to learn a few FAST, fulfilling, satisfying, and highly hydrating entrees. You really don't need a cookbook to do this, only 3-5 for rotation will make a huge difference without getting you bored. After a while, calorie-counting even became irrelevant because eating these food has always got me satisfied while creating a substantial caloric deficit.

My weekly time expenditure on food is about 2.5 hours in total, and this includes grocery shopping and making food. At the beginning, it was more time-consuming (about 3.5-4 hours), but after becoming familiar with the routine and the recipes, everything became fast and furious.

I'm also so energetic these days and being focused at work is not really a problem anymore... Now I can deal with 4-hour back-to-back meetings with no issues, and this has never happened before.

Another small yet pleasant change: my boobs no longer feel like a sock of quartz, that's a lot of relief when buying clothes and exercising.

My biggest takeaway to share with all of us here: there are so many ways to lose weight (gym workout, healthy cooking, fasting, keto, detoxing etc...), besides the basics (not indulging in soda , chips or desserts), find out the ONE SINGLE EASIEST thing to do that can make the BIGGEST difference (80/20 rule) and ONLY focus on that until you become completely comfortable with the new routine. To me, that's learning to cook easy and healthy food for 15-20 mins a day. Do not think about entirely change your lifestyle at the beginning - changing lifestyle is bigger and tougher than losing weight. Instead, try to work with your current lifestyle/schedule and tweak it towards the better direction. ONE single change on the most important thing is powerful enough to make the fundamental difference - if you choose the right one.

My weight has been stabilized for a year without much hard work on maintenance. This is when I've become stricter on other parts of life - for instance, getting rid of caffeine. Since I don't have energy issue anymore, I no longer need 4 double expresso a day, not even 1.

I didn't spend much time in the gym when I was losing weight (0-1 times a week) because I didn't have time. Now I wanna start running for a good heart and lifting for getting toned. Maybe I should get rid of 3-5 pounds fat to build a stronger self-image even though I'm already lean.

I'd like to meet with like-minded people who have the similar background and time challenges with me (30+ career women with a busy schedule who need to lose 20-50 pounds and keep it off for good) and provide accountability and support for each other in an ultra-efficient way.

If you are interested in helping out each other, please leave a comment or shoot me a message.

judis100

Hi Ricelean- I'm older than you, a working single mom, and I wish I'd had your wisdom at your age! And I agree that getting the food in order was the most important - I spend a few hours on the weekends with food prep so I dont have to do much more than heat up or combine during the week. I'd love to know what your main rotation foods are.
I've lost 75 pounds over the last 16 months and have about 25 to go. I do daily cardio (mostly treadmill; hike on weekends if possible) and I started my first strength training class this morning - it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.
Would enjoy mutual accountability/support.
Judi