My one regret before starting my journey

jasummers76

I was never photoed at my highest weight. My current profile picture is around 250 or 260 which I am 20 pounds away from. Highest weight was 350 or at least that was the last official weight at the doctor's. So wish I could be one of you so i had photo proof for myself of the progress.

Tacklewasher

I know the feeling. I finally did find a photo, but am not brave enough to put up the comparison. I was at least 330, maybe more.

midlomel1971

I never took a beginning picture either and I regret it. I took one about a month ago so I'm going to use that.

OliveGirl128

I took before pictures and now 4 years into maintenance I still look at them once in a while. It's a good reminder to myself of where I started-keeps me focused and gives me a kick in the bum when I feel like getting lazy with this whole thing.

jasummers76

OliveGirl128 wrote: »

I took before pictures and now 4 years into maintenance I still look at them once in a while. It's a good reminder to myself of where I started-keeps me focused and gives me a kick in the bum when I feel like getting lazy with this whole thing.

That's what I wish I had.. I wanted it to show my young son one day that anything you put your mind and work to can be achieved. Wether it is health, work, or education.

vegaslounge

I feel this regret sometimes, but honestly, there was never a day/moment/etc when I said, "Today's the day I start! Time to take unflattering selfies!" or anything similar. I just gradually started eating less and moving more, so although my logging says I started my "journey" September 4, 2016 at 191lbs, I'd already been working on it for a few months at least without really thinking about it (being that my highest recorded weight was 202).

Frankly, I think it's a good thing that this time I did just ease into the lifestyle because all the times I DID have an official "this is the day I start" launch date, I have failed miserably. I would do too much, too hard, too soon and burn out very quickly. This time I don't need to look at fat photos to compare my current self with– the way my clothes fit, the way I don't have to heave myself out of bed in the morning, the way I physically take up less room than before is more than enough motivation for me to keep on track.

beaglady

I don't have any 'start' pics either. When I first started watching what I ate, I didn't tell anyone, and didn't weigh myself until a couple weeks after I started. It was very much a one-day-at-a-time approach.

jayemes

Ask your relatives. Chances are someone has a wonderfully unflattering picture of you from behind or bending over at a BBQ or reaching for seconds at a holiday dinner. (Seeing one of those candid shots of myself was my first a-ha moment!)

JeromeBarry1

I have been photographed at my highest weight, but I do not own those photographs. I do not own a smart phone and I have no progress pics. That picture of my profile is one I had my wife take of me a few weeks ago on the occasion of purchasing the final small shirts I'll reduce into.

My greatest regret in life is as follows: While young and not prosperous, I purchased a good camera and good lenses, providing them to my wife to take photos of my children. She did not.

lorrpb

Save one set of before clothes for future comparison. They will tell the story. I was not happy when my trainer took a starting pic, but now I'm now I'm so glad he did! I love all my old pics even though I've been in maintenance for nearly a year. They remind me of how far I've come and why I want to stay focused even in Maintenance

Tacklewasher

lorrpb wrote: »

Save one set of before clothes for future comparison. They will tell the story. I was not happy when my trainer took a starting pic, but now I'm now I'm so glad he did! I love all my old pics even though I've been in maintenance for nearly a year. They remind me of how far I've come and why I want to stay focused even in Maintenance

This Halloween I'm wearing the same getup I wore last Halloween. I dressed up as Homer Simpson. Still have the same pant, but going to have to wear shorts under them. They are 52 W and I'm in 40 now, hoping to be smaller in 2 months.

JessicaMcB

I can relate in that, while I do have start photos, I don't have any pictures I didn't delete of my top weight in the 250's. I erased myself from 2 years of my kids' lives and thats sad to me on a lot of levels (including my lack of reference points)

Lounmoun

jasummers76 wrote: »

I was never photoed at my highest weight. My current profile picture is around 250 or 260 which I am 20 pounds away from. Highest weight was 350 or at least that was the last official weight at the doctor's. So wish I could be one of you so i had photo proof for myself of the progress.

I did take a starting photo but know there are other pictures people took of me at my highest weight. People probably took pictures of you too.

jasummers76 wrote: »

OliveGirl128 wrote: »

I took before pictures and now 4 years into maintenance I still look at them once in a while. It's a good reminder to myself of where I started-keeps me focused and gives me a kick in the bum when I feel like getting lazy with this whole thing.

That's what I wish I had.. I wanted it to show my young son one day that anything you put your mind and work to can be achieved. Wether it is health, work, or education.

You will still show your son a great example of progress and achievement even without a photo to compare.

vegaslounge

lorrpb wrote: »

Save one set of before clothes for future comparison. They will tell the story.

100% behind this. I have one skirt I am hanging onto even though it's basically a rag with a zipper, because I was wearing it the two times I realized my size was getting out of control. The first time I was with with my then-boyfriend and I complained the waistband was too tight and that the other skirts from that company were fine. He said, "maybe it's you and not the skirt". (I honestly wasn't offended when he said that because he was the sweetest guy on Earth, just a little socially clueless.)

The second time I was close to my highest weight and working for a stage company. As a result, we had a lot of full-length mirrors around which I've never had at home. So I'm twirling and totally actress-ing out in the office bathroom and I catch a glimpse of the back of my knees peeking out from The Skirt. I stop twirling. The only thing I see are...butts. Little butts hanging off the backs of my knees. Knee butts. Saggy, gross, deformed looking Knee Butts.

So, the ragged skirt stays in the closet and I'm wearing that kitten the day I hit goal. 20lbs to go and that *kitten* can become a dustrag for all I care.

(I will add, a photograph won't even tell the whole story depending on lighting and other circumstances. If you charted my photographs from 2015-2016, I look schlubby and lumpy and then over a couple of months magically look elegant and poised. This had nothing to do with weight– if anything I was gaining at the time– but has everything to do with the fact that I became a professional tour guide, realized I'd show up in a lot of random family photographs from my guests, and learned how to pose.)

ladyhusker39

I wish I had tracked my calories for a couple of weeks before I started my deficit so I could compare the way I used to eat to the way I eat now.

jelleigh

So I have the opposite issue. I have lots of unflattering "beginning" photos - in bathing suits that I wouldn't be caught dead in out in public, in my workout clothes, in undies. My problem is that a decade ago when I lost a bunch of weight and got into great shape, I never took a pic. I know I was small, and fairly fit, but I have no photo evidence. I distinctly remember rocking a crochet string bikini. I would kill for a photo of that so that I can remember that I looked like that once and I can get there again. Lesson for me: my present to myself when I hit my goal is some professional fitness inspired photos. Shallow I know, but I think it will help me stay motivated.

76Crane76

My journey is not that way. I didn't photograph myself and I do not regret it! I am focusing on my health and the way I feel! I WILL photograph myself when I hit my goal because I know that girl from a longtime ago and I want to recognize her, not the person she became. We are all individual and this journey is custom made for you!

artanis50

Mine was not taking measurements at the beginning. I took them yesterday - about a month in but I wish I took them at the start too. I have tons of pictures of me fat - and some from when I was young and skinny. I actually printed them out and look at them all the time. I look at the fat pictures to remind myself of who I don't want to be anymore and the skinny ones as motivation to get back to where I once was!

MegaMooseEsq

ladyhusker39 wrote: »

I wish I had tracked my calories for a couple of weeks before I started my deficit so I could compare the way I used to eat to the way I eat now.

I started tracking almost six months before I started reducing my calories, and it certainly is eye opening! Of course, I was much worse at tracking back then, too.

OliveGirl128

76Crane76 wrote: »

My journey is not that way. I didn't photograph myself and I do not regret it! I am focusing on my health and the way I feel! I WILL photograph myself when I hit my goal because I know that girl from a longtime ago and I want to recognize her, not the person she became. We are all individual and this journey is custom made for you!

Thing is-the further along into maintenance you go, the easier it is to do the whole mind games thing. I honestly do not have any memory of how I looked and felt back before my weight loss phase-none. I don't remember feeling run down. I don't remember always being out of breath from walking. I don't remember having a hard time getting into my jeans. I don't remember having a double chin. The further away from that time, the more faded it becomes. And when that happens it's very easy to convince myself that I don't have to stay focused anymore. That it's ok to let things slide. That I don't have to keep tracking my calorie intake in some form. As time has gone on I've forgotten where I used to be-and that's very dangerous.

Maintenance is for the rest of your life and it's where most people fail. I'm not to the 5 year mark yet-most people don't even make it to 2 years.

My before pictures are one of the tools in my weight management plan, and they're just one more thing that I can use, to help me get through this process.

Having before pictures is a good way to keep focused-even more so in maintenance. There have been numerous times over the past 4+ years where I've hit walls and have felt like I don't want to do this anymore-because I don't remember the 'before'. That's when I pull up my before pictures-to have physical proof of where I used to be, so I remember.

eta: this is also why I have blood work done twice a year. It's another tool I use, to keep me focused on why I'm doing this whole thing.

kumardoc

Aye, this was something I wish I too had done. Would have made my day to compare the before and after pictures and have a silent gloat!

seltzermint555

I know what you mean. I have only one photo of myself at my heaviest (307 lb), and it's not one that i could really use as a "before" shot because I'm partially obscured by a thinner friend in the foreground. The closest I have to "before" shots are of me around 270 lb and I truly think (even now & over a hundred pounds lighter) that I didn't look all that bad then and the difference in my figure isn't as dramatic as it would have been if showing 307 to now. Some people in my life would disagree and say wow at 270 to 170. But from 307 down to 270 was my most important loss, actually. That's the difference for me from feeling unhealthy and miserable to feeling pretty good.