I think the majority of us have probably struggled with staying committed and have started over and over again throughout the years...so I'm curious. What was the moment that really made you get serious about improving your health? Was there something different that made it stick or was it simply discipline?
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Then when I got home - everything locked down as a result of COVID. I got super depressed. No workout schedule, started eating gas station taquitos and slamming energy drinks to the tune of 32 ounces or more a day. In August - I got on the scale just because, and not only had I gained back everything that I had lost during the first three months of 2020, I had gained 8 pounds more.
I was the heaviest I'd ever been at 346 pounds and I could see the eventuality if I kept going like this, so I opted to actually try MFP religiously. I'd tried the fads, tried the various things, and this time - I have focused for the past 14 weeks solely on CICO.
I don't know what is different about this time internally - but it is different, and I can feel it somehow. I'm driven, and will accept nothing less than victory.
One of the things I did that really helped me stick with it is I looked at all my reasons for failing previously and planned around them. I made plans for what I would do in all kinds of circumstances, and I started looking at the emotional reasons for failure. I used MFP daily and got a food scale. I also had backup from the spouse since I promised her half the reward money if she helped me. She would have helped me anyway I'm sure, but the money made me brave enough to ask. (I have issues with prioritizing myself.)
That kick start, and the fact that the contest was a three month event, really helped. Then Covid happened and I started working from home. I decided to keep losing in case they delayed the end of the contest. I saw a lot of success and learned some things that helped me enjoy the experience of weight loss. Also my stress level went down working from home. So even when the contest was canceled and the entry fees were donated to charity, I kept at it, this time just for me. Now the spouse is working on losing weight too and we are supporting each other. I've lost a little over 80 pounds and my life is transformed. I have roughly 30 to go but I feel so much better.
At this point discipline is definitely part of it, but the sheer enjoyment of feeling better, enjoying the foods I make, and being able to be satisfied with smaller portions keeps me going. I crave veggies now, more than I ever craved grease. It's a funny thing but my body likes what I eat and how I move now, and it tells me so.
I lost down to my goal weight - and indeed 5kgs beyond - a few years ago, maintained (sort of: my monthly averages were creeping up gradually) for getting on for two years, then developed acid reflux and was put on a protein pump inhibitor and gained 2kgs within just a couple of weeks. Combine several months on that medication with a year's research leave with lots of conferences and no regular routine (and at best sporadic access to the pool and to both food and body weight scales), add in peri-menopause, and over the next couple of years I gained back most of what I had lost. By Easter this year I had lost back to the top of normal bmi, but put 8kgs back on afterwards, not helped by lockdown, to find myself the heaviest I have (I think) ever been. So back I came to mfp and logging my food and exercise instead of guessing.
This time I have done two things differently:
a) I have thought carefully about a sustainable exercise routine that I can do wherever I am and that does not depend on access to a pool. I am using Bodyfit by Amy workouts combined with a rowing machin, and I am really loving the fact that I have a much stronger core. Rowing works for me as I can't run due to problems with my knees, but I am also walking a lot more.
b) I have also really thought about approaching maintenance, trying to transition into maintenance by slowing my weight loss for these last few kgs, but also trying to work out strategies (warning colours on my spreadsheet cells) to trigger me to start adjusting my diet when I float back over the top of my maintenance range/towards the top of normal bmi rather than when I am hovering at the boundary between overweight and obese.
We'll see. I would love to be one of those people who can report that they have been maintaining for 6+ years and arefitter in the 60s than every before!
After that I dropped about 10-15 pounds, but at that point, I started to do a lot of up and down in a ~10 pound range, but still around 10-25 pounds from where I wanted to be. That said, I was more focused on my fitness at that point than my weight, and my fitness did improve over the next few years, even with a few too many "breaks" in there (but even then my breaks became a lot more active than they had been).
Now, my life is getting turned on its head again (thank you 2020), and I am positioned to either a) wallow, suffer, and be a victim of circumstance or b) take control of what I can, buckle down, and find that mental toughness muscle I seem to have let atrophy...
I've chosen b, and part of this is going to be getting rid of this weight once and for all and get back to where I should be (and where I was into my 30's). Started a program to help me re-discover that muscle (I've had it in the past, but really let it slide about 4 years ago and for various reasons, didn't re-engage with it, and am paying the price a bit now).
If I was going to pay for diabetic medication and having to take it daily - I see no reason why I cannot exercise daily and control my portion size. Too date I have lost 5lbs, small, but I can feel the difference and have no plan to stop.
Losing weight for me is slow as I do not have a thyroid, but it can be done - I lost 24lbs here about 4 years ago - this time I plan on keeping the weight off and keep the medication money in my bank account.
Maintaining my weight has not ever been a priority for me, since I thought I had always been fat and would always be. So I gained and I gained.
A year ago I was burned out from work and other hard things we had gone through over the last few years, to the point I could hardly function and my business was doing very bad. After christmas came news of a serious brain injury of a family member with no hope to survive (he did survive, and now lives at a home trying to learn to speak and function again). Soon after came the virus pandemic that made sure my business would never have any hope again. So with all things spiraling to hell, me feeling absolutely sick, I was gaining weight by the day (I did not weigh myself, but I know). There was nothing to do other than wait, for the pandemic to stop and business starting to go better, for the said family member to wake after months of unconsciousness, for some miracle to happen that would fix our finances, for anything to happen really.
Then I got pissed off. That was the driving force
I needed to do something, so I started to clear out all the closets. I took everything out, threw more than half away and tried to organize the rest better. I went through every nook of the house, then moved on to the garage and storage outside.It was nice to work outside, and feel that I had done something with my body for the first time in ages lifting all those boxes and things. Then the thought grew that I had to take control of the things that still were in my own hands.
I took only small steps. I started working outside in the garden, I knew I didn´t eat enough vegetables so I kept a loose list of greens I ate in the back of my head trying to intentionally add more each day, that interest grew to keeping a list of things I ate- Not really trying to crop things off from the list, but adding all the stuff that was good for me. And as I added more and more vegetables, fiber, protein, nuts, lots and lots of water etc, some bad things just disappeared from my diet naturally. No room for them since I was full and not graving for them.
With small baby steps in the course of over half a year I am at the point that I take long walks several times a week, went to the swimming hall for a swim or to aqua jog couple of times a week before they closed them again, and even visited a gym half a dozen times. Now I exercise at home and there are signs that I am starting to get motivated with weight exercise. And I am starting to jog some when going out for a walk. I eat steadily 1850 cal a day with more emphasis on what I eat than trying to loose the weight quickly.
My goal is to eat as a 30 kg lighter and healthy person would eat, and I hope to get to be 30kg lighter and healthy after enough time has past. There is still pizza days and bites of chocolate every know and then, since that is the diet I know I can commit to for years to come. I am now down 16 kg, maybe more since I do not know what I was at my heaviest, and don´t really want to know. I am now in pretty good place, and I know that no matter what, I will stay on this course, because that is something I can control and it helps with all the other aspects of life.
I'd made excuses for years but no more. Even if I do have health problems in the future I'm sure that being 40lb+ lighter won't be a bad thing, even if it doesn't directly help.
Plus I am a figure skater, and being lighter obviously helps with that.
I've been back and forth trying to rule out a thyroid problem for months, but I think we have officially determined that's not the problem (though I will likely seek out and endocrinologist still just for confirmation).
It is eye opening, and I am trying my best right now, but I am certainly struggling. I keep going back and forth with the same 2lbs of weight and cannot seem to get any further down at this point. I'm going to re-evaluate my plan and keep moving forward.
At some point during the whole thing I realized I needed to change my eating habits for the rest of my life. I still log all my meals in MyFitnessPal every day. and Today was my 2500 day streak. It would be 2700 if not for super bowl Sunday almost 7 years ago, but I'm not bitter. Currently about 6 years later and I came in at 173 lbs this morning.