Polyam, pansexual, ER nurse losing weight slowly!

jonesel1988

I’ve lived my entire adult life in a fat body. I have been 374lbs for the last year. I’m ready to change. I decided mid-January that I’m going to try to start losing weight again.

This has been a slippery slope in the past. Whenever I would try to lose weight, I would become obsessive about it. I would have to weigh and measure everything that went into my mouth. I would exercise for hours. I would obsessively weigh myself and have terrible days when I wouldn’t lose weight. Then I would have a break down and binge.

Rinse and repeat.

I lost a lot of weight this way (100+ pounds once with MyFitnessPal). I also gained back a lot of weight this way and *kitten* up my health. I passed out. I lost hair. I was always cold. My face broke out terribly.

The thing is, I now recognize that I went about losing weight all wrong. I don’t have to be obsessive. I don’t have to lose a bunch of weight all at once. I have the rest of my life. There’s no expiration date or goal date that I need to lose the weight by. Nothing bad happens if I don’t lose 2 lbs a week. Nothing bad happens if I don’t lose all the weight in a year.

Honestly, it will be so much more healthy for me to lose weight slowly. I put my goal at 1 pound a week. It will be healthier for me to make permanent changes in my habits rather than taking extreme temporary changes in order to get the weight off.

That’s why I’m working with a registered dietitian. I gave myself 6 months of working with her weekly before I decided to even try losing weight. Those 6 months were really to help fix my relationship with food. She has helped me recognize when I’m emotionally eating and helped me build better habits. I’m so grateful for her. Since it’s covered by insurance, I plan on continuing to work with her throughout my weight loss.

I’ve lost 9 pounds in 6 weeks. So, here goes nothing! If you'd like to join me, feel free to add me as a friend!

AnnPT77

This sounds like a turn in a really good direction, to me. A very high proportion of the long-term successful people here have done exactly that: Very moderate weight loss rate, focused on finding new permanent happy habits that will take them to a healthy weight then keep them there.
I think that is a path of thriving.

For those of us with a tendency toward excess weight (which includes me), weight management is a forever endeavor. For our mental and emotional well-being, we want to find ways to do that that don't require or create obsession, self-blame, or other such negative drama.

I'm cheering for you to succeed, and bet that you will, with that attitude and commitment!