About the Halfway Mark!

laursoar · December 2013

Progress pictures really motivated me to begin this all at the start of September. I had spent my entire life thinking, "I'm just naturally overweight and that's how I'll always be." Now, I'm at a point where I feel like reaching a healthy weight is inevitable however long it takes. I've lost a few pounds accidentally on different occasions, like when I spent a semester walking everywhere and eating less in London. Other times, I did make a bit of an effort but never did it the right way. During these periods, I'd usually get miserable and give up after awhile. It's no wonder that I failed those times since I'd always go full throttle into exercising like crazy and avoiding all foods that I deemed to be junk food. It wasn't until this September that I started doing it differently.

I started cooking a lot more and making lower calorie substitutes for foods that I enjoy. For example, I bake a lot now so that I can eat things like muffins or chocolate chip cookies but for 70-80 calories rather than the ones you find at the store.

I began planning ahead for my meals in order to leave room for snacks throughout the day.

I started limiting myself to one snack after dinner and then tea since I noticed that this would be the time I often would oversnack the most.

I bought a food scale and a regular scale. I measure all of the food that I make at home now and keep myself accountable by weighing myself daily and then averaging for weekly weight to account for fluctuations.

I realized that there wasn't a time limit. As long as I was going in the right direction, who cares how long it takes? This made me a lot more relaxed about having days where I go over because I'm celebrating or socializing. As long as it isn't the norm, I've realized that these are okay. I also still eat a lot of the same foods I did before but in moderation. I still drink skinny vanilla lattes on a daily basis. My diet is far from perfect, but I never feel deprived at all. In fact, I think I'm usually fuller across the entire day than I used to be.

Anyway, I still have half of the journey to go... but here's where I'm at now! I have a really hard time seeing the results a lot of the time, even though I objectively know I'm down 24 lbs from my highest weight that I started at in September. All of my old clothes are getting unwearable too! It freaks me out every time I realize that my shirt has gotten way too baggy or that I need to buy a smaller size of jeans.

Audrey24HisSuccessStory · December 2013

First of all, you look great and awesome work!!! For it being only a few months in, your loss is super. Thanks for sharing how you changed your approach to weight loss. My body weight fluctuates like crazy (ovulation time and period time) and the scale can be discouraging at times. I like your idea of weekly averaging out your daily weighs. For the times that I do weight in more than once a week, I'm going to do that! Keep up the awesome work!