Feeling Better Than This Time Last Year?

prefabsey

Since this time last year, I have lost 35 pounds. I have also learned so much about health, fitness, nutrition, and myself. Still have a ways to go, but I'm looking forward to all the things I will learn and accomplish in 2014 thanks to the skills I started building in 2013.

dangerousdumpling

Great thread! I appreciate you encouraging us to look at the positives.
At this time last year I was recovering from surgery and had been home bound, if not bed bound, for about three months. I went from taking 10 minute walks to lifting progressively heavier weights. I've had some ups and downs, which I've learned are normal and OK as long as I keep moving forward. I lost 23 lbs. I'm up 4 lbs but I'm back on track and they'll be history soon.

At this time next year I will have lost another 23 lbs and be at my goal weight. More importantly, my goal size. I'm more concerned with inches than pounds.

RonnieLodge

I'm down 40lbs from this time last year. Not in shape like I want to be, but a hell of a lot better than where I was at this time last year.

Your 1 year progress? Go.

I am down a couple of kg and have managed to keep my body fat under 25%.

I stopped drinking and smoking a few hours before midnight so woke up hangover free and managed a fairly brutal workout (Insanity). Got to spend the day gardening so as New Years Days go - I felt incredibly good! :smooched:

Mr_Knight

Your 1 year progress? Go.

Down about 40 pounds (75 pounds from peak).

January 1, I was a couch potato who couldn't run more than 50m - December 30/31, I ran 10km, and cycled 70km. I can squat more than my bodyweight, deadlift more than 1.5x my bodyweight, knock out 100+ pushup, and for the first time in a decade, I can do actual pull-ups.

It's been an awesome year - hard, hard work, with huge payoff.

SakuraRose13

Well I'm feeling pretty awesome myself I have lost 34 lbs since Jan 1st of last year thanks to MPF best idea ever , I have currently about 7 to 10 lbs to hit my goal , am in much better shape and feel healthier too , happy to be bringing in my 30's in better shape and now am able to keep up with my rambunctious toddlers more and well I'm close to the size I was before I had my daughters 19 months apart almost to the day . I can not wait to celebrate my 30th birthday Feb 9th this year is going to be awesome.

JMRod

I absolutely am better!

I have dropped 40 pounds, have exercised regularly, and got up early to run a 4 miler at the army post. I would never have done that last year.

I love the new and much improved me! I still have 20 pounds to go, but I will get there.

AHASRADA

This time last year, I was a sedentary binge eater with no energy, having given up hope of being able to lose the weight and change my bad habits. It all just seemed too hard and inertia is a powerful force to fight against.

I hit bottom and found my motivation at the end of April 2013. Since then, I have lost almost 60 pounds and feel amazing. I wake up at 6am every day to work out for an hour, plow through my day and make time for a 20 minute walk after both lunch and dinner to counteract my sedentary time during the day. Not only do clothes fit that I haven't worn in years, I am able to do burpees and mountainclimbers, something I never dared to attempt to consider doing before. Rather than resigning myself to being "old" at 40, I have found my life again.

I also learned an important lesson over the holidays. I had been eating 1200-1400 calories consistently for 8 months, no sweets, no bread, no pasta, nothing "bad", and I felt great. However, over the last month or so, I was starting to feel too weak during my workouts and starved during the day. I was becoming desperate to lose these last 10-15 pounds, because I didn't know how much longer I could keep going. I had read about it being healthier to keep a smaller deficit (20% of TDEE), but I was afraid. Well, over the holidays I was faced with many social situations where I ate "forbidden foods", sometimes out of social obligation/politeness, which led me back into a bit of bingeing that I thought I had long overcome. I only gained 2 pounds, but I have decided that it is more important for me to fuel my body, not be hungry, and give myself permission to eat "normal" food on special occasions, and the weight will come of when it comes off.

My goal for 2014 is to maintain good eating and exercise habits, continue improving my fitness level, and find a healthy balance of watching my weight but not obsessing over it. And, lose these last pounds, eventually.