New & tall

daftthoughts

Hi everyone.

I'm a 6'1" 25 year old woman who's always been chubby and big her whole life.

At my height I have the advantage that my weight distributes decently. I'm large framed (my shoulders are pretty darn wide compared to the average woman's!) and that helps when you put on a few pounds, too. It's difficult to shop for nice clothes and shoes though; clothes are a nightmare due to my proportions and my bust size (nothing ever fits properly!), shoes are a nightmare because I'm one size over the largest size most stores carry around here, leaving me to shop at the men's department more often than not. I'm not planning on putting down 150 dollars for a regular pair of shoes just because they're specially made in my size, that's too much money.

This has been going on for many years and eventually I felt like even being thin wouldn't make a difference. I'd always be too big for nice things, why should weight be an issue? I'm in a happy and long relationship with my fiance who loves me no matter what my weight is, my friends and family love me the way I am, so why bother?

Then I had my blood tested for diabetes. My levels were way too high on an empty stomach, and the condition runs heavily in my family. At that point my weight maxed out at about 300lbs. I rarely weighed myself, so I'm not sure if I went over that or was below it, but the second to last time I DID weigh myself, I was around that number. I never followed up on the bloodtests though.

Then in May 2012 a lot of things happened in my life. I stopped eating some days, eating only one sandwich for the whole day. Sometimes I ate some plain rice or fried/boiled an egg. I wasn't healthy in any way, even when my food consumption went up after a few months. I didn't feel good but I noticed I was losing weight.

Christmas 2012 I weighed myself at my sister's, as I don't own a scale. 262lbs with clothes on in the middle of the day. In the two months prior I'd started getting compliments because my weight loss was showing. I noticed it was easier to pick things up from the floor. I never noticed how sneakily my body was becoming limited with every couple of pounds I put on.

These are my old pants that were literally falling off my hips at this point:
http://i.imgur.com/QpF9v.jpg

Things were picking up in my life, getting better, and after this I decided to stop this unhealthy crap. I want to lose another 40 pounds, but now I want to do it healthily and with the goal to just be healthy and be able to take care of my future family. I don't want to be thin, I actually enjoy the advantages of being chubby. It looks good on me, and I know what my 6'0" 130lbs little sister looks like. (She's desperately trying to gain weight, but not succeeding well).

That's when I joined MFP on the 9th of January and have been charting what I eat. It calculated that I need about 1840 calories a day to lose 1.5 pounds a week with a sedentary lifestyle. I've been planning exercise in the form of long walks with my sister's dog to burn off some calories and build muscle, as I have back issues and an ankle injury that make a lot of exercises a bit too much. I'd love to go swim regularly though, once I get some things sorted. I'm definitely picking that up at some point.

I've been doing fairly well now and eat my exercise calories. The past couple of days I exceeded my intake with about 50-200 calories, but I've also exercised a lot (2 hours walking the dog in one day!) and my appetite will probably drop a lot in the next couple of days (it tends to bounce a little), so that should even out in the long run. I'm purchasing a scale next week, although my primary focus will be on looks and feels.

Right now I usually start my day with a glass of lemon water to kick my metabolism into gear (and it tastes yummy!) and then eat bread with cheese or eggs, maybe some sandwich meat. Then throughout the day I make sure I eat regularly and not skip meals like I have in the past. I don't drink sodas, just homemade tea, coffee and water, usually with reed sugar (tastes like honey!) or sweeteners. No junk food, I cook my own meals, so that all should be fine.

I don't know how much weight I lost yet, I need to wait until next week to get that scale, but I'm in good spirits since counting calories and knowing I'm eating a lot more conscious and better since. Being able to eat my exercise calories back feels like a big reward since I just love food so much. Seeing all these success stories on here is inspiring and encouraging.

I'm looking forward to seeing more of those and one day being a success story of my own. I'm toasting my glass of water to all!

Schnell117

Hi!
What a wonderful story. Thank you so much for sharing! You have a very positive outlook on life and I love that! Best of luck with the healthy weightloss! It sounds to me like you know what you're doing and are on track!
My vice is my glass of wine at night!! It's so detrimental to my weight loss! I really need to start having a cup of green tea instead, but at the end of a long day, all I want to do is flop in a comfy chair with a glass of wine!!
Good luck!
Nellie