You can learn a little in a 1000 days.

I hit my goal weight 2 years ago, but in celebration of 1000 days of logging (and I logged everything I ate over those 1000 days), my much belated success story and stuff I've learned along the way.

ETA: Jebus what a book! Cliff notes: Let myself go, got fat, used MFP to watch what I eat after learning I can't outrun a fork, reached goal weight, maintained for a year and then started to lose motivation, made some fitness goals and started doing stuff I liked, got more awesome.

What I've picked up along the way:
1) Do resistance training, and lift heavy (for you). I only wish I had started earlier. I reached my goal weight long ago, but getting a great body takes more than just losing the weight.
2) Buy a food scale. They are cheap and you won't know how much you are really eating unless you bother to measure it. Even measuring cups can be deceiving, and I find a scale easier than measuring cups.
3) Eat stuff you enjoy in moderation (barring binge disorders where you must cut a food). I ate a little bit of chocolate or ice cream EVERY single day.
4) Be reasonable in your weight loss goals and deficit. Crash dieting is not ideal or particularly healthy, and working out on a big deficit is grating and miserable.
5) Do stuff you enjoy. You are more likely to stick to it that way. I have been really enjoying running events and mud runs and lifting heavy stuff.
6) Meeting your goal weight isn't the end. It's just a new beginning. Set yourself some new goals when you get there. I made fitness goals that I strive for after I reached my goal weight.
7) Motivation has to come from within. You have to want it and be willing to do the work.
8) Don't fret over going over occasionally. I used a weekly average to fit in my higher calorie days. I still went out and enjoyed myself.
9) Weight loss isn't linear. Keep track of the long term trends. Sometimes you'll lost nothing or gain a bit, sometimes you'll inexplicably lose 5 lbs.




So... my story:

I was always in a healthy weight range growing up and through college. I had gone up a down a bit in the past, 10-15 lbs, but when I noticed I was getting up a bit in weight, I would be more careful about how much I was eating and get back down. I was always fairly active person. I biked, hiked, did home workouts, ran, and I ate mostly homemade meals my parents made. Other than cutting out drinking too much soda during college, I had never given much thought to what I ate.

My weight gain came in my mid to late 20’s as several bad habits crept in after graduating college and moving from working a physical job tositting at a desk all day. I got in the habit of socializing and eating out with friends for lunch every day. I still remained pretty active, but I was definitely gaining weight. That active lifestyle eventually gave way too as I was study for a PE license. The preparation was intense and I stopped going to gym, going out for hikes on the weekend, or making food at home during that time. I lived off fast food and grabbed whatever I wanted without giving any thought to it. I did not weigh myself during this time, but I’m sure I gained at 15 lbs during the time period. Worse, I lost the habit of being active.

The weight kept slowly piling on over the next couple of years. I knew I had gone up in weight, but I was in denial with how bad things had gotten. The signs were there for sure. I was buying bigger clothing sizes. I struggled to run half a mile without being out of breath and feeling like I was about to keel over. Hiking and snowboarding were becoming more difficult. My pants had even split at one point… I tried to blame it on badly made pants, but in the back of my mind I knew that wasn’t the case. It was time to do something about it.

I tried what I had always done in the past, started going back to the gym and trying to eat more carefully. I tried to intuitively eat less and eat lower calorie option. After months of work, though, I wasn’t going anywhere. I was not gaining any weight, but I sure wasn’t losing anything. My clothes still were a tight fit. You sure can’t outrun a fork… I needed to do something more. I had heard calorie counting was an effective tool in weight loss and being a science and math minded person, it just made sense to me. I fired up my phone, looked for an app, and chose My Fitness Pal. It was free and had good reviews. I also bought a scale to help me keep track of my progress. I knew I had gained weight over the years, but I didn’t realize how bad it was until I jumped on the scale to get a base weight. There it was staring me right in the face, 215 lbs (97.5kg). I was shocked and down about how much I had gained over the years.

The first time I started tracking my food was a big eye opener. I was eating close to 3000 calories/day. The first week was an exercise in figuring out how much I should be eating. It was a tough first couple of weeks. I had grown accustomed to eating a lot, and it took a bit of time to adapt to eating a reasonable amount of food and being satiated. I still had my hard days, no doubt, but I pushed past them and kept the course. If I over ate, the next day was a new start without beating myself up about that one bad day. And through it all, I allowed myself little treats: a couple pieces of chocolate, a single serving of ice cream. This helped keep me sane. I carefully logged everything I ate, and the weight came off. Sometimes I lost only 0.2 lbs (0.09kg) per week, others weeks over 2 lbs (0.9kg), but over the long run I consistently lost weight. My clothes began fitting better. Clothes in the back of my closet that I hadn’t worn in half a decade fit me again. My energy was coming back and I felt better than I did in years.

After nine months, I reached my goal weight. Other than eating more, I did not do much differently for the next year. I kept coasting along doing the same workout routine, tracking my weight, and tweaking my calorie goals until I was maintaining weight over the long run. I was sure to keep logging diligently, because I sure didn’t want to have to undo all of the hard work I had done.

After a year of coasting along, I was losing the fire. I was still maintaining my weight, but I wasn’t going anywhere with my weight training, was doing the same old cardio routines at the gym, and wavering on my motivation to workout. I needed a change. I needed a GOAL.

My first kick in the pants came when I started looking into making progress on my strength. I had done strength training before and I wanted to be stronger, but I always kind of farted around on the machines and wasn’t pushing myself or paying any attention to eating to support strength gains. I started doing research, looking at what others were doing, and seeing the results other were getting. Seeing what other had done was inspiring. I knew I could be a better me. I moved to free weights and started a modified form of the StrongLifts 5×5 program. I started paying attention to my macros. I was making progress, and more importantly, I was enjoying what I was doing. The fire was reignited.

My second kick in the pants came when I saw an ad for an upcoming local 5k mud run. I had never done any sort of running event, but it looked like fun and I wanted to see how I could do. I signed up and started training. I eased my way into running again, and within several weeks I was running 10km/6.2m. My times started coming down, and I was having, dare I say it, fun! I looked forward to going out. My stress from work melted away during my runs.

The mud run was a blast! It sure felt longer than 5k with all of the obstacles and steep hills. At certain points during it, thoughts of “when will this be over” and “what the hell did I sign up for” danced through my head, but I did it! I felt a great sense of accomplishment.

That first mud run was 5 months ago, and I've since done two additional mud runs, a 10k, and (as of this morning) 4 5ks. They are awesome fun!

I'm still working towards getting stronger and faster. I'm still a work in progress, and always will be. I can always be more awesome.

Fin.