It's taken 10 years but lets begin

Hi All,

I've been reading mfp a while now and even attempted to loose weight last year but things are different in 2014.

SW : 187lbs/ 13 stone 7lbs
CW: 180lbs/ 13 stone
GW: 160lbs/ 11 stone 6lbs
Height, 168cm/ 5ft 7

But for me more importantly I want a healthy BF%. Allowing for the I accuracy of BF scales I started at 42% and am currently 37%. I want to be 25% and to an extent I won't care much what the scale says in terms of weight.

I'm 35 now and have always been on the chubby side even through my teenage years. I've been an exerciser almost all my adult life but it's amazing how much you can exercise and not get anywhere because of food. Food for me is a treat, it's like that quiet moment at the end of the day when you get peace and quiet and you can relax. For me that always means food. In general I have eaten healthy foods but my portion control is completely wrong. It's amazing when yah start weight stuff and you see what a portion should look like!

Anyway my weight has been pretty stable through my 20s. I've occasionally done a diet (atkins, WW etc) but I realised in my I'd 20s that I was getting obsessed and I threw away the scale. I stayed in the same size clothes over the years and I think I carry the weight well so really i didn't feel the need to do anything about it.

Things changed over the start of this year when work got totally out of control, I ate garbage, i was stressed and I was nearly in counselling. Over the Christmas break I started exercising again and got back to watching what I ate. I then realised that although throwing the scale away is great, the hard reality is that I am 30lbs over a healthy weight and that no matter how you look, > 40% body fat is not healthy. 35 seems a good age to actually sort it out!

Over the first half of his year I did well, although the scale wasn't going too far I just felt so much better and life was under control again. In April I got to 176lbs but the I went on vacation and I've struggled to get my food on track since then. Exercise wise I'm fine, I really don't struggle with my motivation. I'm doing muscle for life, lifting heavy 5 days a week on a split routine. I do cardio at medium to high intensity 3 to 4 times a week. I wear a fitbit flex and always hit a tdee of 2400. The good news is even with setbacks I am making myself stay the course and for me I want to hit GW by Christmas, with an intermediate goal of BF< 32% by August 23rd which is a family wedding.

I'm now off work for 2 weeks but staying at home and I am determined to get my food back on track. So thought it was finally time to introduce myself and maybe with a few people watching I will be more accountable for those late night sugar fests!

One last thing, I have an underactive thyroid which I swear causes weight loss to be a nightmare but I am stable on my meds.


J.