Why didn't anyone tell me it was this easy to live well?

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dboeren
dboeren Posts: 5 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Years ago I went on a low card diet. I lost about 95 pounds before I couldn't take it anymore and stopped. But all I had done was diet, I hadn't changed any habits and predictably I gained it all back over time.

A year ago, I was back up to 364 pounds and had to start over again. This time, with a very different approach. I used MyFitnessPal to track calories and Runkeeper, MapMyWalk for GPS, Zombies Run to make walking less boring, and Pact to make a few bucks on the side. I stayed on my budget every day, I went walking frequently. After a year, I'd lost 101.2 pounds.

Now I'm taking it to the next level again. Walking no longer does much to get my heart rate up (I can go 5 miles at over 4mph the whole time and barely notice), so I'm switching to elliptical. We bought this thing years ago and I was never in good enough shape to actually USE it. Now I can go 20-25 minutes at 3.6-3.8mph, hitting 80% heart rate after about 4 minutes and holding it there for the duration. I've started doing kettlebells to build up a little muscle (it also gets your heart rate up pretty good) and I'm starting martial arts classes again.

Going for a shorter time at a higher heart rate seems to be doing its magic, I haven't been losing weight this fast since the early days. Too early for firm conclusions yet but I'm going to keep it up and see how far I get this month.

And the funny thing is how *EASY* it all is once you're used to it. It's no trouble to track my food, and I don't have to eat bunny food either. Within reasonable limits, I can have pizza, fast food, steak & loaded potato, BBQ, etc..., almost anything I want. I just have to pay for it. And you know what? That's not that hard either. I can grab a 20 minute session on the elliptical over lunch, or in the evening after we put our son to bed. Doesn't take that long and the benefits are huge - lots of fat burned and a little extra budget if I want to eat something nice that day. Or I can scrimp a bit on another meal that day to free up some budget. I usually plan my whole day's worth of meals in the morning so I can see my plan and shift my budget around to make everything fit the way I want. I have never eaten a salad in my life and I'm not going to do it now, nor do I have to in order to meet my fitness goals.

The more I learn, the easier it seems to get and the more it makes me want to keep improving. It's pretty much a foregone conclusion in my mind that I can get from my current 256.4 down to under 200 by 2016 as long as I don't accidentally pack on too much muscle along the way :)

What was disheartening before was the feeling that I wasn't in control. I starved and denied and worked and waited to see if anything would happen or not. Now it feels like I'm in command. I can make my body into whatever I want it to be. It just takes some time and effort but it feels guaranteed to happen now. In 2016 I am planning to shift focus from losing weight to building up more muscle and I'm already starting to read ahead to familiarize myself with basic weightlifting and supplements so when the time comes I'll be fully prepped.

Replies

  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    Well unfortunately it doesn't stay that easy long, lol. Once you hit maintenance it can be rough... But yes it was a huge relief when I realized that I didn't have to give up foods I love to lose weight.
  • HeySwoleSister
    HeySwoleSister Posts: 1,938 Member
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    Congratulations on your successes! It sounds like you have real joy and pride in your accomplishments, and I think it's a really good sign of continued success that you have been making your changes in a way that you can continue going forward. (no extreme diet changes, etc)
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
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    It's true...once you adjust to making different choices, it becomes second nature.
  • Aviva92
    Aviva92 Posts: 2,333 Member
    edited February 2015
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    Francl27 wrote: »
    Well unfortunately it doesn't stay that easy long, lol. Once you hit maintenance it can be rough... But yes it was a huge relief when I realized that I didn't have to give up foods I love to lose weight.

    It can be for some, but I found maintenance just as easy as losing weight. Like the o.p., I don't know why I thought it was hard to begin with, but once I started tracking on mfp, it just came off. Although, I only lost 35 pounds, so I figured it might be different for people who have to lose more, but sounds like the o.p. thinks the same way I do.
  • dboeren
    dboeren Posts: 5 Member
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    Why would maintenance be harder? I mean, when you switch from "1 pound per week" (for example, I'm actually on 1.5 here) to "Maintain" you're basically gifting yourself 400+ extra calories per day in food budget. That seems like it would make things easier, not harder...?

    I think what makes maintenance tricky is just attitude. If you think of yourself as no longer being on a diet there is a risk that you might stop tracking what you eat. And THAT is when you would run into trouble. You might feel like you're only eating a little extra, but if you don't track it your eating will gradually inch up to quite a bit more than you intended.

    This is why I plan to keep using Pact (formerly called GymPact) to force me to enter my meals even when I feel that I'm done. If you're unfamiliar with Pact, you pledge $5 (or whatever) per week as a promise that you will do X workouts or enter your food X days of the week. If you don't do it, they charge your credit card the pledge amount. If you DO meet your pledged goal, you get a cut of the money they took off the slackers. I usually get around 60-65 cents per week profit. The intent is to be just enough sting to neutralize your excuses and get you off your butt and it works pretty well. I've got about $58 saved up in my Pact account right now.

    It's really amazing how much you can save in calories just by being aware of what different things cost though. Trimming a hundred or so here and there with smarter choices is a nearly free way to speed up your weight loss. When I first started doing MyFitnessPal my calorie budget was something like 2400 a day and now at 1810 I can't understand why I ever needed that much to get the job done. I'm seldom hungry between meals either, but if I am I just grab a reasonable snack and if necessary make a note to exercise a bit that night if it's going to put me over.

    I'm working on helping my wife do the same thing right now. She's pretty good about eating well most days, and I try to help point out when something she's looking at on a menu is a poor choice but she doesn't want to enter her food herself which makes it a lot harder. There's less personal accountability, less knowing where you're at in a day's budget, and all sorts of reasons why things slip through the cracks and don't get entered because it has to wait until she can hand her phone over to me to put them in. She's also less inclined to do exercise but getting better. Time will tell...
  • Aviva92
    Aviva92 Posts: 2,333 Member
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    dboeren wrote: »
    Why would maintenance be harder? I mean, when you switch from "1 pound per week" (for example, I'm actually on 1.5 here) to "Maintain" you're basically gifting yourself 400+ extra calories per day in food budget. That seems like it would make things easier, not harder...?

    I think what makes maintenance tricky is just attitude. If you think of yourself as no longer being on a diet there is a risk that you might stop tracking what you eat. And THAT is when you would run into trouble. You might feel like you're only eating a little extra, but if you don't track it your eating will gradually inch up to quite a bit more than you intended.

    This is why I plan to keep using Pact (formerly called GymPact) to force me to enter my meals even when I feel that I'm done. If you're unfamiliar with Pact, you pledge $5 (or whatever) per week as a promise that you will do X workouts or enter your food X days of the week. If you don't do it, they charge your credit card the pledge amount. If you DO meet your pledged goal, you get a cut of the money they took off the slackers. I usually get around 60-65 cents per week profit. The intent is to be just enough sting to neutralize your excuses and get you off your butt and it works pretty well. I've got about $58 saved up in my Pact account right now.

    It's really amazing how much you can save in calories just by being aware of what different things cost though. Trimming a hundred or so here and there with smarter choices is a nearly free way to speed up your weight loss. When I first started doing MyFitnessPal my calorie budget was something like 2400 a day and now at 1810 I can't understand why I ever needed that much to get the job done. I'm seldom hungry between meals either, but if I am I just grab a reasonable snack and if necessary make a note to exercise a bit that night if it's going to put me over.

    I'm working on helping my wife do the same thing right now. She's pretty good about eating well most days, and I try to help point out when something she's looking at on a menu is a poor choice but she doesn't want to enter her food herself which makes it a lot harder. There's less personal accountability, less knowing where you're at in a day's budget, and all sorts of reasons why things slip through the cracks and don't get entered because it has to wait until she can hand her phone over to me to put them in. She's also less inclined to do exercise but getting better. Time will tell...

    actually, I stopped tracking in maintenance and after losing more weight unintentionally stayed pretty stable. Some people can do maintenance without tracking.
  • Jagkat
    Jagkat Posts: 37 Member
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    Thanks for writing this
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
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    Sounds like you were just listening to the wrong people/sources. Congrats on your success!!
  • EmmaFitzwilliam
    EmmaFitzwilliam Posts: 482 Member
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    It's easy now, but think of the advantages we have - refrigeration, shipping, the Internet. We can more easily find out better nutritional information about more foods. Those are huge factors.

    Now, I get a bit melodramatic - fresh raspberries with half and half? This dieting life is *so hard*. :)

    The diet industry doesn't want us to learn to eat well and mindfully.

    I'm expecting this to be pretty easy once I go on maintenance, because I understand that my life will always include portion control and food logging. It's *much* easier mow with MFP and other resources, but there are still hassles. But that is a much longer post.
  • Jruzer
    Jruzer Posts: 3,501 Member
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    Your title reflects my experience. When I suddenly realized there was a quantifiable path to lose weight and get healthy, I took it with gusto. I remember remarking to Mrs Jruzer, "Who knew you could lose weight while eating cake and ice cream?"
  • time2change1111
    time2change1111 Posts: 114 Member
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    this is one of the best posts I've read. Thankyou for posting it.: :smile:
  • SergeantSausage
    SergeantSausage Posts: 1,673 Member
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    Francl27 wrote: »
    Well unfortunately it doesn't stay that easy long, lol. Once you hit maintenance it can be rough... But yes it was a huge relief when I realized that I didn't have to give up foods I love to lose weight.


    Pffffft.

    Easy Peasy the whole way.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
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    I so relate to what you are saying. When I started my weight loss project eighteen months ago, the effort required seem to stretch to infinity. It took a lot of internal fortitude to start. As new habits became ingrained - especially the fitness ones - I passed the "hump" from "exercise is painful", to "gee, this is sort of fun!". My body anticipates and even craves activity.

    So from this side of the telescope it looks a lot easier. I would not have said so at the beginning.

    413795-young-boy-looking-in-a-telescope-at-the-sea-the-wrong-way.jpeg
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    Well for me those 400 calories haven't helped that much because I've been way hungrier since I lost weight. I never even considered that it could happen... but it did. It's like my hormones are impacting me way more without the extra weight or something. So it was easier to stick to 1700 calories when I was overweight than stick to 1900 calories now (my TDEE is 2200 but I try to stick to a deficit to make up for the days when my hormones turn me into a ravenous hog).

    The main thing though is loss of motivation. When I was obese, it was pretty easy to remind myself of why I wanted to do this. Now that I like the way I look (if I ignore the loose skin), it's much easier to tell myself 'oh I look good now, an extra piece of chocolate isn't going to make a difference'. And the cravings haven't gone away one bit. The only difference is that I can't physically eat more than 3500 calories a day now (or I get sick).

    I mean, there's a reason why so many people gain the weight back. But yes, I used to think it was so easy too... and now most days are rough. But I did lose the weight, and I've maintained for 6 months, so there's that.

  • Camo_xxx
    Camo_xxx Posts: 1,082 Member
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    Being awesome is awesome ! Way to go !
  • dboeren
    dboeren Posts: 5 Member
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    Thanks for the kind words and I'm glad that some of you have found my post useful or inspirational.

    I do agree with what EmmaFitzWilliam said that we're spoiled for the high quality tools we have to help us these days. It would have been harder years ago when people couldn't use their smartphone to look up nutritional data on the go, track their walks with GPS, get support from strangers scattered around the globe, etc...

    At 43 years old, I just wanted to take back some of what I used to have. I've got a family and 4-year old son, but you can't just make excuses about lack of time and let that force your life to continue on a path that's not what you really want. You have to either make the time, or figure out how to do it smarter so it takes less time. That's why after walking 45 total miles last month I'm replacing my walking program with the elliptical which seems to be giving me better results in 20 minutes than I get in 35-45 minutes walking outdoors at a lower heart rate.

    Francl27 brings up a good point about loose skin. Eventually I'll probably have to figure out what to do about that but I've still got a lot more weight to lose before that comes. At a quick glance, surgery seem to be expensive, not usually covered by insurance, and also put you out of commission for a while for work, exercise, etc... Hard to afford that on several levels but you don't want to look like a big floppy raisin either.

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