20 pounds down!

bjkoziara
bjkoziara Posts: 158 Member
edited June 2019 in Success Stories
On May 4th I stepped on the scale and realized I was closer to 400 pounds than I'd ever been: 360.

I decided that I need to be kinder to myself and stop eating the things that made me feel weighed down, bloated, tired, and gross. I really focused on how foods made me feel rather than thinking of them in terms of "good food" versus "bad food", because it's not a healthy way for me to view it. It leads to me being hard on myself and beating myself up when I have "bad food", which always spirals into binge eating.

Since then, I've made an effort to not eat food that made me feel bad and ate more things that gave me energy and sat well in my stomach. I've learned by doing this that I may have some food intolerance issues besides lactose, so I'm glad I am learning things about my body!

In the past six weeks I've gone on vacation to visit my family, been put on new meds that can make you retain water (including a short course of prednisone), and gone over on my calories a couple of days. Regardless, I stuck with it, never let the number I saw on the scale discourage me, even if it moved up (and it did!), and kept focused on how I feel.

Finally, this morning, the scale read 339.8! I even stepped off and back on just in case it was wrong. 20 pounds seems like nothing when you have 200+ pounds to shed, but it's the longest I've ever logged my food and the most I've ever lost in one sitting. It may be just a drop in the ocean, but small as it is, it's something worth celebrating!

Now how do people celebrate small wins without food?!
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Replies

  • Lesssambytheday
    Lesssambytheday Posts: 9 Member
    Congrats!! That is such a wonderful number to reach! WTG!!!! :-)
  • doxielvr13
    doxielvr13 Posts: 40 Member
    Great job!
  • Pamela_Sue
    Pamela_Sue Posts: 563 Member
    Great job! And 20 pounds is not a small win, it is a big victory! I celebrate by setting goals and rewards for myself. One friend buys herself new earrings. Hair cut, color, or highlighting. Manicure. Or I just write a nice note to myself in my food diary - gives me something to go back to at a bad moment. Or save up for a big reward, like exercise equipment. I buy a blouse in my next smaller size and hang it on the closet door. Just some ideas.
  • OneSourApple
    OneSourApple Posts: 18 Member
    Amazing!!!!
  • lcatalan93
    lcatalan93 Posts: 45 Member
    Great loss girl you got this! You should be proud!! :)
  • _Paparazzi_
    _Paparazzi_ Posts: 463 Member
    Celebrate that you just added you're life span every time you lose 20 pounds until you get to you're goal weight .
  • Fflpnari
    Fflpnari Posts: 975 Member
    20 pounds is amazing, I hope you are proud of your hard work!
  • hafsatoheed2019
    hafsatoheed2019 Posts: 70 Member
    Congratulations
    You know what I only have to lose 50lb. I’m 186 lb 5’1 fe.i think that’s the most I should lose /I may need to lose to look decent in clothes. I don’t know may be even the 10/20 lb lost would be so noticeable on me, I don’t know but I’m using the word only because as compared to me you need to lose way more but no matter we need to lose 2 /20 or 200 lb each and every single lb needs same amount of dedication/honesty hard work
    and stepping out of your comfort zone. So you have no idea what you have accomplished and you don’t know so may of us read it and it gives strength to us to keep at it. So plz be at it and plz keep updating because I feel like I’m following your foot steps and your leading the way.
    😍😍
    May this time I can do it 🤔
  • bjkoziara
    bjkoziara Posts: 158 Member
    Thank you everyone! I am very proud!
  • bjkoziara
    bjkoziara Posts: 158 Member
    pjshawley wrote: »
    Great job! And 20 pounds is not a small win, it is a big victory! I celebrate by setting goals and rewards for myself. One friend buys herself new earrings. Hair cut, color, or highlighting. Manicure. Or I just write a nice note to myself in my food diary - gives me something to go back to at a bad moment. Or save up for a big reward, like exercise equipment. I buy a blouse in my next smaller size and hang it on the closet door. Just some ideas.

    Those are great ideas! New shoes may be my reward, mine are all quite loose. Apparently all the weight came off my feet!
  • Marjael
    Marjael Posts: 111 Member
    I was at the gym with my husband and had a thought. I walked over to the dumbbells, found a 30-pound weight and picked it up. I wasn't expecting it to be as heavy as it was and I almost dropped it. I sat there and just held it for a minute and started to feel so proud of myself for losing that much weight. I imagined having to zip that dumbbell into a backpack and wear it around everywhere, and was I so relieved to be able to put it back on the rack and leave it behind. I had the realization that, even if I didn't lose any more weight, my body was so much better off now than it was 30 pounds ago. It was a HUGE motivator for me and a really fun way to celebrate my weight loss progress :smiley:

    This is a powerful motivation. I had a similar epiphany carrying a 40lb container of kitty litter up the stairs.
  • corinasue1143
    corinasue1143 Posts: 7,467 Member
    A journey of a thousand miles begins with just one step. Congratulations on taking that step and sticking with it this long.
    You are doing great!
  • ldtamika31
    ldtamika31 Posts: 205 Member
    You go girl
  • bjkoziara
    bjkoziara Posts: 158 Member
    First of all, SO pumped for you. Reaching those milestones is just the best. :smile:

    I had a moment last month where I hit 30 pounds lost, and for some reason, it felt anticlimactic. I really couldn't put my finger on why... maybe because I'm aiming to lose 60 pounds, so I was excited to be halfway there but also realizing that I was ONLY half way there... if that makes any sense at all. Haha

    I was at the gym with my husband and had a thought. I walked over to the dumbbells, found a 30-pound weight and picked it up. I wasn't expecting it to be as heavy as it was and I almost dropped it. I sat there and just held it for a minute and started to feel so proud of myself for losing that much weight. I imagined having to zip that dumbbell into a backpack and wear it around everywhere, and was I so relieved to be able to put it back on the rack and leave it behind. I had the realization that, even if I didn't lose any more weight, my body was so much better off now than it was 30 pounds ago. It was a HUGE motivator for me and a really fun way to celebrate my weight loss progress :smiley:

    That's a great point! And congratulations on your milestone! How wonderful.
  • hannahfrey
    hannahfrey Posts: 28 Member
    Omg congratulations!!!!
  • bobsburgersfan
    bobsburgersfan Posts: 6,274 Member
    Way to go! 20 lbs is a big deal, and congrats on your longest logging streak, too! You absolutely should be proud of yourself, no matter how far you may still have to go. I love what you said about not looking at food as "bad" or "good". That's one of the things that has helped me a lot, too.

    @shannafran1992, thanks for the perspective. In all my years of trying to lose weight, I'm "only" down 60 lbs from my heaviest weight, and I have so much farther to go. I should go pick up couple of 30-lb weights to see what that really feels like.
  • sfsoccermom2
    sfsoccermom2 Posts: 233 Member
    20 pounds is a lot of weight to lose. Keep focusing on your health and how you feel. You are doing amazing.
  • bjkoziara
    bjkoziara Posts: 158 Member
    @bobsburgersfan and @sfsoccermom2 Thank you so much!
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