I started one year ago today...

brenn24179 wrote: »

wow you did great. I am 5'4 and was happy to go from 208 to 159.

Oh, I understand! I think i was around 170 when I realized it was time for new clothes, and that was a confidence boost/motivational itself. I honestly felt like I was looking slim and trim when I could wear a 12 petite and get rid of my size 16 pants, and I hadn't even lost half the weight yet. Every time I saw the scale go down to a new number like 169, 159, 149...that is a good feeling, even if it seemed to take FOREVER to get to those numbers! 😀

VA_Lifter wrote: »

WOW!!!! You look just fabulous and I'm betting you feel great too. I am inspired. The 30 pounds I lost several years ago have all crept back on and I am miserable about it. I am going to just work at it day by day too -- good to hear that for you logging and consistency (REALLY paid off. Congratulations!

You can do it!

jamesha100 wrote: »

Inspirational! - I would be really interested to see the one year progress graph of your weight loss. It would be very useful to see how your rate of loss changes across that period.
Well done again - you look fabulous in your after pictures.

Here is the progression since August, keeping in mind that I put my starting weight at 195 without getting on a scale and it was closer to 212 like I can see on my dr chart. I was in denial about being over 200 lbs.

carro585 wrote: »

You look amazing! I'm so impressed that you went a whole year with no cheat days. I'm your same age and height and have 130 as my goal, so your success is extra motivational!

You can do it!

73hkm73 wrote: »

This is exactly the motivation I needed! I’m starting today- around your same height and need to lose 31 pounds. Did you use the preset macros from MyFitnessPal? You look great!!!

I didn't adjust them and other than noticing that I could try adding more protein in the beginning, I only used the macros as like data in the beginning. I never look at them now really but the set percentages have matched what I was eating. I don't count my carbs. I've been asked if I do keto or intermittent fasting by friends who are trying to lose weight, keto comes up A LOT, and no, I didn't use any sort of overly complicated (for me) methods or gimmicks...I do have Slimfast or vanilla muscle milk sometimes because I like them and they're cheap. I didn't buy anything from a MLM, no flat tummy tea....I take probiotics and vitamins but nothing unusual.
You can do it!

jamesha100 wrote: »

Thanks for the progress chart - it looks like a nice steady loss but maybe with a few plateaus. I think you are a great example of taking things steady and having faith in the program. I have never managed to keep to it for longer than three months so I will bookmark this for inspiration!

Thanks! My weight would sometimes stagger around the same amount but consistently I see it drop once a month around the same time (tmi sorry but that affects weight/water retention) so I got accustomed to that pattern, knew I'd see a loss after that time of the month, and not hung up on the weeks when I didn't move the scale...I have been scale obsessed in the past, around 10 years ago and I starved fifty lbs off quickly but I was eating 700 calories a day and in my 20s...I didn't create healthy habits or eat in a way that would work long term; it was all about getting that scale to go down. Sooo I got to my lowest weight, and slowly crept up to my highest weight and here we are! I did think my weight would come off faster based on previous experience, but it isn't so easy in my 30s...getting older is fun like that. Slow progress was a blessing that allowed me to focus on the journey instead of only being motivated (or getting discouraged) by a number on a scale getting lower. I think it's easy to have unrealistic expectations when we see people lose so much weight so quickly on shows like The Biggest Loser and Revenge Body. Don't compare yourself to anyone else and don't announce your journey to the peanut gallery, is my advice. You aren't on a deadline to hit your goal weight, the time will pass anyway, and if you keep going without giving up, you will thank yourself for your own patience and persistence.