Celebrating my 100 day streak on MFP with some reflection on things that have been working for me.

I’ve been on MFP for a very long time, but this is the first time I have had a 100 day streak. At the beginning of the year, I weighed 321 pounds (at 5’7”). When I started logging my weight in June, I had made it down to 313. I started logging food on July 21st, and that has given me a ton of perspective that helped me get through some plateau weeks in September. Today, the scale said 267, the least I have weighed since 2014. I still have quite a few pounds to lose, but for the first time in nearly 45 years, it feels attainable and faithfully logging everything in MFP has been a major contributor to my consistency.

Here are a few thoughts I have had today as I reflect on the past few months and how it has been different from every other time I have been on the journey down the scale.

Things that have worked for me

• Making eating a judgement-free activity - In the past, a single day going over calories was enough to derail my entire progress. A single increase on the scale, when I was sure that I was “being good” would be followed with a fast food binge, since “it didn’t matter anyway”. This time, I’m looking at the numbers, finding explanations when things aren’t working, and that keeps me from looking at higher calorie days as failures. I’m eating within my goals almost every day, so even a weekend of indulgence can’t numerically offset the hard work I’ve been doing every other day. I don’t indulge often because I’m so excited by my progress, but when I do, I can finally enjoy a splurge without attaching guilt to it. There are no “bad” meals or “off-limits” foods as long as I am keeping track and sticking to my goals most of the time.
• Looking for explanations, instead of giving up when the scale isn’t budging - I can look at my food diary and see that I have been staying within my calorie goals, so when the scale isn’t moving in the right direction, I try to figure out why. I started with a very low carb diet, but that just wasn’t working for me. As I reintroduced carbs, my weight loss stopped for almost 2 weeks. In the past, I would have given up, but I knew that my early weight loss with low-carb eating was primarily water weight. Instead of giving up, I realized that the water weight was going to come back when I started eating carbs again. I was patient with myself, kept eating what I needed to, and was rewarded with continued weight loss once things had equalized again. I had another slow-down when I started exercising. (That’s the most demoralizing one of all, since we work so hard, only to see the scale creep up.). Instead of freaking out or being down on myself, I looked at the diary, saw I was within my goals, and looked for other answers. I found out that the soreness you feel from exercise (DOMS) is partially due to water retention in the muscles. I wasn’t doing anything wrong, my body was just taking care of itself the only way it knew how. There was no reason to stop hiking or doing my VR workouts. I waited it out, and in a couple of weeks the soreness and extra water weight was gone. A couple of weeks can feel like eternity, but because I was being faithful with my logging, I was able to push through to start seeing results again.
• Find things that work, and drop things that don’t - Exercise has always been a nightmare for me. I have tried every commercial workout you can imagine, and then some. This time, if I tried something and I didn’t love it, I looked for something else. Historically, I’ve gotten frustrated that I never felt like I was in good enough shape to get into shape. Workouts were impossible. My range of motion and stamina wouldn’t let me get through anything. This time, I started digging through YouTube and found seated workouts that I could actually get all the way through, and walking in place workouts that got my heart pumping without pushing me beyond my limits. I started hiking, since I needed a Covid-safe way to get out of the house. I’ve been taking pictures on my hikes and teaching myself how to watercolor using those pictures, so my motivation to go out isn’t just weight loss, but it’s also a creative outlet. And any day I’m not feeling whatever I had planned, I look for something new to try. There’s no reason to be miserable while trying to get fit.
  
• Sodium free beef and chicken broth - I know it sounds bland and awful, but this has been my crutch. I have always been a snacker, so I knew I would need something to fill that void. I fill a big thermal mug with hot water, put in 2 packets of broth and some kind of seasoning (Cajun spice, Frank’s Red Hot wing sauce, Ají Chileno (a Chilean pepper sauce), or whatever strikes my fancy). I can sip at that for hours and get my “savory snacking fix” for under 30 calories. And something about the broth keeps my hunger at bay better than just filling up on water. It’s cheaper than chips, and once you play around with seasonings, it doesn’t get boring. It has been an absolute lifesaver for me to keep the snack cravings at bay.
• Realizing I will never be as good at guessing the weight of food as my food scale is - Sound silly, but I though I was really good at eyeballing servings. I got a food scale in September, and very quickly learned that I was a very generous estimator. You can get a decent digital food scale for less than $30, and it will absolutely help keep you accurate and honest in your food tracking.

I’m far from an expert, but these are somethings I’ve learned in my ongoing journey. I hope they are as helpful for someone reading this as the support I’ve gotten from posts in this community. Looking forward to another post on day 200!