FAWF-57...Audrey Here...And This Is My Weight Loss Road Trip
AudreyPriceAz
Posts: 19 Member
Hey there.
So...full disclaimer, I am not on any kind of weight loss journey.
I am on a weight loss road trip. The journey was what got me to 150lbs at 57 years young over the last 15 years since menopause and quitting smoking - and quitting vaping last year about this time.
No journey. I'm road-tripping my fata$$ (omg I did not write kitten, come on...are ya 12?) off as quickly as I can get there. And hopefully, I won't take this journey here ever again.
My history in semi brief...
I'm 5'2" and petite frame. I weighed 101 most of my entire life, including up into my 40s. I ate whatever I wanted, drank sodas upwards of a 2ltr every other day, and never even hit 102. Because I smoked. But then my respiratory issues kicked in one day when I came in from taking the trash to the dumpster and had to sit down and catch my breath. I knew there was a problem when I had sex not long after with the super hot guy and went to heaving like I was trying to pull a bus up some stairs one-handed. I thought I was gonna die. He thought he was a god. heh.
Anyway, menopause kicked in at exactly age 50. I stopped smoking in 2013 and replaced it with vaping which helped considerably but those two things contributed to the weight gain. I still ate like I always ate but menopause and not smoking away the weight just basically became the cattle call...and it began to pile up. In 2013 I had hit 118.
No, no and NO...I am not a fat girl. NO...noooo. Nuh uh. Get this off of me...so, I bought some beach body work out videos and watched them while laying on the sofa crying at what happened to my butt...it used to look like that..(TMI warning, in my 20s I was a hard-bodied stripper...I had it going on...now...at 50, I looked like my mother...cue duh duh duhhhhhhhh moment and gasping).
I didn't do anything about it because it really hit me this happened to me and I was all victimized by the mean old fata$$ that came and got me.
In 2018, finally, allowing my curiosity to get the better of me I weighed myself at my mother's one day...okay seriously? Yeah, when I saw 136 I figured that thing was broken. I didn't look much bigger, least I tried to tell myself I wasn't that big yet. Now, if I hit 150, then yeah, there's a problem. So I tried walking a little and eating cleaner food, cut out sweets for the most part, no milk, only the occasional grilled cheese. But it kept going up instead of down.
My battle between 136 and 140 was spent during all of 2019 fighting with giving up everything...except the sodas and panda express, but I thought I was doing really good now that literally, the only two three four fast foot places I even went to anymore was Panda Express, Chipotle veggie bowls, a local seafood place for real fried catfish but only every 6 months or so because it's expensive af...and Subway. I mean that pedo guy lost 500lbs eating Subway so it's healthy. He was on tv. Before he was ON TV... but still.
In June 2020 I decided this is enough. I started walking and worked out I could do 2 miles an hour, or 1 mile in a half hour around a certain course at home. I ate out once a week but cooked everything and just couldn't tell if it was working.
Stim checks rolled around at the end of the year so I bought some better cooking gear and a nice digital scale. I was so happy to see how much weight that I'd lost in several months finally being able to do 5 miles a day I nearly threw the scale across the room when it said I was 150 lbs. Clearly that one's broken too. I am NOT 150lbs. NOT. No. Nuh uh.
I changed out the batteries. I weighed a 5lb bag of potatoes and it weighed 5lbs. I waited a week and tried again. Still 150 and that was my line in the sand. I have to get this off.
I wasn't sure what I was doing right or wrong but eventually, like in Feb this year, I got to 148. Okay.
I found a routine. I'd eat one healthy meal a day. I started drinking unsweetened tea and no more sodas. I walked at least 3 miles a day but sometimes 5. I made sure that no matter what I at least did one mile but I was averaging 2.5 a day and I got all the way to 146 last week.
Annnd Sunday, a couple days ago, back up to 148 but I knew it was from two 20oz cokes, a trip to Panda Express and a trip to Captain Ds.
I decided to actually investigate what the problem was...and it wasn't the unhealthy eating...those couple trips were okay...it was the portions. I was never a binge eater, never an over eater, never ate my feelings...I just ate what I wanted to eat when I was hungry and usually, when I was thinner, I got fuller faster. But with the weight, I began to realize, after binging dozens of fat girl turned thin girl you tube channels (the real ones, not the 20 year old influencer frauds who think they're obese at 104...so they need to vlog about their weight loss journey...)...is that my portions were way out of control. I was filling up my plate. I was eating everything on it and sometimes having seconds. But those might be my only two meals for the day...and then the assorted chips or popcorn...and the 1ltr of coke a day.
It finally clicked what I was doing wrong...so I downloaded this app just because so many of these channels were suggesting it.
I started kindasorta last night but I'd already eaten and just a stroke of luck it calculated I need 1200 calories a day to drop 2lbs a week - which I thought was reasonable but who knows...I'd prefer 20 a day but I'll live)...and based on what I did yesterday I had a whole 132 calories left over. People said to go for the deficit. I'm assuming that means less than 1200 but not starving myself. When I calculated my walking 2.5 miles, it gave me another 130. Okay. I can do this.
This makes sense. (Provided I'm doing it right lol)
The second thing I discovered, just tonight, was TaKe OfF AlL ClOtHeS tO wEIgH YoUrSeLf! Usually I just took off my shoes and weighed but I was getting my measurements so I stripped and weighed and yay it's actually 147.4 and not 148.70
So I only gained 1lb back, not two and now I am happy and trust the digital scale is no longer broken. It just needed me to get it together.
That's the long version. I'm just leaving it so I don't end up telling "My Weight Loss Road Trip Journey Story" ™ every time I post on here...I can just point ya back here to trudge through it.
57 female (FAWF = fata$$ white female) 5 ft 2"
Weight = 147.40
Bust = 43
Stomach/Waist = 44 😬
Hips = 41
Thighs = 23
Upper Arms = 12
I hope you guys are actually nice people here. I'm leery of forums after spending too much time on reddit...
So...full disclaimer, I am not on any kind of weight loss journey.
I am on a weight loss road trip. The journey was what got me to 150lbs at 57 years young over the last 15 years since menopause and quitting smoking - and quitting vaping last year about this time.
No journey. I'm road-tripping my fata$$ (omg I did not write kitten, come on...are ya 12?) off as quickly as I can get there. And hopefully, I won't take this journey here ever again.
My history in semi brief...
I'm 5'2" and petite frame. I weighed 101 most of my entire life, including up into my 40s. I ate whatever I wanted, drank sodas upwards of a 2ltr every other day, and never even hit 102. Because I smoked. But then my respiratory issues kicked in one day when I came in from taking the trash to the dumpster and had to sit down and catch my breath. I knew there was a problem when I had sex not long after with the super hot guy and went to heaving like I was trying to pull a bus up some stairs one-handed. I thought I was gonna die. He thought he was a god. heh.
Anyway, menopause kicked in at exactly age 50. I stopped smoking in 2013 and replaced it with vaping which helped considerably but those two things contributed to the weight gain. I still ate like I always ate but menopause and not smoking away the weight just basically became the cattle call...and it began to pile up. In 2013 I had hit 118.
No, no and NO...I am not a fat girl. NO...noooo. Nuh uh. Get this off of me...so, I bought some beach body work out videos and watched them while laying on the sofa crying at what happened to my butt...it used to look like that..(TMI warning, in my 20s I was a hard-bodied stripper...I had it going on...now...at 50, I looked like my mother...cue duh duh duhhhhhhhh moment and gasping).
I didn't do anything about it because it really hit me this happened to me and I was all victimized by the mean old fata$$ that came and got me.
In 2018, finally, allowing my curiosity to get the better of me I weighed myself at my mother's one day...okay seriously? Yeah, when I saw 136 I figured that thing was broken. I didn't look much bigger, least I tried to tell myself I wasn't that big yet. Now, if I hit 150, then yeah, there's a problem. So I tried walking a little and eating cleaner food, cut out sweets for the most part, no milk, only the occasional grilled cheese. But it kept going up instead of down.
My battle between 136 and 140 was spent during all of 2019 fighting with giving up everything...except the sodas and panda express, but I thought I was doing really good now that literally, the only two three four fast foot places I even went to anymore was Panda Express, Chipotle veggie bowls, a local seafood place for real fried catfish but only every 6 months or so because it's expensive af...and Subway. I mean that pedo guy lost 500lbs eating Subway so it's healthy. He was on tv. Before he was ON TV... but still.
In June 2020 I decided this is enough. I started walking and worked out I could do 2 miles an hour, or 1 mile in a half hour around a certain course at home. I ate out once a week but cooked everything and just couldn't tell if it was working.
Stim checks rolled around at the end of the year so I bought some better cooking gear and a nice digital scale. I was so happy to see how much weight that I'd lost in several months finally being able to do 5 miles a day I nearly threw the scale across the room when it said I was 150 lbs. Clearly that one's broken too. I am NOT 150lbs. NOT. No. Nuh uh.
I changed out the batteries. I weighed a 5lb bag of potatoes and it weighed 5lbs. I waited a week and tried again. Still 150 and that was my line in the sand. I have to get this off.
I wasn't sure what I was doing right or wrong but eventually, like in Feb this year, I got to 148. Okay.
I found a routine. I'd eat one healthy meal a day. I started drinking unsweetened tea and no more sodas. I walked at least 3 miles a day but sometimes 5. I made sure that no matter what I at least did one mile but I was averaging 2.5 a day and I got all the way to 146 last week.
Annnd Sunday, a couple days ago, back up to 148 but I knew it was from two 20oz cokes, a trip to Panda Express and a trip to Captain Ds.
I decided to actually investigate what the problem was...and it wasn't the unhealthy eating...those couple trips were okay...it was the portions. I was never a binge eater, never an over eater, never ate my feelings...I just ate what I wanted to eat when I was hungry and usually, when I was thinner, I got fuller faster. But with the weight, I began to realize, after binging dozens of fat girl turned thin girl you tube channels (the real ones, not the 20 year old influencer frauds who think they're obese at 104...so they need to vlog about their weight loss journey...)...is that my portions were way out of control. I was filling up my plate. I was eating everything on it and sometimes having seconds. But those might be my only two meals for the day...and then the assorted chips or popcorn...and the 1ltr of coke a day.
It finally clicked what I was doing wrong...so I downloaded this app just because so many of these channels were suggesting it.
I started kindasorta last night but I'd already eaten and just a stroke of luck it calculated I need 1200 calories a day to drop 2lbs a week - which I thought was reasonable but who knows...I'd prefer 20 a day but I'll live)...and based on what I did yesterday I had a whole 132 calories left over. People said to go for the deficit. I'm assuming that means less than 1200 but not starving myself. When I calculated my walking 2.5 miles, it gave me another 130. Okay. I can do this.
This makes sense. (Provided I'm doing it right lol)
The second thing I discovered, just tonight, was TaKe OfF AlL ClOtHeS tO wEIgH YoUrSeLf! Usually I just took off my shoes and weighed but I was getting my measurements so I stripped and weighed and yay it's actually 147.4 and not 148.70
So I only gained 1lb back, not two and now I am happy and trust the digital scale is no longer broken. It just needed me to get it together.
That's the long version. I'm just leaving it so I don't end up telling "My Weight Loss Road Trip Journey Story" ™ every time I post on here...I can just point ya back here to trudge through it.
57 female (FAWF = fata$$ white female) 5 ft 2"
Weight = 147.40
Bust = 43
Stomach/Waist = 44 😬
Hips = 41
Thighs = 23
Upper Arms = 12
I hope you guys are actually nice people here. I'm leery of forums after spending too much time on reddit...
1
Replies
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Instead of stripping, you should have been honing your writing. You gots wasted skillz, hon.
First of all, menopause is BS. I attribute much of my weight gain to being happy, comfy, satisfied and sedentary, as many of us are at this age.
I started my “journey” when I was 56. I’m 58 now, and have lost over 40% of my body weight.
It’s not easy (patience, diligence, work required) and it is easy (you mean all I have to do is weigh and log food accurately?!)
You can lose weight simply by counting calories, without exercise, but it’s a darn sight easier- and ultimately more fun- if you do. Plus you get bonus calories to eat. Walking is great, there’s tons of YouTube and subscription classes, many local gyms and studios have reopened where I am.
At 58 I have learned to jog, I walk several miles a day, do Pilates, yoga, and weightlifting. There are other users here our age who bicycle, row (as on on-real-water), run marathons, HIIT, aerobics, horseback, aerial work, even one or two who do pole dancing workouts. There are no barriers for age, unless you have limiting medical conditions.
I hear a can-do attitude and an appreciation for attention to detail in your post. If you can rope that in and make it work for you, you will do very well with this.
I sometimes think that our age is the “line in the sand” for future generations. Lots of ladies- and men- this age look and act old, grey hair, dowdy, they look and act like my grandmas. They’ve given up and settled into the inevitable. But is it?
The ones I see in the studio and gym, or on the trail, are lithe, limber, younger looking and younger attitude. Any time I get down, I decide I don’t want to be those other women.
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Minus the stripping, I can totally relate to what your saying! LOL! Eleven years ago, my cholesterol was high and my weight had increased. I started to exercise regularly and eat better per my doctor's recommendation. Otherwise, he was going to put me on cholesterol meds and I didn't want that! My weight went from 138 to 113 and I felt great.....until I injured my knee while hiking. Then slowly, I exercised less due to the knee pain and the weight went back on.
Then last year, I found out that I have a uterine fibroid that is larger than the uterus and starting to prolapse. That made exercises even more difficult. My doctor recommended that I stop jogging....even though I loved it. However, last week I decided I needed to be accountable to myself again and have started back with this app, eating better and doing low-impact exercises. I'm hoping that I don't lose my motivation again.
After reading your story, it's so nice to know that others are in the same boat with me. Thanks for sharing!2 -
Thanks for the feedback!
You have no idea how happy I was when I saw it was one lb less once I figured out I should probably weigh naked lol. I truly did not think my clothing would have that much impact but apparently they do.
No jogging for me right now. I'm not healthy enough to do it but I'm completely disciplined enough to do it. I just didn't know or have a better idea what I was doing wrong until about 2-3 weeks ago so I experimented with the routine and meals and figured out what it was...plus the fast food jaunts.
Re writing - I've been a writer since I was a kid. All I do is write. I can write well but sometimes I don't wanna...being southern and all. Slang is real.
My weight has compounded much ankle and foot pain and sometimes taking a step feels like I stepped hard off a step I didn't know was there lol. It comes and goes but once I started doing 5 mile walks they were so sore I'd take a few days off to recover. It'll take some time to get used to it from 0 activity for years.
What sucks is I love the platinum white hair - I'm natural ash blond but my eyebrows are pale blond so I can do light blond and looks pretty good. So when I bleached the all white and suddenly realized I looked 105 years old it hurt. It reminded me I'm not in my 20s no matter how I act. I do not want to be one of those women who haven't figured out what age appropriate means. When I see a geriatric sporting purple hair and converse it just doesn't jive with me...it makes me think she's in denial, not that she's feeling young and youthful.
So I decided, instead of being judgy, I'm going to compromise with the sultry silver color and pretend I went full grey since it's kinda showing up anyway.
One thing I am truly grateful for is that I did my tanning in my 20s and stayed out of the sun. I have a clear, even complexion and minimal wrinkles. I wore readers that magnified everything so it freaked me out seeing these huge lines above my lips and every pore until I realized it was the glasses and my face wasn't trying to do the Grand Canyon look. And being 5'2 helps me pull off looking younger than I am. Still some people even this year have said they thought I was 40 something. Point being, I don't feel 57 at all. I feel like I'm still maybe 30 something (because instead of wanting to date a hot 26 year old, now it makes me tired...plus, I'm done babysitting)...but my body knows we're 57 and if I did a cartwheel because my state of mind is doing one, I'ma break something and end up in the hospital. It's hard to not "bust out" with things...I constantly have to remind myself I am NOT 30 something, I am NOT limber...and this will kill me lol.
At the end of the day though, I want this off of me. Period. I chose Julyish as my goal date because it's a hard goal to strive for. If I say I want to lose 43lbs this year then I'll likely end up staying at this or topping 150.
Once I hit the 120s again then I'll add exercise to it. I did buy some 5lbs weights yesterday so will also start using those and eventually walking with them. Not sure how to calculate calorie burn with it but eh.
I'm glad to find older gals around here doing this so I can follow and learn and see what you did. It's hard for me to not want to throat punch a 20 year old who's all about how overweight she was at 105. 😁0 -
My hair was purple, then neon pink, then both, and occasionally striped, depending on how I felt. I just got rid of the last of the pink a few months ago.
I hate using makeup and everyone looked at the hair anyway, not the lack of makeup. It was fun and the young people would stop me all the time and tell me how cool I was. I think it was my way of being seen when I otherwise wouldn’t have been, as a fat chick. One sweet little old kick-*kitten* lady in town (we are the Deep South type place to which you indirectly refer) dyed her hair pink because I inspired her. I never thought of her as geriatric, more like living it up and pleasing herself.
I get you on the weighing naked. I’m sure we all do. I take off my watch, my glasses, wedding ring, and have even been known to shave my legs first. Every gram helps. 😇
You might consider getting a Fitbit or Apple Watch or other fitness tracker. My watch syncs beautifully with MFP (despite others’ complaints) and I find the step counts and calorie counts to be pretty accurate. Others say the same about fitbits and the like. Since my watch syncs (as long as I start/stop the appropriate exercise button) with MFP, it makes tracking much easier. There’s even inexpensive Bluetooth scales that coordinate data with MFP.
I remember my momma had a pocket sized calorie counting book. Technology beats the hell out of that.
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FYI this is what it looks like (on the iOS app) when you have a fitness tracker synced to automatically report exercise. I use Apple Watch. It does everything except wash the dishes.
(I have my activity level set as “extremely active”, so I don’t count extra steps outside of a specifically recorded walking or running exercise, hence that line says “zero” for me. Others’ setups are probably different.)
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I will probably end up getting one. I'm kinda getting into this for the first time ever. This app though...I think I got it set up right but not entirely sure. I manually set the dailies to 1450 even though that bmr thing said 1509. And then it nagged at me because it doesn't know I'm doing it a certain way. Just kept acting like my mother "you're not eating enough!"
Well, I literally just ate so I'm not hungry.
But that guac dip's lime flavor just called out so...I ate some chips and guacamole dip and some gummies and went over lol. BUT I'm going back in and adjusting the stuff I ate trying to be more specific if it lets me. I think being as close as I can get it and setting it to 1450 before I get too deep into the logging is best.
Now...question......
Is it just me or when you gain weight like this it feels like nobody sees you anymore? I've felt that for a couple years. It's good in a way because I feel like a gray woman but sometimes it's insulting. Like "before" this piled up people opened doors for me, they were polite...now people, men included, just barrel on in front of me like I'm not even there. Most times I don't worry about it, just think they're kinda rude, and sometimes I'll stop them or comment on it politely enough they see and usually apologize but it's actually been strange to see that sense of invisibility.
I'm not knocking it too much because I honestly hate going out in public so I don't unless I just have to so, not being seen and noticed is fine by me.
What kind of prejudices or social issues have you faced, if any? How do you deal with them?0 -
You need to visit this thread:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10087100/what-nobody-tells-you-about-losing-weight/p1
A lot of posts talk about this phenomenon.
I had the rainbow colored hair in a conservative county, so I got noticed regardless. But I get noticed a lot more with the weight loss. People stopped at lights yell nice stuff at me. Usually that they like my leggings or my absolute favorite from a random female driver “You look buff!!! Keep it up!”
I’m recognized as “the walking lady” when I go into salons, and when I walked through the town square this weekend, heads turned. I thought I had toilet paper stuck to my shoe or something dumb like that, til I realized I had tied my jacket around my waist, and people were looking at the muscles that have started peeping out of my tank top since last summer.
Some delightful young man started chatting me up while we waited for a light, til I turned around and he realized the woman under the hoody was old enough to be his mom.
So yeah, I def get noticed more. It’s usually respectful, but once in a while I want to punch a dude out because that’s not my comfort zone but dammit, if I want to wear a tank, I’ll wear a tank, and the lot of them can go fluff themselves.1 -
GAWD what I wouldn't give to wear a tank top again. And shorts. I'm not buying anymore clothes til this comes off...it's tshirts and sweat pants on purpose...so I keep seeing drab and fat in the mirror and it keeps me motivated. Once I find the right routine that drops weight consistently, I'm gonna be so psyched and motivated more than ever.
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