2lbs Away from reaching my second weight loss goal! 🏆

FangsForYou
FangsForYou Posts: 27 Member
in Health and Weight Loss

So, a bit of context, I have a lot of weight to lose and I would constantly find myself feeling overwhelmed and anxious at looking at the big number, so this time I decided to break it down to more reasonable smaller goals, it helps keep me stay on track and motivated.


So, I started losing weight roughly about 5 years ago, I had a MUCH different approach to weight loss than I do now, I did lose some significant weight and I was on my way to losing more, but I had some insane challenges that I never imagined happen, I started falling off the rails and must have gained almost half of what I lost back then. I was feeling miserable, but I knew that I would eventually get my way back despite the hardship of circumstances!

So this year, I finally was able to start getting back on track, I’ve been working really hard, but I tweaked a lot of things around, my approach to weight loss was MUCH different, slow and easy, but realistically manageable over 100% hard and fast. And one of the things I did was divide my weight loss into smaller goals. Instead of looking at the daunting big picture, I began focusing on one goal at a time, and since it would be 15lbs here or 10 lbs there. It kept me motivated and it felt sooo realistic to obtain because I would look at each goal weight daily and knowing it was attainable.

So, each goal weight represented something emotionally to me like, this was how much I weighed 2 years ago, and this is how much I weighed when I met such and such, and this was how much I weighed when I worked here, and this was how much I weighed when I was doing this and you pretty much get the idea.

So far, I’ve already completed my first goal and I’m literally 2lbs away from hitting my second goal and I just can’t believe it. I’m not even going to lie, I’ve made it my top goals for the next couple of years, to not only live a healthier lifestyle but also look good doing it. I am in the process of reinventing myself and it feels absolutely great and exciting that I’m almost at the second mark. Ill still have more marks to go, but I’m not even focused on those yet, I’m just focusing on the now and it’s such a profound feeling to know that I’m achieving what I’m setting my mind out to do. I had to talk to some friends I haven’t seen in months and they know that I’m busy with my personal goals. Cant wait till they see how much weight I’ve lost. I just have 2 more lbs to go to be at my lowest weight in 2 years and anymore weight that I lose past that will be uncharted territory since I’ve been a big guy for most of my life, this has become a new chapter for me.

So, stay with your goals, if you stay consistent, you will get there in time.

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Replies

  • donavonrusk22
    donavonrusk22 Posts: 1 Member

    hey man thanks for sharing I’m just now getting started out myself what are some of the things your doing like diet wise or exercises to get your goals

  • FangsForYou
    FangsForYou Posts: 27 Member
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48818284#Comment_48818284

    First most, congrats on your weight loss journey the steps you take today add up for tomorrow. There are soo many things you can do to start your weight loss journey, I highly recommend a few things that I personally found sooo essential to my weight loss (currently 70lbs down).

    1. Understand Nutritional Labels and get into the habit of always reading them. Knowing what you put into your body will help control what you decide to eat.

    2. If you dont already, Learn to cook, yeah, this one really changed how I approached dieting and overall eating habits. I use to think that eating plain chicken breasts, broccoli, spinach and egg whites was the way to go to lose weight. I had such a warped approach, because I HATED dieting because the healthy food I was eating tasted terrible or bland to me. Now I eat whatever I want, but I modify it by making sure it’s lower calories, lower carbs, sugar, sodium, etc. Basically I eat pasta, burgers, pizza, etc but they are modified to be healthier, it made a huge difference in losing weight! And I love the way my food tastes, there are sooo many great recipes online on YouTube and on this app that are low calorie and just overall healthy.

    3. Exercise when you can, I go to the gym 1-4 times a week depending on how busy I am and it definitely adds up, just pushing myself to get a good workout helps me get stronger and work on my cardiovascular health.

    4. Be open minded to trying different foods and ingredients, I use to hate eating vegetables, I was more of a meaty and carb kind of guy. Now, I try new meals and different recipes and I end up liking them most. Now I love eating veggies like Kale, Spinach, Cabbage, Green Peppers, Zucchini, etc.

    5. Switch out foods to balance out your calories, meaning if you are craving a burger, you can have a burger, but lets say if your burger is high in calories (900 Calories), balance it out with not getting fries with it but instead substitute it by chopping up or ordering some celery sticks and a 0 calorie drink of your choice. So then that meal was only 900 Calories.

    6. Get into the habit to track your calories using this app, I log in 99% of everything I eat everyday on this app, it helps me understand how many more calories I have to go it helps me understand what foods to switch out or whatever.

    7. Write a grocery list before going shopping, having the junk food readily at home is so tempting, so by knowing what you’re buying beforehand is a key component to keeping yourself from falling back into old habits and eating the foods that kept you heavier.

    Anyway, these are my personal recommendations, I hope this helps! Best of luck and just stay consistent, you can do it! So always believe in yourself!!

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,924 Member

    Congratulations on making that mindset change.

    Logging food is (to me) the number one thing that helped me. There is so much to be learned from a simple Food Log.

    Exercise helps a lot, especially when getting close to goal. I couldn't stick with my allotted calories without it (I'm now in weight Maintenance.)

    Home cooking and Substitutions! Yes. That's the secret to eating, IMO. No one makes meals that are as good as mine - unless they're three times the calories. I worked in restaurants for years and they make things tasty by using lots of butter and fat. That just doesn't work for weight loss.

    Well done! Keep it goin'.

  • sollyn23l2
    sollyn23l2 Posts: 2,181 Member

    Amazing work! Keep pushing, you'll get it done.

  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 15,783 Member
    edited November 1

    Super well done, awesome attitude :), and a far from terrible list of options and suggestions to try! Keep on keeping on!

  • Strudders67
    Strudders67 Posts: 1,060 Member

    Sounds like you're doing a fantastic job. The idea of having smaller goals is so much better than just looking at the ultimate end goal, thinking "that's unattainable" …and giving up. I don't think you will, as you've now got a healthy, realistic mindset, but if you start feeling that it's a drag, perhaps consider a treat / reward each time you meet your latest goal - a new shirt or even a complete new outfit, a ticket to a game or show that you perhaps woudn't otherwise do etc.

    I agree that home cooking is the way to get better tasting 'diet' food - herbs have fewer calories than double cream! But logging everything that I ate and drank was definitely the eye-opener for me.

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