One year and 55 lb down

I can't believe it but I have been using MFP for a whole year! I can't remember a single other weight loss journey I've been on that has lasted this long so just staying the course is a major achievement. So how did I land up using MFP? I eat because I love food, I don't eat for emotional reasons, when I'm depressed I stop eating so the fact that I got to the whopping weight of 107 kg (236 lb) on a very small frame - I'm 1m 56 cm (just over 5'1"), tells you that on the whole I have been pretty contented. The problem is that I want to eat all the time, if I'm not busy eating I'm thinking about what I could be eating. Unhealthy eating wan't my problem either, I cook most of my own food from fresh ingredients and I'm a good cook (that's part of my problem), portion size was the big issue. If I made something good I would eat the lot even if that meant that I went back for seconds or thirds of massive platefuls. The result wasn't pretty and I finally realised I had to do something serious when I discovered that I was teetering on the edge of developing diabetes, I was having digestive problems and (although I didn't realise this was because of the weight gain), I'd become really unstable on my feet and nervous about crossing the street or going down stairs in case I fell.
I couldn't face going on yet another diet though because I always overreact to restrictions imposed on me, rebel and land up bingeing on everything I've been told I can't eat. So I decided that what I had to do was continue eating everything that I do eat, but work on getting portion sizes right. The world we live in tends to create a false sense of appropriate portion size. When you go to a restaurant they have to cater for tall men and short women and everything in between so they make a single portion which will happily satisfy a tall man. The problem is that short women like me, eat the same portion and would feel cheated if the restaurant gave us a serving of half what our partner got. So I had no idea what an ideal portion was for someone of my size. I decided that the only way to figure that out was to count the calories in my meals and adjust portions down to the recommended calories. I went onto the Apple App store to find a calorie counting app and by good fortune came upon MFP. 
It did come as something of a shock to discover how little I was supposed to be eating compared to what I had been eating and that was at the higher level that you can eat at when you start at a high weight, the gradual reduction of available calories that goes along with weight loss is something I am still having to come to terms with. As is the fact that once I finally get to maintenance I'll only be able to eat 1400 calories a day (not including exercise) - it's tough being a short food addict!
 For the first couple of months all I used MFP for was counting calories, but I kept being told having MFP pals would aid the weight loss so I got more involved in the social side of the website, got some great weight loss buddies and realised that everyone was exercising as well as watching what they eat. I was so unfit at that stage that all I could face doing was a bit more walking, and finally, after more than 20 years away from the pool, I went swimming. I felt like the biggest whale in the pool and even one lap was tiring but strangely enough I did enjoy that first swim, and have been swimming ever since. My exercise is moderate though. I try and get 10 000 steps of walking in a day (and manage to hit that target about 4 days out of 7) and I swim 2 to 3 times a week for 40 minutes. I do the occasional other exercise class, and try for an energetic session of gardening once a week. I am definitely much fitter than a year ago and feel much better about myself because of it.
 So how am I doing with my weight loss? I set my initial goal on MFP to loose 1 lb a week and so far I have lost 25 kg (55 lb) so, despite Christmas, Easter and various birthdays, parties and work dos I have averaged just over a lb a week, which I am very pleased about. When I started my weight loss journey I decided to take it easy and not stress myself with overly ambitious goals so I decided to try and loose all the weight over 2 years. I think as I get lighter though, the weight will come off slower, so I may change my goal to loosing everything in 3 years. I've had some fast losses and two plateaus, one that lasted 2 months and one where I bobbed up and down for 3 months, so now I know to expect them. I've also played around with eating exercise calories, not eating them, using zigzagging and TDEE and all sorts of tweaks. I'll probably keep experimenting too because sometimes these things work for me and sometimes they don't but as long as I feel in control of what I am doing I'm happy.