I’ve been an off and on dieter and major life events derail me from being disciplined. I’d love to share my progress and what happened during my low discipline/high weight periods. I’m 5’4″, 34yo Mexican/white woman.
First graph is June 2018-Dec 2022. My starting weight was 170 and midway through that weight loss I got a Bluetooth scale that’s been helping me keep track.
The first series of crisis included the death of my husband’s grandmother, my mom’s immigration issues and possibly deportation, my dogs multiple knee surgery, and treating myself to get through the stress.
COVID happened and I got mild depression along with a little weight loss. But then July, Aug, and Dec, I had my nose broken and repaired, abdominal hernia repair, and major abdominal surgery with complications leading to a hysterectomy/oophorectomy, and my dog have 9 mass cell tumors removed as they popped up. The last surgery was during my first quarter in grad school, while I was still working my regular job 30 hours a week and TAing 20 hours a week. My marriage almost ended. My weight was 185+, I stopped letting the scale save my weight so it never got recorded. I was so ashamed of it. There is nothing wrong with being 185lb, but I know so many people that have sexual abuse history that results in using food for comfort or to be unattractive to men intentionally, and because of my own history I was afraid that people will know this about me by my weight. The year following graduation, I took time to recover from burnout and work on my marriage.
July 2023 I was ready to focus on myself and got back into working out. It was so depressing because I lost so much strength and could only life 50% of my max weight before Covid in nearly all my lifts. So I decided to focus on my diet since it’s 80% of hard work towards weight loss. I tried to do 1500-1600 calories, but occasionally would go up to 1750. But I had issues with binge eater when stressed. I sought a therapist with eating disorder background. I got on Adderall for my ADHD. And continued with marriage counseling. I kept my workout routine light and short to make it easier to be consistent. By the end of December I was 157. NEARLY 30LB IN 6 MONTHS!
But I was so much more critical of myself than before. I would pinch and poke my fat to find the skinny person in me. Please don’t do this to yourself, it’s unkind. I was stuck in a plateau for the end of Dec and all of January this month. I had nose surgery again because the first left me unable to breathe out of one nostril, and I didn’t track calories for two weeks. I just started Rx sleeping pills because I only slept 5 hours as a bad habit during grad school. I couldn’t work out either during recovery until this week. Now that I’m getting more sleep and working out again, I lost like 4 lbs in a week.
Things I learned:
Be kind to yourself.
Sleep is important.
Drink plenty of water.
ADHD made me snacky.
Plateau in weight is not plateau in progress (I went down two inches in my waist)
The worst work out is no workout, the second worse is two hours long. I keep mine to an hour and 15 mins, and includes incline walk on treadmill, warmup, and strength training, 2-5x a week.
Park far, walk more. Take walk breaks at work.
Plan your meals the day before.
Always leave room for dessert.
Order sides instead of meals.
Lots of restaurants can do a side of chicken.
Be kind to yourself.
I’m not at my goal weight yet, but my goal weight isn’t my goal. My goals are to have a healthy relationship with food, be consistent with working out, and enjoy my life.
Thanks for letting me share.
by DirtyScienceLady