Health Improvements Since my 100lb loss
 

Hi, everyone.

I'm new here, and this is my first post. I've lost 45 kilos so far (that's 100 lbs), and have probably 15 more kilos to go. I say probably because I can't remember ever being that light before, but I'll know when I get near there if that's the right weight for me. I'm currently 89 kilos (started at 134 kilos), and am wanting to get to 75 kilos (I'm a tall female at 5'11"). I've always really battled with my weight. I've hated the feeling of being out of control of my appetite. Food was my master. But no more! I feel like a different person. I'm really living my life now, and I am excited for the future. OK, so here are the things that have improved in my body.

Just a few notes: for the first three months of my healthful eating, I did no exercise (because walking was so uncomfortable), but I lost a tonne of weight. I exercise now because it's super good for my physical body and gives many benefits. But it has little to do with weight loss. You can never exercise yourself out of a bad diet, as the saying goes. The first time I walked up our local hill, I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Seriously, I was heaving so hard by the time I reached the top, sweating like a pig. Now it's like a walk in the park. I love to walk, and I have recently taken up cycling and love it. I've done two decent cycles: one of 35 kilometres, and one of 32. I want to do more cycling. I cycle within my city all the time, as often as I can. And I do the odd long cycle when the opportunity arises. I love my new life. God is good.

I really hope that list is an encouragement to others.

WELCOME!!!!!

And also congrats on the loss!! Also nice to see another foreign member :D (I say this because most are American and use lbs). I am from Scotland :D I adopted using lbs on here and in real life because I find it much easier to track than stones.

I started in January at 323lbs (146.5kg) and I am now 284.9lbs (129.2kg), I wanted to lose slowly and sustainably so that when I get down to my goal weight of 170lbs (77kg) I will hopefully only need a small tummy tuck :D. I haven't been to the doctors yet to update them on my loss, but I am hoping to get in, in a few weeks to have blood tests back and hope to see that I can improve results.

It is interesting to think that skin tags disappeared! I keep quite healthy anyway compared to most people who reached my biggest size, I don't have sugar problems, cholesterol, or physical problems except for my own clumsiness and slow healing injuries. But I do have a lot of skin tags around my neck and shoulders, I always thought it was a family thing.

I also have spent the whole year based on my diet, and while I walk the dog and every other day do some arm toning exercises, I don't really work out. After xmas I am going to start a cardio class and a weight training class to tone up, but like you said, a lot of the weight loss comes from diet.

I hope you stick around until you hit goal weight, your motivation would be welcoming :D

Hi, Scotsgirl.

Thanks for the warm welcome. I have Scottish heritage and was living in England with my husband and daughter in 2002/3. We did a week in Scotland, and as soon as I went there, I felt like it was my second 'home', and I lamented not living there for our time away instead of England. But then I wouldn't have met my lovely English friends, so I can't really be too disappointed :) Anyway, I do love Scotland. We went all the way up to Ullapool (by car) and then back again. Was a neat time.

It's difficult to say if you'll need a tummy tuck, in my opinion. You look quite young (in your profile photo), so that is an advantage in terms of skin elasticity. I guess I would encourage you to get to your goal, and then wait for a year to 18 months to see if it's necessary. Skin is very thin, so if you still have quite thick 'skin' around your tummy, if it's more than a couple of centimeters, it's still fat (subcutaneous). Anyway, you'll know when you get there. :)

You're so right about the true success of weight loss being through diet. I'm all for exercise, though. But I wouldn't be where I am today if I'd exercised but not changed my diet.

Thanks again, Scotsgirl. :)

Hey, you're Welcome!!

Sadly after doing my extensive family tree I haven't yet found anyone cool enough to travel to NZ, the only people who travelled were those in the early 1900's from Glasgow to America/ Canada. None in my direct family line, we are obviously less curious :lol:. When I worked in the states some of my good friends were from NZ and one of my best friends just spent 2 years over there travelling from top to bottom. He is now in Oz, near Perth.

While I do look nice and young :) I am also nearly 28, who has been overweight for about 20 years, so I don't have exactly a body to snap back to. But I would like to think that all these years of drinking much more water than most people, It will be keeping my skin nice and energised :D. On the plus side, I don't really have any stretch marks or anything like that because it was such a gradual gain. All I can hope is that my body will shrink with me :lol:, If I end up with just a little bit of lose skin, then I probably won't bother with that. But I am at least prepared mentally for my body to be a little saggy.

I am bringing in exercise next year simply because I am usually quite a fit person, my best mate at one point was size 10, yet I was running rings around her because she was so unfit. I personally don't want to be that skinny person who is unfit, so I want to build up strength and fitness to be able to play with my nieces and nephew and eventually my own kids.

Have you noticed you sleep worse or better?

Just now I have obviously found my hip bones and I feel like I'm sleeping like a bag of bricks :lol:

Sorry my reply has been so slow! Been a bit busy. First, I've always thought genealogy is so interesting. Must be cool to know about your heritage like that.

As far as sleeping, I have recently been through a patch (which seems to have resolved itself) where I was waking up early and not able to get back to sleep. Once my mind started thinking about things, that was it: I had to get up! Prior to this, I was always able to get back to sleep. However, that now seems to have resolved itself, so that makes me think it's not so much because of my diet than it is about other things (of which I'm unaware). I'm a real night owl, it's my favourite time of day :) I often won't get to bed before 1 or 2 am.

Well, at 28, I (at 49) think of you as quite young. And when it comes to shedding weight and skin elasticity, that's a good thing! I'm interested to see what my body is going to do when I get to a healthy weight.

Hope you've had a good day. :)