I'm so insanely late but thank you so much @
Tiffrutherf & ShaDucky and to everyone else who replied or read this thread. I've been going through my struggles, weight wise and personal life stuff and to be honest I don't know whether it comes across or not, but I am a very shy person.
It took me forever to finally see substantial changes in my body, and I see them more with my clothes on than off, though with them off I am starting to see some changes as well. I'm happy to say I am less than 25 lbs. to Onederland, to a girl that weighed 350 lbs. 4 years ago, that is exhilarating & miraculous to me. I once thought that doing this meant changing my life dramatically, giving up the thing I love so much which is good food, having to work out hours a day, etc. etc. however that has NOT been my journey.
My journey which began and has been going strong for the past 16 months has been the best thing I've ever done for myself & fairly effortless after researching online and in some books subtle ways to improve my health & decrease my size. My journey has been a slow one, but I am confident that once I reach goal I'll never regain ALL of my weight (though I would be prepared to regain some, like up to 50 lbs. and working it off again), not knocking anyone who has, I've done it before (10 years ago going from 321 down to 260 and up to 350
) but now when I see Doritos, Lays potato chips and most other super processed "food" they don't tempt me as they once did. I still have a food addiction! I think about food so much it is crazy, but instead of a 600+ calorie bag of cheese doodles, I love Beanitos puffs, instead of a whole large pizza to myself I like those personal pan pizzas from Pizza Hut (not healthy, but less than 600 calories for a cheese one, which is the only kind I eat
), and instead of Pepsi or Coke I will occasionally enjoy a soda from Zevia (black cherry is really good, especially cold), Veri cola, or my favorite Joia Ginger Apricot Allspice (sounds weird, but so good!).
I realized a recent non-scale victory as well. My mom who also has a weight problem sometimes does things that I consider to be sabotage, she loves meat and I am lacto-ovo vegetarian, and sometimes she'll pick up a "vegetarian" junk food thing that she knows I'll want like veggie pizza, vegetable fried rice, that sort of thing. I will eat junk food, if it is planned, but I try to avoid it if it isn't , though obviously sometimes I fail. That said, she did this recently, buying some greasy Chinese food that I normally would have to fight myself not to eat. However my desire to get Onederland by my Birthday in October (which I accept I may not reach it by then, but I want to be 6 lbs. or less away) made it unattractive to me. I didn't have a bite, and my reward is that I now weigh 224.4 lbs. no food I love beats that for me.
Lastly everyone's journey is different, what works for me, may not work for you, and vice versa. However if you're not the athletic type, as I'm not, then please don't feel you have to join a gym, or do Insanity or some high impact exercise to reach goal. My exercise has been doing 1 mile (yep, not 2,3,4 or more) of Leslie Sansone Walk at Home thanks to the recommendations of the lovely women on this site (special shoutout to Jess!
) and while I've been slacking lately, I'm getting more exercise than what I was when I started this thread. Most of my weight was lost without exercise. Track your food, be honest about every bite, a lot of times I over exaggerate what I ate when I am unsure of the calorie content (like I get these personal Pineapple Upside down cakes from Whole Foods, because there is no reliable calorie info I just say I had 3 servings lol to be on the safe side). You also probably don't have to starve yourself, especially if you're in the 200's and higher, you'd be surprised at how many calories you can eat! Most of my days have consisted of calories over 1700 and that includes recently. Do I lose 10 lbs. a month doing that? No, but I've lost weight & stuck to it and sticking to it, matters.
If you're watching your calories & exercising, and still have a significant amount of weight to lose and it isn't budging, then my best advice is change what you're eating. For me, I can't have too many slices of bread a day, I try to keep it at 2-3 slices, and at that I like Alpine Valley organic bread or Ezekiel bread (the best bread I know, but can be a PIB defrosting it lol). If you drink diet sodas, stop if you're doing "everything right" but the scale isn't moving, there is growing evidence that these can make it harder for us to lose weight. In general unless you're advised against it by your doctor, I would say fruit is your friend.
I am insulin-resistant with PCOS , and I love fruit, especially if the alternative is processed sweets, and luckily for us, it is so many yummy choices out there. Nectarines, watermelon, peaches, pineapple, grapes, the list goes on and on, I personally haven't heard of anyone getting "fat" from eating too many fruits, no advocating binging on them, but I will say 400 calories of fresh fruit acts different in your body than 400 calories of cookies or cake and is much more filling.
Sorry for the super long post, I hope this helps someone, even myself because I'm only human and sometimes I need a reminder of what works as well.
Thank you guys, I love this community so much, I am so fortunate to have found you guys! <3
A few favorite quotes -
"Beautiful girl, you can do hard things."
"Slow progress is still progress."
"Consistency is the key ingredient to success."
Start weight when I began February 13, 2014 - 301.6
Current weight as of June 15, 2015 - 224.4
Total loss in 16 months & 2 days - 77.2
From my all time highest recorded weight of 350 lbs. - 125.6
Don't believe the hype, you really can do this without extreme exercise or complete deprivation. Change your mind, and you'll change your life.
