A Different Way to Think About Weight Loss
 

I am 49 years old. I've been overweight, then obese, then morbidly obese throughout my life. I have never been within a normal weight range. Even when I was born, I was outside of the norm. I was nearly a 10-pound baby.

I started my weight loss effort in January 2012. For the first 9 months or so, I did amazingly well. I lost over 60 pounds without a single gain. Then, well, then stuff happened. Lotsa stuff happened. I shan't bore you with all of the argle bargle. I'll simply say that I ended up on a weight gain/loss roller coaster. From September of 2012 to May of 2013, I gained 29 pounds but lost 44 pounds for a net loss of 15 pounds. In May, I was able to resolve the major issues that led to my weight gain (mostly job cr@p) and since then I've been pretty much on track.

The thing is, even being back on track, my weight loss has slowed down. I mean really slowed down. I stayed the same weight for quite a while then started losing in really small increments. The slow down in my weight loss, I think, is coming from two things. One, that gain/loss roller coaster I was on for 7 months didn't do my body any favors. Two, lately I've just been hungry.I'm not talking emotional hunger either. I'm talking gut rumbling, getting the shakes hungry. So, I've been eating more than I did when I was consistently losing weight at a rapid pace.

I have been alternating between being fine with the slower pace of my weight loss now and being aggravated with it. This past week, I finally got back to my lowest weight since I started this effort and I had an epiphany.

I recalled that the last time my weight was in this ball park was in 1994 when I met my husband.

That would be 19 years ago.

I haven't just lost 78 pounds; I've lost 19 years of weight gain.

Ninteen years.

Uh, my weight loss pace ain't so bad when I look at it that way!

When I get the 'shakes hunger', that generally means my blood sugar is messed up. Perhaps it would be worth having a discussion with a doctor and having some blood tests done?

One thing that helps me is to always pair protein with a carbohydrate.

Congrats on your 78 pounds--that's awesome!

Thank you, bethFromDayton. :)

I had my blood sugar tested last September and it was dead nuts on normal. Not to say that there couldn't be something going on now. I'll be getting blood work done again this September. If things get worse, then I'll go in earlier and get my blood sugar checked again.

Congrats on your weight loss and your new perspective!
I'm going to think on that!
:sunny:

Sometimes a hard boiled egg helps me when I get hungry.
Protein without added sugar, like peanut butter.

Hardboiled eggs are a goodness, IMO. :)