Here's my story, as short as I can tell it.
On July 2005 I tipped the scale at 206 lbs. Within 2 weeks I lost almost 40 lbs, my best weight-loss success story ever.
Before you call shenanigans, or start emailing me for weight loss secrets, I have to confess that at 206 lbs I was pregnant with a 12 lb child, had excess amniotic fluid, and was hugely swollen (I had emergency c-section because I got pre-eclampsia). The doctor thought I was gaining weight too fast and put me on a diet, she didn't realize I was just very swollen, within days after my c-section I peed my way down to my pre-pregnancy weight.
With the extreme weight-loss came my nemesis, a huge amount of sagging skin on my stomach. Since I had planned (and did) to breastfeed my daughters for 2 years, and seeing as I looked awful anyways I "decided" to forget about weight loss "for now". What could go wrong?
After a few false starts. I managed to go way over 190 lbs (exactly how "over" I'll never know, I climbed on the scale weeks after I started losing weight). I am not unhappy, I am not unhealthy, I am not stressed, my life is pretty good and I had a loving family as a child. I sure as **** don't know why I am fat, other than the medical condition known as "eating too much and not exercising enough". I just know that my body, under normal circumstances, is apparently unable to get to 200 lbs, else I would be 400 lbs. by now. To my credit I ate very healthy, but even cows get fat on grass. My healthy eating is what probably helped me avoid serious health problems.
Anyway. Here I was fresh out of excuses. I have a gym downstairs, we have a swimming pool, I live near the ocean, this is a walking/running/biking-friendly community. Something "clicked" and I decided that was that. I needed to get healthy like yesterday. I have a 4 year old kid, and a husband who travels a lot because of his work. I needed to be there for my kid, seeing as my closest relative still has to fly in to visit me.
This is what I am doing:
I started the C25K program. I finished weeks ago and I now run 3 times a week. On the other days I either do HIIT on the stationary bike, or the elliptical. I weight-train every other day. I rest one day of the week. My gym time never exceeds 1 hour, or so I try. This is something I'll have to do for life, so I don't want to burn out too fast.
I eat what I always did, but now I keep a journal and calorie-count. I eat my daily-calorie needs minus 1000 (I adjust it as I lose weight), on top of that I had whatever I burned at the gym. I try to eat for volume, I don't want to be hungry.
Well, my modest changes have proven good enough and I've lost an average of 2 lbs. per week since I started. Some weeks I lose a pound and some, some weeks I lose way more than that. It's the average that counts.
I have gone OP once, and still managed to eat just below maintenance level. I called it a "metabolism booster", and went back on plan the next day. No need to beat myself over that.
