You are exactly where I was about 9 years ago except I was a bit older. But I was 5'5" and 225. I guess what I've learned the most over that period of time is that diet is
everything. Yes, exercise matters, but for health, not for weight loss. And by diet, I don't mean eat less for a while and then go back to your old habits, which I did over and over. I mean, permanently change how you eat and call it a lifestyle change. I think you were on to something with Whole 30 (my husband and I both did that). Cutting the crap- all the processed foods, sugar, alcohol, etc out of my diet is what really helped me. I eat kind of 95% Whole 30/Paleo these days, but I still avoid nearly all processed foods and other than a very occasional bite of dark chocolate, or a bit of ice cream (maybe once a week) I continue to avoid sugar, juice and alcohol. I don't drink anything besides water except one cup of coffee in the morning. It took forever (seems like) for me to figure out how important
what I ate really was. I don't count calories. I'm not knocking it, it works for some people. But for me, I used portion sizing and focused more on my macros. I allow for unlimited protein- it's very satiating so it's hard to eat too much of it anyway. Pretty much unlimited fat (healthy ones) for the same reason. But I do limit my carbs. I'm very, very sensitive to carbs and I need to keep them quite low or I gain weight. That means, for me, no processed foods. No cereal. No pasta. No alcohol. No bread. I do eat rice and potatoes and beans but I keep my portions of those small and limit them to one meal per day. The other meal I have a green veggie of some sort.
I'm not saying the way I eat is the way you have to eat to lose weight. There are a lot of effective eating styles and ways to keep caloric intake in check. You have to decide what works for you. But one thing I think you'll find would be immeasurably helpful would be to cut 100% of processed foods, wheat products, juice, soda, alcohol etc. out of your diet permanently. You will feel better, you will have more energy, your health will improve, and more than likely you'll lose some weight incidentally without truly focusing on it.
Probably the single most helpful website for me was
MarksDailyApple. I started out reading his "
how to" section and then read the "
success stories" and by the time I got done I was mentally a convert. It took longer for me to physically jump on board. But at this point I'm convinced that the food pyramid is basically upside down- I mean, seriously- 6-11 servings of grains per day? What, are we farm animals being fattened up? Because that is EXACTLY how you fatten up a farm animal is feed it grains.
You CAN do this. It may take time. I hope it doesn't take you as much time as it took me, because I wasted my 30's fat, sick and miserable. If I could take what I know and go back in time, I would do so in a heartbeat. I hope you can take back your health now and not wait.
Struggling to get on track
