A weight loss check-in and encouragement thread? Sign me up!
I started seriously considering my need to lose weight in March of this year, and have made some steps toward making that happen. I've been overweight since I was a young teen, though I played soccer at 13 which helped keep me fit. At 14 all of that stopped due to a medical condition, so I've gained heaps of weight and my fitness level is pretty much nonexistent.
My first step to weight loss was quitting softdrink. This was pretty difficult in that I used to drink softdrink in place of water. The caffeine withdrawal headaches were killer for the few days after I went cold turkey on caffeinated softdrinks, and the sugar cravings weren't enjoyable either. I switched to drinking cordial for about a week, and now I'm drinking water. I'm still not drinking enough water every day, but it's a whole lot better than not drinking it at all.
The next step was a diet change. I used to eat one big meal a day at dinner, where we had take-away more than once a week at times as cooking just wasn't fun when each person wanted something different. More food went to waste than what we actually ended up eating, so we switched to a program that provided a meal plan and the food as well. So far so good, we're five weeks into it now and nobody regrets the change.
The last change for me was exercise. I have muscle weakness and foot drop among other problems, so running is out of the question for the most part. I can jog, but the other problems interfere with that more than my muscle weakness. I've been a bit slack these past two weeks because of the bad weather, and that's on me. However I am switching between cycling and walking. I live near a beach so my exercise route takes me along the beachfront, which is both peaceful and enjoyable when people aren't calling me a fatty from their balconies. It takes me two hours to walk 6kms and one hour to ride 8kms, so some days I've gone on a 2km walk/jog instead of the 6km walk. I'm hoping to get into weight training soon to build muscle, though for now cardio is better than nothing.
My biggest issue at the moment is battling appetite, I've always had a big appetite but when I was eating one meal a day, I would hold off until dinner whilst ignoring concentration issues if I wasn't drinking softdrink. Now that I'm eating three meals a day plus snacks, that hasn't changed. Everyone else in my family is struggling to eat their three meals and snacks, meanwhile I can eat all of my food and whatever they don't end up eating. It's a source of unease for me, they're losing weight quicker while I'm yo-yoing between going up and down and I'm the only one that's exercising and also the only one that's stopped drinking softdrink or coffee. I know I shouldn't compare myself to them, but it's frustrating to not be seeing the results I want... in time they will come.
Overall however, I'm losing weight. When I first started this lifestyle change I was at 107kg (235lbs) and had a BMI of 37.9. Now 7 weeks later, I'm down to 98.8kg (217lbs)and a BMI of 35. Will make an attempt to keep posting here, I could do with the motivation of keeping track of my weight loss.
