Progress pics: https://imgur.com/gallery/Ng97bXJ
I can really notice the changes in my face! This time last year I thought I had put on a few pounds. I had always been overweight as a kid, but throughout college I hovered around 225-235. I had a yearly check up in January of this year and was ashamed that I had put on 18 pounds, placing me at my highest weight ever (248). I was an overworked, stressed out graduate student living in Vermont. I had an internship at a Jewish non profit and free (tasty) food was always readily available. Winters in Vermont are harsh and long (Oct - Late April) and aside from walking to work and class, you tend to get pretty sedentary. With how packed my schedule was, the inconvenience of the gym meant I never went. All these things contributed to reaching my highest weight. So at the beginning of this year I started tracking my calories and was able to carve in swimming twice a week. I kept up with things for about 3 months and got down to 234. One week I was lazy with logging and lost my streak, and with it my motivation.
After graduation I moved to South Korea. Having a regular schedule and a fresh start was really helpful in changing habits, but also I had an upsurge in body image issues. Korea has a very thin body standard. I couldn't even find my sizes in stores and when I could find an XL shirt it was cut a size or two too small. People in Korea also make comments about your size that folks in the US tend to hold back. My decision to refocus came from a blend of positive and negative reasons, but things are finally going well. Since settling into my new job I have lost another 30 pounds.
I am at the lowest weight I have ever been and on track to reach my ultimate goal weight before my grant ends in July and I return to the states. Mainly I have focused on portion control (hard to do CICO tracking here) and cut down on snacking between meals and cut out sugary snacks and coffees. With exercise I started small. I began by doing 30 minutes of some cardio/strength training in the mornings before work. Then I added in walking after work (first for 30 minutes and then for an hour). I started switching things up and adding some stuff from the Nike Training app into my exercise routine. I also started the Couch to 5k program. I am taking this REALLY SLOW. I waited until I had been walking for a little over a month before I started running. Also I am doing every week of the Couch to 5k program twice. So instead of taking 9 weeks I am doing it in 18.
Here are some great resources: - Listen to the weightloss and nutrition episodes of NPR's Lifekit podcast. It really changed my perspective on weightloss. - I love how this website describes healthy habits as 'Leveling Up' it made me think more long term: https://zenhabits.net/levels/
TLDR Takeaways: Be patient and realize that if you want results that stick you need to make changes that are manageable. Be kind to yourself.
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/ehguoy/one_year_later_and_i_am_doown_43_pounds_from_my/
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