Stats: 24F, SW: 180ish, CW: 143.8, GW: 130ish?
Before I dive into my story, enjoy my measurement changes. (Pear shape)
Waist: 33.5” -> 26.5” (-7”) Chest: 39.5” -> 34” (-5.5”) Butt: 43” -> 39” (-4”) R Bicep: 12.25” -> 10.75” (-1.5”) R Thigh: 25.75” -> 22.5” (-3.25”)
TLDR: Breaking destructive behaviors and building better habits = lifestyle change
My story: Like most of us here, I’ve spent most of my life overweight ever since I was in middle school. I grew up with the “clean your plate” mentality, with obese parents who served me adult portions. To me, feeling stuffed meant feeling full, and feeling not hungry meant it’s time for a (not healthy) snack. I didn’t have a great foundation for nutrition, until my dad developed Type 2 diabetes and our eating habits shifted. My parents were divorced by this point and my mom’s was the complete opposite story, with my mom and grandparents all being obese and having Type 2 diabetes but didn’t change their eating habits. At their house, fast food for every meal was the norm. I grew up from that point with an extreme polarization in nutrition - either I can be healthy or I can be unhealthy.
After puberty hit and I grew a few inches, I naturally dropped to the upper end of the healthy BMI. It hit me that my body CAN change. Maybe I can finally look like everyone else and be “normal”. The summer before high school, I set out with the goal to get skinny. To me, this meant skipping meals, over exercising, and beating myself up if I weighed in higher than the previous day. My nutrition generally didn’t change, as I ate whatever my family ate. I achieved my deficit largely from skipping breakfast and exercising excessively. This method did achieve results, and I ended the summer at 125 pounds, feeling hungry, tired, weak, and unsatisfied, but I did it.
When I reached my goal, I stopped exercising because my goal was only to be skinny, and there I was! Of course through high school and beginning college, I generally stacked on about 10 pounds per year, because I didn’t change my eating habits. I dabbled in exercise here and there, but it was always driven out of punishment and hate for my body. By the end of college, I weighed in at 180 pounds, my highest weight. I remember looking at my graduation photos with my friends, not believing how big I looked. It seemed to have snuck up on me while I was conveniently ignoring how my entire wardrobe was too tight.
I stayed at 180 for about a year after college. I just thought this is how I am. I squeezed into a size or two smaller than I was and used that as validation. It zips, it must fit! See, I’m still the same size. I fell into acceptance because that was easier than making a change. I truly thought I was healthy at the time too, even though I had secret eating habits, ate fast food nearly daily, and was extremely sedentary.
I know the year 2020 was absolute shit for everyone in some capacity, but without the time at home, I wouldn’t have made a change. It made me face my eating habits head on. I couldn’t hide my fast food wrappers in the trunk of my car after going out for lunch (if it was hidden, it didn’t count right?). Everything was out in the open, and I was made acutely aware of how much I was consuming. It took a lot to unlearn the destructive patterns I grew up with. I live on my own now away from that environment, and I believe this was crucial for my change. This time, I didn’t look at myself with hate. I thought I deserved better. I deserved a chance.
I started small. I cooked the majority of my meals because quarantine, and I started to incorporate an exercise routine. It didn’t matter how long the exercise was, I just wanted to get in the habit. It was hard. It was uncomfortable and discouraging being sore and failing at an exercise I used to be able to do, but I kept going. I wanted to see what I was capable of. After a month of that, I built on this habit with tracking calories, water intake and weighing myself daily. Weighing daily actually helped me understand my body’s fluctuations, and reading it as a data point instead of tying emotion or value to it was crucial. I also took body measurements, which I found helpful alongside weighing myself. I learned about nutrition and macros and meal prepped like crazy to keep me on track. To this day I’m doing what I’ve been doing for months. It’s a routine, dare I say, a lifestyle now. If I go a few days without exercise, I really want to exercise, not to be skinny but to release energy, sleep better and all around feel better. I want to eat whole ingredient foods and cook my own meals, not because I can’t have any treats ever again, but because I want to fuel my workouts.
I have no doubt I’ll get to my goal range, and I might stop short since I’m building muscle with strength training. I’m excited to work on my fitness goals, rather than get to a specific weight. Now 36 pounds down, I’m starting to recognize myself in the mirror. I’m so proud and couldn’t have done it if it wasn’t out of love for myself. If you read this far, thank you, you’re the reason I’ve been so successful.
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/m3b15h/from_an_obese_to_healthy_bmi_i_did_it/
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