33F, 5’4”, 175 lbs to 135 lbs.
I can’t believe I’m finally to my goal. I’m pretty proud of myself. I didn’t think I’d ever see the 130s again.
Reading everyone’s stories of successes and struggles has helped me so much over this past year. It was nice finding solidarity here in this sub. You all are amazing.
So why not? Here’s my story too. It’ll probably be long. I feel like adding backstory is relevant to where I am today. If you like to read, here you go!
I haven’t been this weight since 2014. Cardio, body weight workouts, “clean eating,” and counting down the days to my cheat meal was my life back then. Cringe. Got burnt out from the rigidness and stopped everything completely.
End of 2016, I now had an almost one year old and was 150-155ish lbs. Damn it. Oh those pounds seemed to slowly and creepily add on. You know the ones, the ones you don’t really notice until it seems like all of a sudden… oops. I decided I wanted to get back into fitness and find a more balanced way of eating. Not an all or nothing approach like in the past.
I love nutritious whole foods of all kinds, that’s never been an issue. Same with water, always been a big water drinker. I wanted to feel like I could also incorporate things like delicious pasta dishes without feeling guilty or that it would ruin all progress.
Enter macro tracking. I also started going to the gym and started your basic body building split. This is where I found what I loved. Lifting weights made me feel strong and amazing. I didn’t do a huge calorie deficit as I wanted to work on body recomposition at this time. Got down to 141 lbs and was pretty happy with my shape I worked really hard on.
Fall of 2018 now and I pretty all of sudden had to stop going to the gym. Not by choice in the least. Outside uncontrollable life things. I was so sad. Not having the same activity level and not adjusting my food intake took its toll and by fall of 2019 I was back up to 155. Damn it again. All the work I did in those two years, gone in one year. Also fall of 2019 I got pregnant with my second baby.
Now mid 2020, newborn little sweetie, and 175 lbs. Drat. How did I get here? Well. Lack of exercise, lots of sitting and snuggles with my two kiddos and food intake that was too much. I was quite uncomfortable. I had enough knowledge and the tools (treadmill, weights, resistance bands. Plenty of things to make do at home), I just didn’t have the drive to do it. I had the want, just not the drive yet. Or the discipline.
Slowly from summer to winter 2020 no exercise, no calorie tracking, and as my hormones leveled back out I got down to 165. Eh. Maintained that from November to February of this year and I started thinking “the time will pass anyway, just do it” or however that quote goes. You know the one. Then truly like a switch flipped, I was ready. No more yo-yo bullshit. I didn’t want to have to lose and gain and lose this again. Done. More about life long health, longevity, and sustainability this time, aesthetics second. Aesthetics a bonus. Being able to move your body is a gift that shouldn’t be taken for granted. I was tired of being exhausted. I wanted my energy back.
Still February at this point, I started C25K 3x a week and I created a little full body workout routine 2-3x a week and started tracking calories. Not macros like before. Macro aware I’d say. I love cico for the freedom. At least for me. I know it’s not for everyone. Also did dance fitness YouTube’s. So damn fun. Highly recommend. And my kids love it too. All the variety was key since I didn’t have my beloved gym.
From Feb to April I lost 6 lbs. Arg that’s it? Frustrating. That’s around when I found this sub and I read so many stories and questions and struggles. Figured out I needed to try lowering calories a bit more and that’s what got things moving. Can’t complain, was still able to eat a decent amount around 1600-1650. Also incorporated a few diet break weeks in the summer months. I know daily weigh ins aren’t for everyone but I liked them for the data and the graph. Scale went up? Who cares, moved on. Data point. Went back down in a day or two. As long as the big overall trend was down, a daily zig zag up and down didn’t bother me.
By mid September my impending 145 lbs of doom was coming. My body likes to fight me at that weight and not drop below without more effort and a period of uncomfortable hunger because ghrelin. Ghrelin you bitch, you need to know I’m not starving and level back out. K thanks bye. I knew I had to lower my calories a bit to push past this phase easier than I had in the past. Down to 1550-1500 calories from then until now.
Hit 135 last week. I didn’t think I could get here in my mid 30s after two babies. But here I am. Healthy relationship with exercise, I enjoy being able to move my body. It isn’t a chore. Healthy relationship with food. Nothing off limits. Also, I thought I’d for sure lost the muscle that I worked so hard for from those years ago, but no! I’m sure some. But it was just hiding under my layer of fat. I can see it again. Hello defined arms and legs, I’ve missed you.
Also, bless my husband for always supporting me and never ever making me feel less than even at my lowest.
What now? Still trying to figure it out. Probably reverse diet into maintenance and then reassess. Although switching to maintenance is a little daunting. Maybe work on body composition more while not focusing so much on fat loss. Though fat loss does kind of come with that in time. Muscle is a beautiful thing. Don’t know, we’ll see. For now it feels good to feel accomplished and have met my goal and find exercise I love doing and have a healthy relationship with food. I appreciate you if you‘ve read this entire thingđŸ’—
TLDR; Summer 2020 to now November 2021, 40 lbs lost through calorie tracking, a mix of cardio and lifting weights. All at home with walking and jogging on the treadmill, using dumbbells, resistance bands, and doing dance fitness videos on YouTube. I tried to get 70k-80k steps weekly. Not terribly daunting. Cardio was between 30-60 mins 3-5x per week, weights 25-45 mins 2-3x per week all depending what I had time for because kids. I’d say I was 90% consistent, the other 10% was left for life things like birthdays, date nights, pmsing, needing a mental break from tracking. These things don’t hinder progress as long as you get back on track after.
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/r9r0el/40_lbs_lost_after_my_second_baby_during_the/
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