A while back, I asked around about the goal threads people make. I still had a while to go and I figured you're expected to write one, so I just wanted to make sure I did it the right way when I got the chance. My understanding is that you're supposed to give an inspirational story with some tips on what newcomers can do to better lose weight.
I do have one of those!
Once there was a college senior who understood that he was wildly overweight. That boy had made an abortive effort in freshman year, but was never especially dedicated to the effort. That changed when he visited family in North Carolina and struggled with a two-mile downhill walk.
Somehow, this drilled into his head that the problems he had walking weren't normal, and the importance of the problem became clear. He did not quit junk food, being a college kid, although it helped that he didn't care for the aptly-named "fat sandwiches" the area was famous for. He budgeted many days for many chicken nuggets and learned to stop worrying and embrace the calorie count. The hardest week was the second, because he was on a cruise with family and had just spent another week failing to lose weight. But the process worked, all praise be to CICO and self-discipline.
303.5 pounds to 198.5 in about thirteen months' time is nothing to sneeze at. I had difficult days with that, but I stuck it out. The psychological key was to bear in mind that there would be bad days, that I would mis-count, but I'd hit true more days than not. I just had to trust the process. It's boring, but it's really the biggest general takeaway. In terms of college weight loss, again, it was more about holding back so I could, indeed, have that giant pile of chicken nuggets when the time came.
The end.
After all of that, I started some internships meant to get me into the law field. I wasn't making any money that way, but the understanding was that by bumming off my folks while giving away free labor I would eventually make a career for myself. That plan fell apart when my father mostly unexpectedly lost his job. I ended up taking an unrelated dead end job because suddenly, I needed to make money now.
I won the respect of my coworkers as a determined worker who would take on extra shares of work, partly to show off my newly-won strength. A large part of my motive was to get coffee breaks on the company dime, though. College made a caffeine nut out of me, and nobody could or wanted to make an example of the guy who moved every barricade. Still overweight but well below obesity, I had a measure of confidence I've never been able to recapture since.
Weight slowly trickled back on. Some nine years later, I was back into the 230s but unconcerned. I was a lot more alarmed that I was still at this job, still in this house, with no prospect of improvement. I took a paralegal studies course to try and freshen up my resume after one rejection too many from local recruiters. When the class predictably failed to salvage my ill-planned career, I fell into something of a panic and put on ten more pounds in a matter of months. I finally started freaking out, watching my prized accomplishment go up in smoke while my prospects remained disastrously poor. My dating life, never particularly active, completely collapsed - either my personality started to fall apart or I ran into bad luck, I don't know for sure.
I got a job when I stopped trying to find one. It's the damndest thing, but a fellow student was able to get me a position after I quit trying. It was pure luck that she found an opening, but I claim as much credit as I can for the impression I made on my classmates. With one good break under my belt, and with a one-way ticket away from the guys who stole lunch from the refrigerators, I set lightly to work losing the weight again.
A lot of this has felt backwards.
I had greater success moving away from an active job, which matches up with the experiences of absolutely nobody here.
I had many days where I deliberately tried to "outrun my fork." Running was something that came much later, and while I was able to discipline myself to eat little on days I ran a long way, I took full advantage of the physical symptoms that came when I didn't eat. Many, many Sundays full of "terrible" food. My 13 mile run was proudly fueled by half of a delicious barbecue chicken pizza - the apparent nightmare of anyone trying to lose weight, according to a recent post! I apologize for nothing. It was the single best day I had this entire time.
The last ten pounds weren't hard. I ground my teeth, ready for a couple months of great difficulty, looked up, and they were gone. It felt, and feels, strange.
I came in without any real goals. I am still searching for them, now that I'm at something of an "end." Obligatory "but it never really ends," though of course I'm happy to be able to open a few more pages of the cookbook, to have an easier time prepping my meals because I don't need to freeze over-portioned proteins anymore. I wasn't prepping meals at all before I had to in order to lose weight, but it's going to be more fun when I don't have to.
Which gets to the last part.
At heart - hell, at stomach - I'm still a person who likes food and enjoys eating. I worry somewhat that this dooms me to a failed maintenance. I think of myself as someone who knows how to be responsible, but I've already blown this once before. I came a long way without really changing much of myself. I tailored my plan and my handling of those calories around my life and the mild variations within it. I started in earnest in January, not out of any interest in New Years resolutions but out of a desire to avoid having to cut down at social events. I have mostly succeeded in this goal, but I have some worry that this hasn't been a complete mirror of my "normal" life from this point onward.
The format of these threads demands that I leave some specific tips for people to follow. I don't entirely agree with this because I believe that the most important thing is to figure out what works in your own life. Find your own low hanging fruit and keep picking it. For me, it was about loading up my lunch with small quantities of lean protein and having a combination of balance, bulk, and socializing with dinner.
But for you, if it's the milk in your morning coffee, if it's cutting out fast food forever, if it's cutting out carbs like they're a possessive ex constantly breaking the restraining order...you should work through possible changes by trial and error. Weight loss takes time, and the problems will be there tomorrow if you happen to dislike Halo Top or whatever (though bear in mind, the rest of the board will take a blood price if you do).
The rest of my life still needs work. I didn't get a personality transformation out of this and my jawline didn't transform into that of a male model. People don't treat me any differently, so I've just got to do it myself. The rest of the work I need to do isn't related to my body (although I could use a stronger back for climbing). It's a lot less mechanical in nature and about a lot of things I don't fully understand. I wish the rest of you luck and support with weight loss; I hope I can just hang on to mine, and that the other things fall into place.
Thanks for everything (especially reading all this crap)!
Submitted June 18, 2017 at 07:59AM by apersonsusername http://ift.tt/2sCNXPl loseit
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