For a quite a while now I haven't been able to go on walks with my wife in the evenings, because I've just been too slow. I could only walk for a minute or so before needing to slow to a crawl to catch my breath. Tonight I decided I need to start adding exercise to my CICO weight loss, and went on a brisk 40-minute walk around the neighborhood with my wife. I managed to walk the whole thing (which has several slight hills) while carrying on a conversation the entire way. I never felt winded, and I never had to slow down significantly. It feels so awesome!!!
I've been "trying" to lose weight off and on for almost 5 years now. When I first started thinking about losing weight, I was 240 lbs, but before I started getting serious last month I had peaked at 320 lbs. I've noticed a few key differences in my approach this time that have really made it much more easy to be successful:
- I've finally decided to do this for myself and nobody else. For most of the past 5 years my primary reason for weight loss wasn't for myself, it was first to be able to find a wife, and then to look better for her after we were married. (She never pressured me into it, but she's pretty dang hot and I always felt bad that I'm not). This time though, I decided I was sick of not being able to fit into rides at Six Flags, or having to worry about any lawn chair I sat in holding my weight. I was tired of having to push myself up to stand out of our couch, and I was ready to finally be able to start looking like I want to. Beyond just looks though, I wanted to be able to run, to get a motorcycle, and to get a glider's license (I have previously gotten the majority of my pilot's license, but quit training when I was almost finished due to a significant bout of depression). All of those things require you to be significantly lighter than I was.
- I've set my goals, and with every temptation I ask myself, "is it worth it?". I've decided that as a reward for myself when I reach 200 lbs, I'm going to buy myself a motorcycle. Now every single time I'm tempted to have an extra fruit gummy pouch, or push a couple hundred calories past my limit, I hold up the thing that I want to the motorcycle I've decided to get, and ask myself "is it worth it? Is this small bit of extra sweetness and pleasure right now worth giving up this beautiful motorcycle?". Not to lie, it doesn't always work, but It's definitely made me more strictly question which days I choose to make cheat days.
- I started at only 1 pound a week. This was actually accidental, but I think it was key to my success so far. Every time I've previously wanted to lose weight, I've wanted to make it happen as fast as possible, so I've always set my weight loss apps to 2lbs/week weight loss. Well this time, I was trying out a different app, and they didn't have a 2lb/week setting, only maxing out at 1.7lbs a week. This came out to about 2,300 calories for me (which I'm actually fairly sure is more like 1lb a week anyway, not 1.7). This obviously meant somewhat less consistent weight losses early on, but with the water-weight loss, the scale was still more encouraging than not. I'm about 6 weeks in, and only in the last few days have I finally actually gotten serious about a 2lb/week deficit (which in my case is 1,700-1,800 calories) that I downloaded a different app to reach. This is after I hit a plateau right at 300lbs for a couple weeks that I was ready to get past.
Anyway, tonight may seem like a fairly small thing, but for me it's pretty huge, and I'm super excited to start adding exercise to my weight loss strategy!
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from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/3bF1EQm
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