I can't believe I finally broke through! I'm no Actifit guy, but I surpassed I major minestone.
I little over a year and a half ago, I weighed over 285 lbs. I was struggling with my weight and had reached the highest I had ever been. I was determined to take some action to change that.
I have never been much into exercise and wasn't looking forward to sweating off the pounds. Then it occured to me. The key to losing weight is burning more calories than you consume. That doesn't mean you necessarily have to burn more calories. The other option is to comsume less.
So I started tracking my caloric intake. With the help of an app called Lost It, which calculated the amount of calories I needed to stay below based on how fast I wanted to lose the weight, what my current weight was, and what I ate for the day, I started limiting how much I put in my mouth.
In the next six months, I had lost around 30 pounds without having to change my exercise habits. By the end of July of last year, I was down to 210 lbs (a total of over 75 pounds lost). Then I hit a plateau.
It took me another month an a half to lose an additional five pounds. I fluctuated between 204 and 208 for the following month. Then I worked down to between 202 and 206 through the end of the year. I finally went below 202 on Jan 8 of this year and decided to make a change. Through all of this time, I had set my Lose It app to set my calories for me to lose two pounds a week. I decided that maybe I was not eating enough calories and my body was going into startvation mode where it would store up extra fat to compensate for the low number of calories I was consuming. I adjusted my app to only lose a pount and a half each week to see what effect that might have.
When I made that change, my caloric intake went from under 1800 to a little over 2100. I got down to 200.8, but just couldn't break through the 200 barrier. I ranged any where from 200.2 to to 204...until today.
This morning, when I got on the scale, I weighed 199.8! Woohoo. I finally changed that first digit. I don't know if I will go back up over 200 the next time I weigh, but at least I know it is possible. I have now gone from "obese" though most of "overweight". Now that I have accomplished this milestone, I am headed to 185. At that point, I will transition from "overweight" to "normal". This is a place I have not been in about 30 years. I will re-evaluate when I get there to see if I feel I need to lose a bit more.
Through all of this, I was faithful to enter my food intake in my Lose It app. Today is the 399th day in a row that I have tracked my calories. This accountabiliy has been instrumental in me reaching this milestone.
The moral(s) of this story are:
- You must have a goal to work towards.
- You must be determined to take the steps required to reach your goal.
- You must be consistent in order to reach your goal.
- You must maintain some type of accountability.
- You must overcome any frustrations along the way and NEVER GIVE UP!
I hope my story can inspire others. If you need to lose weight, I know you can do it. If you have another goal you aspire to attain, take action, be consistent, remain accountable, and never give up. Then let me know when you reach your next milestone so that I can celeberate with you.