michellebft
New member
Hi all! I'm having a good day in terms of my weight loss and fitness goals, so I thought I'd ride this wave and try to find some friends who are working on the same things I am. As I'm sure many can relate, I don't terribly care for dragging all of my IRL friends into my weight loss journey... the reasons vary from friend to friend, but I'm just happier without opening myself up to comments from everyone I know, y'know? But I recognize the importance of having moral support, so.... here I am!
My story goes something like this: I've lost weight before. I know I can do it. I lost about 40 pounds about 8 years ago, thanks to a LOT of frigging hard work and calorie counting. I balanced out at my then-goal weight, maintained for probably a year, and then sorta stopped caring so much. Life happened. I just sort of ignored fitness and nutrition. Every year or so, usually in the summer, I'd declare it Time To Get Healthier, and go to the gym five, maybe six times, and then... I'd get sick, or we'd travel, or I'd pull something, or whatever, and I'd stop to let myself recover, and then.... never start again.
Late last year it suddenly (it seemed sudden, anyhow) got out of control. I was the heaviest I'd ever been, and on top of that I was really letting it affect myself psychologically. I was beginning to hate my body, to feel like my body had betrayed me, to feel like there was no way I'd ever be considered attractive by anyone again (to his credit, that 100% came form me, and nevereverevereverEVER would have come from my husband, in part because he's a really excellent human being and in part because he literally cannot tell the difference between a woman who wears a size 20 and a woman who wears a size 8. There's a story there for another time.).
Anywhoodle, I had lots of excuses not to start doing anything about it right away.... travel, and holidays, and events, and plans, and whatnot. I was piled up with excuses. They were all terrible, but I was committed to them.
For the holidays, my parents sent me a Fitbit (flex) as my gift (it was on my wishlist, this was not some clever barb or hint they were sending). So I started checking out the Fitbit tools online, and started tracking steps, and started truly understanding how little I was moving. I mean I knew, sort of, I work a desk job, my building has no stairs, I don't go for walks at lunch, I get home and sit on the couch after work... I knew I wasn't moving, but I'm a quantitative person, so the difference between knowing and having data is a vast ocean. Suddenly I had data. And data is good.
So I started tracking, and moving (I spent Saturday morning doing a Zumba video on youtube and it was So. Freaking. Fun.), I'm down a few pounds and feeling pretty good about myself and the effort I'm making.
The husband is super, absurdly supportive and excellent, particularly since he does the vast majority of cooking in our house (yes, he's awesome; yes, he has a brother; no, the brother is not single), and is super helpful with keeping tabs on how much of what goes into what he cooks so I can track calories and monitor myself. Particularly given that he is a naturally lean dude who is a committed runner and significantly less inclined to sit on the couch and do nothing at all than I am, he takes my sudden desires to eat healthier and move more 100% in stride.
I would LOVE to find a buddy who's in a similar place in life to share the trials and successes of this effort with. My goal is about 30 pounds by mid-August, as we have an anniversary vacation planned, and I don't want that experience hampered by general body-image anxiety.
Thanks for reading! Hopefully everyone is having a great day!
My story goes something like this: I've lost weight before. I know I can do it. I lost about 40 pounds about 8 years ago, thanks to a LOT of frigging hard work and calorie counting. I balanced out at my then-goal weight, maintained for probably a year, and then sorta stopped caring so much. Life happened. I just sort of ignored fitness and nutrition. Every year or so, usually in the summer, I'd declare it Time To Get Healthier, and go to the gym five, maybe six times, and then... I'd get sick, or we'd travel, or I'd pull something, or whatever, and I'd stop to let myself recover, and then.... never start again.
Late last year it suddenly (it seemed sudden, anyhow) got out of control. I was the heaviest I'd ever been, and on top of that I was really letting it affect myself psychologically. I was beginning to hate my body, to feel like my body had betrayed me, to feel like there was no way I'd ever be considered attractive by anyone again (to his credit, that 100% came form me, and nevereverevereverEVER would have come from my husband, in part because he's a really excellent human being and in part because he literally cannot tell the difference between a woman who wears a size 20 and a woman who wears a size 8. There's a story there for another time.).
Anywhoodle, I had lots of excuses not to start doing anything about it right away.... travel, and holidays, and events, and plans, and whatnot. I was piled up with excuses. They were all terrible, but I was committed to them.
For the holidays, my parents sent me a Fitbit (flex) as my gift (it was on my wishlist, this was not some clever barb or hint they were sending). So I started checking out the Fitbit tools online, and started tracking steps, and started truly understanding how little I was moving. I mean I knew, sort of, I work a desk job, my building has no stairs, I don't go for walks at lunch, I get home and sit on the couch after work... I knew I wasn't moving, but I'm a quantitative person, so the difference between knowing and having data is a vast ocean. Suddenly I had data. And data is good.
So I started tracking, and moving (I spent Saturday morning doing a Zumba video on youtube and it was So. Freaking. Fun.), I'm down a few pounds and feeling pretty good about myself and the effort I'm making.
The husband is super, absurdly supportive and excellent, particularly since he does the vast majority of cooking in our house (yes, he's awesome; yes, he has a brother; no, the brother is not single), and is super helpful with keeping tabs on how much of what goes into what he cooks so I can track calories and monitor myself. Particularly given that he is a naturally lean dude who is a committed runner and significantly less inclined to sit on the couch and do nothing at all than I am, he takes my sudden desires to eat healthier and move more 100% in stride.
I would LOVE to find a buddy who's in a similar place in life to share the trials and successes of this effort with. My goal is about 30 pounds by mid-August, as we have an anniversary vacation planned, and I don't want that experience hampered by general body-image anxiety.
Thanks for reading! Hopefully everyone is having a great day!