Three years ago, I finally accomplished what I hadn’t been able to do in my 32 years on Earth. I lost 60 lbs. I regained 30 pretty quickly, but I kept the other 30 off for over a year. The pandemic hit, the shutdown happened, and slowly but surely all my old habits crept back in. Now, I’m just 3 lbs shy of where I began.
But you know what - I’m not in the same spot I was in when I began years ago, even though I’m almost at the same weight. I learned a lot while losing those 60 lbs. I learned what works for me to lose a large amount of weight. I learned the weight won’t stay off if I go back to old habits. Perhaps most importantly, I learned that I CAN do this. I’ve done it before. I can do it again. The only new thing I need to learn is how to keep it off long-term.
If you’ve done it before, you can do it again.
If you haven’t done it before, you can do it too. Even if you’ve tried dozens of times before, this time could be the one.
For those of you wanting more information about what worked for me last time that I’ll be doing again this time: - Keep it Simple. Easy, quick meals. - Biggest meal of the day (dinner for me): 1.5-2 cups veggies and 4-5oz of meat/fish/poultry - Counting some calories. I didn’t count calories for foods that were on most Free Food Lists (like from WW). I counted calories for highly processed foods and foods with high calories by volume (oil, condiments, dressing, cheese, etc). - Focus on lean protein and veggies. The veggie bases I used for most of my meals were cauli rice, spaghetti squash, roasted broccoli, and roasted cauliflower. - When eating out: find the 3 lowest calorie entrees and pick one of those - Special occasions: one splurge meal, then right back on track - No binge foods in the house. For me, this was popcorn, chips, cereal, bakery items. - Try veggies prepared in a different way. I learned I love almost any vegetable if it’s roasted. - Keep healthy quick grab snacks on hand at all times for moments you are suddenly starving or having a craving. Mine were premade protein shakes, tuna packets, raw veggies with dip (low cal sour cream mixed with ranch seasoning). - Track your progress. My favorite weight tracking app: Happy Scale. Favorite calorie counting app: MyFitnessPal. - Take lots of pictures in the beginning. These become so helpful when you struggle to stay motivated after the first couple months. - Social media. I had a weight loss account on IG where I shared my progress and followed people who had already lost a significant amount of weight. It helped me stay focused on the long term goal, and it felt good sharing my weigh-in progress. - Weight Loss Tracking Infographic. I’m not sure what exactly these are called, but it’s essentially an image with a circle/square for each week, and you type in your loss for that week. They also have ones with a space for each month. This kind of digital tracking helped me immensely.
I’m not sure if it’s against the rules or not, but I’ll post an example of the weekly tracking image in the comments if it’s allowed.
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