Well, I'm going to crow a little bit. I'm down 30 pounds since July 25th and 14 pounds since January when I began lifting and working with my trainer. Best part was closet diving before my trip to Hawaii and finding so many things that I bought during the pandemic that I could never fit into or wouldn't feel comfortable in. All of my brand new summer clothing fits, including swim suits and I'm feeling more toned and leaner than I have in years. The Hawaii trip was a great motivator and once I get back, I put in another hard push for the last 20 pounds - hopefully by the end of the year because for me, slow and steady seems to be best.
Congrats! Not only on the weight loss but also on what seems a much healthier approach. The bold seems to be true for most things, and most people.
This is what most irks me about certain really popular fad diets—people using them to lose weight quickly without a mind toward total health. I often look at those diets and think, if losing weight quickly is the goal and you're willing to eat a very restrictive and imbalanced diet to achieve that goal, why not take up smoking and let the nicotine suppress your appetite? Why not take up meth? Obviously I'm being somewhat facetious, but I think there's something to it: there aren't many better illustrations of our pervasive unhealthfulness than the fact that so many equate rapid weight loss with health. It's a sick approach to sickness.
You are so right. And I think that is what upsets me the most thinking back on the YEARS of yoyo dieting. The whole purpose was to drop the number on the scale as quickly as possible. And sometimes I could do it amazingly well. The problem is that nobody can continue that - unless they develop an eating disorder. These fad diets are simply not sustainable. The one that I see people talking about now is Noom. They recommend something like 1200 calories a day. That is literally what is recommended for an average sized child. Plus they use a red light, yellow light, green light method which castigates food into good or bad categories. It's all bullshit. I eat over 2000 calories a day with an average of 130 grams of protein (I should really get more) and I am never hungry. I never want to binge. I'm learning what it takes to eat foods I enjoy in moderation in a way I can continue on for the rest of my life. I can go out to restaurants. I can enjoy holidays and special events without letting it derail anything. It feels great. Why did it take me so long to figure this out? :'(
Things click eventually, like anything. Sometimes it comes with maturity, other times pure education. I wouldn't overthink why, just be glad you're on a good path now.
On the other bolded parts though, yes, eating disorders can come about without you even knowing it. I've shared a bit of my history but while you work things out, eating disorder mindsets are hard to shake. I realised the past week I still have them. The misses was away last week and my whole structure went out the window. Was doing IF through the week and dinners through the week were light. But that meant I went stupid on the weekend. It's funny, it wasn't even that enjoyable but still ate shit the whole weekend. Felt awful couldn't sleep and even had crappy leftovers last night. Not sure why I do this to myself. I can kind of get the sense of what drug addicts go through on a much smaller scale, it's hard to describe. I know I'm going to feel like shit afterwards, be moody and whatnot, but I still do it, and look forward to it.
The other funny thing is, because of the way I managed the week, my weight was the same, even lost a couple of hundred grams. It's like I enable myself and I enjoy running but it's like two bites of the cherry. It's not good, so even though you're doing great, never get complacent and think you've got it worked out. You say you never want to binge, but trust me, you will at some point but the way I look at it, if you are consistently good with your diet day in and day out, slip ups now and then aren't going to make any difference.
It's probably me though, when people say they are perfect on their diets, never cheat or even people that don't eat fast food and all that stuff, I just don't get it. There's only so long I can go without blowing a gasket and going stupid. I guess that's the eating issues of the past.
I don't know why I posted all of that...
Topic: The Official Exercise/Fitness Thread v. Run Forest, Run! (Read 192974 times)
