Trigger warning for anyone struggling with body image or eating disorders: My personal struggling is comfort eating and eating to stim flavors when stressed, so please be aware that that’s the direction I’m coming from as I try to heal my relationship with food.
Also I mention weightloss apps and programs in this post, none of which compensated me for sharing my experiences.
I’m one month in to my journey toward trying to lose the 60 pounds I gained the last two years. The first 30 pounds I gained slowly crept on as quarantine dragged on. The second 30 happened as I tried to juggle the stress of my family falling apart when my husband’s trauma resurfaced March of 2021.
Now we’re rebuilding and so am I. During the worst of my burnout I knew that it wasn’t wise for me to try to put any pressure on myself in rebuilding my health. Yes my unhealthy habits did also pull me down, but when your battery is as low as mine was you can only prioritize the most important things. For me that meant rest, my kids, and my husband.
A month back I began to see my old self-care habits creeping back in, and a shocking (but hilarious) photo the four year old took got my attention that maybe now I was ready to try again at regaining my body and find balance in my relationship to food.
Once before in 2019 I put all my energy into wrestling my weight into manageable numbers when I hit 180 lbs. I tried thing after thing, and only after I found a competitive weightloss app (that time it was HealthyWage) where I wagered money each month for a winning amount if I met my goal did I find the motivation to stick with my goal. Potentially losing my money if I failed tapped into that PDA streak to “win” and took the focus off of what I was missing out on and gave me a goal to pursue instead.
I lost 35 pounds in 8 months and developed strategies to help me get through the days without triggering my PDA.
Sadly HealthyWage only lets players compete and win one time in a lifetime–a MAJOR downfall in my opinion. The other limitation is they only set weightloss goals in 6 month increments. For someone who’s ADHD as well the temptation is too strong to put off efforts until the very last minute, especially if I got cocky about early losses and neglect considering that the more I lose the harder it would be to lose more.
This time I’m using DietBet. Similar concept where I wager money on my weight loss, but the goals are much more customizable. Since I tend to need more urgency to push myself I’m doing the 4% body weight per month.
As far as how I lose the weight it’s completely up to me. I’ll share more of what I found works for my needs as my journey goes on, but basically it’s a blend of intermittent fasting and shifting away from simple carbs, and introducing more fruits and vegetables. I follow nothing strict or rigid, though I do roughly keep track of my calorie intake using the MyFitnessPal app.
Beyond that I’ll share that I did successfully meet my first goal and lost 9 lbs this month! From 206 to 197. I’ll continue sharing my successes and struggles here in the event anyone else I’d struggling in the same ways I am.