Mission accomplished! "normal" BMI before surgery
I had the last pathology tests yesterday, so now I just need to pack my bag and look at the carbo loading schedule that I'm supposed to follow.
My friend at work brought me her late mum's walking stick which was really sweet, I feel protected now.
In other news, I hit my goal weight this morning and even better, easily fit into a pair of jeans that I bought online several years ago and could barely get past my calves even a few weeks ago! I really can't believe it.
I thought I'd post my story here which I shared on reddit:
F50 5’4” 206/143/143
Progress Pics : https://imgur.com/EXFoxpi
Long post- the "tips" are in the second half.
Started late December 2017. Hitting ‘pause’ 3 Sept 2018 as I go in for a total hip replacement and I will be aiming to eat at maintenance + 20% while healing from surgery, then at maintenance for probably about 8 weeks while concentrating on rehab/physio.
My goal weight was selected because it is at the top of my ‘healthy’ BMI. A DEXA scan in August 2018 revealed that I was already in the middle of the healthy body fat range (yay!), while reading as slightly overweight on the weight/height BMI chart (translation- working to put on as much muscle as possible before my surgery has actually worked! My Lean Body Mass is about 7kg more than expected based on population data for women my age and height). I decided to keep pushing towards the goal of 65 kg as it is still in that range but will put me closer to the lower end of healthy. Getting the DEXA was the best thing I have ever spent money on (aside from my $8 sneakers). HIGHLY recommend.
Gonna spare you the “so I was skinny in high school” backstory (narrator: she was not skinny in high school), but in the interests of transparency I need to state that I had a VSG in 2011 at 115 kg (253 lbs). I lost down to about 80kg and then over the years slowly ate my way back up to the starting weight for this story of 93.5kg (206 lbs). Before the VSG, I had a limitless appetite and could eat an apparently infinite amount. I honestly don’t think I ever felt full. After the VSG, even though I was a “Failure” in the sense that I could and did eat more than the suggested ¼ cup servings of food, I would feel full and stop eating. Like a normal person. I ate too much of a super clean whole food vegan diet, and kept getting fatter. The VSG did not fix my weight problem- I had to do that by learning about CICO, like everyone else. It really helped me though as my body now sees a “serving” of food as enough. Before the VSG I would cry myself to sleep every time I dieted. If you are considering WLS, look at the VSG- and do your research if gastric bypass is suggested instead. The long-term outcomes after bypass are not good (look at research from countries with universal health care where WLS has been happening on a large scale for many years, like New Zealand).
OK so in Dec 2017 I was 93.5 kg (206 lbs) . Just turned 50, felt like shit. I was struggling with depression and the unstructured time around the December holidays was making me not even want to get up in the morning. I decided to start using the gym membership that I already paid for, just to get me up. I went and bought an $8 pair of sneakers, a pair of workout pants and a couple baggy singlets. I started going to the gym at 10 am, walking for 15 minutes on the treadmill, rowing for 15 mins, and then having a shower. I must have stepped on to the scale on 1 Jan and that was when I saw my actual weight was 93.5kg (that;s my first entry in MFP for this round).
Started CICO, found r/loseit and r/1200isplenty (and r/vegan1200isplenty) and from then on my weight has been steadily moving downhill. I’ve been on 2 2-week holidays during that time and maintained on both, can’t help but feel a little sad that I would have been at my goal sooner otherwise! The second holiday involved a lot of walking and a lot of SCUBA diving, and I returned much stronger and have upped my gym game since then (June 2018). Since June I have been doing 60 min cardio a day, and weights 3-4 times a week.
Lessons Learned:
1) After a few weeks I started skipping breakfast and starting eating at 12:00. I realised that I was HUNGRY at noon whether or not I had breakfast, so I decided to save those calories for later in the day. This has worked great. Wouldn’t call it IF as such, because I have soy milk in my coffee and I might eat a banana or something mid morning, but mostly I save up for later in the day. (I log the milk and banana in MFP! )
2) PROTEIN! Looking back at my MFP logs, I was only getting about 30-40g protein a day between Dec-May. My hair was falling out- a LOT. Handfuls. I upped my protein goal to 60g a day and found that not only did the hair fall stop but I felt way more satisfied with way less calories. I have had zero urge to binge or have an out-of-control cheat day since protein became my main focus. BONUS: Crazy baby hair regrowth makes me look demented (see pic of me from August!).
I was strict vegan up til April, added eggs and occasional salmon/sardines and greek yogurt to my diet to help me get that protein in. You can do it as a vegan- I just decided that this was how I was going to do it. Tempeh and tofu are great, but I have a weird aversion to eating too much processed food and I’d rather eat a whole sardine than tofu or fake meats as a frequent part of my diet.
3) Veggies and fruit! I eat pounds of salad and low cal steamed/stir fried veggies (yeah my VSG shouldn’t let me do that, but it does). If I want a sweet treat I eat fruit. Pineapple, grapes, watermelon, STRAWBERRIES. I rarely eat rice or other grains, just because they are high calorie and not that satisfying to me. A tiny Aldi microwave rice cup has about 200 cals and I have one with my salad sometimes for lunch. A piece of toast with my eggs. Otherwise I sub veggies for noodles/pasta etc. For anyone who struggles with appetite/hunger, I can’t stress enough the deliciousness and satisfaction of eating a huge wok full of stir-fried cabbage/broccoli with soy sauce, garlic and ginger. Those zero-calorie noodles are pretty great too.
4) PLANNING and PREPARATION: In the early days, I was obsessed with food. Instead of feeling deprived and tortured, I channelled that into optimising recipes into low cal versions (stalk my post history on 1200isplenty/vegan1200isplenty to see examples). I did meal prep and froze stuff.
I’ve gotten less obsessed with food as the months have gone on but I still make my lunch every day before I go to bed (a BIG salad or a BIG container of frozen veggies which I nuke at work + a tin of salmon, or a small portion of something like vegan chili, rice, lentils or a mealprepped thing from the freezer). My evening meal is usually eggs on toast after the gym, and I look forward to it every day!
My “secret sauce” that I pour over my salad/veggies every day: red wine vinegar + mustard+ Equal sweetener. Makes everythig taste amazing, practically no calories.
I never go anywhere without a few 100 cal protein bars (handbag and laptop bag). No excuse to be so hungry I freak out and eat something I will regret.
5) Cheat days: I just don’t. I consider a cheat day eating at maintenance. Even when I was on vacation, I did my best to log my food and while I didn’t gain on those trips, I also didn’t lose. This is just what works for me- sugar and salty/fatty foods are just not something I can easily stop craving once I taste them.
6) Exercise: Started as something I did to try and get control over my downwards spiral. It was a routine and it meant I wasn’t eating for that portion of the day! Gradual improvements in fitness combined with lowering body fat resulted in increased energy levels. Now it’s a daily thing. Some days I go “easy” but I do my hour of cardio every single day (ok I missed one day last month).
I don’t eat back exercise calories.
Once my hip surgery was on the horizon, I started working on building up my muscle mass and I have not been able to believe the changes to my body shape over a period where the scale has actually moved very slowly! Love those noob gains. Don’t let exercise be a barrier to starting CICO. You don’t need to exercise to lose weight. But I hope you keep trying it because it gets easier and then suddenly becomes important for its own sake.
7) I read and post every day, on r/loseit, or one of the other subs I like. It’s reaffirming and trying to offer support to others makes me feel like I need to offer myself the same kind of support and kindness.
8) That’s about it! These are the things I would tell every new person who comes to r/loseit and says “how do I start”? “any tips?” etc. It’s not mysterious or magical. You just have to commit to it and treat it like your job. You will get little pops of “motivation” along the way, but what gets you through the long journey is just boring old discipline.
TL;DR: 5’4” F50 lost 60+ lbs over 9 months through CICO and you can too.
ninja edit- you gotta laugh at my (absent) butt. Once I can squat I intend to address that ;-)
My friend at work brought me her late mum's walking stick which was really sweet, I feel protected now.
In other news, I hit my goal weight this morning and even better, easily fit into a pair of jeans that I bought online several years ago and could barely get past my calves even a few weeks ago! I really can't believe it.
I thought I'd post my story here which I shared on reddit:
F50 5’4” 206/143/143
Progress Pics : https://imgur.com/EXFoxpi
Long post- the "tips" are in the second half.
Started late December 2017. Hitting ‘pause’ 3 Sept 2018 as I go in for a total hip replacement and I will be aiming to eat at maintenance + 20% while healing from surgery, then at maintenance for probably about 8 weeks while concentrating on rehab/physio.
My goal weight was selected because it is at the top of my ‘healthy’ BMI. A DEXA scan in August 2018 revealed that I was already in the middle of the healthy body fat range (yay!), while reading as slightly overweight on the weight/height BMI chart (translation- working to put on as much muscle as possible before my surgery has actually worked! My Lean Body Mass is about 7kg more than expected based on population data for women my age and height). I decided to keep pushing towards the goal of 65 kg as it is still in that range but will put me closer to the lower end of healthy. Getting the DEXA was the best thing I have ever spent money on (aside from my $8 sneakers). HIGHLY recommend.
Gonna spare you the “so I was skinny in high school” backstory (narrator: she was not skinny in high school), but in the interests of transparency I need to state that I had a VSG in 2011 at 115 kg (253 lbs). I lost down to about 80kg and then over the years slowly ate my way back up to the starting weight for this story of 93.5kg (206 lbs). Before the VSG, I had a limitless appetite and could eat an apparently infinite amount. I honestly don’t think I ever felt full. After the VSG, even though I was a “Failure” in the sense that I could and did eat more than the suggested ¼ cup servings of food, I would feel full and stop eating. Like a normal person. I ate too much of a super clean whole food vegan diet, and kept getting fatter. The VSG did not fix my weight problem- I had to do that by learning about CICO, like everyone else. It really helped me though as my body now sees a “serving” of food as enough. Before the VSG I would cry myself to sleep every time I dieted. If you are considering WLS, look at the VSG- and do your research if gastric bypass is suggested instead. The long-term outcomes after bypass are not good (look at research from countries with universal health care where WLS has been happening on a large scale for many years, like New Zealand).
OK so in Dec 2017 I was 93.5 kg (206 lbs) . Just turned 50, felt like shit. I was struggling with depression and the unstructured time around the December holidays was making me not even want to get up in the morning. I decided to start using the gym membership that I already paid for, just to get me up. I went and bought an $8 pair of sneakers, a pair of workout pants and a couple baggy singlets. I started going to the gym at 10 am, walking for 15 minutes on the treadmill, rowing for 15 mins, and then having a shower. I must have stepped on to the scale on 1 Jan and that was when I saw my actual weight was 93.5kg (that;s my first entry in MFP for this round).
Started CICO, found r/loseit and r/1200isplenty (and r/vegan1200isplenty) and from then on my weight has been steadily moving downhill. I’ve been on 2 2-week holidays during that time and maintained on both, can’t help but feel a little sad that I would have been at my goal sooner otherwise! The second holiday involved a lot of walking and a lot of SCUBA diving, and I returned much stronger and have upped my gym game since then (June 2018). Since June I have been doing 60 min cardio a day, and weights 3-4 times a week.
Lessons Learned:
1) After a few weeks I started skipping breakfast and starting eating at 12:00. I realised that I was HUNGRY at noon whether or not I had breakfast, so I decided to save those calories for later in the day. This has worked great. Wouldn’t call it IF as such, because I have soy milk in my coffee and I might eat a banana or something mid morning, but mostly I save up for later in the day. (I log the milk and banana in MFP! )
2) PROTEIN! Looking back at my MFP logs, I was only getting about 30-40g protein a day between Dec-May. My hair was falling out- a LOT. Handfuls. I upped my protein goal to 60g a day and found that not only did the hair fall stop but I felt way more satisfied with way less calories. I have had zero urge to binge or have an out-of-control cheat day since protein became my main focus. BONUS: Crazy baby hair regrowth makes me look demented (see pic of me from August!).
I was strict vegan up til April, added eggs and occasional salmon/sardines and greek yogurt to my diet to help me get that protein in. You can do it as a vegan- I just decided that this was how I was going to do it. Tempeh and tofu are great, but I have a weird aversion to eating too much processed food and I’d rather eat a whole sardine than tofu or fake meats as a frequent part of my diet.
3) Veggies and fruit! I eat pounds of salad and low cal steamed/stir fried veggies (yeah my VSG shouldn’t let me do that, but it does). If I want a sweet treat I eat fruit. Pineapple, grapes, watermelon, STRAWBERRIES. I rarely eat rice or other grains, just because they are high calorie and not that satisfying to me. A tiny Aldi microwave rice cup has about 200 cals and I have one with my salad sometimes for lunch. A piece of toast with my eggs. Otherwise I sub veggies for noodles/pasta etc. For anyone who struggles with appetite/hunger, I can’t stress enough the deliciousness and satisfaction of eating a huge wok full of stir-fried cabbage/broccoli with soy sauce, garlic and ginger. Those zero-calorie noodles are pretty great too.
4) PLANNING and PREPARATION: In the early days, I was obsessed with food. Instead of feeling deprived and tortured, I channelled that into optimising recipes into low cal versions (stalk my post history on 1200isplenty/vegan1200isplenty to see examples). I did meal prep and froze stuff.
I’ve gotten less obsessed with food as the months have gone on but I still make my lunch every day before I go to bed (a BIG salad or a BIG container of frozen veggies which I nuke at work + a tin of salmon, or a small portion of something like vegan chili, rice, lentils or a mealprepped thing from the freezer). My evening meal is usually eggs on toast after the gym, and I look forward to it every day!
My “secret sauce” that I pour over my salad/veggies every day: red wine vinegar + mustard+ Equal sweetener. Makes everythig taste amazing, practically no calories.
I never go anywhere without a few 100 cal protein bars (handbag and laptop bag). No excuse to be so hungry I freak out and eat something I will regret.
5) Cheat days: I just don’t. I consider a cheat day eating at maintenance. Even when I was on vacation, I did my best to log my food and while I didn’t gain on those trips, I also didn’t lose. This is just what works for me- sugar and salty/fatty foods are just not something I can easily stop craving once I taste them.
6) Exercise: Started as something I did to try and get control over my downwards spiral. It was a routine and it meant I wasn’t eating for that portion of the day! Gradual improvements in fitness combined with lowering body fat resulted in increased energy levels. Now it’s a daily thing. Some days I go “easy” but I do my hour of cardio every single day (ok I missed one day last month).
I don’t eat back exercise calories.
Once my hip surgery was on the horizon, I started working on building up my muscle mass and I have not been able to believe the changes to my body shape over a period where the scale has actually moved very slowly! Love those noob gains. Don’t let exercise be a barrier to starting CICO. You don’t need to exercise to lose weight. But I hope you keep trying it because it gets easier and then suddenly becomes important for its own sake.
7) I read and post every day, on r/loseit, or one of the other subs I like. It’s reaffirming and trying to offer support to others makes me feel like I need to offer myself the same kind of support and kindness.
8) That’s about it! These are the things I would tell every new person who comes to r/loseit and says “how do I start”? “any tips?” etc. It’s not mysterious or magical. You just have to commit to it and treat it like your job. You will get little pops of “motivation” along the way, but what gets you through the long journey is just boring old discipline.
TL;DR: 5’4” F50 lost 60+ lbs over 9 months through CICO and you can too.
ninja edit- you gotta laugh at my (absent) butt. Once I can squat I intend to address that ;-)
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