I have always been on the stocky/chubby side. My height topped out in 7th grade at 5'1.5". The first time I remember being aware of my weight was when I was 15 and I had to tell it to a volunteer who was figuring out what size unitards we needed for crew. When I told her "140 lbs" she said emphatically "Good job!" I wasn't sure if she meant "Good job on building all that muscle!" (this was at the end of an entire winter season of training and I was actually more muscular at that point that I ever was before or have been since) or "Good job on admitting your real weight to me." I still don't know.
Through crew I became a pretty serious athlete while I was in high school. I learned how to push myself and how to weight train. (I also played tennis and other miscellaneous sports, but they didn't sculpt my body and work ethic the way crew did.) My weight varied from the low 130s to about 145 lbs while in high school. I never felt I was thin, or even a normal weight, but I also wasn't terribly self-conscious. I knew I was very physically fit and felt I performed well athletically in comparison with my peers. I didn't watch what I was eating much, but the culture in my family was to eat homemade foods and very little junk food (I've never liked soda and we weren't allowed to have chips, for instance).
All that work ethic rather went out the window in college. I didn't work out regularly - just played tennis sporadically, went to the gym on and off, and weight-trained practically not at all. I also ate pretty much whatever and however much I wanted at the dining hall for all four years, although for the most part I did not eat outside of mealtimes. Shockingly, I graduated in 2007 at more or less the same weight that I came in at.
My metabolism really changed after college. I lived with my parents for about seven months right after I graduated so I was back to eating similar food to my childhood. I had a three-hour round trip commute to my job, which left no time for working out, and I no longer had gym access. I gained weight steadily through those months and after I moved closer to work. I was applying to grad school during that time and in the early spring went shopping for business casual clothes for my interviews. I realized I had gone up a clothing size (to a 12), which alerted me to the fact that I had gained weight.
I embarked on a weight-loss project in the spring and summer of 2008 that was quite successful. I went from a bit under 155 lbs to a bit over 130 lbs (size 12 to size 8). I did it strictly through calorie-counting and frequent exercise (aerobic and weights), with days off every couple weeks. I loved that I was able to completely control my own pantry for the first time in my life. My goal for that project was to get to 130 lbs by the time I went on a cruise vacation with some friends in August 2008, which I more or less achieved. Right after that vacation I moved for graduate school and the weight began to slowly creep back on. At first it was all the free food the school was pushing on us - then it was late nights on campus doing homework fueled by dinners from on-campus eateries - then it was more frequent meals with my then-boyfriend that were much less healthy/portion-controlled than I had been eating the previous year. I didn't gain weight very fast but all of it came back eventually.
One key point was when I got engaged in December 2009. I had a half-hearted thought that I should try to slim down for our wedding, but that was quickly drowned out by all the work we had to do. We had a five-month engagement that was packed with planning for our local wedding and reception as well as a long-distance reception. Particularly as the wedding drew near, my fiance and I started eating out more frequently for convenience. I was somewhere around 155 lbs on our wedding day.
It got even worse after we were married! Even though I started cooking a lot more at home, I somehow felt like I had to keep up with my husband, always eating half of the the meal I had cooked. I also was living, for basically the first time in my life, with a lot of junk food. My husband liked to keep ice cream and chips and cookies around almost constantly. He was able to keep those foods nearby without eating enormous portions of them every day, but I wasn't. I irrationally thought that if I didn't chow down now that the food would be gone before I could have what I wanted. I call the weight I gained my "love weight" because we were very happy - I wasn't stressed or anything - it was just a by-product of us moving in together.
All through the fall of 2010 I knew I was getting quite large. I had to go up a dress size for some weddings we attended (back to a 12) and then even those got tight. I started avoiding pictures, which I love to take and be in. And then one day something just flipped in my brain and I was ready to change. I set a goal to go from 172.6 lbs to 125 lbs in one year, starting November 12, 2010. I called it "50 Pounds in 50 Weeks."
During November and December I tried a similar strategy to what I had used in 2008, tracking calories and macronutrients but only trying to restrict my calories. I planned to day a day off from counting every couple weeks, but I found that really difficult because of Thanksgiving and all the holiday parties and such that occur during that season. I took way too many days off. I did lose some weight when I started and then I basically plateaued through all the holiday parties.
Over winter break my husband and I traveled for about two weeks seeing family. At first I thought I would at least try portion control but I gave that up within a few days, and then I didn't even bother much with making healthy choices.
I knew I needed to regroup for when I returned home. I read two diet books and noticed they both emphasized extreme sugar reduction and moderate carbohydrate intake. I did some more research and decided to try following the guidelines of The Belly Fat Cure.
My sugar intake went from about 180 g/day when I first started tracking to about 60 g/day before winter break, and with the BFC I had to drop it to 15 g/day or less. I had withdrawal headaches for about two days, but that was pretty manageable. I did well meeting my sugar limit at the beginning but not as well meeting the fiber minimum without going over my carbohydrate limit. I also had to rework some of my staple recipes because their serving sizes resulting in like 42 g carbs/serving. But after a couple months I had a pretty good handle on my food and had about six BFC-compliant days per week, with the remaining non-compliance being from a small mistake.
My calorie intake dropped like a rock when I started the BFC. Eating so much fiber, fat, and protein is amazingly filling. Because I wasn't reaching 1200 calories/day consistently, I had to intentionally increase my calories over my hunger-driven needs. Within about a week I was comfortable with that higher amount of calories. I've tried to increase my calories in a few stages since then. In the low-carb frame of mind, carbohydrates matter far more than calories.
Throughout the spring of 2011 I was hot and cold with workouts. I knew I wanted to add in weight training, but I did it inconsistently. One month I would work out five days per week and another month I would average one or two workouts per week. I committed to doing a couch-to-5k program, which is three runs per week. I did well keeping to the schedule for the first few weeks but slowed the frequency by the middle of the 9-week program. It took me 20 weeks to complete all the workouts, but I did it in June! Through that process I rehabilitated an old knee injury - I went from not being able to run a mile to being able to run over three miles with minimal discomfort.
Around April 2011 I developed a problem with peanut butter. At first I had measured out my tablespoons carefully but I grew lax with peanut butter and other foods I was familiar with and could eyeball the servings. Once I stopped measuring I let myself get sloppy and would overestimate. Peanut butter became nearly a nightly snack - it was an easy way to get in calories and fat when I wasn't really hungry. I ate scoops of it off large soup spoons and recorded it as a tablespoon. Sometimes I had several scoops from small spoons, again calling it a tablespoon. I developed a jones for peanut butter. I knew I really had a problem when my husband and I got back from vacation in July and all I wanted to do was eat peanut butter straight from the jar. Over 1.5 days I ate about half a large jar, again completely lying to my nutrition data records. After that day I decided I could no longer trust myself with peanut butter and I committed to measuring it fastidiously every time I ate it. For the remainder of July I only ate peanut butter as a sweetener in oatmeal, which was the original reason I started eating it. One day in August I ate a tablespoon by itself. I haven't had more than three tablespoons in any one day since I came back from that trip, and usually I only have one. That's how I tamed my peanut butter monster.
Currently, I'm working out more frequently (4-5 days per week), alternating between running, weight lifting, and tennis. I've added some calories back into my diet and now eat between 1300 and 1500 calories per day. I'm losing weight slowly and with stops and starts now but I'm still on a downward trend!
During November and December I tried a similar strategy to what I had used in 2008, tracking calories and macronutrients but only trying to restrict my calories. I planned to day a day off from counting every couple weeks, but I found that really difficult because of Thanksgiving and all the holiday parties and such that occur during that season. I took way too many days off. I did lose some weight when I started and then I basically plateaued through all the holiday parties.
Over winter break my husband and I traveled for about two weeks seeing family. At first I thought I would at least try portion control but I gave that up within a few days, and then I didn't even bother much with making healthy choices.
I knew I needed to regroup for when I returned home. I read two diet books and noticed they both emphasized extreme sugar reduction and moderate carbohydrate intake. I did some more research and decided to try following the guidelines of The Belly Fat Cure.
My sugar intake went from about 180 g/day when I first started tracking to about 60 g/day before winter break, and with the BFC I had to drop it to 15 g/day or less. I had withdrawal headaches for about two days, but that was pretty manageable. I did well meeting my sugar limit at the beginning but not as well meeting the fiber minimum without going over my carbohydrate limit. I also had to rework some of my staple recipes because their serving sizes resulting in like 42 g carbs/serving. But after a couple months I had a pretty good handle on my food and had about six BFC-compliant days per week, with the remaining non-compliance being from a small mistake.
My calorie intake dropped like a rock when I started the BFC. Eating so much fiber, fat, and protein is amazingly filling. Because I wasn't reaching 1200 calories/day consistently, I had to intentionally increase my calories over my hunger-driven needs. Within about a week I was comfortable with that higher amount of calories. I've tried to increase my calories in a few stages since then. In the low-carb frame of mind, carbohydrates matter far more than calories.
Throughout the spring of 2011 I was hot and cold with workouts. I knew I wanted to add in weight training, but I did it inconsistently. One month I would work out five days per week and another month I would average one or two workouts per week. I committed to doing a couch-to-5k program, which is three runs per week. I did well keeping to the schedule for the first few weeks but slowed the frequency by the middle of the 9-week program. It took me 20 weeks to complete all the workouts, but I did it in June! Through that process I rehabilitated an old knee injury - I went from not being able to run a mile to being able to run over three miles with minimal discomfort.
Around April 2011 I developed a problem with peanut butter. At first I had measured out my tablespoons carefully but I grew lax with peanut butter and other foods I was familiar with and could eyeball the servings. Once I stopped measuring I let myself get sloppy and would overestimate. Peanut butter became nearly a nightly snack - it was an easy way to get in calories and fat when I wasn't really hungry. I ate scoops of it off large soup spoons and recorded it as a tablespoon. Sometimes I had several scoops from small spoons, again calling it a tablespoon. I developed a jones for peanut butter. I knew I really had a problem when my husband and I got back from vacation in July and all I wanted to do was eat peanut butter straight from the jar. Over 1.5 days I ate about half a large jar, again completely lying to my nutrition data records. After that day I decided I could no longer trust myself with peanut butter and I committed to measuring it fastidiously every time I ate it. For the remainder of July I only ate peanut butter as a sweetener in oatmeal, which was the original reason I started eating it. One day in August I ate a tablespoon by itself. I haven't had more than three tablespoons in any one day since I came back from that trip, and usually I only have one. That's how I tamed my peanut butter monster.
Currently, I'm working out more frequently (4-5 days per week), alternating between running, weight lifting, and tennis. I've added some calories back into my diet and now eat between 1300 and 1500 calories per day. I'm losing weight slowly and with stops and starts now but I'm still on a downward trend!
