Clever title, no?
I've been a non-active member of Bat Fit for a while now, but after my weight went over 200 pounds (and has stayed that way for about 6 months) I decided to start making some changes to my lifestyle. Now, I want to stress that I don't really worry about other people's weight, I don't fat shame, I don't tell people they need to lose weight for their health (because they probably don't). I have been chubby my whole life and I have heard a lot of those "concerns" directed towards me. So no, no shaming here.
That being said, I do want to lose weight. I know I won't get to my thinnest ever weight (only lasted a few months anyway) or probably even to a so-called healthy weight. I will still be overweight, just less so. I have poor circulation that causes me to retain water if I have too much salt (pretty much anything over 2000mg/day) and I probably have a slow metabolism since calorie cutting alone doesn't work for me. Exercising more and losing weight will help with both, as well as with my bad knees and my back pain, but it's a long road and I can't just stop at the end. That's the difficult part, right? The whole, never going back to the way we were before kind of thing. So my husband is joining me, not to lose weight, but to support me getting a bit healthier.
I was NOT a healthy fat person. I ate junk food every day and there were weeks that went by without a piece of fruit or veg passing my lips. I ate a lot of bread and salty foods and ice cream. I hated that I was doing that to myself, but I couldn't see a way out. I'd start eating healthy for a while, lose 4 or 5 pounds and then start gaining weight, even while eating healthy food and tracking my calories. This is basically how my entire adult life ran. Every once in a while I get super motivated and go low carb and lose 40 pounds or so, but I always gain it back. This last time I gained 70lbs over three years. I own exactly 2 pairs of pants that actually fit and most of my shirts are too tight so I end up wearing the same thing over and over. I started wearing dresses almost exclusively because they fit longer and disguised the fact that for the first time in my life I have a stomach that sticks out past my boobs. Fun times.
I had done a paleo challenge once before for thirty days and did really well on it. I felt better, ate a lot healthier and lost about 13 lbs. Then I started eating grains again and started gaining the 70 lbs. my husband and I decided to do it right this time and we got rid of all of our non-paleo food (minus some really expensive cheese that I'm saving for a treat): legumes, grains, sugars, chips, candy, soda, and dairy. The last one is kind of the key for me with weight loss. I do okay with no grains but I really lose weight when I give up grains and dairy (and processed sugar).
So that's where I'm at. Three weeks (almost) down and I've lost over 7lbs. I've still got a long way to go but I'm feeling pretty good about my progress. We eat a lot of chicken and fruit (it's summer and I don't want to use the oven ever), mostly blueberries, cherries and grapes. We add in veggies when it isn't too hot to cook :). I've been trying to add in excercise every week, though it has been excessively hot here which kind of limits what I want to do.
This isn't a thirty day challenge or a six month challenge or a challenge of any kind. We are going to do this as long as we can, and adjust our eating to compensate for cravings and weight regulation (as opposed to loss) later on.
I'll post my "before" pics soon :)
