My Weight Loss Journey Begins

There is nothing easy about trying to lose weight especially if you have been overweight most of your life. Some turn to weight loss surgery while others turn to dieting and exercising in hopes of reaching there goal weight. This story is about the beginning of my weight loss journey in which I hope leads to gaining some self-esteem, self-confidence and happiness.

For many years I have tried different diets or have watched what I ate in hopes of losing weight and reaching some goal I had at the time. Every attempt ended the same with me failing to sustain the diet. You may be wondering why I am writing about it and what makes this time different. Well I am wondering the same thing, but compared to all the other times I have tried to lose weight I am ready. I do have to credit TikTok though for me waking up one day and wanting to start this journey. My decision to share it makes it more real and hopefully keeps me focused on what I am going to achieve. So lets get to week one of my journey shall we?

My name is Carrie and I am 5'1 and 202 pounds. As far as my weight goes there is a story attached that I am going to share first. I have been going to doctor once a year and dreading the weighing part of the visit because I know I am obese. I did not go this year because of the outbreak of CoVid, but when I went last year my weight was at 255. When I decided to start this journey I assumed my weight was still that much or more. I bought a scale, a Loftilla+ scale in fact to start this journey, but did I mention I hate weighting myself. Anyway after getting the scale set up I weighed myself for the first time. The scale said 202.6 pounds, but honestly I didn't believe it; I couldn't believe it. I re-read the instructions and stepped on the scale again and again it was 202.6 pounds so it has to be correct, right? Even though it has been a week now I still have a hard time believing I weighed at least 50 pounds less than I have been thinking I weighed for a year. I have chosen to accept it in the end and 206 is way better than 250 right, which puts me much loser to my ultimate weight loss goal.

My journey to weight lost began, but my diet is not a type of diet you may hear about very much. The calorie deficient diet is what I am currently doing. For those who don't know what kind of diet that is, it is where you don't eat over a certain amount of calories a day. I am also doing my best to stick to serving size because I never really worried about that before. I still eat what I like and I haven't gave up anything for this diet, but I have just been watching how much I eat instead and how often I eat certain things as well.

Staring this diet I did a few things. I made a short-term goal in which I am determined to complete it. My goal is to stick to this diet until the end of the year and once that goal has ended I will create a new one. See I believe, and some of you may have heard this before; that short-term goals are easier to complete when making it towards you're ultimate goal which for me is 125 pounds. Another thing I did is find an app that has helped me keep track of how many calories I am eating a day. The app I am using is called Lose It and it does have a yearly subscription of $19.99 if you want full access. Lose It can also track how many Fat(s), Carb(s) you eat and even more. I also started drinking water instead of soda's, but my water is usually two 32oz bottles of water with a Cyrstal Light flavor packet thrown in. For me personally I would not stick to drinking just water if it didn't have some flavor to it. The Cyrstal Light packet is usually 10 calories a packet which is not bad and I use 2 packets a day which equals to 8 cups of water a day.

The last thing I did is come to terms with this journey being a hard and long process, but with the end result being worth it. For those who don't know me I am a very impatient person especially when it comes to certain things and I believe that is why I kept failing before. I was so worried about losing the weight that when I found out I wasn't losing weight quickly enough or I was gaining weight I quit. This time though is different not only because I know it will take a lot of work and time, but that at times you may gain weight as well, but I can't become discouraged. The Lose It app has helped me a lot with this journey. After you have logged everything you eat through out the day you hit finish logging. Once you have hit that it projects a future date when you will meet your goal and for me it is usually in about a years time which is normally the case for most diets.

There is one other thing you should be aware of whenever you start something like this and that is you always lose a lot of weight in the beginning, but once your body gets used it you may start losing it slower. So what was my result in the first week of my journey well I didn't lose much, but my weight went down from 202.6 to 202.2. I started on a Sunday so I have decided to only weigh myself every Sunday as soon as I wake up (which is recommended) so that I don't obsess over it especially if I see it go up. I also don't worry about how much I lose a week; the win in my book is if I lose weight each week.

My story is my personal journey and for anyone who wants to try it I hope it is successful for you. I have just started this journey and so far it seems to be something I can sustain. Everyone is different and what works for me may not work for you, but if you are serious about losing weight don't give up until you find what works for you. Just realize that it will take time and patience and maybe even self-control. Even if there may be quicker ways to get to your weight loss goal, doing it the hard way teaches you more about what you eat and helps you learn what you should be careful of eating and much at a time.

This is the end of my weight loss begins week 1 story and I hope you have enjoyed it or it has helped someone try a different approach to weight loss. I will be back in a week with an update.

Thanks for reading!