My weight has yo-yo’d from 120 to 180 (225 if you count pregnancy) for the last 15 years. A “healthy” weight for my height is 108-145lbs. I’m 170-ish right now.
Whenever I tell someone that I want to lose 50lbs they always say “you’ll be skin and bones” but I know that’s not true. I was a size 6 at 120lbs–thin, but not exactly skin and bones.
Now that I’m older and post baby, I’ve largely given up on the dreams of looking good in a bikini (for the record, I never did, and unless I splurge on major plastic surgery, I never will.) But — I’m extremely committed to getting back to a healthy weight (120-130 is my goal) and doing this in a healthy AND sustainable way.
I’ve recently found Intermittent Fasting and seeing the results of others truly inspires me. It feels like the kind of lifestyle change I can stick with–although it will be hard on my (non existent) social life to not drink after 8pm, with a 12-8pm eating and drinking period. But that’s probably for the better anyway–I can have a glass of wine with dinner, I don’t need to be binge drinking until the wee hours of the morning. I’m not 21 anymore and it seems every time I drink I do something stupid anyway. Not flattering on a 21 year old and certainly not flattering on a 36 year old.
It seems people are able to lose substantial amounts of weight on IF without majorly changing their diet or exercise routine. I’m going to do something a little different on IF — I’m going to make sure I’m eating ENOUGH calories. I want to eat 1800 calories a day of generally “clean” foods and go for walks and see what that does for January. I’d love to get under 160 by Feb 1. If I stick to IF, I feel like I can. Sticking to it will be a huge challenge, but y’all know me, I love a good seemingly impossible challenge…
Financially speaking, being healthy saves so much money over a lifetime! I’m still pissed that my life insurance costs and arm and a leg and both my butt cheeks because I have depression (fuck you insurance companies) but at least I can minimize the cost of medical treatments later in life if I get myself to a health weight (and I might even save on not having to pay for infertility treatments to have kid #2 — a goal for next year, post losing some weight and getting my mental health in order!)