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Right around the new year, I decided to overhaul my life and get healthier. I've always been too heavy, but a diet with a lot of takeout and stress eating during my internship (and so far in residency) coupled with a transition back to a sedentary job at a microscope for caused me to gain even more. In the past 3 weeks I've lost 10 pounds by diet changes alone! I'm planning on adding in regular exercise soon, but figured I'd be able to stick with the plan better if I made gradual changes. I'm being better about taking food to work, avoiding restaurants in the evenings unless going out as a group which happens maybe once a month, and I threw out a bunch of less healthy foods I had at home. I realized this weekend that I needed to tell someone about my progress, but I'm not ready to tell my family and friends just yet because deep down there's a fear I'll fail like every time before, so SDN it is. I'm really happy with the progress even though I can't really see it yet aside from the number on the scale.
 
JaynaAli said:
Right around the new year, I decided to overhaul my life and get healthier. I've always been too heavy, but a diet with a lot of takeout and stress eating during my internship (and so far in residency) coupled with a transition back to a sedentary job at a microscope for caused me to gain even more. In the past 3 weeks I've lost 10 pounds by diet changes alone! I'm planning on adding in regular exercise soon, but figured I'd be able to stick with the plan better if I made gradual changes. I'm being better about taking food to work, avoiding restaurants in the evenings unless going out as a group which happens maybe once a month, and I threw out a bunch of less healthy foods I had at home. I realized this weekend that I needed to tell someone about my progress, but I'm not ready to tell my family and friends just yet because deep down there's a fear I'll fail like every time before, so SDN it is. I'm really happy with the progress even though I can't really see it yet aside from the number on the scale.
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Thanks for sharing!! I also need to make these changes and hearing others is really motivating. My SO just started the journey because he got his first smart phone and began using MyFitnessPal. He's also been doing 30 minutes on our exercise bike a day. I'm pet sitting this weekend but once I'm home tomorrow, I need to make the start. Best of luck with your journey!!!
 
JaynaAli said:
Right around the new year, I decided to overhaul my life and get healthier. I've always been too heavy, but a diet with a lot of takeout and stress eating during my internship (and so far in residency) coupled with a transition back to a sedentary job at a microscope for caused me to gain even more. In the past 3 weeks I've lost 10 pounds by diet changes alone! I'm planning on adding in regular exercise soon, but figured I'd be able to stick with the plan better if I made gradual changes. I'm being better about taking food to work, avoiding restaurants in the evenings unless going out as a group which happens maybe once a month, and I threw out a bunch of less healthy foods I had at home. I realized this weekend that I needed to tell someone about my progress, but I'm not ready to tell my family and friends just yet because deep down there's a fear I'll fail like every time before, so SDN it is. I'm really happy with the progress even though I can't really see it yet aside from the number on the scale.
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Congrats and keep up the good work! I'd also recommend taking measurements once a week if you want to visualize the changes.
 
JaynaAli said:
Right around the new year, I decided to overhaul my life and get healthier. I've always been too heavy, but a diet with a lot of takeout and stress eating during my internship (and so far in residency) coupled with a transition back to a sedentary job at a microscope for caused me to gain even more. In the past 3 weeks I've lost 10 pounds by diet changes alone! I'm planning on adding in regular exercise soon, but figured I'd be able to stick with the plan better if I made gradual changes. I'm being better about taking food to work, avoiding restaurants in the evenings unless going out as a group which happens maybe once a month, and I threw out a bunch of less healthy foods I had at home. I realized this weekend that I needed to tell someone about my progress, but I'm not ready to tell my family and friends just yet because deep down there's a fear I'll fail like every time before, so SDN it is. I'm really happy with the progress even though I can't really see it yet aside from the number on the scale.
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That's awesome! I definitely understand the feeling about not wanting to share with anyone else just yet. I made similar changes recently and didn't even tell my family until I went to visit them and had already lost 40 pounds lol. They're the type to brag to everyone about (what I consider) my very personal life though, so it's kind of why I never told them.
Skimble said:
Congrats and keep up the good work! I'd also recommend taking measurements once a week if you want to visualize the changes.
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I second this, although I only measure myself every two weeks. It's a great way to visualize changes even though you don't feel like you've lost weight.

Something I would also caution anybody losing weight about is that weight loss isn't always linear. Don't freak out if you've been eating at a calorie deficit and it looks like you've gained weight, because sometimes it's water weight from any of a number of things (lookin' at you, time of the month). It helps to look for a general downward trend or other things that you feel good about that aren't necessarily scale related.

Anyway, if anybody losing weight wants somebody to talk to or commiserate with, my PM box is always open. 🙂
 
PrincessButterCup said:
I don't even know how to approach diet changes or exercise. Yeah, I probably need to eat less ice cream, but I only learned how to evaluate dairy cow diets, not human. Eat less carbs? Do sit ups? :shrug:
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I honestly didn't do dick about carbs or whatever, just calculated my basal metabolic rate, approximated my total daily energy expenditure (easy when you're sedentary lol), subtracted enough calories to lose ~1-2 lbs a week, and stuck with the calorie deficit. This sounds complicated but MyFitnessPal will actually do it for you and automatically adjust it as you lose weight, so I really only did the extra math out of curiosity + an enjoyment of math.

I mean I ate mostly pizza, beer, and cookies yesterday but was still under my calorie goal. Although my body wasn't a fan of that dinner but that's a separate discussion. (I think I haven't eaten greasy food in a long enough period of time that my body now rejects any of it with extreme prejudice now :arghh:)
 
I really need to start working on diet/exercise changes myself. A couple years before vet school I joined weight watchers and lost about 30 pounds and felt so good about myself and everything. Fast forward to vet school and I've literally gained all the weight back plus an extra 15. I don't even know how that's possible but here we are.
 
I'm incredibly, incredibly into fitness (although I don't always practice what I preach) so I'm happy to help anyone if they want to know more about diet tracking, macros etc 🙂 I think as long as you're making a positive impact in your life, no matter how large or small it is, you're moving in the right direction!
 
My cousin has Hashimoto's and there are at least three or four other family members I can think of off the top of my head with thyroid conditions, so I'm waiting for my thyroid to hit me like a ton of bricks someday. I get my thyroid checked out once a year or so though just to keep an eye on it and haven't had problems yet.

Although with all of those family members their thyroid issues didn't develop until right after giving birth, so maybe I'll just never have kids and avoid this problem entirely.
 
I know this was touched on earlier, but don't go solely by the scale. Muscle weighs more than fat so do what the others suggested to help you visualize the weight loss. Also, occasional unhealthy meals won't make or break you, but aim to minimize those as much as you can.
 
And if you're tracking calories, just suck it up and track everything. I have a friend who always just ignores days when she eats like crap, and she has the hardest time keeping up the habit of tracking. I groan when I go back after the fact and add in six shots of rum or whatever but it does keep accountable.

You eat at a deficit, you will lose weight. May not be super fast but it will happen. I lost lots of weight in vet school (and gained an unfortunate amount back during clinics) but it's always just a matter of less in than expended. And it gets so much easier to eat at a deficit as time goes on.

And yeah muscle is more dense than fat but as a chick putting on an appreciable amount of muscle unless you're pointedly working to that goal is tough.
 
Bottle of Bear said:
I know this was touched on earlier, but don't go solely by the scale. Muscle weighs more than fat so do what the others suggested to help you visualize the weight loss. Also, occasional unhealthy meals won't make or break you, but aim to minimize those as much as you can.
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Regarding eating more healthy meals, I will also add that it's actually frightening how much better I felt when every meal I ate wasn't like 10000% of my daily recommended sodium intake lol.

Also everybody should eat more fiber. 'Cause it actually has a lot of health benefits and the average woman is probably not getting the ~25g a day that is recommended.

Although honestly the biggest thing MFP helped me with was actually feeling hungry. I used to sometimes forget to eat for upwards of days at a time and now if I try to skip breakfast I'm hungry within an hour or two of skipping. I'm taking that as a good thing because now I at least eat regularly and am probably being slightly less cruel to my body's blood glucose regulation.
 
Trilt said:
And if you're tracking calories, just suck it up and track everything. I have a friend who always just ignores days when she eats like crap, and she has the hardest time keeping up the habit of tracking. I groan when I go back after the fact and add in six shots of rum or whatever but it does keep accountable.

You eat at a deficit, you will lose weight. May not be super fast but it will happen. I lost lots of weight in vet school (and gained an unfortunate amount back during clinics) but it's always just a matter of less in than expended. And it gets so much easier to eat at a deficit as time goes on.

And yeah muscle is more dense than fat but as a chick putting on an appreciable amount of muscle unless you're pointedly working to that goal is tough.
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I'm at a 177 day tracking streak as of right now. :banana:

I'm not even remotely responsible enough to eat without the supervision tracking gives me. 😛
 
vetmedhead said:
Regarding eating more healthy meals, I will also add that it's actually frightening how much better I felt when every meal I ate wasn't like 10000% of my daily recommended sodium intake lol.

Also everybody should eat more fiber. 'Cause it actually has a lot of health benefits and the average woman is probably not getting the ~25g a day that is recommended.

Although honestly the biggest thing MFP helped me with was actually feeling hungry. I used to sometimes forget to eat for upwards of days at a time and now if I try to skip breakfast I'm hungry within an hour or two of skipping. I'm taking that as a good thing because now I at least eat regularly and am probably being slightly less cruel to my body's blood glucose regulation.
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I try to eat breakfast but normally my stomach can't manage more than a muffin or granola bar. It helped when I switch from the generic levothyroxine to synthroid though
 
SandstormDVM said:
I've just been working to cut soda out of my diet for the past week or so as that's probably the first order of business. Baaaaaaaby steps... 😛
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That's a good step though! When I was in high school I'm pretty sure I drank only soda. I ended up gradually phasing it out around my freshman year of college and it definitely took a long time to do.
 
Balesofhay said:
I try to eat breakfast but normally my stomach can't manage more than a muffin or granola bar. It helped when I switch from the generic levothyroxine to synthroid though
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I just eat a bowl of cheerios in the morning. I've never been a big breakfast person, but just the small thing really helps get me going for some reason.
 
Balesofhay said:
Adding on to everyone else. Drink lots of water! I got a 32 fl oz nalgene and Brita water redo our and that's helped me stay hydrated
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When I was in college one of my professors was giving a lecture about kidneys and fluid balance in vertebrates and he just looked at all of us and said "If you feel thirsty, it's already too late."

I'm assuming he meant you would only feel thirsty when you needed water (i.e. you're dehydrated to some degree) but he said it like it was such a portent of doom that I guzzle water all day every day just to be safe from the dehydration demons. :scared:

I also look at my pee a lot to see where I'm at, but I'm told this isn't standard behavior and get eye rolls when I suggest other people keep an eye on theirs. Whatever, at least I'm not dehydrated. 😛
 
SandstormDVM said:
I've just been working to cut soda out of my diet for the past week or so as that's probably the first order of business. Baaaaaaaby steps... 😛
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I'm working on that too. I quit cold turkey for about 6 months maybe 5 years ago? So far I've switched my morning diet Dr. Pepper for tea (I don't do coffee) and drinking at least two 24oz bottles of water during work, and limiting to water or iced tea with dinner too. I still have a can of soda at lunch, but it's an improvement from 3 a day. Eventually I'll probably cut the lunch one out too.
 
I actually love the taste of water and already carry a bottle with me pretty much everywhere so I generally don't have any issues staying hydrated (and no worries VMH, I monitor my pee, too), but I still average one or two Dr. Peppers and/or Cokes per day with meals and I really want to cut those out since they're pretty much just empty calories. They also wreak havoc on my bowels. :laugh:
 
SandstormDVM said:
I actually love the taste of water and already carry a bottle with me pretty much everywhere so I generally don't have any issues staying hydrated (and no worries VMH, I monitor my pee, too), but I still average one or two Dr. Peppers and/or Cokes per day with meals and I really want to cut those out since they're pretty much just empty calories. They also wreak havoc on my bowels. :laugh:
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I've learned that me and caffeine in general are not and never should be friends.

It's a tragedy because I love black coffee and Earl Grey tea. 😢
 
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JaynaAli said:
Right around the new year, I decided to overhaul my life and get healthier. I've always been too heavy, but a diet with a lot of takeout and stress eating during my internship (and so far in residency) coupled with a transition back to a sedentary job at a microscope for caused me to gain even more. In the past 3 weeks I've lost 10 pounds by diet changes alone! I'm planning on adding in regular exercise soon, but figured I'd be able to stick with the plan better if I made gradual changes. I'm being better about taking food to work, avoiding restaurants in the evenings unless going out as a group which happens maybe once a month, and I threw out a bunch of less healthy foods I had at home. I realized this weekend that I needed to tell someone about my progress, but I'm not ready to tell my family and friends just yet because deep down there's a fear I'll fail like every time before, so SDN it is. I'm really happy with the progress even though I can't really see it yet aside from the number on the scale.
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That's awesome, congratulations!! Always a fantastic thing to see those numbers getting lower just by making simple changes in your life.

I figured I'd also offer my quick input as I went through this about a year and a half ago. I used Myfitnesspal religiously for 5-6 months. And got a Fitbit to try to hit that 10,000 steps a day. Just by doing that (mostly training myself to eat right) I dropped 60 pounds over the course of a year. I've always weighed more than I should and finally got tired of it.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app
 
Gwenevre said:
I've been doing low-carb. I'm also a recovering sugarholic, so it was very difficult breaking myself off from desserts. But I'm down almost 30lbs since September.
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You go girl!

(P.S. your avatar pic is amazing and I love it 😍 )
 
Ugh. I really need to stop drinking sodas, I'm pretty sure at this point I'm addicted to the caffeine and don't drink coffee so I know that it's going to be miserable to stop it. I just really love the taste. I also tend to stress eat, so with this being the big semester of my thesis, I'm a little worried.

I know that I'm gonna lose weight in the summer haha, I'm having jaw surgery and they're breaking my maxilla to fix my underbite, and it's a 6 weeks liquid/ soft food only diet. But I know it's better to be in shape going into surgery than not in shape.
 
cdo96 said:
Ugh. I really need to stop drinking sodas, I'm pretty sure at this point I'm addicted to the caffeine and don't drink coffee so I know that it's going to be miserable to stop it.
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You can do it! I'm about a week into quitting soda cold turkey and it's going pretty well; I haven't much of a desire to drink any for a few days now. I don't drink coffee or tea, either---so it's definitely possible. 🙂

Maybe have an NSAID or two handy in case your headaches get bad. Mine only lasted a couple of days and popping an ibuprofen tab every 6-8 hours was more than sufficent to take care of that (but I also wasn't a super heavy soda drinker in the first place... generally one per day).
 
SandstormDVM said:
You can do it! I'm about a week into quitting soda cold turkey and it's going pretty well; I haven't much of a desire to drink any for a few days now. I don't drink coffee or tea, either---so it's definitely possible. 🙂

Maybe have an NSAID or two handy in case your headaches get bad. Mine only lasted a couple of days and popping an ibuprofen tab every 6-8 hours was more than sufficent to take care of that (but I also wasn't a super heavy soda drinker in the first place... generally one per day).
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Yeaahhhhhhh. I'm a heavy soda drinker.
On a normal day, probably 50 oz. On a bad day/ when I'm stressed, easily 94 oz.
It's terrible, but it just keeps escalating ugh. Everytime I cut it off cold turkey, like a month later I'm like "hmm I wonder if it still tastes the same" and I taste it, I end up worse off.
 
cdo96 said:
Yeaahhhhhhh. I'm a heavy soda drinker.
On a normal day, probably 50 oz. On a bad day/ when I'm stressed, easily 94 oz.
It's terrible, but it just keeps escalating ugh. Everytime I cut it off cold turkey, like a month later I'm like "hmm I wonder if it still tastes the same" and I taste it, I end up worse off.
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that makes my teeth hurt from the amount of sugar
 
cdo96 said:
Yeaahhhhhhh. I'm a heavy soda drinker.
On a normal day, probably 50 oz. On a bad day/ when I'm stressed, easily 94 oz.
It's terrible, but it just keeps escalating ugh. Everytime I cut it off cold turkey, like a month later I'm like "hmm I wonder if it still tastes the same" and I taste it, I end up worse off.
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Honestly I'm pretty sure I used to drink as much as or more than that. FWIW, now I can hardly drink one soda because I find them cloyingly sweet and they immediately make me thirsty for actual water. I think it just takes time.
 
vetmedhead said:
Honestly I'm pretty sure I used to drink as much as or more than that. FWIW, now I can hardly drink one soda because I find them cloyingly sweet and they immediately make me thirsty for actual water. I think it just takes time.
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I've already warned Ski of my imeping b****iness today. I would usually have my first soda right now. How long did it take you to stop?
 
vetmedhead said:
Honestly I'm pretty sure I used to drink as much as or more than that. FWIW, now I can hardly drink one soda because I find them cloyingly sweet and they immediately make me thirsty for actual water. I think it just takes time.
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This is where I'm at now too. I only drink pop once in a blue moon these days and am very much a water person.
 
cdo96 said:
I've already warned Ski of my imeping b****iness today. I would usually have my first soda right now. How long did it take you to stop?
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I honestly don't remember, because I'm pretty sure that rather than quit cold turkey I just worked on drinking less soda in general and over time that translated to not drinking it at all.
 
Man, the thing about me counting calories is that I get mega-obsessive over it and literally will regulate myself to the point of being in a very bad place mentally over it (the kind of "oh god that carrot will put me over by 1 calorie I CAN'T HAVE IT and AM A BAD PERSON FOR THINKING ABOUT IT" mentality). I try to keep up a habit of exercising enough that I don't need to track food obsessively but it's been catching up to me during internships and I've definitely put on weight. I really probably should just start tracking food again but I just don't like where I go mentally when I do that.

Sorry this is in the rave thread. I'll rave - I'm on track to receive a very large grant from a breed club to do a very cool project with some very prestigious collaborators that will likely get me a very nice first authorship.
 
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