NOTE – Our body image series will continue on Friday.
In 2003, I started eating healthy and exercising. I saw improvement really fast. I dropped weight and I felt a lot better. I went from 280lbs to 220 in about 3 years, hence the name 60 in 3. I also added a lot of muscle mass and improved all the numbers by which health is measured. Then I hit a plataue. Although I wanted to get to 180lbs, I found myself running up against the problem of my eating. For a variety of reasons, my eating habits reverted back to some of the old bad habits.
It wasn’t quite as bad as the days of large pizzas and a gallon of coke for dinner, but it wasn’t good either, and I’ve been strugglin for years to figure out a way to break these habits yet again. I kept having small successes and then I would relapse back to binge eating. I go a week and do really well but then I would ruin it all in a weekend of overeating. It was frustrating and I thought I would never reach my goal weight.
Lately though, I’m seeing a nice amount of progress. I’m getting the binge eating under control and the candy / caffeine habits are slowly being broken. I wanted to share with you what’s been working and what hasn’t.
What Hasn’t Worked
Guilt - I should have known this one wouldn’t have worked but guilt is a hard habit to break. Guilting myself into eating less never works, it just makes me feel bad. Neither does beating myself up afterward.
Daily Weigh Ins – I thought measuring my weight every day would give me incentive to keep going. It didn’t. It just made me feel bad about the overeating from yesterday.
What Has Worked
Eliminating Temptation At Home – I no longer buy cookies and chocolates and so on for the house. I always told myself I would eat them in moderation but that never really happened.
Getting More Sleep – It’s true, lack of sleep leads to overeating. Ever since I started focusing on a better night’s sleep, I’ve found myself eating less.
Cutting Out The Caffeine – This could be related to the better sleep thing, but cutting out caffeine seems to have made me less prone to cravings. My metabolism is more steady rather than peaking and crashing every two hours.
Support - Thanks to a special someone who’s making me walk the walk and not just talk the talk, I’m eating more healthy meals at home.
One Day At A Time – I told myself I wanted to eat healthy for just one day and then I ate unhealthy the next day. Then I ate healthy for two days and then went back to unhealthy for a day. Each time, I extended the number of days I was eating healthy by just a little bit more. These days I’m eating healthy for an entire week and then giving myself a pass on Saturdays. It’s been working really well.
Motivation
And of course, I needed to find the motivation to make this change. I think I was stuck in this rut where I couldn’t see the benefit of losing more weight. It wasn’t as clear to me what these additional 40lbs would do for me whereas the first 60 had a very clear benefit. These days I have a goal in mind. I want to sleep better and I think losing the weight will help me with that. I also have a goal of having a noticeable 6pack by next summer. Sound shallow? Maybe so, and there’s a part of me which wonders how this connects back to the topic of body image which has been on my mind for the past few weeks.
Am I going for too much weightloss? Am I giving in to some manufactured ideal of what a man should look like? I don’t know the answer to that but I do know that I intend to lose this weight slowly, gradually and in a healthy manner. I’m not going on any crash diets, I’m just going to continue eating healthy and work out. We’ll see where my equilibrium weight eventually settles and at that point I’ll decide if more changes are warranted.
I also want to make my weight goals and progress public again. I stopped that last year when I was going through a rough personal patch and needed to focus on other things. From now on, it’s back to the monthly updates which will hopefully be full of good news 
###
Hope everyone is having a good day. As for me, it’s time to go to sleep!
Hi, I’ve been a reader of your blog for sometime now and have always felt that we share a lot in common. We’re nearly the same age, height and weight with similar goals to boot. Thought I’ll finally leave a comment firstly to say hello and more importantly to tell you how much help your postings have been to me. I’m currently stuck at a plateau just like you and can relate very well to what you’re going through. Keep up the good work, I’ll be checking in regularly for your tips and insights.
Cheers,
David
Thank you David, I’ll try to share as much as possible.
Gal
Gal, it sounds like we are in a similar spot. I’ve just gotten going again, and hope that I can accelerate the process a bit over the next few months. Good to read that you are heading in the same direction – I’ll be around to give you some encouragement for sure.
Best,
Metroknow – Almostfit.com
Hey Gal,
Just came back and checked out your blog for probably the first time since I started my workout regimen back in October. I’ve actually dropped around 45 pounds since then, which is slower than I’d expected, given my previous experience with weight loss(nevermind that I was younger, and worked on my feet for 8 hours a day back then), but I feel really satisfied when I look back down the road I’ve traveled.
I don’t think it’s a bad thing at all to go for a noticeable six pack. If anything, do it for the experience. I’ve decided for myself that at least once in my life I would like to have one, and mean to get there at some point. In any case, whatever small ruts and bumps you hit along the way, you’ve shown nothing but will and determination in this blog, and I don’t believe for a second you don’t have the power to continue with your progress.
Thank you Wes, I run this site because of comments like that. Thank you for your support.
Gal