The most I weighed in my life was around 215 pounds. I remember that I had to go buy clothes and I couldn’t find clothes that fit in the Misses Department and had to go to the Women’s Department and start into the larger sizes. It was super depressing.
Around this time, a picture of me in profile was posted on the website for the company where I was working. It was a Christmas party and we were eating at a restaurant. I was horrified when I saw that picture. I looked bloated.
Those two things motivated me to begin to lose weight.
I’ve done a variety of things over the years to lose weight and to maintain weight. I thought I’d share some of the different things I’ve done.
I used to belong to a local YMCA and they had a program that I joined. I met with a nutritionist regularly and then a personal trainer gave me different exercises to do. That worked well and I lost some weight.
We moved and so I let my membership at the Y lapse. I gained a good amount of that weight back.
Then I joined a gym and read You: On a Diet by Drs. Oz and Roizen. I participated in a forum on the RealAge website. That was enough that I lost probably about 30 pounds.
My husband got sick and spent a lot of time in the hospital. I finally gave up on trying to eat healthy because it was easier to run through a drive through on my way to the hospital. I gained that weight back.
In 2011 I joined a new gym. I started working out regularly. At some point, I decided to buy personal training sessions for both me and my son. I used mine and when I realized that my son was’t going to use his, I took them. I worked out with a young, very strong woman who just assumed that I’d be able to get stronger.
I also joined Weight Watchers where I worked. It was good for a while. I lost some weight. It was a great way to get started with healthy eating and to watch what I ate. I found the weigh-ins to be motivational and I liked most of the people who attended the sessions. I lost some weight.
The company-sponsored sessions ended eventually and I was on my own for figuring out what to do to lose weight. I was still working out and getting more fit.
A friend of mine told me about a program called Trim Life at the Wellness Center at the Cleveland Clinic. I signed up for that. It’s a program that focuses on the reasons why we overeat. It’s a shared medical appointment with both a physician and a hypnotherapist facilitating the sessions. It was fantastic. I learned a lot and the hypnosis was fantastic. I lost more weight from that. I also modified my diet considerably after participating in this.
I got to a great weight for me, around 150 pounds. Then I started dating and going out to eat and drinking beer. I’ve gained about 15 pounds back and am now in the process of trying to lose it again. I’m trying to use macros to lose weight. I’ve upped my protein and fat and lowered my carbs and that seems to be working. I have to watch because I’m running long distances (well, relatively speaking) and that requires food. In particular, it requires some carbs. I use an app to track my food.
No matter what I do, if I’m losing weight, I lose it very slowly. I’m lucky if I can lose a half pound a week. That works out to about two pounds a month. As you can probably guess, I can gain weight at a faster rate than I can lose it.
So, why am I sharing all of this? It’s because I want to make the point that whatever you do to lose weight or to maintain weight loss may not be the thing that you do forever. You might change what you eat or don’t eat. You might find an organization like Weight Watchers to be helpful. What works at first may not work later so just try something new.
