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Originally Posted by PIMking
down 4 lbs and 2"
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The most important advice I can give is to take progress pics every 10 days or so and trust the "clothes test". That is to say, if your clothes begin to feel looser or you begin to fit into clothes that were previously too small/tight, run with that and don't worry about the loss of pounds.
I was floating between 240-250 towards the end of May after a couple years of horrific dieting/lack of exercise caused me to balloon. I decided to make a change after going through a breakup with my then GF. I downloaded one of the many Couch to 10K programs and the Runkeeper app and hit the pavement. I made some simple changes to my eating habits, followed the running program and committed to strength training on the machines to maintain some muscle. I went from 240 to 224 in fairly short order and then stalled in early July. Despite the stall in weight loss, I found that on a daily basis I was noticing just how much looser my clothes were and that I able to fit into smaller and smaller sizes even though my scale weight was stuck. It's a bit discouraging at first when you're so used to "obsessing" over your weight number but when you continue to receive compliments on how good you're looking from friends/family and you can see the continued progress in other areas like clothes, it definitely makes you realize how insignificant your current "weight" is. For me, I decided to cut back a bit on the daily weight training as I found I wasn't seeing the results in my running due to muscle fatigue (I was running 4-5 days a week as opposed to the 3 days set out in the program as I was actually enjoying it so much). Cutting back to 2-3 days of strength and 2-3 days of running helped me to drop another dozen or so lb's and I am now sitting at 211.
For me, the biggest thing was probably cutting down on wing nights/alcohol in general and replacing that with simple meals consisting of lean protein and lots of vegetables & water. At my worst, I was probably going out for a couple beers and 20ishwings a couple times a week and then out on the weekend as well for dinner/drinks at least once. Cutting that back to once a week has saved me a ton of calories. I still go out and am not scared to order a burger or beef dip or whatever but I just choose a healthier side like veggies or a salad instead of fries and will often choose a light beer instead of a regular brew. The #1 thing that I think about now when I'm ordering a meal is "where can I save calories here", sometimes that means asking for a sandwich without the garlic mayo, getting the dressing on the side for a salad, or even getting a couple of waters at the end of a wing night gathering instead of that final beer that you probably don't even really desire when aren't quite ready to go home yet.
Those are just some minor things that I find have helped me, hopefully you can find something in there that strikes a chord with you and can help you out a little bit. In the end, calling it a lifestyle change and not a diet really took alot of the stress out of it for me which is what hurts most people (myself previously included). Just staying in a positive mental frame about the whole process can win you half the battle. For example, I realize that ordering that large pizza instead of a medium on a day that I feel like pigging out won't suddenly put me back at 240, it's ordering that SECOND pizza 2-3 days later and then falling into that dangerous cycle is what starts the process. I also try and limit my damage to one meal. This may be silly but if I order that large pizza, I do my best to eat the whole damn thing, it's amazing how quickly your body goes from being able to eat an entire large pizza with ease to feeling like death after two-three slices. Whatever I can't finish gets thrown in the garbage or given to guests to take home so that the cycle of bad eating stops at that meal. After a day of: good breakfast/lunch, pigout at dinner, I find it is much easier to return to the healthy eating cycle by not having those last couple slices or boxes of chinese food staring you in the face the next day as you are whipping up some spinach salad with tuna.
Anyways, best of luck and I hope you continue to keep us updated.