Ever since I was young, I've struggled with my weight. I was never morbidly obese, but I was never at a healthy BMI either. I'm a terrible binge eater, generally stress fueled, and will eat every single last piece of bread, chocolate or other carb-filled item put in front of me. Mexican restaurants - where they refill the chip bowls frequently - are the worst.
I also have PCOS, which I am fairly confident came on due to eating way too much sugar as a kid. I mean, I barely remember what I ate as a kid outside of french fries, mcdonalds, and fruit salads covered in extra sugar. Oh, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. My actual exercise was limited to swim team in the summer (where I was a horrible competitor since I was always so out of shape starting in June) and a few dance classes in the winter that I couldn't manage to keep up with. No one ever informed me how endurance works - and that one has to build it up, vs being genetically dispositioned for such abilities.
All that has led to me being a 31 year old woman who is quite unhealthy and quite sad about it. I even work for a great company in the healthcare space, and it has further inspired me to get myself in shape! Every little thing helps. DietBet, I think, is a great extra motivator because nothing motivates me more than the prospect of losing my own hard-earned money! Plus I really like the community here. I'm looking forward to some significant progress towards my health, even if I don't achieve the monthly goals. Those are really hard. Can I really lose 1.7lbs a week consistentlly? I hope so!
Right now what is really kicking my butt into gear is the fact that I'm planning for my wedding in spring 2016! I've been trying on a few dresses and seeing what I look like in them (and imagining what I could look like) is amazing motivation to stick to my diet and exercise plan no matter how hard it is. My goal weight for my wedding is a "toned" 120lbs. My starting weight is 170lbs so that's 50lbs of weight loss by next May. It's do-able but it won't be easy. I think my natural weight is around 155lbs (where I get to when I'm not eating like a pig consistently and I'm moving on a regular basis) so anything below that requires a lot of extra effort...
The only time I was at 120 in the last 20 years was my year after college when I ended up not having a car and using my bike to commute to work everyday. I also was not in a good state of mind so I don't think I was eating enough each day. Needless to say I didn't lose the weight in the healthiest of ways. I wasn't tracking my weight at the time but all of the sudden I was at 120lbs. I didn't even feel like I lost that much so it was strange.
This time around I am going to be very purposeful with my weight loss. DietBet is a great way to hold myself accountable - and hopefully not lose money over the long run! I am doing ok thus far -- I kind of fell off the bandwagon yesterday as I had a glass of lemonade but the reality is that I had A GLASS of it versus about 8 glasses which is what OLD ME would have done. And I ate meat and veggies for dinner so hopefully that made up for it! :)