I sort of missed the anniversary of when I first started to try to lose weight. I guess it's because it took me about two months of puttering around to actually lose any weight. I didn't find Diet Bet until August 2015 and by then I'd only managed to lose 5 pounds, which felt like a million at the time, in a little less than three months.
I definitely made up my mind to lose weight a little more than a year ago, but it took me a long time to figure out what I was doing. I started by working out a little and sort of journaling my eating, but not actually eating healthier or less. Looking back, I can see why exercising didn't make much of a difference because I was out eating all of my work outs. It basically got me to a point where I wasn't gaining a couple pounds a month, but I also wasn't losing anything.
At some point, I figured out how many calories my body needed to exist, then figured out the range of calories I had to eat to lose weight. After I started tracking my eating, things progressed better, but I hadn't cleaned up my eating, I just ate less to make my calorie goals. Dealing with hunger and cravings meant I had a lot of binges. When I figured out that I could eat a ton more food if the food was healthier, that's when things really picked up. I also got myself onto a schedule that included eating every couple hours and ending my dinner early enough that I had a natural intermittent fasting schedule going.
During all of this, Diet Bet probably made the biggest difference as it became the place that I could talk about all these issues and learn what I could be doing differently. The support that came with it made it so much easier to stick to my goals and to move on from my mistakes.
It's been a year and I don't feel like I have everything figured out, but I know that things are so much better than I could've imagined! When I started I had no idea that I'd be capable of losing 35 pounds! I amaze myself and still sometimes I forget how far I've come, especially now that my weight loss has plateaued and some of my friends have lost more weight than me. I don't ever want to go back to how things were and know that if I can just stick to being moderately consistent that I'll eventually reach my goals. I just need to be patient and be kind to myself.