Lisa Gets Leaner | Weight Loss Progress 21.05.15

Hello, everyone!

For those who don't know, I am trying to lose weight in an interesting situation, you can read about what that is and how I am doing it here. Have an update! (and a recent picture of my face? wasn't enough pictures in this post!)

~ Weight Loss ~

I began this journey 11th

I am currently 14st 1lb / 89.4 kg

This is the chart from MyFitnessPal, showing the fabulous progress and the current plateau:

And the one from My Diet Coach:

I a super proud of myself for losing any weight at all, I do have to say. I have found myself getting a bit bored by My Diet Coach, the novelty has worn off, so I am going to use pictures of of myself from a couple of years ago when I was a bit lighter as motivational photos on there rather than just pictures of myself looking particularly fat. I shall also change up my reminders. I will look for other fun weight loss apps, too. MyFitnessPal is still doing its job, it's not that fun so I can't get bored of it.

I don't yet fit into the lovely aqua/mint dress in my first weight loss post but there is noticeable difference in my body. I have taken photos of myself in my underwear (phwoar) to use for comparison at a later date, I may post these here if I get super proud, you lucky buggers. Basically, it's nice to take a step back and look at my progress, especially when the motivation is fading. Seems to even be helping me as I write.


~ Mental Health ~

I have been really impressed with myself for not relapsing into full-blown anorexia. There have been a couple of times when I lost control over the food in a meal, freaked out, found myself terrified of food and gaining weight and generally having a breakdown, but it really has only been a couple of times. These occurrences only happen when I'm super fatigued, which tends to be the pattern of my life - I more tired I get, the worse my mental health. In both these instances I used a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy app that I am trying out on my phone and will be reviewing once I am decided on it, and actually once spoke about my feelings to a friend, out loud. It's so hard to explain the erratic, contrasting thoughts to someone when you know you're being irrational and are trying to find a normal, healthy way out of the situation and at the same time can't even look at food without breaking down because it's so scary and full of calories that will make you so fat you won't deserve to love. But I tried. And it helped. I've never really done this in person before, it's always been typing or texting when the event is occurring. I will do it again if the situation is right.

I have not found myself binge eating yet, or even purging my normal meals much at all. The only throwing up I've been doing is out of exhaustion or too many Sambucas :)

I shall try to remember to write my feelings down if it happens again and there is nobody to talk to, as I find I always get the panic out and talk sense into myself on paper. I will continue using CBT the best I can as it has worked before for me, and I know it still does when I actually put the effort in.

I have not found myself binge eating yet, or even purging my normal meals much at all. The only throwing up I've been doing is out of exhaustion or too many Sambucas :)

Overall though, I've been on top of this and losing weight with a healthy mindset :) It IS possible!


~ Chronic Fatigue ~ 

I've found myself more fatigued than usual lately due to a crazy busy weekend at work, a change-up in my hours and being really stupid and doing things on some of my days off rather than resting as much as possible. This has caused my motivation for weight loss to dwindle. I find that as my fatigue increases the more I crave food and see it as an energy crutch. It's probably more of an emotional crutch or placebo but I do allow myself to be less strict on my dieting when I'm really exhausted. I think this is fair, but I also need to work on lessening the exhaustion and preventing it happen more. I have been the same weight for a few weeks now which is a little frustrating, but I'm not too hard on myself because it's not my fault that I have this illness and my health should come first.

As I am starting to feel a bit better, I shall do much more resting in-between my shifts at work again and definitely avoid drinking more than one or three alcoholic drinks at a time (if you follow me on Twitter you'll know why :P). Basically, the nicer I am to my body and brain, the quicker I can get on the weight loss wagon again :)

...and that's where I'm at! I have done well, I shall continue to do my best and not make myself too ill. Any encouragement, sagely advice or pictures of border collies will be greatly appreciated :)

Thanks for reading,