lizfuh
New member
Hey everyone! Longtime lurker, first time poster.
I'm a 23-year-old recent college grad who's struggled with her weight for years. I was overweight in middle school, dropped a lot in high school from eating better and I think just going through puberty and losing baby fat, had a low weight of 118lbs, gained a bit and kind of stayed around 130 for the next 3 years, studied abroad in Paris and gained about 15 pounds bingeing on daily baguettes and pain au chocolat (still don't regret it lol), and am now standing at about 137lbs.
I have never been athletic, but I've been living at home and been jobless for the past 3 months and decided that I wanted to get in shape once and for all, something I've tried to do on-and-off for the last 5 years or so and never had the will power to stick with. I took up running and went from not being able to run for 30 seconds straight to comfortably being able to run 5k. I love it. However, I assumed that just because I started exercising regularly, the weight would just fall off. Nope. And I know exactly why. I cannot, for the life of me, get my eating habits in order, no matter how diligent I am about being fit.
My whole family LOVES food (we also have a tendency to be slightly overweight...no obesity, but my whole family teeters on that line of normal and overweight). I'm a grazer. I eat just because it tastes good, and I'll eat ANYTHING. This means I will eat very healthy yummy things like fruits and veggies and eggs and lean meats, but it also means I'll eat chips dipped in sour cream and croutons straight from the bag and any sort of cheese left lying around (cheese is my ultimate weakness). My main problem is I simply eat too much of everything, whether it's good for me or not.
Since I started running, my legs and ass look great, I've lost loads of cellulite and everything is much firmer, but I know those muscles I've developed would look so much better if they were not sheathed in a layer of fat. I only want to lose 10-15 pounds, but it's tough because I don't look AWFUL, I just know I would look better without those pounds....but it's easy to talk myself out of a low-calorie eating plan because my weight is NORMAL and I don't actually NEED to lose the weight. Plus most of my outings with friends and family are based on social eating and drinking, and whenever I tell them I'm trying to eat healthily, they usually laugh, tell me I don't need to lose weight, and insist I join them in a pitcher of beer or nachos or whatever other sinfully delicious thing they are enjoying.
I see people on this forum staring down 100+ pounds to lose and tackling it with such an admirable tenacity - so why can't I buckle down and lose a measly 10-15 pounds? Has anyone else struggled with this? How have you combatted it? I'd especially love to hear from foodies who've had to curb their eating in favor of weight loss. Will power. SO frustrating.
I'm a 23-year-old recent college grad who's struggled with her weight for years. I was overweight in middle school, dropped a lot in high school from eating better and I think just going through puberty and losing baby fat, had a low weight of 118lbs, gained a bit and kind of stayed around 130 for the next 3 years, studied abroad in Paris and gained about 15 pounds bingeing on daily baguettes and pain au chocolat (still don't regret it lol), and am now standing at about 137lbs.
I have never been athletic, but I've been living at home and been jobless for the past 3 months and decided that I wanted to get in shape once and for all, something I've tried to do on-and-off for the last 5 years or so and never had the will power to stick with. I took up running and went from not being able to run for 30 seconds straight to comfortably being able to run 5k. I love it. However, I assumed that just because I started exercising regularly, the weight would just fall off. Nope. And I know exactly why. I cannot, for the life of me, get my eating habits in order, no matter how diligent I am about being fit.
My whole family LOVES food (we also have a tendency to be slightly overweight...no obesity, but my whole family teeters on that line of normal and overweight). I'm a grazer. I eat just because it tastes good, and I'll eat ANYTHING. This means I will eat very healthy yummy things like fruits and veggies and eggs and lean meats, but it also means I'll eat chips dipped in sour cream and croutons straight from the bag and any sort of cheese left lying around (cheese is my ultimate weakness). My main problem is I simply eat too much of everything, whether it's good for me or not.
Since I started running, my legs and ass look great, I've lost loads of cellulite and everything is much firmer, but I know those muscles I've developed would look so much better if they were not sheathed in a layer of fat. I only want to lose 10-15 pounds, but it's tough because I don't look AWFUL, I just know I would look better without those pounds....but it's easy to talk myself out of a low-calorie eating plan because my weight is NORMAL and I don't actually NEED to lose the weight. Plus most of my outings with friends and family are based on social eating and drinking, and whenever I tell them I'm trying to eat healthily, they usually laugh, tell me I don't need to lose weight, and insist I join them in a pitcher of beer or nachos or whatever other sinfully delicious thing they are enjoying.
I see people on this forum staring down 100+ pounds to lose and tackling it with such an admirable tenacity - so why can't I buckle down and lose a measly 10-15 pounds? Has anyone else struggled with this? How have you combatted it? I'd especially love to hear from foodies who've had to curb their eating in favor of weight loss. Will power. SO frustrating.