arborescent: I’ve been watching My 600 Pound Life a lot lately,...

arborescent:

I’ve been watching My 600 Pound Life a lot lately, and it’s really got me reflecting on what I was able to accomplish and how much it really means. If you’ve never seen the show, they chronicle an entire year in the life of a person who weighs 600+ lbs and their journey to get gastric bypass surgery and lose weight. All of these people are so obese that they’re facing death if they don’t manage to lose weight. And it is an extreme struggle for all of them, to even make it to the surgery (they’re always too heavy to get it initially and have to lose weight on their own first) to continuing to lose weight after the surgery.

The odds are stacked against obese people to lose weight. According to Healthline, a woman with a BMI over 40 has a 1 in 677 chance of actually losing the weight and getting to a healthy BMI. When I started this journey I was 5′7 and 265 lbs. A BMI of 41.5. I had a 0.15% chance of being successful at losing weight. Not a 1.5% chance. A 0.15% chance.

I’ve lost 105 lbs over the last few years. Through running, healthy eating, counting calories, hiking, etc. Being active and being healthy, cooking almost everything I eat. I did not have surgery. I didn’t go on any crazy diets or cut out any food groups to lose weight. There’s no shame in getting surgery, but the odds of people who are able to get back to a healthy weight without surgery are even slimmer, which makes me feel even more proud of what I’ve accomplished. 

Sometimes I get discouraged because I’m not exactly where I want to be. I’m only about 5 lbs away from being classified as “overweight” by BMI still. Sometimes when my weight fluctuates normally, I am “overweight”. I want to get further away from that, I still want to lose more weight. But I can’t overlook what I’ve already done. I did something that is incredibly, tremendously hard. I lost the weight, I got back to a healthy place, and I got my life back. When I was 265 lbs I could barely hike 1 mile or run for 1 minute. Now I can hike 12+ miles with crazy elevation gains, I can run half marathons in almost 2 hours, I can do anything I set my mind to and I feel good daily because of it. Mentally and physically, I’m in such a different place. I’m beyond proud of that, and I just needed to take a moment to really appreciate what I’ve done.

MotiveWeight http://ift.tt/1Ko08hT