What was the light bulb moment

[Elliesmommy]

For you?
I've had 3 babies in the last 4 years. Up a ridiculous amount of weight. When they go to bed I eat. Out of boredom I guess. How am I going to lose the weight?

My lightbulb moment was seeing a beautiful young woman look at herself in the mirror in the gym, pat her tummy and look sad. Her boyfriend gave her a consoling hug.

I felt so angry that with her slim, healthy, young body she was still feeling sad and something in my head just said, "fuck this shit".

Since then I've been practising loving my menopausal body. I exercise to appreciate my body, not change it. I eat for health and not disease. And I don't always get it right, but I really don't intend to spend another minute of my short life hating my body.

My DHs dad was very obese and had a heart attack at 63 years old. I was not obese but slightly overweight with no excuse other than mindless eating and snacking.
63 is young. I want to do everything in my power to see my kids (and maybe grandkids) grow up and this is something which is in my power to control.

Thank you both. For me it's more health as opposed to looking great. I have 3 babies and I want to be around for them. BMI is 38.3 which is very high. I think possibly in the morbidly obese range

Now is as good a time as any to make a start. From that BMI you will see some fairly rapid loss if you adapt your diet and that will help you feel motivated.
I have totally failed at Keto or anything especially low carb - it makes me miserable and I can't do it. Instead I follow 16:8, and am very strict about no snacks between meals and small portion sizes. I don't eat pasta or bread but I do eat brown rice, legumes and potatoes in small amounts. I have lost almost 6kg in a few weeks. Sometimes I feel a bit hungry but I am also really pleased to have moved out of the overweight range too, and you will soon get out of morbidly obese if you stick to a plan. Good luck you can do it!

Well done. You have really motivated me . Thanks for replying

Only do a plan you think you can stick to. I tried to go low carb so many times and just couldn't get on with it. You have to have a life too. Recommend trying 16:8 and dropping the snacking. Once you've started to lose you will want to keep going. Also if you have a crap day just start again in the morning. Don't beat yourself up and quit completely.

My light bulb moment was flipping my mindset to taking care of my body not punishing it. I had spent years yo-yo dieting and feeling so miserable about myself. Like many people, if you tell me I can't have something, I immediately crave it. Now I focus on the quality of the food and what suits my body no grains (except some basmati rice), lots of veg, and good quality meat, fish, eggs. I'm not on a 'diet' though, so if I'm out with a friend and I want some chips or a piece of cake and I'm hungry then I'll have it. There's no guilt, so no cravings. I don't eat those things regularly though and they have to be good quality or they're not worth it to me. I've also found intermittent fasting useful, as it taught me that the world doesn't end if I'm hungry, but my partner was terrible on it. We're all different, so it's about experimenting with what suits you. It's also about much more than food, I stopped eating big bags of m and ms everyday when I started dealing with the stress in my life. Sleep, stress management, exercise they all affect our weight too. Wishing you all the luck in the world for your heath this year.

I read another diet book (must have read 100s, have been overweight for 20ish years) and it just clicked. Funnily enough, I don’t follow the rules of the book but it made me realise that the reason that I binged, couldn’t stick to any diet and just kept getting fatter was an addiction to white carbs - sugar/flour. I could only deal with the problem once I realised what my issue was.

Lightbulb moment for me was realising that I could do it and not starve myself. I'd never needed to do much to lose weight when I was younger. As I got older the usual things stopped working and I thought I had to starve myself for more days or eat tiny portions. Couldn't understand why it wasn't working and feeling sad because I knew it wasn't sustainable.

Then started reading about calories in / calories out, found new ways to cook to reduce calories and realised I could eat three good meals a day, with snacks including chocolate just by cooking slightly differently, snacking on different things and meal planning. Now can't quite believe that the weight is coming off and I don't feel particularly deprived. Wish I'd started earlier!