Wow, I hadn't realised that it's been a year!
So I guess today is a good day to reflect on the journey as I have reached my lowest ever weight of 85.4kg. That's a loss of 14kg in a year, or 2 stone 3 lb. I have been within the normal BMI range for 5 months according to Apple Health and I'm now comfortably wearing 34" waist trousers which I'm really proud of. The weight loss is really pleasing, but I need to be careful to not restrict my intake too harshly and I want to try to focus more on exercise and maintaining weight. I will still need to be quite careful of what I'm eating and I want to aim for the top of the "weight loss zone" in Noom which is usually about 2200-2400 kcal depending on activity levels. This will allow a degree of flexibility with eating out and actually enjoying life, as even if I have an overspend, I should comfortably be in the right zone. I don't think I want to push up my intake too much until I can either commit to more regular exercise or get some signs in the mirror that I'm really lean - visible abs by the age of 40?! Manageable goals and small increments, but it seems crazy that I'd even be considering such a target considering where I was a year ago.
Some reflections - Being brutally honest with my calorie intake and logging everything was a game changer and I started seeing results. Weighing out portions has completely reset what I consider to be normal now - I don't have to do it every time, but I think this was probably the most useful step. I couldn't out train a bad diet, no matter how many times I tried! I have been able to enjoy myself, eat what I enjoy and drink alcohol (beer is a nightmare, wine is much more efficient!), but being careful to log everything (especially at first). I have had good weeks and bad weeks, it's the overall progress and trends that matter. There's no point in quitting after going on holiday or having a big weekend, this is a long game. Decent snacks and looking at nutritional information is super important. I have been able to find winning combinations for meals that are filling and don't break the budget - preparing roast chicken breast with rice and broccoli for lunch for the week is boring until you add home made habanero hot sauce! Being able to cook has really helped, I do a lot of batch cooking as we're quite time poor in the week, and to be able to ping a home made curry out the freezer is a life saver on a weekday.
The journey continues, it's required commitment and some real thought and effort to change things, but it's never been miserable. Good luck to all with their ongoing progress!