That’s awesome and, boy, do I know the struggle! Congrats on the success and the right attitude.
I started in 2019 by counting calories. My wife talked me in to Keto and together we started melting the pounds away. I’m the cook in our home so I started investigating all sorts of keto-friendly recipes. I also tried to do intermittent fasting early on but that was too strenuous.
After dropping about 45 pounds I discovered that my calorie ceiling had gotten lower. That was about 3.5 months in. By that time I’d faced the worse of my cravings and had established some hard core discipline about nutrition. I’d also established a regular waking routine. But things were slowing down and I still had a long way to go. So I started looking at IF again and did a 16:8 routine for a bit. But at my low calorie ceiling that was annoying. So now I do OMAD (one meal a day). Technically I’m doing a 20:4 routine but that ultimately amounts to OMAD for me.
January of 2020 I discovered I had kidney cancer. Between that and the lockdowns I put on my 35 pounds over the course of 2020 so this January (cancer free) I began to work again. Boy it was a LOT harder to get things going but I’m finally back down to 206 today.
My goals is 180... my doctor says 190. Bah.
Like you my motivations were the cautionary tales of others who I watched live in low quality of life situations as a result of the weight. More importantly I watched some folks hasten their demise by the complications that come with obesity and other health issues (like cancer).
When I was diagnosed with cancer I had greatly improved the ability of my surgeon to see and operate on me by reducing both internal and external fat.
Congratulations on your success so far, with both the dieting and the cancer! I am a believer in thinking positively. We may have to work hard to achieve our goals, but I know achieving this weight loss goal is attainable. It is a matter of not giving up.
“I didn’t come this far to only come this far.” - inspirational quote on a calendar I have.
I haven’t had success with intermittent fasting yet, though I’ve tried it briefly. I do eat a small breakfast every day. I skip lunch and don’t have a snack unless I really need something, and I often opt for a bit of protein. I’ve learned to enjoy reduced fat items, and I completely cut out sodas. That was a lot easier to do than I thought it would be.
Both my husband and I cook, but I’m usually the one coming up with the menu plan most days. We do a lot of cooking from scratch, and I do mean scratch. (I have friends that call adding an ingredient to a packaged kit cooking from scratch, but I don’t have the heart to tell them that isn’t what that means.) We focus on fresh fruits and vegetables, but definitely eat meat, seafood, and truthfully, darn near anything. Controlling my portion size has been helpful.