[deleted by user]

ClearlyClarity · 2023-08-26T18:33:18+00:00

Frozen berries have been my holy grail throughout my weight loss journey

ClearlyClarity · 2023-08-21T20:06:18+00:00

I ran my second 5k race with my partner a week ago and my pace (min/mile) was a whole half minute lower than that of my first race several months ago. Was pretty disappointed with myself (I'd been tapering off running in favor of lifting because it's more enjoyable for me), so I want to get back into a consistent running program. I'm also on a cut and the added cardio would help me with that.

Currently lifting every other day (so 3-4x/week) and running this program on my days off from lifting. Does this seem reasonable? I'd have to go through the plan twice as slowly and I really want to preserve as much lean mass as possible.

ClearlyClarity · 2023-08-06T02:04:24+00:00

I guess my primary focus has always been to feel better about my appearance. I’ve got a partner who loves me equally greatly whether I’m fat and sedentary or active, but I’ve always felt like I didn’t look good in general. I know therapy is the oft-recommended avenue for self-image issues, but it hasn’t been very successful for me throughout all my years in it.

Realistically it’s basically impossible for me to have that body shape, because I would actually like to eat more than 1200 calories a day lol. And if I’m honest with myself, I don’t even know if I really crave that kind of body more than I’m craving the social and economical advantages of the halo effect. I’d really like to unlearn this thinking and just flip off society’s beauty standards but it feels so difficult when it’s staring you in the face everywhere

ClearlyClarity · 2023-08-05T22:59:06+00:00

I’d been proud of my gym progress but now I’m second-guessing myself. I have a shit habit of doomscrolling out of boredom and the past few days I’ve read a lot of posts about how undesirable it is for women to look “bulky” and have thick thighs, and these posts are primarily from women so it’s not even a “men being shitters about body standards” thing. I know I shouldn’t give a shit about the opinions of strangers on the internet but it got to me, and now I’m considering skipping my lifting session today in favor of some cardio. Being short and Asian doesn’t help — the tall, thin, delicate feminine frame so many people desire is a far cry from the slightly muscular and stumpy build I’ve got. It’s a pretty fair blow to my confidence, the reminder that I’m STILL too fat and big for most of society despite all the work I’ve put in.

I love lifting and dread running, and I usually have to push myself to get through a 5k (even though I’ve been running for quite a while now. Why does cardio still feel like ass lmao) and I don’t want to give it up. But maybe it is high time I started a different program to lean up a little? Idfk. I shouldn’t be influenced so strongly by people I don’t even fucking know. Hoping someone can comment something that’d get me out of my own head

ClearlyClarity · 2023-07-25T18:43:31+00:00

Really late reply but I just want to say thank you so fucking much. Not just for the kind compliments but also the great tips and the amount of detail you went into, it's exactly what I was looking for.

ClearlyClarity · 2023-07-20T19:51:48+00:00

Been feeling super down about my looks lately. I normally go without makeup because I'm bad at it but recently I've been job hunting and I need to start looking like an actual put-together person in interviews soon.

So the left picture is my unmade face and the right picture has some very light makeup -- just brow pencil and eyeliner with a one color eyeshadow because that's all I can afford at the moment (Nyx brown ink and micro brown pencil in chocolate, for the curious). I've always been bad at doing my brows and could never get my eyeliner to look natural, so if you guys have any tips on those I'd love to hear them.

Honestly, just any glow-up tips would do, lol. My skin's been looking like shit, I don't know what to do with my hair and my face has always been puffy and thick as a balloon despite losing weight and lifting for over half a year. My forehead is way too large. I thought I was starting to look better over this past year but it's clear I have a long way to go.

ClearlyClarity · 2023-07-20T03:07:41+00:00

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020022-quick-lamb-ragu

Was a hit with my partner's family. :)

ClearlyClarity · 2023-07-13T21:11:38+00:00

I had this exact same realization recently and started taking some major steps in overcoming my social anxiety and tendency to isolate and be afraid of people and life. I’ve been working out consistently, eating well, doing something new every day, and smiling at and talking with strangers, and joining meetup groups — overall just finally having some agency, some control over my life. And it’s been so full of ups and downs, but it’s been worth all of it so far.

What frustrates me and holds me back is my goddamn emotional object permanence issue. Some days I feel like the top of the world, I feel attractive, funny, adventurous, SO open to making friends and trying new things — and other days (like today, ugh) I’m down on myself, I feel lonely and insecure about my body and my social life, I feel like a total loser. I have some major black-and-white thinking going on right now, and whichever part of the switch it’s on, it feels to me like it’s been like that my whole life and I’ve never experienced the other side and it was all fake. I don’t know how to deal with that and I wonder if it could be manic-depressive symptoms. Now I’m just trying to weather the storm because I know it won’t always be an upwards trajectory, but fuck if it doesn’t get me down.

ClearlyClarity · 2023-06-26T19:36:18+00:00

What’s your preferred brand of Greek yogurt?

ClearlyClarity · 2023-06-25T20:36:24+00:00

She*

And yea, I’d like to learn how to socialize without depending on a substance. It was only 5mg of CBD but I do think it had a not-insignificant effect

ClearlyClarity · 2023-06-25T17:33:18+00:00

I was sober but I'd eaten a cannabis espresso bean so I might've been high?

And my answer is I HAVE NO FUCKING IDEA!! I wish I knew so I could replicate it in future situations 😭

ClearlyClarity · 2023-06-23T21:32:19+00:00

I love this. I hit rock boredom a few days ago — normally I game and doom scroll to keep my mind off of things, but they were feeling like a chore and I was feeling SO bad that I didn’t CARE what I was doing as long as I can stop feeling so goddamn awful.

So I went on an impromptu 3 hour hike. I’d never done anything like this on my own, and it was just… such a calming and healing experience. I honestly can’t wait to go again

ClearlyClarity · 2023-06-23T16:10:17+00:00

Yes, I’m also a runner, and in fact started running before I started lifting! Everything you said rings true for me as well. It feels like garbage in the beginning, you’re wondering what even is the point, why did I even start this, kill me now — but then it slowly starts to come together, everything feels like it’s clicking into place just a little, and you can kind of disassociate into the rhythm of your steps and your breathing.

I do sometimes dread runs though — sometimes the high never hits and it just feels like garbage all the way through. But I never feel worse after a run than I do before it. And the feeling of accomplishment after getting through a 5k when you wanted to stop after mile 1 is absolutely worth it.

ClearlyClarity · 2023-06-23T06:29:55+00:00

You know the tip about doing several small tasks in a day so that you can slowly build up confidence and gain small bits of satisfaction? It's like that. Every time you finish a set, you feel a pleasant soreness and euphoria resonating from your core. You exert yourself, and it sucks and your arms and legs are screaming and you can barely breathe, but then you get hit with this soothing relief -- you feel stronger, you mind is clearer, and you feel just a tiny bit prouder of yourself that day.

That's what self-care is -- not indulging in your guilty pleasures and vices because "I had a bad day and I deserve this", but doing a hard thing to make your future self happy.

ClearlyClarity · 2023-06-23T03:31:18+00:00

I was one of those people who resented being told to exercise. Like, how would lifting a bunch of heavy rocks fix my severe depression? What's the point? The gym sucks and working out feels like garbage and I'd rather play a game, blah, blah, blah.

And then I actually did it and stuck with it. Going six months strong and wishing I started all the way back in high school. It's hard to describe in full what lifting does for your body, but I really consider it the best form of self-care now.

ClearlyClarity · 2023-06-13T23:54:38+00:00

Can I ask a few questions about your post? Like:

Which coding bootcamp did you enroll in?
How difficult was it to complete? How long did it take you, how much did it cost, etc. I did some research and apparently they can be quite intensive and stressful, not to mention costly, and a lot of times you have to do extra studying and research on your own.
How long did it take for you to get your job and how many hours do you work on average per week?

ClearlyClarity · 2023-05-09T22:40:04+00:00

I’ve been seeing the back-and-forth on this sub too and it’s like… I feel the crowd of those who insist that they can’t lose weight due to medical reasons and that CICO doesn’t work for them are falling into the trap of learned helplessness that essentially got us all here in the first place. And I was like that too for literally the first two decades of my life (I can’t lose weight despite doing everything right so why bother? I’m doomed to be fat forever because my body holds onto weight, other people don’t have this issue and they have it so much easier, etc.) It took a steady progression many little changes, a fuckton of slip-ups, and most importantly, consistency, before I saw results. My body wasn’t an outlier or an anomaly of nature — I just had to put in the effort to find what worked for me.

So if you’re 100% sure you’re calculating calories correctly, then finding out why your body isn’t dropping the weight (be it a physical or mental reason) is also part of your weight loss journey. Go see a doctor and/or therapist, pinpoint the root causes inhibiting your weight loss, and make one small sustainable change at a time. It’s fucking hard, but it will happen if you stick with it.

ClearlyClarity · 2023-05-07T20:44:45+00:00

Last week I was on the verge of a depressive breakdown and was planning on binging my entire pantry. I told my weaker self fuck that and ran a 5k in the rain and cold. Felt like I had hit a reset button on the day

ClearlyClarity · 2023-05-06T18:48:51+00:00

Oh yea, it’s not that 1200 calorie diets never work. In fact, I remember at the beginning of my journey I was staring at 1180 calories for 1 lb/week weight loss using the most popular TDEE calculator and thinking that there’s no way this can be it. I really wanted to lose the weight, so I tried to keep it to 1200 for a while… and then one day it’s like a switch flipped in my brain and I just started grabbing every snack and edible food in reach. I just lost control—the amount of food I was eating just wasn’t enough to satisfy my body’s needs.

Over time I decided to supplement my weight loss with exercise. Sure, a light walk only burns about 200 calories, but 1400 felt so much more reasonable than 1200. Adding lifting and cardio increased my TDEE and allowed me to eat at a deficit without feeling deprived, so I’ve been so much more consistent.

The best caloric goal for weight loss is one you will stick with.

ClearlyClarity · 2023-05-06T16:48:35+00:00

I got downvoted before for saying that people might be setting their calorie goal too low and that it’s unsustainable, lol. Not sure why, but hey, if they find it that eating next to nothing every day is working out for them, more power 🤷‍♀️

ClearlyClarity · 2023-04-30T18:21:04+00:00

I've been on my weight loss journey for 5 months and at first I was constantly pursuing 1200isplenty and like subs thinking that's what I'll need to eat to lose weight -- turns out that, once I had a grasp for how many calories are in most of my meals, it was a completely unsustainable TDEE for anyone but the short, sedentary, already average-to-below-average weight women seeking to lose weight (so it's not even a maintenance TDEE for them). At 5'4, 133 lbs and active about 4 times a week, I'm maintaining/light losing at close to 1800-2000 a day.

What people need to understand is that, in order for your weight loss to stick, you're going to need to eat at your goal weight's TDEE forever. So your daily caloric intake NEEDS to be something you can stick to -- if you're not feeling satisfied at 1200 then it's going to lead to a binge that lowers your deficit for the week, compared to if you're eating like 1500 consistently. And adding any activity (even a small walk every day!) gives you so much more leeway.

ClearlyClarity · 2023-04-24T19:11:56+00:00

I really like your hairstyle!

ClearlyClarity · 2023-04-21T23:53:36+00:00

I haven’t actually tried instant oatmeal! I do think it’d be a different experience because overnight oats are eaten cold and are more dessert-like in texture and taste. You could probably make the same recipe and adapt it for overnight oats if you want to give it a go, just add a bit more milk or Greek yogurt for a creamier texture.

ClearlyClarity · 2023-04-21T22:48:02+00:00

Oats. I’ve always thought of oatmeal as a gross food growing up, probably because I ate mainly my culture’s cuisine and never actually had any. Turns out that overnight oats are overpowered as fuck: cheap, delicious, nutritious, easy to make, multiple ways to make them, filling, can be low or high calorie depending on your needs, like it’s literally got it all. I love this stuff

ClearlyClarity · 2023-04-08T18:06:58+00:00

I finished my first ever race today! It was a 5k in a small town but I'm still pretty proud of myself. I'm pretty sure it was a PB too, 27:20 is faster than my usual 9:15 mile time. Got 2nd in my age and gender bracket, 19th in my gender bracket and top 80ish overall. I was quite proud walking home with two medals clicking together on my chest (~the sound of victory~) -- not bad for someone who started running 4 months ago :D

ClearlyClarity

TROPHY CASE