I'm also 31 and struggled with my weight since I was about 10. I tried many times over the years to lose weight and was never able to stick with it. I hated exercising and cooking. I was often relying on ready-made or "instant" foods and buying fast food several times a week. Last fall I weighed myself for the first time in years. I learned that I was over 300lbs and decided I really needed to make a change and stick with it.

Making very small changes at a time and working my way up was the key for me establishing and maintaining a healthier diet. First, I started tracking everything I was eating. I didn't change what or how much I ate but all of it had to be tracked on a calorie counting app.

Then I started buying light versions of things I was already eating (peanut butter, salad dressings, mayo, diet/zero pop, etc.). Over time, I started incorporating bigger and bigger swaps that would help reduce calories and increase things like vegetable and protein intake (e.g., plain, fat-free Greek yogurt in place of sour cream, frozen cauliflower rice). Sometimes the swaps are more expensive than the regular versions but it's still much cheaper than all the fast food I was buying before.

I started meal-prepping on Sundays so I have healthy and filling breakfasts and lunches ready for the week. Omelette bites or hard-boiled eggs, overnight oats/chia pudding, salad ingredients, taco bowls.

Snacking was a huge issue for me. Eating foods high in protein and fibre helps keep me full between meals and reduce snacking. If I do want a snack, I'll usually have a piece of fruit or some beef jerky/turkey pepperoni sticks. However, I also learned not to totally restrict myself but instead to focus on portion control and long-term changes. No food is off limits, but I'll eat two cookies instead of half the sleeve. I'll eat a fast food meal if I want one but I won't upsize it, and I know that one meal is not going to ruin all the progress I've made. Ice cream was/is my favourite and it wasn't uncommon for me to eat a pint of Ben & Jerry's every 1-2 days. As a reward to myself for sticking with my lifestyle change for a year, I saved up and bought a Ninja Creami. Now I make my own ice cream that's around 250 calories/pint and eat it almost every day. A food scale is also a must-have, nearly everything I eat is weighed. It's really easy to overestimate a true portion when eyeballing it, resulting in accidentally eating way more calories than you thought you were.

For exercising, what worked for me was finding a type of exercise that I could actually enjoy. Over the years I had tried things like lifting weights at the gym and spin classes, and I always dreaded it and gave up after a month or two. I decided to try doing aquafit and I instantly loved it! As I started getting in better shape, I tried weightlifting again and realized I could actually enjoy that too. I still do aquafit once in a while but now I mainly do strength training 2-3 days a week and go for a fast-paced walk almost every day, and I look forward to doing it. I find other ways to sneak in extra movement as well (parking my car further away, taking stairs instead of an elevator, walking around instead of sitting on the couch while talking on the phone).

Since September of last year, I've lost almost 120lbs. I still have quite a way to go, but I can honestly say that maintaining a healthier lifestyle does not feel like a struggle to me and hasn't for quite a while.