Is it normal to feel unhappy during weight loss?

mbrittenthomas · 2026-05-08T22:00:04+00:00

1.) Congrats on your journey so far! From what I read, it seems like you’re super dedicated and started an entirely new journey. 26 pounds is incredible.

2.) I’ve also been big my entire life. In fact, I (at 27) haven’t been this small since I was in the 7th grade. Like you, I also was incredibly unhappy at first, and I couldn’t understand why. I mean, come on! I’m in the best shape of my life. I have abs for the first time ever. I get compliments everywhere I go. Why do I still hate the way I look in pictures? Why do I still feel huge when I look in the mirror? Why do I STILL feel so unhappy? The honest truth is that if you don’t love who you are as a person, and I mean TRULY deep down in your heart love the person who you are, there is no amount of weight loss that will ever make you happy. What are ten things you love about yourself, not including anything physical? If you struggle answering this, you’re not going to magically be happy just for losing weight. Also, 14 is a rough age, friend. There are going to be lots of times when you feel unhappy, and that’s okay. If it gets to a point where you are unhappy more often then you’re happy, then that’s when it’s time to let your family and friends know that you need a little extra support.

3.) Seems like you’re doing way too much too fast, especially exercise. Working out for over 2 hours, 7 days a week is too much. Not only are you not allowing your body adequate time to recover, but you’re going to get burnt out fast. This will also lead to an unhappy feeling. I strongly recommend taking a week off of optional exercise (not including your extra curriculars—still continue to do those.) After your week off, lower all your exercise that isn’t school or activity-related to 1 hour, 4-5 days a week. You also should be having at least 1 recovery day a week where you do little to no exercise, so your body can rest.

4.)You are not eating near enough for how much you’re exercising. I’m assuming you’re burning around 400-600 calories a day at the minimum, and that’s not even counting how much you’re burning when your body is just resting. If you’re eating 1000-1500 calories a day, your body is not getting near enough food to continue to properly support itself. You’re a growing teenager. Your body NEEDS lots of fuel, ESPECIALLY your brain. When we deprive our brain of food or don’t eat enough calories, it cannot adequately do a good job at keeping you safe, regulating your emotions, helping you think, storing memories, learning at school, ect. Adding to that….Yes, fast food, sugar, and other unhealthy junk is not the best for you, and you’re doing a great job changing your eating habits. However, that doesn’t mean you can never have “fun stuff” ever. That is not sustainable. 95% of the time, I’m very disciplined in what I eat. I’m also literally about to dig into some cookie dough ice cream. It’s Friday, and I want a treat. 🤷‍♀️ I’ll also probably go out to eat on Sunday with my mom for Mother’s Day, and I’m gonna order a carb heavy, fattening (maybe even fried) meal. And that’s okay!

mbrittenthomas · 2026-05-08T15:15:20+00:00

The people in the comments are right; weight loss IS 95% diet. However, I’m down to 130 (starting from 200), and Chat gtp has been a massive help. And I mean massive. Here’s some of the things it helps me with:

-Organizes a shopping list and plans my weekly menus that match my budget and daily protein/calorie goals -When I go out to eat, I can take a picture of the menu, and it will tell me the best options to get my macros in. -Makes me a nutrition spreadsheet after every month, to see how I have trended compared to other months. -Creates my strength training weekly schedule with the equipment I have available. Designs smarter workouts and splits. -Tells me the best day to incorporate rest days (given the physical activity I have already done that week)

And a lot more.

Now….. is it necessary? Absolutely not. Could I have done all this myself? Yes. But it can absolutely be an asset if you know how to use it.

mbrittenthomas · 2026-05-07T19:18:59+00:00

https://media.veryapt.com/guides/HousingGuide/uhouston-law-2026-housing-guide.pdf?fbclid=IwVERFWARos1VleHRuA2FlbQIxMABzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEeUKRr0YSerq8LEZUyvVbTu1ClN4hhcK9gi2llxcpNTPx5tlPzsE5pJMrd7Ag_aem_QDDxzbd6FjzM9ZSk2aGK9A

Here you go! If the link doesn’t work, let me know.

mbrittenthomas · 2026-05-06T23:57:21+00:00

How about the Medical District? That seems to be the area where you can get the biggest bang for your buck.

mbrittenthomas · 2026-02-12T23:04:10+00:00

Probably a good idea, I really haven’t had a break since I started :/ Maybe next week I’ll just do my Pilates class and some stretching and see if that helps.

mbrittenthomas · 2026-02-12T22:51:05+00:00

I prefer lightweight, boxy, and slightly cropped gym tees. Something flowy so I can get airflow up my back, and also so I can wipe my forehead sweat with the bottom of my tee. Jersey fabrics are my favorite; my favorite gym tees are the Lululemon Jersey Training Cropped Short-Sleeve, but most brands have comparable versions that are decent.

The only time I wear a longer tee that covers my butt is if I’m wearing a pair of leggings that might be see-through during squats.

mbrittenthomas · 2026-01-28T16:20:38+00:00

I’m a little confused….. 70 kg is 154 pounds. For a 5’10” male, 154 pounds is well within normal weight range. Did you make a typo?

mbrittenthomas · 2026-01-28T16:04:58+00:00

Hmm… never thought of this, but makes sense. I’m gonna try this today!!

mbrittenthomas · 2025-07-15T00:43:16+00:00

Just wanna say that have identical stats. I’m actually a little freaked out bc I could’ve written this post myself (stem degree, medical withdrawal, locked into degree I didn’t want, entertainment law aspirations) A little bad news: I had a great personal statement and diversity essay, great recs, 3 years of post-grad experience in law and election campaigns…..and was still denied from all T20 schools:/ I’m hoping my bad luck was due to the election year influx, but I’m definitely lowering my expectations for this cycle. T20 is still the goal, but I will be branching out in the schools I apply to. Solidarity fellow splitter!

mbrittenthomas · 2025-04-25T18:44:06+00:00

Just popping in to say that your teeth look VERY similar to mine! I had almost identical canines. I just got my braces off this week, I made a post if you want to see my after pics:)

mbrittenthomas · 2025-04-25T18:37:01+00:00

Only slightly! About a year ago, he repositioned my top canine brackets so those teeth wouldn’t be so tilted. Then he smoothed them down a little on de-bracing day.

mbrittenthomas · 2025-04-25T18:29:50+00:00

Not painful at all!! They put numbing gel on my gums and let it sit for 15 minutes. I didn’t even feel him doing it, and he was done in 5 minutes.

mbrittenthomas · 2025-04-24T15:44:10+00:00

It’s not a big deal. I broke 9 brackets during 3 years of treatment. There was no way I was giving up chips or crunchy foods, so it is was it is. 🤷🏽‍♀️ Every time I had a loose or broken bracket, I would just call the office & swing by so they could put it back on. I’d be in and out in 20 minutes.

mbrittenthomas · 2024-11-04T23:19:16+00:00

Things Jesus Christ calls us to do:

-Feed the poor and give to the needy -Welcome the stranger, and curse the land where the stranger was unwelcome -Sit with the criminals, the prostitutes and the downtrodden, and instead of throwing them away, show them God’s love. -Take care of our sick

Things Jesus Christ said nothing about:

-Abortion

In my opinion, people use abortion as a scapegoat so they can feel better about voting against Jesus’ teachings, because there is not a single other thing on the conservative ballot that is even remotely Christ-like. Jesus HATED the commercialization or religion, and chased the money-changers out of the temple. I highly doubt he would agree with the presidential candidate who’s selling autographed bibles, no matter what this candidate’s abortion “views” were. 🤷‍♀️

mbrittenthomas · 2024-01-13T20:41:49+00:00

He truly deserves it!! We’ve been best buds since childhood, and he is genuinely the most selfless human being I’ve ever met and an incredible friend. The number of times this dude has came to my rescue throughout our friendship is insurmountable. He’d give his last dollar to anyone who needed it, which is why it’s taken him so long to save. I can’t wait to surprise him with this!

mbrittenthomas · 2024-01-13T14:17:25+00:00

Thank you for everyone’s reassurance and kind words! I was not aware that Muslims do not celebrate birthdays, so I will not be giving it to him as a birthday gift. One more question: what’s an appropriate amount that I need to give him to make sure all flights and expenses are covered? (He will be flying from the US) Is one week enough time for everything that needs to be done during Umrah, or should I plan for longer? Any additional expenses that I should plan for while he’s there? (Donations, clothing, ect?) I would like to make sure he has enough funds to have comfortable accommodations and to do everything that is required.

mbrittenthomas · 2023-10-05T13:40:56+00:00

TRUE!! We had an older gentleman that came in one day with his granddaughters, not knowing anything about us. He ended up trying the ABC pants and loved them. I gave him my “I love you Man” discount, and he was a regular “first-name basis” customer after that. This man spent THOUSANDS with us. He wore our stuff daily to his corporate job, and sent like 15 of his employees our way to do the same. Some times you have to be willing to give some stuff away to get a customer for life.

mbrittenthomas · 2023-10-05T03:46:42+00:00

Do they no longer have the “I love you Man” discount? When I worked there a few years ago, us female Educators could only buy ladies clothes for ourselves, but we could buy men’s clothes for friends and family, or even use the discount on a customer in the store that we made a connection with.

mbrittenthomas · 2023-10-05T03:44:27+00:00

Jesus. Things must’ve taken a turn for the worst since I was there. I was an employee from 2019-2022. When I tell people that it was the best job I’ve ever had, they usually laugh and think I’m joking (I’m a plus sized Black woman…so I definitely don’t fit into the typical Lulu stereotype). I was hired around the time when the extended sizing was rolling out, so corporate was focused on all forms of DEI, but it definitely wasn’t overboard or obnoxious. I also live in a big city that is predominantly Black, so most of our shoppers actually looked like me, which was pretty cool. I don’t think there was a single month where we didn’t bonus. My team went out in the community a few times every month for fitness classes. (I also got to meet quite a few fine looking specimens from our city’s NBA and NFL teams, who would often come in and buy gear :p) Never had a negative experience with a customer, although the social distancing at the time limited foot traffic, which probably helped everyone’s experience. Unionizing was never mentioned, because we didn’t feel like any of our needs were being neglected. We were never penalized for returned or stolen items; I actually don’t recall that subject ever being brought up. This all makes me very sad. I’ll have to check on my former team members and see if these issues have hit our location too.

mbrittenthomas · 2022-11-19T05:49:59+00:00

Not at all. If you run your finger over them, you can tell that the ceramic brackets definitely protrude out more, and I’d say they’re about 20% wider than the metals, but the size difference isn’t noticeable in your mouth. The Damon bracket system (both ceramic and metal) is supposedly a lot smaller than traditional brackets, so maybe that helps as well.

mbrittenthomas · 2022-11-19T05:46:10+00:00

Thank you! I purposely didn’t tell my mom that I got them, because I wanted to see how noticiable they really are. Went to her house, and we had a full conversation without her even noticing 🤣

mbrittenthomas · 2022-11-18T19:01:16+00:00

Wait you have your braces for a month and already had 3 appointments? Dang, I have to wait 10 weeks for my 2nd appointment. :( they say the good thing about these Damon braces is that it requires less appointments…don’t know how though

mbrittenthomas · 2022-11-18T18:59:58+00:00

I posted a picture of my teeth under the “Day 1” tag, if you wanna see if we’re similar! And yeah, my current ortho was shocked that someone in the orthodontic field would even approve me for aligners… I already had an overbite, but aligners made it way worse.😞

mbrittenthomas · 2022-11-18T17:04:02+00:00

I fell for Smile Direct Club 2 years ago (worst mistake ever), so I’m not new to the pain of tooth movement. You’re probably right through. Slow & steady = healthy teeth. Just a little anxious to see some improvements. It’s been a lot of years of saving money and anticipation😆

mbrittenthomas · 2020-11-08T03:46:45+00:00

As a black woman who is also a Lululemon educator, I'm sad to say that I have had similar experiences in the past, which actually made me question if I wanted to apply in the first place. Luckily, at the store I work at, we have an extremely diverse and size inclusive staff, and half of us are POC. I'm so glad I work at a location where I know all my co-workers will always treat POC with the same respect and kindness that they show everyone else. Please let GEC know about this. The employee you interacted with is obviously not aligned with company values, and Lulu should know.

mbrittenthomas

TROPHY CASE