RE: How gaining a lot of weight pushed me towards becoming a better person (Part 2): The lessons I learned
Reading this, I notice I followed a similar and still different way.
I too started out as the thin girl and then gained a significant amount of weight (although for me it was hypothyroidism combined with relationship issues that catapulted my BMI into the "overweight" range). Gym, better food and thyroid meds helped me get back on track and now I'm at the lower weight range with some muscles.
In one thing you're a step ahead though, I just can't keep my eyes off the scale. It's getting better but I'm still way too focused on that dumb numer.
My goal is to overcome that in the next year (working on my bachelor thesis is stressful enough, can't set other goals for that time that consume too much energy). You inspired me to take up Wing Tjun (Kung Fu) again after that year, I did that for 2 years but stopped because of school.
It's always great to see someone else's success on a path you're trying to walk yourself and I'm very proud of you for how far you came :)
@suesa, sorry for the delay in replying but I just found your post (my replies tab was swamped with comments for the article about the vaccine).
It's interesting to see how our lives mirror each other in some unexpected aspects. It seems like for a certain kind of person with a particular set of traits (perfectionism, high standards for one's work, introspection, intellectually driven) these behaviors are likely to emerge at a breaking point. I am very happy to know that you also managed to overcome the most difficult part of your struggle, it must have been very hard if you even had a thyroid condition. Congrats on taking care of yourself and steering towards a healthier life, it's easy to abandon oneself in despair sometimes.
While I am certainly much better than I was a couple of years ago, I still have some obsessive behaviors that I carry with me. I am more at peace with the scales because after I started training seriously I noticed there's a very lax correlation between my weight and the way I look. However I still do stuff like frequent "body checks"–things like looking at myself in the mirror and lift my shirt just to check if my stomach looks the same or if it's now perhaps 1.5 cm less flat than it was three hours ago... that kind of thing.
Best luck with your Bachelor thesis, I understand how stressful these things can be... but I am sure with your talent and intelligence you can manage that and more. And great idea to take up Kung Fu! Besides the physical aspect, martial arts have a very special effect in the mind, making people more serene, grounded and resilient.