It's been a darned tough week last week. I traveled Tues thru yesterday on business. Wining and dining has caught up with me. If I plan to show positive results this month, I need to kick it into gear and fast......not feeling good at all about end of April results. Oh, well....keep going little choo choo train.
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Okie, congrats on keeping on with your efforts. If I can offer one bit of advice it would be to move your desire to drop the weight way up on your priority list. It's much harder to lose when the attitude is not sharply focused. It's great that you have a definitive goal and not just "I've got to drop a few pounds". It is a life choice, not an easy one to make but sharpening that focus will help in your efforts.
And as we age, it gets much harder to lose weight than when we were in our 30's and 40's.
My story is I'm 62 and wanting to drop 18 pounds myself and get back to 210 as my low weight. In 2003, at 42, I got serious about losing my paunch and went from 270 to 200 in 6 months on the low carb diet idea. Only exercise I added to my everyday routine was walking, averaging about 15-18 miles per week. My walks became a priority. I reached my goal weight on Thanksgiving that year. We've followed the low carb routine ever since and I probably will the rest of my life. It just works for us. I found that trying to stay at 200 was a constant struggle but 210-212 was pretty easy. That's my body telling me that's where it wants to be, in my opinion. The fight wasn't worth the extra 10 pounds to me.
I've kept the weight off pretty well but over the last year and a half, I've sneaked up to 228 as of Saturday morning. I know that for me, 210-215 is quite sustainable, even with some sneaks here and there. I've upped my activity level lately and hope that within 4-5 months I'll be be back down where I want to be.
I'd be happy to discuss the low carb stuff with you via PM if you're really leaning in that direction.
Stay with it, you can do this.
my original motivation was when I took a selfie for work and noticed the 2nd chin :( After I dropped only 25# and reverted to basically my HS weight of ~40 years ago did I realize that my energy levels increased. Nearing the end of a round of golf, where I was walking, a playing mate said man it looks like you have spring in your step after 4 hours of walking. I do.
I've had several periods over the last few years where my weight crept up 5 or so #. the reason is I allowed chips, breads, pastas, pizza to become too frequent in my diet.
I notice when I vacation, most of the time I loose weight and did so on last fishing trip. I'm not bored so I eat less and only eat full meals twice daily. This I see working as well.
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Saturday morning, 1 week check in for me and I'm down 4 lbs. to 224. I know from past experience that probably half of that is water weight from getting back in to ketosis from vastly reduced carbs but I'm pleased with that start. My mindset is pretty good, turned down a number of goodies that normally would have been consumed.
Every journey starts with a first step so off we go. I only weigh myself once a week, at the same time for consistency.
Hope you all are continuing in a positive direction with your efforts. Don't let a plateau or small setback get you down. It happens. Just grit your teeth and get back going in the right direction with your efforts.
I like your statement on water weight. Yes, that is likely TRUE but it also indicates your body is seeing a change. I never say I do a no carb diet but at times my body is on the border of of ketosis. What I have found is that after years of eating well, my body is able to take some bad carbs better (less water gain).
Yesterday was a good example of how I ate well but still am certain I did not gain. Homemaid bacon/egg/cheese sandwhich, then walked 18 holes of golf, then had dinner at about 6:30pm. Dinner was chicken strips with black beans and brocilli. so no one will claim that fried nashville hot chicken strips are healthy but they are far better then eating a pizza or french fries on my eating plan.
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Saturday check in, week 2, shows me at 221 and feeling pretty good about that. It took some will power but the sweets and munchies remain off limits as I try to stay on track to keep losing. Posture is already improving and I feel my muscle tone is as well. I expect the rate of loss to slow from here on out but will take whatever small steps it takes to get to the finish line. I hope you all are still on track and experiencing satisfactory results.
how much more do want to lose?
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Down another pound to 220 here at week 3 weigh-in. Pants are fitting better. Attitude is still focused and ready to stay on track through the coming week. Small steps of loss are OK; it took a while to put on-its going to take a while to take off.
Week #4 check in shows another 2 pounds shed to bring me to 218. That makes 10 lbs. gone so far and I'm very pleased with that. A bit surprised that this week showed a loss as not a whole lot of after work activity took place. Wet weather and other obligations kept me from much exercise but I was careful about what I ate and I guess that paid off.
Hopefully the OP will come back to this thread and let us know how he's doing.
I'm not doing well right now. I've got every excuse in the book. I plan to get back at it soon. I've been traveling every week for 3 months now and it has seriously affected my progress. Late nights wining & dining clients will cause huge havoc on a diet. My travel slows way down at end of June. I'll be back. Proud of your progress, though. You're killing it!Originally Posted by Slowboater
Week 5 weigh in shows no loss this week. Not for lack of paying attention, just one of those little plateaus that shows up. Hopefully next week will show another drop. It's possible that I dropped some fat weight and replaced it with more muscle mass. I'll take that trade any day but that might just be wishful thinking.
Great job yall. Keep it up!
A little about my journey. This will be long, as it's just as much a diary of sorts for me to reflect on and adjust as needed as it is telling you about myself lol
Turned 39 at the beginning of the month. Had a change of position in my career with reduced physical activity by 99% (climbing trees to a desk job), over the course of about 13 months, starting in 2017. Each year my bio-metrics have gotten worse. So on my birthday at the beginning of May, I said "no more. We're righting the ship before 40".
After reading a thread in The Lounge, I discovered the Lose It ap. It's basically what My Fitness Pal used to be. I pay for the premium version, which for the features, $40 a year is excellent.
I'm pretty good about bringing breakfast and lunch and most of the time snacks, to work. We don't eat out a TON, by most American standards, for dinner, so getting a handle on it was fairly easy. Just needed to tweak the habits I had.
May 6th 2024:
39y/o
6'1"
266lb
38" pants
2XX shirts
Today, May 31st, 2024:
255.6lbs.
All else is the same. Noticing looser fit on clothes. Cam style lock on belt, and its "buckling" at a slightly tighter spot.
No major changes in lifestyle. I've done this a time or two without sustained results. Each time as been a relatively "drastic" change, and not sustained.
I count calories. I weigh/measure everything and log it. I'm using the program on Lose It for my calorie budget. I went through their questionnaire about my lifestyle, goals, physical condition and activity, etc, and went based on that. My budget right now, according to Lose It, is 2335 per day. I've averaged 1838 since I started. I've integrated 12hr of fasting to begin with. If nothing else, it blocks out literally half of a day, that I won't consume calories. Usually go 13+, some days, especially weekends, 14-16hrs.
Some changes Ive made:
- Breakfast- was eating everything bagel with cream cheese after my morning coffee. Most of the time I was done with coffee by 7:30 and had bagel right after. I get to work at 6:30, and 7:30 is about the time my morning rush is over anyway, so bagel time it was. That stuck with me for about 30-45min before I was hungry again and wanted a snack. Usually by lunch time (11am), I had filled the gap with one or two packs of Lance Toast Chee peanut butter crackers. Breakfast now is usally after 9am. Some times I'll make several days worth of scrambled eggs and divide evenly to count calories. Last two weeks it's been Quaker Original Oats. 1.5 servings (0.75c dry) with a tbsp of Land O Lakes Sea Salt with Olive Oil butter, salt and pepper, made with water. Starting at 9-9:30, usually holds me really well until lunch time. I try to sip my coffee slower, and enjoy it more, and make it last longer. Also gradually cutting back from 2 tbsp of sugar per 20oz cup, to 1.5. Some days only 1. Goal is to get to 0 sugar. Usually take my coffee plain black if I'm out somewhere, but I make mine a little strong at home and enjoy the bitter/slightly sweet combo.
- Lunch is meal prepped Sunday evenings. Chicken thighs, jasmine rice, and try to add a veggie of some sort. Rice is a relatively cheap, low calorie filler.
- Dinner is usually whatever, but I make sure to log it. Some times it's hard to know exactly what you're taking in, if eating out, if not from a chain, or if at someone else's house. Thankfully that's not often, but since starting this, we had a get together for a cluster of May Bdays in my gf's family plus mine, at her Mom's, and we had Japanese (chicken and rice, surprise surprise) last night. I try to take an average of what I can find on the web for those foods, best guess the quantity the best I can, and go from there.
- Snacks- I usually bring yogurt to work. Sometimes peanuts or cashews, but some dental work put a hold on those for me for a few weeks. Some days, my new eating pattern and foods have held me over where I dont want a snack. At home, I usually still have some sort of "treat" as a snack, after dinner, just to help keep me in line. Most days I don't want it, but some days I do, and usually have plenty of calories left in the budget for a mini chocolate covered caramel vanilla waffle cone thingy.
- Most days when I got home from work, I didn't feel like doing much other than being lazy. I have more energy now. I also would eat a big snack of whatever I could find when I got home. Some times I still have something reasonable, (logging it of course), but instead, I go outside and work on some project or the garden, or something to keep me busy, until dinner time. Once dinner comes along, that usually holds me until around 8:00 which is my cut-off time for eating. The 8:00 cut off has also helped with my acid reflux which is horrendous if I dont take Nexium (need to get the GI appointment scheduled ASAP). Most days now, I'm done eating, snack and all, by 7-7:15. I go to bed around 9:00 anyway, so that helps.
I weigh every morning, before my shower, after using the restroom. I log that weight. I usually drop a pound to a pound and a half, then gain half back, and stall a day or two, then drop a few more. I'm sure there's some water weight fluctuation in there. No soft drinks. No sweet tea. I do drink Propel packets, usually 1 pack to 32oz of water. Just enough to a slight hint of flavor. I'm not a big water drinker unless Im doing physical labor, though the craving for plain water is slowly creeping back.
So far, over the course of the last few weeks, I know it's not a long enough period to know the in's and out's of what my body does with all foods, but I do like to play around with some stuff and see what happens. This past weekend I had birthday cake one evening. I logged it and budgeted my calories for it, but that night I was WIDE AWAKE until after 11:00, which is unheard of. The lack of large amounts of sugar in my diet, then reintroduced via cake icing, had me wired.
My goal isn't to weigh/count everything, but eventually calibrate myself to know what I can/can't have, and what moderation looks like.
For the first time in my life, this has been fun. Ive been teaching myself food is fuel, not for enjoyment. So far, I've got myself believing it, though my "diet" is still stuff I thoroughly enjoy. I just had to learn what, when, and how to eat to keep my calories low and my stomach happy. Oddly enough, when the hunger pains strike, it makes me smile because it's not something I've been used to, or enjoy. Now it's like a game and I feel like I'm doing something right, by allowing myself to actually get hungry rather than to eat out of habit and boredom. It's turned into a mental game which I feel like I'm enjoying and winning at, rather than torture, like past attempts at this have been. It feels like something I can keep up.
My apologies for the novel. Like I said, I wrote it as much for myself to come back to and look at, to adjust if need be, or see where I struggled and where I excelled, as much as I did for yall to read. I do sincerely hope there's a tidbit in here so far, for someone to take away and enjoy. Though I weigh daily, I'll make sure to post updates weekly to help hold myself accountable, and hopefully, if things continue as they have, and are planned, inspire someone else.
Justin, congrats on deciding to get a handle on things and starting on your journey back to better health. That certainly was a big change, from climbing to desking. Any idea on where your weight was when you were climbing and more physically active? Just curious.
You've got a good grasp on things with your statement " I've been teaching myself food is fuel, not for enjoyment." That's so important to learn. And hard to learn, too......I've "learned" it many times! It's so easy to stuff something in my face when I'm sitting idle or feel bored.
If you find yourself worrying every morning when you weigh yourself, you might cut back to weighing every other day or every 3rd day. Most folks don't realize things like if you drink a quart of water, your weight just went up 2 pounds. Take a good dump, there goes half a pound.
While I chose the low carb lifestyle, I'm at the point that you mentioned you want to be in that I know how much of this or that I can eat and when I'm toeing the line on whether a portion of this or that is not really needed. My cutoff for evening food is 7pm as I'm usually between the sheets by 9:30.
If you haven't yet, try to get an appointment with your doctor or PA to get a fasting blood work test worked up to see where those levels stand right now like triglycerides, cholesteral, and all that jazz and then 6 months from now, do it again to see how things compare. I have a physical coming up and it will be interesting to see where my blood work levels are.
Thanks for joining in, congrats on your great progress so far and keep on checking in with us to let us know how you're doing.
Week 6 Saturday check in shows a 2 pound drop to 216 and feeling good about things. The extra exercise is really paying dividends as I can see and feel good things happening. I'm alternating between evening walks of about 3 miles at a brisk pace and working on next years firewood so kind of a mix of weight work (firewood) and cardio (walking). Truth be told, I think I enjoy the firewood more as I feel I'm getting a task done and out of the way as opposed to walking which I sort of class as "just exercise". I know better but it's easy to think that way. "Just exercise" is very important and it an integral part of the overall task of losing pounds. Add in 40 minutes of walking behind the mower every week and I think "it all helps".
Focus is good, weather is getting better and to me good weather is a mood enhancer. Ready for another week of paying attention since in general, I'm too poor to pay for much of anything else.
Thank you Slowboater. I don’t get discouraged with the daily weigh-ins. I do it to keep tabs on exactly what you mentioned, water weight. I haven’t sweated as much the last few days, and kept hydrated, and it’s crept up a pound. I kind of see it as a reality check of where I am and the activity I did vs actual results. It’s turned into a fun game, potentially slight obsession vs discouraging.
Tree climbing was a bit weird as far as weights went. I underwent weight loss surgery (vertical gastrectomy) in 2013. Was waaaaayyyyy up there. 376. In a bad place in life. Rough marriage. Rough home life as a result. Bad finances. Stress. Etc. was very weak minded and easily influenced. I struggled with diet the most at that point. Wife(ex now), had it done, talked me into doing it, and then left. Well technically I left, she wanted to stay together but sleep with whoever she wanted with no consequences. Anyway. After that I dropped drastically down to 185. No musculature. Had a career change, even though I was always natural resource oriented. Ended up in tree work. The lowest I ever saw was 182 after a stomach bug. I slowly gained back up to 210-215, but was lean mean muscle machine. I filled out a polo shirt like an add for American Eagle. Could forge metal on my thighs. Lol. I ate constantly to maintain weight and muscle and not lose. I went from watching what I ate to not watching because I had to pack on calories any way I could get them, to maintain my weight. Eventually those healthy habits slid as a result of trying to maintain weight.
The thing I got from that was the love for hard work again. My marriage had sucked that out of me. I was a shadow of who I was before, even though I cast enough of a shadow to cover two of who I was before lol. I got that hard physical labor love back. I kept eating like I was climbing trees when I was only running a bucket truck. After I came out of the bucket truck to the desk, I didn’t switch.
I won’t say I quit drinking alcohol, but I went through a stretch where I thought I was 21 again, and keeping the distilleries in business, chasing anything with a pulse and b cup+. That said… some changes have gradually occurred in the last couple years, to make this easier, and not as much of a struggle (so far it’s easy and not a struggle at all). Since the first time I got Covid, I lost my taste and desire for alcohol. I’ll still have one on the rare occasion, but usually don’t finish a drink; and those drinks happen once every 4-6mo. That desire is gone. Built a house in 2020, money got funneled towards home stuff, so less to spend on alcohol and women. Easy switch. Bought a boat in 2021. Focus went back to fishing for the first time since before I was married. Cut back more on eating out and such because fishing takes $$. Kiddo playing club volleyball, plus school ball, and started tourny crappie fishing in fall of 2021. There goes the budget for eating out even more. Long term girlfriend came along in fall of 21 as well. Thankfully that hasn’t cut into my budget lol. Bought a bass boat last year, cue more money going out. Those changes started triggering me to bring leftovers for lunch, bring breakfast etc. That $20 I was spending to eat each day was a tank of gas in the boat over a week, a tourny entry fee, jig tying supplies, etc. Soon bringing lunch and breakfast was just second nature. Reigning in and tweaking what I was eating was the next step. Got it figured out again as to what would hold me over best between meals, and still be healthy and viola.
Biggest struggle now is the time I get home from work, until dinner. I usually have plenty of calories in my budget for a snack then, but I know how easy it is to go down that rabbit hole. Now I pick something productive to get done, because chores and projects never end, and go work in that until it’s time to come in or slow down for dinner. Win win.
I had all my blood work done in April. I’ll probably schedule an annual physical in October to see where I stand. We get annual biometric screenings for insurance incentives annually, and I never go for a physical, but I believe I will now, just to check in.
Thanks for the kind words slowboater. I love hearing others stories and being inspired by them. I agree with you on the exercise thing. I had regimented exercise. I like physical labor, especially working up wood (arborist since 2014… still in the industry), and grew up and now live next to a wood burning household, when it get cold enough these days.
That is quite a story and sequence of events. And I'll bet the wood burning neighbors wouldn't mind some extra help getting the firewood ready, either!
Thanks for sharing. Keep the faith in yourself and keep the focus....you know the path so stay on it.
I'll use Monday for the weekly update.
256.3- I first hit the 256 mark on May 26. It's ranged from 257.6 to 255.0 in the last 8 days. Somewhat of a stall. About to have three teeth pulled tomorrow. I expect that # to drop down below 255 again. Will see what happens in the coming weeks.
Week 7 check in shows me back at 218 for some reason. I've had a very active week with lots of exercise after work hours so not sure what's going on. Possible that no fat lost but muscle gained but it is what it is. I'm not going to panic about it. But I have to admit I'm not happy about it.
I do realize that as I get closer to my goal weight the slower it's going to come off so maybe the 1st 10 were the easy ones.
What did you eat? I had some teeth extracted this past week and ate a lot of processed foods. I was under caloric budget, but weight didn't move much. I feel like the sodium intake held some water weight throughout the week. Had to hop back in the field with the crews this weekend and that moved the needle again.
248.2 this morning.
Way to go on that big drop! Hope your mouth is healing up fast.
As for my diet, the only thing I did differently that I'm aware of is I had 4 diet soda's where I usually have 1 per week. I have read where diet soda's can interfere with weight loss but if that is my problem, I think it's the first time I've had it really affect me. I've cut back to none for this week and will see if that gets me going back in the right direction. Again, I'm not worried, it happens; body is not a linear machine and there will be up's and downs.
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