Tag: weigh-in

The Wandering Hermit: Hat & Heels & Illusionary Fat Loss

   17 July 2024  Leave a Comment on The Wandering Hermit: Hat & Heels & Illusionary Fat Loss

I went on a walk with Justin this afternoon.  He’s been feeling sick, so we couldn’t do a full 2 miles, but he did a mile and a half.  I think that’s pretty good.  He went to his room to sleep the rest of the day, but that was likely his plan anyway.

I feel like going to local parks and walking as many as possible for a while.  Maybe mixing that with my usual walks in the morning… maybe doing those in addition to the morning walks.  It’s just so much better on my feet to not be on gravel, but I do miss my usual walks.  It’s been almost a week since I did one out here.  I’ll try to get one in tomorrow morning.  Change is uncomfortable, even when it doesn’t matter.  Walking the paved sidewalks just felt so good, I could have done twice as much as I normally do.  I need to pay attention to those sorts of things.  Wherever I can increase distance without overdoing it, I need to do that.

I need more hats.  I’m trying to get used to wearing hats more.  I like the look of them and they do protect me from the sun.  If I’m going to be spending increasing time outside when the sun is up, I need to wear hats when I walk.  I’m wondering if my 5:00am walks are over for now.  It is my favorite time for a walk, but it’s already too dark now.  If I was going to a gym, I could continue, but I think I might need to push back to 6 or 6:30.  I don’t love that, but I can still get up and do things at 5.  I just need to shuffle around my routine.

Okay, I need to get more work on my sides.  I’m not sure what to do exactly.  I know I can just look it up, and I will.  But it is apparent I need more work on that.

Over the weekend, I lost too much weight.  I had lost 7 extra pounds since last Thursday, which I felt was too fast.  I actually had that revelation while showering on Monday morning.  I just felt like I had lost too much and I wasn’t feeling great about it.  I was eating, but I just felt off.  I confirmed that Tuesday when I noticed I’d lost 7 pounds.  Rapid weight loss is fine, but if it is too rapid that can cause a lot of problems.  In the hopes it was an illusion caused by dehydration, I got some higher calorie foods and just packed in calories for the day.  When I woke up this morning, things made more sense.  It looked like I had lost 2 pounds since last Thursday, which is more reasonable.  I also feel a lot better than I did… and I wan’t feel bad per se.  I was just feeling a little off.  I felt like the fat was decreasing, but not correctly.  I was drinking a ton of water, but it’s dry out there.  I think it might have just been dehydration.  I’m back to normal eating and I’ll just have to wait to see what next Monday’s weight is.  I’m taking this morning’s as my end of week.  I just don’t trust Tuesday’s, even though it would be nice.  I never want to do anything illusionary or so quickly that I make myself sick.

[Walk #126]

The Wandering Hermit: Obesity: Let’s Talk About It

   8 July 2024  Leave a Comment on The Wandering Hermit: Obesity: Let’s Talk About It

Does obesity have meaning anymore?

I’ve been overweight for my entire adult life, and obesity is a word that gets thrown around a lot when discussing weight.  It’s one that is meant to have a specific meaning, but is as hollow and vague as overweight these days.  And it’s the more upsetting sounding of the two, and so a lot of folks have a strong aversion to being called obese, even if it is clinically correct.  But I think it’s really a problem of messaging.  I’ve just now gone from Obese class III to Obese class II.  I both feel like celebrating that and I still need to acknowledge that I cannot stop and smell the flowers here.  I need to be visitor here at this weight category.  I won’t even be considered less than obese until I’m under 200 pounds, something I’m not sure is possible at this point.  I’ll keep working my way down there, but my meal plan is what it is at this point and the calorie deficit is less and less deficient every day.  I won’t be considered “Normal” weight until 169 pounds, and that just seems silly actually.  I haven’t been that weight since middle school probably.  It sounds like a child’s weight to me because it was for me.  I have no idea what weight I will settle at.

Obesity is on the rise.  Severe obesity (BMI of 40+) is trending upward at a slightly lower rate, but that’s where I lived for many years.  Now that I am in the regular obesity classes, I just feel like the language we use about these issues makes no sense.  It does nothing to explain to a person like me that at 150 pounds heavier, it is hard to lift your legs and it might be hard to walk in a place that requires stepping over things.  I have no such problem now.  I used to think I had wide feet.  Apparently I had fat feet.  There’s such a world of difference between being 420 pounds and 257 pounds, but all of the health data lumps the two in together.  It’s too broad.   

[Walk #116]

Daily Log: 18 September 2023

   18 September 2023  Leave a Comment on Daily Log: 18 September 2023

FOOD:

  • 4 small potatoes, enchilada sauce, Southwestern mustard
  • GV SF Lemonade
  • corn tortillas, Walden Farms Sweet & Tangy Chicken Dip’N Sauce, Southwestern mustard
  • salad: iceberg lettuce, cucumber, green bell peppers, unMeat Chicken-style Chunks, pepperoncinis, kidney beans, Brussels sprouts, Napa cabbage, kohlrabi, broccoli, carrots, kale, Southwestern mustard
  • Stuffed collard green (collard green leaf, Smoky Rice, Gardein Ground Be’f), grilled squash (yellow & zucchini, grilled pepper (Anaheim & Bell), steamed onions, steamed bell peppers, Corn & Beans, 2 small russet potatoes

NOTES:  I weighed-in this morning 373 lbs.  That’s a loss of 47 lbs since I started this plan.  As usual, I spent the two days prior dreading stepping on the scale.  I’m worried that it will stop showing progress at some point, but I need to get over my anxiety with that.  I’m doing the thing. Continue reading “Daily Log: 18 September 2023” →

Daily Log: 11 September 2023

   11 September 2023  Leave a Comment on Daily Log: 11 September 2023

FOOD:

  • Brussels sprouts, fat free refried beans, nutritional yeast, Frontier Co-op Mexican Fiesta Seasoning, spring mix salad
  • GV SF Lemonade
  • Pasta: Ready Pasta Macaroni, Gardein Ground Be’f, spicy hummus, Roma tomato

NOTES: Fantastic Day!  I’m down 41 pounds since I started on 6 August 2023.  I felt so great when I weighed, no doubt aided by my apprehension in doing so.  I had wanted to see a certain number to prove the scale wasn’t just broken and I finally believe that it is working just fine. Continue reading “Daily Log: 11 September 2023” →

Five More Pounds!

   4 September 2023  Leave a Comment on Five More Pounds!

Weight: 385 lbs

Okay, okay… so I was wrong.  I’ve lost another five pounds.  I’m so pleased with that.  I’ve been working at this for about a month now and I have lost about 25 pounds.  While I cannot be sure of that number, losing ten pounds in ten days of a fasting mimicking diet is completely normal and I assume it was around that.

I worried that increasing my calories would have hurt my progress, but it seems to have not slowed me down at all.  To be fair, I’ve had so much energy that I’ve been up cleaning the house a lot more than I had been.  Still, If I can keep this up I should be able to set some goals that I thought seemed unreasonable and now feel obtainable.  I’m being cautious about those kinds of goals still.  I want to see the weight headed in the same direction over the next month to really trust that I can rely on losing weight.  Dr. McDougall always tells people that if you are eating this way you should be able to get to your ideal weight in a year.  Most of those people are starting out significantly smaller than I am, but it is still encouraging to see numbers today that suggest that he isn’t wrong.  Maybe more like two years, but still.  I’m doing almost no exercise still.  I need to work on that and stop being scare of my own legs.

While I’m not ready to set dates for goals, I have already decided to set some achievement gifts to myself.  That should serve as just another way of keeping me motivated.  I’m working on that now and I’ll post it when I have it outlined better.

Daily Log: 28 August 2023

   28 August 2023  Leave a Comment on Daily Log: 28 August 2023

WEIGHT: 390

FOOD: Calories 1328, Carbs 312g, Fiber 50g, Protein 43g, Fat 0g

  • Soup: tomato sauce, seasoning blend, mushroom slices, pearl onions, carrots, mushroom seasoning, msg, vegan chicken soup base
  • 6 medium baked potatoes (4 with soup, 2 roasted into crispy wedges
  • GV SF Lemonade

NOTES: The soup was pretty good, but it needed to be spicier.  I find that I want everything to be spicier lately.

I lost again.  I hope I keep it up.

🍅 Full Log for August 2023 🥫

Discouraged

   21 August 2023  Leave a Comment on Discouraged

I lost 4 lbs.  While that is more than reasonable weight loss in a week, I still felt discouraged when I saw that number.

One thing I am used to when losing weight is the initial extreme loss, which granted is normally water.  Because I was heavier than my scale could record, I was  unable to get my weight until 14 August.  By then, I had been working hard on my plan for more than a week, so I imagine I missed out on some of that initial loss and the excitement you feel on seeing the numbers decrease so quickly on the scale. 4 pounds is a good amount of loss in one week.  It just is.  And I need to remember that.  That is a week with almost no exercise.  That is a week when I felt full everyday. 

I’ve felt generally discouraged.  Emotions cycle all the time and I understand that they will constantly change while I’m trying to lose weight.  I feel just as motivated as I did, but just somewhat less optimistic.  I’ve had too much time to sit think about food and dieting and my plan.  I have a tendency to obsess over whatever I’m working on, but to the exclusion of everything else.  Focusing on losing weight just keeps me reminded that I have so much weight to lose.  It is a reminder of my failures.  I need to get back to other things in my life, but hopefully the way I’ve set everything up will allow me to be successful without too much effort.

Today I’m finally getting my exercise bike set up, so that will add at least 30 minutes of exercise daily.  That should help see these numbers continue.  And I’m going to try and keep reminding myself that losing 4 pounds in one week is still pretty good.