YellowKing wrote: ↑Tue Nov 02, 2021 11:11 am
I had a real eye-opener this week. I went to put on my old khaki work pants for a Halloween costume. These are the business casual pants I wore every day to work back at the start of 2020 - and I almost couldn't fit in them.
It's one thing to see your weight on the scale and know you've gained a few pounds, it's quite another to realize you can't even fit in your clothes anymore. Clearly, whatever I was doing was not working.
I know that giving weight loss advice isn't always appreciated, and sometimes rightly so, therefore skip the rest of my post if you aren't interested.
For the past few years, anytime we were going on a trip I'd like my wife pick out what I was going to wear
and then I'd try on every pair of pants and shorts to make sure it fit well enough so I wouldn't be uncomfortable. This past spring my weight was up even more and I was really having to be careful with what got packed. And I was sweating even more and developing a gut. After my wife made a few choice comments
back in May, it kick-started me into getting serious about weight loss.
I was already walking any day we didn't have anything planned, but with increasing arthritis in my feet doing more walking wasn't an option. So I went on a rather aggressive change of eating habits. We were already eating meals only twice a day, so at those meals I cut down on what I ate (portion control) and also cut out certain sides, like if I had a sandwich I'd forgo the chips I usually had with them. I switched to a lite salad dressing and other changes of that ilk.
My biggest change was to cut out all junk food. No afternoon snacking on pretzels or chips, no late evening raids on the pantry. I also cut out all sweets, no cookies, candy or ice cream, in fact no desserts at all. Essentially I cut out all eating except for those two meals. I do allow myself a daily snack of a couple of kosher dill pickle spears. I also have a small bottle of caffeine free diet coke in the afternoon and in the evening I have a mug of hot tea, although I cut the amount of sugar I use in half. I tried it entirely without but that's too drastic.
I was dubious at first about results, but remembering having to deal with tight or not even fitting clothes was a good motivator. There were plateaus and reverses, but in the end I went down about thirty pounds in five months. I know that if I'm ever to back off from this change of eating habits my weight would go back up, so I'm sticking with it. The good news is that I went off the diet during our two week road trip and put on six pounds, but when we returned and I got back on the regimen I dropped five of those six pounds in nine days. So I can enjoy a trip as long as I commit to going back on the diet when we return.
The mixed news is that my shorts and pants are so loose now that without a belt they'd fall right off
. So my wife wants to buy me a whole new set of clothes, but I know that is tempting fate
Code: Select all
Sat 10.30 245 :)
Thu 10.28 248
Thu 10.21 250 back from vacation
Mon 10.04 244 :)
Sun 9.26 245 :)
Sat 9.18 247
Sun 9.12 247 :)
Sat 9.04 248
Sat 8.28 248 :)
Sat 8.21 249 :)
Sat 8.14 251
Sat 8.07 251 :(
Sat 7.31 250
Sat 7.24 252
Sat 7.17 253 :)
Mon 7.12 256 :(
Tue 7.06 255
Tue 6.29 256
Tue 6.22 258
Tue 6.15 261
Tue 6.08. 264
Wed 6.02 270
Tue 5.25 270
Tue 5.18 272
Mon 5.10 274
...That was something I enjoyed when I got back to 200 or a bit under. I could look down and see my shoes / toes / feet without sucking in my belly or bending forward to look down.
. Back on the diet and exercise starting today.
. I'm finally back to walking my regular three miles most mornings, but in less than two weeks I'm going off for another trip, so I'm just aiming to keep my weight no higher than it was when we came back from our October trip. And I got rid of those black dress shoes