As it were…

In October of 2019 I decided I needed to lose weight. I did a blog post called “Time To Change My Eating“. I made a cool tool to track my weight, which I’ve mostly kept up with ever since, even though there are some gaps. I did pretty well until Feb 2020, the most I lost was 15 lbs.

I’m not sure what made me give it up. It was before Covid came, but I know I used Covid as an excuse to eat badly for the rest of the year. I could call it stress eating, but honestly I haven’t really been stressed. I just liked eating.

In August I decided to do a little better, and I lost 10 lbs again, but it didn’t last long. By early January 2021 I was at my heaviest, 264 lbs.

On January 26th I went for my normal annual doctor visit. The previous year she had told me I was overweight, and said most people at my weight were diabetic within one year. So this year, right away I told her she was going to find that I was overweight and I was diabetic. After the checkup she said “Any other prophecies you want to tell me?” Sure enough, I’m “Severely Obese” and diabetic. Also I have very high blood pressure.

So I went home and told my family I was making some changes.

The Plan

I’m doing a combo of light fasting and smaller portions, as well as cutting back on carbs. I’ve been much of a breakfast eater, and I’ve been eating lunch as late as 3pm, so if I don’t snack in the evening I’ll often go 20 hours without eating. It feels very comfortable.

I’m also limiting my portions. I used to eat until I couldn’t anymore, because it was so good. Now I simply eat half that.

As for carbs I haven’t cut them out, but gotten rid of the worst. When we get fast food I eat the bun but don’t get fries. I quit chips altogether. I used to eat a half a bag in an evening in front of the TV.

Exercise

I haven’t really spun this up yet, but I’m close. We have a treadmill, and recently the family helped me unbury it, and I’ll be walking quite a bit soon. I asked for a weight bench for Christmas (anticipating this stage in life) and got it, so I’m excited to set that up.

How It’s Going

As of today, I am exactly the weight I was when I started in Oct 2019.

Total Weight Lost: -16.4 lbs. in 1449 days.

491 days. That sounds so long, to get to where I started. It could be depressing. On the other hand, take a look at this data, looking only at 26 Jan (Drs, appt), I’ve lost 10 lbs in 14 days.

Total Weight Lost: -6.4 lbs. in 972 days.

It’s much more encouraging to see that my actions are having positive effect. I’d love to be around 200lbs when I go to my next WordCamp. We’ll see what happens. Feel free to ask me about it and hold me accountable.

Photo by photo-nic.co.uk nic on Unsplash