A few years ago, Miggy told us the tale of getting fit. He changed his diet, he added exercise, he did more, he ate less, and he weighed less.
At the time he was going through this, I was feeling pretty fat. Being fat made it difficult to want to do many things. I was fighting depression.
As part of the process of getting fit, I went to a local Zumba studio to use their treadmill. I started walking. Then I started walking rapidly. After a few months, I was actually jogging.
Unfortunately, my knee started to give me trouble. My doctor gave me a choice: jog and get a knee replacement or find something else to do.
I settled on a recumbent exercise bike. It helped. Then the panic hit. Things got bad.
Just as my doctor told me to stop jogging, my weight had plateaued at 285.
At my last doctor’s visit, the office scale read 312. This included full gear minus my EDC pistol. So spare magazines… Never , I’m making excuses for that very high number.
My morning weigh-in for the same day was 303.
Monday morning, my weight was 295. My weight loss for the week was 4 pounds, but I’m averaging about a pound a week.
For exercise I still have the exercise bike, but spending 2 or 3 hours using handsaws and hand planes to make things seems to be exercise as well.
I’m in this for the long run. In 1976 I was pleased to celebrate the 200th birthday of my country. I intend to celebrate the 300th as well.
I went from 240 to 165 doing low-carb and exercise. It’s amazing how much better your joints feel when you reduce the load by 70 pounds. I read and applied the lessons of “Why we get fat and what to do about it”. “Lies my doctor told me” by Dr Ken Barry is also excellent.
Traded in my treadmill for an elliptical machine. Found one that wasn’t great for $50 at a thrift store and saved for a better one. Both have been pretty gentle on my joints.
Low carb has some interesting side effects. I am careful to eat Sauer kraut and drink unsweetened keifer to maintain solid vitamin C levels and to keep “regular”. I keep cheddar “moon cheese” for snacking. My weekly carb treat always includes cherry yogurt to avoid gout.
My wife said I was too skinny at 165 so I oscillate between 175 and 185, depending on how much I let myself go for holidays, birthdays, vacations, etc. Good luck!
Congratulations, the decision to do something about your health is a tough one to make, and a tougher one to keep. I cannot encourage you enough to keep it up.
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I will go against the flow and say that weight is not necessarily the main factor in health. It IS a major factor, but there are ways to be overweight, but still overall healthy. Check your heart rate regularly, is your cholesterol OK, what do your joints feel like, do you have stamina to do what you want to do, etc…
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Losing weight is more about eating less, not exercise. It takes how many hours to burn off 1,000 calories? But, it only takes a few minutes to put them back on. Good food choices, and smaller portions is the way to drop the pounds, it is damned near impossible to exercise them off.
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One more point. Aging well requires three things: Balance, Flexibility, and Strength. The folks that have those are the ones who are traveling, gardening, taking care of their own homes, etc… the folks that let those factors slide are the ones that end up in the hospital because they fell down.
When I was diagnosed with a disease that could be mitigated by diet; I sought the services of a nutrition counselor. She did not recommend radical diet changes , portion control and activity. Its has helped me out a lot.
I suffered a muscle strain, im looking forward to getting back to exercising again. Otherwise, im just sfaying active.
” but I’m averaging about a pound a week.”
For those reading and thinking about losing weight: One pound a week is 52 pounds a year. One pound a week is not an impossible goal to achieve with some effort. Imagine all of the sudden, you have to go buy pants again not because they are tight but the opposite and all in one year, a sedated pace.
And believe me, you will probably be losing more than one pound per week after 8 months, but don’t be greedy and don’t overdo it till you force a failure.
This is your elephant…one bite (less) at the time.
And you go Chris!
What is really nice about “one pound a week” is the ease of sustaining it. In my non-medical opinion, it is better to lose it slow through lifestyle and diet change, than fast, and hope you will sustain it indefinitely.
Awesome news Chris. I never comment because most things I don’t know much about, here is the exception. Losing weight is hard. The low carb comment is spot on. Eat lots of meat and avoid low fat items. They remove the fat and replace with sugars. If you consistently eat mostly meat and keep carbs low your body will burn fat for energy instead of carbs. You will also not feel hungry as meat is satiating. Last thing. If you dislike cardio as much as I do lifting weights is a great way to shed body fat as well.