My dad had a bum knee and poor self esteem in many ways. He didn’t eat too much more than he should have, but he had trouble working it off because of his knee problem. (He could swim, and did, but not enough to keep his weight down.) At age 45 he was too proud to go for a knee replacement, not to mention, he probably couldn’t have afforded it because of supporting a family of 8. So that weight just kept adding on. He ended up becoming diabetic because of it. That and a heart condition killed him at a young 73.
Because of his diabetes, I paid attention to my doctor telling me that the best way for me to not do the same thing as Dad was to work on losing weight. I don’t have bum knees, so I can exercise, and do. What I needed was motivation. At one point, I saw a photo of myself, and felt disgusted for what I done to my body. I resolved to work it off. It took me about 18 months to lose 50 pounds, with the help of Rx medicine. Felt great! That was in the Fall of 2018.
Then it started sneaking back on after treatment was stopped. I knew I would gain some back. Within a year, I had gained 10 back. Still felt ok, but somehow couldn’t get my weight to go back down. Always up. Then CoVid came. I started putting the pounds on more quickly than before. In 9 months I put 10 pounds on! Ugh!
So I started trying to diet again sensibly when the New Year started. I’ve been doing something different this time. I’m focusing on not just what I eat, but when I eat, and why I’m eating. I’ve upped my exercise and drink more water. I’m getting better sleep, and learning that stress is a factor, too. I am trying to be my best self. I’ve lost the 10 pounds that I put on during 2020. I’m not stopping either. Plateaus are no fun, but I know I can do this, because I’ve done it before. I want the weight to STAY off this time.
I eat a lot of variety of foods, I am experimenting with all different kinds of things, not limiting myself to one certain diet. When I do have a craving, which is much less common for me now, I “treat” myself as a reward instead of considering it as “cheating”. My attitude towards food is much healthier. I think this time, I’m going to be able to hit my goal and stay there. I believe I can be successful!
That’s awesome and, boy, do I know the struggle! Congrats on the success and the right attitude.
I started in 2019 by counting calories. My wife talked me in to Keto and together we started melting the pounds away. I’m the cook in our home so I started investigating all sorts of keto-friendly recipes. I also tried to do intermittent fasting early on but that was too strenuous.
After dropping about 45 pounds I discovered that my calorie ceiling had gotten lower. That was about 3.5 months in. By that time I’d faced the worse of my cravings and had established some hard core discipline about nutrition. I’d also established a regular waking routine. But things were slowing down and I still had a long way to go. So I started looking at IF again and did a 16:8 routine for a bit. But at my low calorie ceiling that was annoying. So now I do OMAD (one meal a day). Technically I’m doing a 20:4 routine but that ultimately amounts to OMAD for me.
January of 2020 I discovered I had kidney cancer. Between that and the lockdowns I put on my 35 pounds over the course of 2020 so this January (cancer free) I began to work again. Boy it was a LOT harder to get things going but I’m finally back down to 206 today.
My goals is 180... my doctor says 190. Bah.
Like you my motivations were the cautionary tales of others who I watched live in low quality of life situations as a result of the weight. More importantly I watched some folks hasten their demise by the complications that come with obesity and other health issues (like cancer).
When I was diagnosed with cancer I had greatly improved the ability of my surgeon to see and operate on me by reducing both internal and external fat.