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Riffing off one of Leonard Cohen's more unfortunate poems:
The summer pants
I bought fifteen pounds ago
I can wear them now.
It is never too late.
I advise you all
To become high cholesterol pre-diabetics.
Of course autumn and its teen C weather has come back again, and of course these are still billowy trousers unsafe for biking in. But still.
Am also now in possession of Susannah Clarke's Piranesi and will hunker down with it in these next few rainy days, once I'm done with the books on the go.
The summer pants
I bought fifteen pounds ago
I can wear them now.
It is never too late.
I advise you all
To become high cholesterol pre-diabetics.
Of course autumn and its teen C weather has come back again, and of course these are still billowy trousers unsafe for biking in. But still.
Am also now in possession of Susannah Clarke's Piranesi and will hunker down with it in these next few rainy days, once I'm done with the books on the go.
no subject
There's a really good sub-reddit called Fatlogic, which is very helpful and encouraging for people who want to lose weight in a sensible and healthy way. I'm not a member, I just lurk every so often, for encouragement. From the posts, a lot of the people on it are fat and working on getting back into a lower-risk BMI range.
no subject
I'm gone down the same amount over three years, which has made certain things more accessible. But I'm pretty sure that even if I was what I weighed in my thirties (another seven kg) my clothes from then wouldn't fit as they did, since menopause shifts all one's fat around to where you don't want it. Of course hope spring eternal, which is why I kept them in the first place.
Right now I just want to be *less*, for my knees' sake, and in the hopes of being able to have baths again.
no subject
Then in April 2019 my housekeeper went on leave for a month, so I took the opportunity to:
(a) swim every morning for half an hour, since I had to get up to feed the Beastie Boys anyway;
(b) Eat less. Large microwaved bowls of vegetables with a bit of chopped up ham/bacon/garlic sausage for flavour for lunch, that sort of thing. And for work meals, not being afraid to leave food on the plate if I wasn't hungry any more.
Since I was at a stable weight to start with, just one that was too high (ie not gaining), adding exercise and reducing calories started working at once, which gave me encouragement to keep going. I plateaued at about 6 kg down around July 2019, and then just lost little by little from March 2020 when the COVID-19 restrictions came in.
Losing the fat slowly as you have is the best way to do it because it gives you time to adjust your eating habits to a lower appetite, since you don't need to maintain such a large mass anymore. Some people treat it as a mindfulness exercise - trying to assess whether they are hungry or not whenever they feel like eating. I think the term of art is "not eating your emotions". Never my problem, I was just careless about quantity. Once I started paying attention it was quite straightforward.
A lot of people find calorie counting an easy way to give themselves a clear visual about what quantity of what food gives how many calories. There are a lot of free apps for that. They also get quick results by cutting out empty calories like sweet drinks - soft drinks and those coffee milk-shake things that people get at Starbucks.
Basically weight is lost by maintaining a caloric deficit (quantity), but health is kept by making sure those calories come from proper food (quality). Plus vegetables and other high-fibre food give you a lot of volume in exchange for not that many calories if you cook them properly, so that helps people who worry about being hungry.
Oh dear, that's terribly long-winded for a simple question. So sorry!
no subject
I understand how your housekeeper's vacation would have kickstarted the next loss. The reason I lost weight even in lockdown was no more restaurant meals and having to cook for myself. I wasn't limiting portions exactly and I *was* drinking more gin and tonics, but I couldn't be arsed to make cream sauces or cook steaks. Of course, the minute I stopped the sugar and cheese n' crackers last month, and the bread and rice, it started rolling off.
I'm no good with calorie counting or portion exchanges. Anything arbitrary that limits what I can eat starts the internal toddler screaming. So I take it from he health perspective, because I want off of statins and my blood sugar down ASAP. Cut sugars and carbs, swap out fats, and the weight loss is just a bonus.
no subject
I was lucky enough not to have any particular health shock that needed fast weight loss, so slow was fine. The appetite adjustment is important, since after I hit the target (0.7 kg down this week, 2.7 kg to go! Water retention is a real thing to be aware of when you are tracking your weight daily) I will have to maintain it for the rest of my life. I don't like gyms, so swimming and dancing and taichi will probably be what I continue to do for fun and to keep my activity level up. Exercise is good anyway, so the weight maintenance will be the nice bonus!
It might be helpful at some point for you to talk to your dietary medical advisor (I'm not sure what it would be called - dietician? nutritionist?) about your eventual maintenance diet and exercise level, after you've fixed the immediate problem, so that you can start transitioning your habits gradually.
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Dietician or nutritionist, both are fine. 'At some point' will be after surgery, whenever that is, because there's very little cardio exercise available to me now. Also will be evaluating what diet does, because I don't intend to abstain from alcohol and carbs for the rest of my life. There's a balance between health and quality of life, once you get to be as old as I am.
no subject
Good luck with your surgery. I have osteoarthritis myself, crocky knees are horrible.