Covid fat
 

I can't ditch covid fat. I have an eating disorder.

Here's the story. I am about 20 lbs over.

Lock down started, kids wanted pizza. Phone in, guys tells me, for 5 bucks, you get another. Oh, why the heck not. I ended up eating it all since those people can't finish it. For the first two years, it was fine and I was out riding a lot and kept the weight controlled and was not over eating. The last two years, I completely over ate and we were hell bent on supporting all of out local food places. We would seek out south east Asian foods and drive crazy distances just to try. We were bored to hell locked up going to school on the computer screen. Felt bad for my kids having to do that. My kids and I discovered our liking to saucy food with strong spices (not hot) while my wife has a pretty typical blend taste.

Here's how I gain the freaking fat. Once things opened up, we started to go out to these restaurants, tried everything, asking the waiting staff and order based on recommendations. Damn, we just had Malaysian/Singapore food. That curry is to die for. On Monday, we drove an hour to have Burmese food.

Stopped riding but back to one day a week about a two years ago. Work got crazy busy. I noticed my tee shirts had shrunk little by little from sitting in my drawers. Freaking cheap shirts, I tell ya. About 3 months ago, I tore my PCL and meniscus on my right leg. No more riding so I just sit and or course eat more. I can't stop. Sad things is, I normally don't over eat like that. I feel bad but I ate at Cesear's Palaces buffet last Thursday when I was in Vegas. You know I gotta get my money's worth. It was 65 bucks:eek:

I need a 12 step program to get me off this. I have no back bone and snack often now. I do not do sweets and junk food just loads of pasta, potato, bread, rice and such. I am addicted to carbs. Starting tomorrow, I have to cut my portions back to normal. Hoping to get back to myself by Thanksgiving. Last time I lost 15 lbs was easy. It took little over a month by cutting down half my carb and food intake. I just can't seem to do it now. Any tips?

That's about the amount of weight I have lost. I'd buy it off you if I could.

I've been working really hard for the last few months on a property renovation, so I've kind of burnt it off. But I look like a skinny old man and that's not a good look.

But good luck to you and my only advice is to not eat or drink sugary things.

I get it. 12 step is about right.

Call out an intervention on yourself. Seriously.

As a skinny old man I kind of resent that remark! (Better by far than a skinny old man than a fat old man)

How did you lose that much? Stress on working on your rentals? What are you doing to the house (s)?

Put a mirror on the fridge. Or a scale in front of the fridge.

I wrote FAT on a piece of paper and stuck it on the ref. Those left over mid night snacks are sure tasty. Lasted for one week. Wife and kids were laughing their asses off. This is the fattest I have been. Almost 20 over is no joke.

Oh btw, thank goodness I have those sugary drinks. Black coffee is about all I drink and no alcohol but an occasional beer in 6-8 months during the year.

Stress and hard work.

Paint preping and painting the outside and the inside. Fixing trees and garden tenant had hacked into. Replacing all the curtains, new oven and cooktop. Fixing/replacing hinges on kitchen cabinetry, fixing roof leak problems, the gas pipes are rusted out so gas man installed new ones. The gas hot water cylinder was about to die so I installed a Rinnai internal gas califont. Gas man told me the gas regulator and meter aren't letting enough gas through so I'm trying to get the gas supply people to fix that. Resealing windows (beach front and sometimes filthy weather so hard to stop leaks) small holes in walls. Hostile neighbours... The list goes on.

That will keep you out of trouble. You have been a busy boy. I had to look up califont.

Yes busy boy, but what about you? A few mm of fat everywhere or in that unfortunate place that gets us all - around the stomach?

If you want to drop weight simply stop eating. You are living beyond your means.

Reduce your caloric intake to less than you can burn in a day. Ditch the bread and stuff made with wheat and flours. These are problem foods: "loads of pasta, potato, bread, rice" Cut the processed foods and minimize sugar to small servings of fruit. Learn how to tap into your glycogen stores.

Throughtout the day if you are not making enough insulin to deal with the high carbs your body will deal with in ways you will not like.

Hi Look,

Good seeing you in Vegas. I thought you looked fine when I saw you, but I get it, many of us can smuggle a few pounds under our shirts!

I’ve had good luck trying to keep any junk eating to early in the day, grilled green beans are delicious, healthy and filling. Try making one meal a day salad.

I do better if I don’t try and go cold turkey- that just backfires on me and then I go full crap. Slowly cut back on the bad foods while slipping in the healthier stuff.

Best of luck to you, check in here daily and we can peer pressure you into better habits.

Rutager

Portion control and activity will get you to where you want to be.

Plus ...no snacks in the evening.:)

Agreed!

I'm currently up 10-15#. I do have a layer on my gut, but I think I mostly put the extra a little bit everywhere which I consider good/lucky. I'm also a bit over 6'1" so that helps too.

Hey Jeff.....

Rutager is right when he says:

"Slowly cut back on the bad foods while slipping in the healthier stuff."

I know you already eat well, but there "may" be some more room for improvement there.

The main point here is it's a process and will take time.

My Mom always says "Inch by inch, life's a cinch. Yard by yard, life's hard."

Sometimes it's a lifestyle change more than anything else.

Look at each decision and chose with integrity.

Get rid of the junk food.
Eat smaller meals.
Eat less meals.

Keep an eye on sugar intake, carb intake and count calories.

Work out too, if you wnat.

1 cut out snacking and/or extra eating, especially in the evening or late.

2 portion control. My go-to is cutting portions/portion control. Most of us (except Steve who's the same size and weight that he was in HS as he so frequently posts ;)) eat far larger portions than we need to. So eating smaller portions is key. Of course, what's often the case, at least for me, is that you finish your portion and there's just a bit left, not enough to save as a leftover, but you don't want it to "go to waste" so you finish it. Well, you either have to learn to save it or throw it out. You can throw out a little food in the interest of improving your health.

If you really want to ramp up your game
3 Fasting, either intermittent or more. The easiest is probably something like, get up, go to work, and don't eat anything in the morning (black coffee is fine) or during the day while you're at work, then eat a normal (not super-sized) dinner. Carry and have tons of water with you throughout the day. Drinking lots of water will make it easier to not eat. You'll also pee like a pregnant diabetic race horse because of the increased intake and because fasting causes some sort of diuretic-like function to kick in. If you REALLY want to kick things up a notch from there, kick your fast up to 36hrs. Eat a normal dinner one night, then don't have anything but water and/or black coffee the entire next day. Then on the 3rd day you can have breakfast (or eat whenever your first normal meal of the day is).

Most folks are unlikely to go for 36 hour fasts, but the 24 hour (dinner, then skip breakfast and lunch) is a bit easier, especially if you're busy at work. Key (at least for me) is having plenty of water to drink which helps stave off feelings of hunger due to an empty stomach.

Fasting is all mental (except maybe if you're diabetic or have some sort of medical condition).

I learned the hard way how to loose weight. Had a heart attack and ended up in the hospital. After they decided what to do (quad bypass) they put me on a very restricted diet. I went in at 205+/- and came out at @180+/-. All that happened in about 4 days time.
Cutting out the two 7ups per day helped a lot. Plus eating smaller portions, cutting out bread etc.
I'm happy to report when I stepped on the scales last night I was at 173, and it's been almost two years since the hospital stay.
I try to bike ride at least every day now, even if it's just around the 'hood on my 1.5 mile course. I did 2 laps in 90+* heat the other day, but yesterday went down to the beach and did my miles there where it was slightly cooler.

I don't envy your your task. It'll be tough. Whenever I think about something to eat now I think 'Is this just false calories or is it going to be put to good use?'
I only drink water and one glass of Cran-Grape juice in the morning. I measure my Grapenuts cereal with a measuring cup now too. Honey and ice cream are my main downfalls now. But as long as I am keeping the weight off I'm allowing myself those pleasures.
I also eat a lot of salmon. Surprisingly I almost prefer it to a good steak now.