Tag: #weightgain

  • No More Late Night Snacks

    Spring is here and Summer isn’t too far away. The seasons of rebirth and change is upon us. I think I have mentioned that I have put on twenty pounds of the course of the pandemic, and before that, I had put on a stress ten pounds from my former shitty job situation, my mother’s death, and moving away and then back to NYC. Food was the only thing giving me any comfort, and ice cream was my best friend. So, I’m front loaded now; just completing my slow transformation to middle aged white male – balding with a belly. As you can read, I’m not too happy about this.

    I am trying to wrap my head around getting back to a healthy lifestyle, as I don’t think I have really ever had a healthy lifestyle. I just sort of lived, and it all took care of itself. Well… those days are over, and I have to move this to the forefront of my thinking. This week, I am starting small; no more snacking after 9pm. This might be low hanging fruit, so to speak, but I think it is the lynchpin of the issues I am having. Mainly, no discipline. I want to see if I can go a week without snacking, controlling my behavior. If I can do this, then I think I can move on to more complicated things.

    And the complicated things are; running, maybe daily; eating better, or at least what we all can agree on as a family; and the really ambitious one, hiking.

    But before I can get there, I have to say goodbye to my 11pm ice cream break.

  • Covid Weight Gain

    I put on some weight over the pandemic. Let’s say it’s close to twenty pounds. And when I say that it’s close to twenty pounds, I mean that it is over twenty pounds. I have put on over twenty pounds. In fact, I just weighed myself, and it’s 21.3 pounds. Mind you, I was a little pudgy around my middle before the pandemic, but that was due to driving everywhere in California, and not walking like I used to do in New York, But, before California, I had added a little weight after the kid was born, that I never took off. So, I’m thick in the middle. I’m a thick in the middle, middle aged guy.

    And I want to do something about it.

    Part of it is that I have been eating my feelings. Especially eating my feelings late at night when I watch MST3k on Pluto TV. (That’s my happy place.) I used to walk everywhere in pre-pandemic New York, like close to 9,000 steps a day without trying. I just looked at my phone’s pedometer, and looks like I walk about 4,000 steps a day. So, not doing too well there, even for the low hanging fruit. To be successful, I know that I have to change my lazy grazing life style, along with doing some exercise, and just moving more.

    But the issue is just getting started. Getting off my ass and beginning seems like a million miles away. I know all the benefits that will come if I just start working out a little, and I can even go the super vein route and say that I want to look good when I go to the beach this Summer. (Since I will be vaccinated by the start of May, I think I should go on vacation.) And not to mention that I should do things to stay alive for as long as possible, family and kid in all…

    But…

    But… The pandemic sure has made me physically lazy.

    No.

    Actually, the pandemic gave me to opportunity to be lazy, and I took full advantage of it.

  • Sleep

    I never said I was smart, but I have always hoped I would be one day.

    With all the changes that have come my way in the past year, I have noticed two major developments:

    1. I don’t sleep well
    2. I have put on 20 lbs.

    There are other things that have changed, and not necessarily for the better, but I have these two are the most important, should be addressed relatively soon, and interconnected.

    My sleep problems have become more severe over the year, I am up later, and I find my self mindlessly eating. (Ice cream and chips are my biggest weakness.) If I were to sleep better, then I wouldn’t be eating at 2am, right? That seems simple. I should be able to address this easily.

    And you can figure out that I haven’t been able to get my arms around this.

    I had been thinking that I don’t have enough time to get all the things done that I desire to do. I even said that to myself the other day as I ate chocolate ice cream and watched “Drunk History.”

    That’s when it started to dawn on me; it’s not the lack of time, it’s the bad management of time.

    There is a psychological factor here. Planning out my sleep, and all the other things in my life doesn’t feel fun, or spontaneous.

    But is being out of shape and having no energy, and watching my life pass me by fun and spontaneous?

    This will be a long slow process of getting my life back on track. I will have lots of setbacks, and screw ups, but when I woke up today, I had to admit that the way I am living now isn’t making me happy.