The Five-Year-Plan is complete
2017-Sep-04, Monday 15:23![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dorchadas
How appropriate that I'm posting this on Labor Day, comrades.
My initial paragraph was ruined by learning that the "95% regain weight after five years" statistic is not based on solid research. The true number is unknown. Nonetheless, as of the end of August I've maintained a 55-pound weight loss for five years.
I gained a lot of weight in Japan due to a combination of bad eating habits, bad sleeping habits, and depression. I took up exercise when we moved back but it didn't seem to do much, and I was resigned to my old weight being gone when I stumbled on the paleo diet. Now, from a scientific perspective the "paleo" diet is dubious at best. The food of our distant ancestors was "literally anything edible because otherwise they would starve." But I read about cutting down grains, basing the diet on fat, and moving slowly but more consistently and put it into practice. I stopped eating bread and past for dinner in favor of more meat-and-vegetable-based dishes. I quit running and doing aerobic DDR sessions in favor of simply walking. And over the next year and a half, I consistently lost weight until I got down to my high school weight, where I remained until this day.
At my heaviest I weighed 227 lbs (103 kg), which wasn't that much since I'm 196 cm tall, but still more than I was comfortable at. After a year and a half, I weighed 170 lbs (77 kg), busting through the goal I set of 185 lbs. This morning I weighed 174.5.
A few months in,schoolpsychnerd changed her own diet around a bit as well, which prevented us from having to make multiple meals. And I was aided by the fact that I didn't actually have to give anything up--I had never liked mac and cheese or soda, no longer enjoyed sugary candy, and felt indifferent toward pizza and pasta at best. I treated bread as a treat, switching from lunch sandwiches to lunch salads (which I eat to this day) and occasionally getting a loaf of dark rye or sourdough and eating slices of it at dinner, spread thickly with butter. I mean, today we had waffles for breakfast. I don't feel like I'm depriving myself of anything, which is probably the key to me sticking with this eating pattern for so long.
I won't say it's hard, but it does occupy a lot of mental space. I use a food tracking program on my phone and enter literally everything I eat, which is not healthy for someone with disordered eating. And I do a lot of meal planning to make sure I get enough fat in my diet and don't eat too much sugar. But it works for me, and other than studying Japanese, is probably the single longest habit I've stuck with consistently. So hooray!
I'm writing this while walking. 5838 steps of 12,000... 🚶🏻
My initial paragraph was ruined by learning that the "95% regain weight after five years" statistic is not based on solid research. The true number is unknown. Nonetheless, as of the end of August I've maintained a 55-pound weight loss for five years.
I gained a lot of weight in Japan due to a combination of bad eating habits, bad sleeping habits, and depression. I took up exercise when we moved back but it didn't seem to do much, and I was resigned to my old weight being gone when I stumbled on the paleo diet. Now, from a scientific perspective the "paleo" diet is dubious at best. The food of our distant ancestors was "literally anything edible because otherwise they would starve." But I read about cutting down grains, basing the diet on fat, and moving slowly but more consistently and put it into practice. I stopped eating bread and past for dinner in favor of more meat-and-vegetable-based dishes. I quit running and doing aerobic DDR sessions in favor of simply walking. And over the next year and a half, I consistently lost weight until I got down to my high school weight, where I remained until this day.
At my heaviest I weighed 227 lbs (103 kg), which wasn't that much since I'm 196 cm tall, but still more than I was comfortable at. After a year and a half, I weighed 170 lbs (77 kg), busting through the goal I set of 185 lbs. This morning I weighed 174.5.
A few months in,
schoolpsychnerd changed her own diet around a bit as well, which prevented us from having to make multiple meals. And I was aided by the fact that I didn't actually have to give anything up--I had never liked mac and cheese or soda, no longer enjoyed sugary candy, and felt indifferent toward pizza and pasta at best. I treated bread as a treat, switching from lunch sandwiches to lunch salads (which I eat to this day) and occasionally getting a loaf of dark rye or sourdough and eating slices of it at dinner, spread thickly with butter. I mean, today we had waffles for breakfast. I don't feel like I'm depriving myself of anything, which is probably the key to me sticking with this eating pattern for so long. I won't say it's hard, but it does occupy a lot of mental space. I use a food tracking program on my phone and enter literally everything I eat, which is not healthy for someone with disordered eating. And I do a lot of meal planning to make sure I get enough fat in my diet and don't eat too much sugar. But it works for me, and other than studying Japanese, is probably the single longest habit I've stuck with consistently. So hooray!
I'm writing this while walking. 5838 steps of 12,000... 🚶🏻
no subject
Date: 2017-Sep-04, Monday 23:41 (UTC)I've been swimming nearly everyday this summer, for 30 minutes or so. And by "swimming", I mean "flailing around in the water". Well, in truth, I'm finally able to swim again after years of not doing it and terrible muscle tone. But regardless, it's consistent low impact that makes a difference to me and doesn't spike my appetite. Back when I was doing aikido, I put on quite a bit of weight because I was always furiously hungry after practice.
It seems very easy to eat poorly in Japan. When I have visited, because I can't eat wheat, I was always careful about what I ate, and had to rely on onigiri on the go because so much prepared food was breaded. For a person who doesn't feel like cooking, for whatever reason, breaded and fried foods are a terrible temptation.
no subject
Date: 2017-Sep-05, Tuesday 00:39 (UTC)It seems very easy to eat poorly in Japan.
I agree. When I taught at a private school, I had a two hour commute, so by the time mid morning rolled around I was already hungry after having eaten breakfast at 5:30. Every day I got a couple onigiri and a roll of some kind. Not the best dietary choices...
I can't imagine having to avoid bread! That's a lot of what we ate when we last visited (the first hotel we stayed at had all-you-can-eat toast and soup breakfast for ¥300), as well as various pickled foods. A couple friends mentioned they lost significant weight after the trip as their bodies flushed all the salt from the pickled conbini food we'd been eating.
no subject
Date: 2017-Sep-05, Tuesday 10:13 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-Sep-05, Tuesday 19:16 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-Sep-05, Tuesday 16:40 (UTC)I want to get back to that point too. I lost a lot of weight in 2012 when my doctor had me on elimination diets for food allergies. I had the most success cutting out gluten. I also had to cut dairy, yeast, and sugar, which I wasn't always successful at doing, but eh. Cheating during diets. It happens. We were trying to pinpoint why I had a dull ache in my stomach every day. I stopped eating grains for months, with the exceptions of rice, corn, and occasionally quinoa. I lost a ton of weight! I'm certain I could do it again if I can get into the appropriate head space. I'm also meh about pasta, but I have a tough time giving up bread and wraps once I'm in the habit of eating them.
no subject
Date: 2017-Sep-05, Tuesday 19:23 (UTC)Did you ever find out why you had that stomach ache? I've had something similar for two years with no real answers.