Living the Lifestyle, Wildcard Wednesday, 7-8-2020

steve0mania

We meet here to explore, share, celebrate and (sometimes) agonize over how we do (or don't) incorporate weight loss guidelines into our daily lives. "It's a lifestyle, not a diet" is easily and often said, but sometimes not so simply put into practice.

This is a thread for everyone. If you're new to GoaD, or to weight loss, your questions and comments are always welcome. If you're maintaining, or a long-term loser, your thoughts on the topic may be just what someone else needs to hear. If you're reading this, join in the discussion!

Each weekday, a new topic is offered up for discussion.

Monday - misterhub (Greg)
Tuesday - Al_Howard (Al)
Wednesday - Wild Card
Thursday - Wild Card
Friday - imastar2 (Derrick)

Today's topic: Was weight-loss part of a larger big-picture for you?

When you decided to lose weight (or at least, make a serious attempt at it), was that your only goal, or was it part of a larger picture of accomplishments you wanted to achieve? Which came first, the desire to lose weight or desires to work on other aspects of your life?

MASSRUNNER_FRANK

Nope. It was all about weight loss for me.
Not that other parts of my life don’t require fine tuning. It’s just that I can’t see the correlation to my weight issues.
One last comment is that I have never associated my weight with either personal failure or self worth.
YMMV.

steve0mania

I've noticed that in my own life there are times where I feel out-of-control and that things are generally not going as well as I would like them to. Sometimes this is just a feeling without a basis in fact, while at other times there are objective measures that indicate a problem. At yet other times, I find that there may not be an actual problem, per se, but rather that my life isn't going as I would like it to.

If I try to think back to the time I was beginning to think about taking a serious stab at losing weight, that was during a ~5 year period of stress in my life. Before that period, I had been diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and had gone through a number of steroid pulses to get the disease under control. Before that started I was already overweight, but each steroid-pulse caused me to gain some weight, and after each pulse ended I never took off all of the weight I had put on. By the end of that time I was at my heaviest weight (I think I had just drifted into the obese category).

Likewise, there were strong work-stresses as well as some family stresses. I don't think I was ever truly depressed by clinical criteria, but I was not a happy person. After a while, those feelings really dragged on me. I thought I was always going to be out of shape, overweight, and crazy-stressed both at work and at home. I was feeling like I had no control over anything in my life.

When I stepped on the new Wii balance board game we bought for the kids, one of the fitness games indicated that I was "obese," and not simply overweight. That was the last-straw for me. I felt like I needed to do something.

My decision to join WW was an isolated issue. I just wanted to work on that one thing. There was no "grand-plan" of getting all of the other things in my life under better control. Maybe it was too narrow a focus, but at least weight-loss was something that I could take on by myself, and I didn't think it was dependent on other aspects of my life.

What's interesting to me about it, though, is that losing weight opened up the gates to taking on other things that I thought were insurmountable. I started exercising (after telling myself that I am not a "fit" person and that I would never be able to find the time for regular exercise). I started eating in a more healthy way (not just less food). I got some family issues cleaned up, and I got some work issues managed (though ultimately, the right answer was to change jobs). My ulcerative colitis actually seemed to "burn-out" and I haven't had a flare-up in a long time.

So, to answer my own question, weight-loss was initially the only goal I had, but once I realized I could indeed do difficult things, that led me to take on other things too.

Al_Howard

This time around it was to not be a diabetic. That diagnosis scared the *kitten* out of me.
Fortunately, is had just slipped over the tipping point, and the daily fasting levels dropped pretty quickly (with the help of med my PCP proscribed. Once on my way, I saw the blood pressure drop also, and sort of got hooked.
Am now off the diabetic med (with a 5.0-5.3 A1c), but the BP is crawling up again, so back to being more cognizant of my weight loss.
OK, that's the long story. Short story in medical.

imastar2

I will probably finish this tomorrow but at this late hour right off the bat in 2010 and at 400.8 lbs it was all about losing weight or this post wouldn't even be an item by now. I figured I had sleep apnea back then and knew it was probably serious because I would almost fall asleep at a red light in fact I probably did more than once. After months of trying to lose I had a sleep study done and sure enough severe case 97 times an hour stopped breathing from 10-36 seconds out of every minute. Do the math I was a mess with tachycardia heart situations and I don't know what all.

Anyway got on therapy with bi/pap and began to lose till I got a 100 lbs off. Been struggling pretty much ever since. Up/down up/down and so forth. Pretty much stagnant since 2012. I'm currently on a roll these last 9 months and more determined than ever. In fact as of this morning I've just gotten back to my 2012 weight 300.8. But now It's 8 years later some heart issues but working on those and really trying to eat heart healthy. It is amazing how much sodium is in many foods now says. I'm doing my best to hold the sodium to 1500 gm a day but rapidly losing the battle.

Well I'm going to cut this off this evening at this point and might add to it tomorrow.

Tracking days July Yes 7 /No 0😀
SW/CW/GW 07/7/20 kcal 1250
400.8/300.8/185 [-1.0 lbs]🙂🤔 WI Daily
Total Loss 100.0 lbs Again
May 8th start (310.8/Lose 10 lb Challenge current <stat> - 10.0 lbs loss

linmueller

I think all of my previous attempts at weight loss were all about the weight and looking better. But not this last time ...

After months if reflection, I am realizing that I learned a lot from my almost 100# WL back in 2013-15. I learned that there are lots of benefits to a lower weight like more comfortable sitting, easier breathing, fun clothes shopping, lighter on my feet, and many more.

I also learned that I'm a stress eater. So when I gained thru my dad's last months, thru the holidays (an emotional drain), and covid, I was not surprised.

With this knowledge, I've created a more overall approach that includes quiet and gratitude time each day (great for my spiritual self and creates a more peaceful me), some light activity (helps with emotions that sometimes still get the better of me), and calorie goals. Each element, and just the discipline of it all, are really helping. My slack over the long 4th weekend made this abundantly clear. So, bigger picture for sure!

podkey

I suppose in a sense it is a bigger journey. Years ago it was probably more about the weight and appearance than anything else. When I wandered into WW it was as much about health and well-being. Sure I wanted to look better but I also wanted to perform better in activities and stave off some potential health issues too.

88olds

Lose weight and not drink. It was liberating. Hard to compare my life now from where I started. And I didn’t do zero alcohol for all that long but it was long enough to mostly lose interest. The wine project that I mentioned in yesterday’s thread turned out to be a lot of work. Wasn’t worth it.