Suggestions to Help Hubby

vbmama2012

Hi all,
So here's my dilemma. I've been working through my weight loss journey, and have been pretty satisfied with my results so far. The problem is my husband.
He truly wants to join me on this journey for himself. With the weight I've lost, he's gained close to 100 lbs. He works outside for his lawn maintenance business, so getting out and walking with me after a long hot FL work day isn't necessarily in the cards. The other side is that due to injuries that he's received, he has some nerve damage. He is currently on pain meds to keep the pain levels to a tolerable level so he can do his job.
The pain meds, we're pretty sure, have greatly contributed to his weight loss. I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions or tips that we can explore to help my husband start getting the weight under control. As with MOST men (and I surely don't want to offend any men out there...so forgive me ahead of time if I do!), my husband is NOT very keen on doctors visits. He does have labs that need to be done, but he just hasn't gotten them done yet. I know in my heart that his lab results will reveal some information that we can start with, but he is genuinely afraid of what the news might be.
I'm thankful ahead of time to anyone who can make some suggestions so I can help my hubby! Thank you!

nxd10

I am also working with husband. I started this to help him lose weight for health reasons. I've done great. He is still struggling with getting well started. It will come.

Weight loss is mostly about diet. Exercise helps make you look great, keeps you healthy, makes you strong, etc. It doesn't take the weight off. Given what your husband does for a living, he probably doesn't need to 'exercise'. He does exercise at work. He needs to log his food and stick to it.

Since he's so active, I bet he is also hungry and also used to be able to eat anything because he was outside all the time and young. My husband teaches tai chi so works out all the time. But when he got older his metabolism changed and that extra snack or that beer just started packing on the pounds.

I would make two concrete suggestions. See if this makes sense to you. First, have him just log all his food for a week or two. And calculate the calories he'd need to eat to lose two pounds a week (I say two pounds, because if he's gained 100, he can probably do that easily.)

Then read through it with him and both of you can figure out things that might be easy to drop to get him in the calorie range he needs to be to lose. Then go for it.

An accurate diary is the best tool any of us have for weight loss. I know for me (and my husband) the big things that needed to change were pretty glaring.

Pain meds mess up your metabolism, but pain as well as meds just make it hard to keep focused and way easier to just sit and eat.

Good luck!

vbmama2012

Thank you nxd10 for your suggestion. I'm going to do just that...have him start logging.
And...thank you for posting without judgment. I wrestled with whether to post or not, because I didn't want the "stigma" of pain meds to affect peoples' responses. Unfortunately, with drug problems running rampant all over, it's very easy for people to judge someone who has a legitimate reason for taking them, who is closely monitored by his physician (the only one he sees at this point, but we're working on changing that). Hubby knows he can't live on the pain meds forever, and is hopeful that with losing some weight, that might alleviate some of the pain he's having, and move forward from there.
Thank you again!!

nxd10

They're a blessing for people who need them and not addictive if you only take them when you are truly in pain and do need them.

Good luck.