NPR Fitness Group

[Phoebe]

Things aren't going well. A month of careful calorie restriction coincided with low-levels of exercise as work life and kid life got busier. I have lost a pound, maybe, after what felt like a hell of a lot of effort. Not even clear I lost the pound. At most, two pounds. Too much margin of error to tell.

This leads to frustration involving the assumption that brownies are a zero-calorie sort of medicine. Not helpful. Went shopping with husband whose diet efforts have resulted in massive weight loss and also dropping two entire jeans sizes lower. I am very happy for him but wow do you feel like shit when your husband is now wearing the same jeans he did when you got married, and you're sitting there with your post-babies fat hobbit body, unable to make progress.

So: back to the drawing board. My diet has started to include less vegetable matter and more easy, convenient stuff that is high-carb, even if I don't eat as much of it. My stress levels are off the charts at all times which cannot help, so I am going to drag my kid to yoga and do the yoga sometimes. I'm going to sleep 7 hours a night come hell or high water, and in fact those things can be expected, so sleep remains a questionable effort. I'm going to walk more and do it faster, which the doggie will like anyway. I don't like jogging at my age because I like my knees, but I could walk more vigorously.

My husband thinks that one's metabolism can actually slow down in response to the loss of calories, especially at this time of year, because it doesn't want you to lose any of that good extra wintertime fat. Are there other things I can do to stimulate my metabolism, besides more vigorous exercise? What if I were to start an amphetamine habit? Wait, aren't there legal forms I can get from my doctor for weight loss? I'm serious, it might be time to try. I am not THAT much overweight but the fact that casual dieting made ZERO dent and serious dieting made ZERO dent is starting to worry me, at this age.

[Kyle]

I feel you. I've had a good week, going to the gym, and find out I've put on a pound this morning. Oh well.

My thing is that I feel better exercising, so I'm just going to keep at it.

[Stan]

I've heard smoking can cause people to lose weight.

many diet pills also contain caffeine, so don't skimp on the coffee.

You are also likely putting on a bit of muscle, which is goo long term for both weight loss and injury avoidance.

[Phoebe]

Decided to weigh self this morning on assumption that morning weight would be lowest. Apparently GAINING WEIGHT NOW - WTF do I have some kind of giant liquid-filled tumor growing within? Am I like one of those women who is going to have several surprise cantaloupe sized fibroids extracted at some point, or am I about to give birth without having realized I was pregnant? That's about all I can figure to explain it.

Seriously contemplating cigarette smoking; the only thing that prevents this is, well, everything. Kids, insurance forms that require you to sign a blood-oath that you've never used tobacco products, the annoying expense of a tiny pack of them, everything. There is an old pack of cigarettes sitting in this very room with me right now - emergency cigarettes that aren't mine. I will not smoke them. But it is tempting. What about vaping? Can I vape in some sort of appetite suppressant? What about cocaine? Ritalin? Amphetamines? Seriously thinking there are legal prescription diet pills I could get on, but then I'd have to see my doctor and the schedule doesn't permit it.

I totally get liposuction; I am thinking of doing my own version somehow right now. Couldn't I just jab in one of those coffee straws and apply some sort of vaccuum force? I have seen a video of a lipo surgery and I'm still not mentally recovered from it; I would just as soon have them cut off my nose. It's horrible, just one of the most horrible things you have ever witnessed. Way worse than childbirth, for instance. OMG. What can be done?

[Kyle]

I've put on weight too- but a lot of it is attitude. I feel so much better and I'm SUPER proud of myself for consistently going to the gym (waking up at 5:15 every morning is not easy). I'm not worried about the weight. I know that if I'm careful about what I eat and do 50 minutes of cardio- I'm going to lose weight. So I'm not fixated on what the scale says.

[Kyle]

I have a spastic rhomboid muscle (it's a muscle near your shoulder blades) that causes sharp pain when you breathe. The doctor gave me a muscle relaxer, which really helped, but now my scale says I've put on 4 and a half pounds.

Fuck my scale. I'm with you now, Phoebe.

[Phoebe]

OMG Ron has exactly the same problem!!! It causes a whole cascade reaction that pinches you right in the ribcage like you're having a heart attack, which is not pleasant and relaxing, and normally we don't associate front pain with back pain. If you can't get it directly or it sneaks up on you, the muscle relaxer can help, but you have to GET IT directly to be sure of wiping out the problem. If you don't have this thing (or maybe you got a lot of people around you can train to press on it with their elbows like a ninja), you may need it:


The other thing you can do is, if a particular episode comes from using your mouse/writing/etc., attack that neighboring teres muscle, which might cause a weird sensation to shoot down your arm, but rubbing that one sometimes makes the rhomboid relax. I have no actual knowledge of this, btw - this is 100% the trial and error born of desperation.

[Kyle]

My pain is in my back. It actually feels like a cracked rib (if you've ever had one)-- when you breath in it hurts like someone jabbing a bad bruise.

[Phoebe]

Thankfully have never experienced anything like this. If you think you're having a heart attack due to stabbing pain, keep in mind it could be this. Or you could simply be having a heart attack. Back pain is terrible. I also learned a new fact today that I intend to SHARE WIDELY with those around me: Nicotine consumption, in ANY form, causes your spinal discs to DRY OUT. Don't ask me; I am just the messenger, but direct from the experts.

[Kyle]

Okay all- tomorrow (Saturday) is when my family is celebrating Thanksgiving, and then we're going camping in Big Bend all next week. So I don't actually plan to log my stuff until I get back home a week from Saturday.

That being said, if I'm able to get a reliable signal in Big Bend (I won't)- I'll try to log my food-- we're eating pretty cheaply and it should be under my calorie guidelines, and I'd like to log all the hiking. But I've heard phones don't work out there.

All of you remember this: YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL AS YOU ARE RIGHT NOW! YOU ARE NOT DOING THIS TO BE MORE BEAUTIFUL BECAUSE THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE! YOU'RE DOING THIS TO BE MORE HEALTHY!

Give yourself the gift of health, y'all. You deserve it.

[Phoebe]

Good luck on your trip - sounds like ideal conditions for the plan!

Things are going OK considering it was Thanksgiving. No change for the better, but no change for the worse, either. Went for short walk this morning. I think I need to do more exercise and more vigorously if I'm going to see any progress. Just read an article the other day about how the microbiome becomes accustomed to your diet and metabolism, and may through ??? process adjust your metabolic rate downward if you stop taking in as many calories. So the exercise piece is key, especially at my age, to make sure the metabolism keeps working properly.

I've discovered a lot about myself during this past month: I was eating way more calories than I thought I did; I assumed it would be just as easy to lose weight now as it was ten years ago or even four years ago, and it's not; I assumed I could lose weight just by reducing food intake - that has proven to be wrong, or at least, the results don't happen in 40 days; I sleep way less than I need to; I drink way less plain water than I should, relative to other drinks; my daily schedule and lifeplan is FUCKED with little hope of a solution; I'm too exhausted to get the exercise I should be getting, but if I would prefer not to die or look permanently sort of pregnant, I should probably prioritize the exercise over other things. Not sure how that can work.

[Phoebe]

The good news is that the weather here is perfect: cool and crisp with a little snow. The best weather to go walking in and the most inspiring for vigorous exercise!

[Stan]

[Phoebe]

Don't worry: the silver lining here is that nobody will mistake you for a pregnant woman.

[Mike]

I'm finally back on track a bit. I was down 18 pounds. Then I slipped. I was demoralized, so I let it all go through Thanksgiving. Grand total, I put 14 of those pounds back on. Now I'm down again. I think total loss is just under 10. Does seem like a lot of work, especially with all the candy and cookies and treats floating around work right now.

[Phoebe]

Ahhh, I would be so happy if I had lost ten pounds. I appear to have lost one pound and that's it. A solid one pound, after a month and a half of attempts to reduce caloric intake and walk every day. And the fact that you DID lose 18 pounds is awesome! If you did it once, you can do it again, and you will!

[Stan]

[Phoebe]

Hopefully it's a nice smooth porter. I have lost 2 pounds and although that might be simply the result of losing some water weight in the usual monthly circle of life, I'm so exhausted, frustrated, and anxious that I WILL TAKE IT AS A VICTORY. Maybe we're finally seeing some effect, or maybe I have reached such a peak of anxiety lately that I'm hyperactively jittering about at all times and my metabolism is finally burning calories as it should. Whatever works. Everyone is OK right now, I am just telling myself, everything and everyone is basically okay.

[Kyle]

I've been bad. And sick. And when I'm sick (with a cold for over a week)-- I... eat. A lot. I'm scared to get on the scale. I'm telling myself I'll do it tomorrow. Pray for me. PRAY FOR ME!

[Phoebe]

It sucks to be sick, but then it is very easy to consume things that make you feel better, and unfortunately it all adds up. We could resolve to allow ourselves some amount of extra calories for "feel better" food, to keep it within a limit, and then try to find something else to cut out. For instance, when you're sick you might want things like ice cream for a sore throat or high-calorie juices, but then you could also be eating veggie soup for meals that would be really good for you and also low calorie. It's bound to happen as we go through the winter. I should have gotten some diet 7 up at the store for just this occasion...