Listening to a podcast this morning at the airport talking about health/weight loss. They were talking about how most obese people will lose a significant amount of weight in their lifetime.
The problem for most people isn't losing the weight, it's finding out how to keep it off. Most people when they are losing weight view the process as a "diet", meaning a temporary change to achieve a result. Weight regain statistics: 50-75% of obese people will regain what they lost in one year. When you go out 2 years that gets closer to 85%, and at 3 years 90%+ have regained all their weight (if not more).
If your diet has an end point, and you stop doing the things you did in order to lose the weight you will regain the weight. It is hard enough to lose weight but it's even harder to keep dragging those old habits (or often times people) with you. That can be a really hard change to make, and can come with a grieving process. It isn't just about swapping out food, it is often about changing how we spend our time each day, how we handle stress, how we prioritize things, and who we spend time time with!
The 5% of people studied who lost weight and kept it off didn't follow the same diet (you have to find the diet that you can stick to). However they all followed some kind of restriction (calories, or carbs, or time restriction etc), they exercised, they self monitored (weighed/measured occasionally), but surprisingly almost every single person in this study stated that in order to keep the weight off they had to form a new identity.
This has been a huge part of my journey, figuring out who I am now. Who is the healthy person I am now? What are her habits? What is the lifestyle she lifestyle she lives compared to the old obese person I once was?
Do you feel this is accurate? What is something that is a new habit or a new part of your identity that your old unhealthy self would never have imagined? Or on the opposite side are there habits or things that are dragging you back into the unhealthy lifestyle and preventing you from keeping consistent?
That might be a little heavy for a Tuesday morning but it definitely had me doing some reflection this morning as I walked around the airport for an hour (when old me would have sat the entire time right by my gate). 🤔🤔
Yesterday we surprised the kids and brought home a puppy!! They have been begging for one for years and we felt like the time was right to bring one home.
Meet Angus 🐕 He's a Golden Retriever/King Charles Cavalier Spaniel mix. He's 11 weeks old and currently weighs about 8 pounds, he should be around 35 pounds fully grown. I know it will be an adjustment for a while as he gets potty trained etc but we are so excited. 😂 Wish us luck! 🤪
Cheese is good! I ate a block of chipotle oven baked cheese with lunch yesterday and it was divine. I love it, but know that it halts any progress I'm making, and will even trigger eating in excess to where I'll gain weight. It's sad but I have accepted it. If I eat it in small quantities with a meal, it's ok, but I really have to work to keep it in check.
What's your favorite cheese? How do you incorporate it? Do you see negative results when eating it?
Happy Sunday! Sharing a video today from our week, one of the highlights. This was Wednesday evening church, normally they have a more casual prayer meeting where someone plays the guitar, but they were doing some construction in the fellowship hall so they had their prayer meeting in the sanctuary. No one was there to play the piano so my my Grandma did it, she's been playing the piano in church for probably 80 years.
For context, she's 88, she had a really bad fall 5 years ago now and hit her head and ended up with a lot setbacks, similar to having a stroke. She has a lot of dementia like symptoms also (I am sure related to her Type 2 diabetes), she really can't read music anymore, and she has trouble seeing well, and she needs to wear hearing aids to hear but hates wearing them, so on this night she didn't want to wear them. My 93 (almost 94) year old grandpa takes care of both of them on their farm. Anyway, on this night she sat down on the piano and led worship as people called ...
Happy Friday!! I am going to get a 90 min massage today for my birthday (my first one this long). Very exciting for the relaxation and to have all the knots worked out of my sore muscles. The rest of the weekend we don't have many plans other than church and just hanging out at home with Angus.
How is your week going? Are you anticipating any temptations this weekend? Think through all your encounters this weekend and create a plan (and a back up plan) for how you are going to handle them to stick to your health goals!
What are your plans for the weekend?
I've been dealing with a cold the past few days. It was pretty bad for a day or two, stuffy nose, cough and feeling drained. Two rough days and I'm almost back to 100 percent already. I can't remember the last time I was sick. Covid for sure in late 2020. Maybe a short sniffle cold every couple years since. Of course it's N=1 but I feel like the diet helps a lot. It doesn't mean we'll never get sick, but hopefully rare and quick when we do.
Do you find you're sick less often? Anyone get sick as soon as they stray?
