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). 🤔🤔
I don't typically love cooking with cast iron, despite the excellent results they can bring. It's messy and smells up the house. Add to that, the one we have is super old and not very good. We were recently gifted a really good one from Lancaster Cast Iron so today I decided to give it a try. We have a side burner on our Weber so I could do it outside. I sous vide a steak, then seared it in tallow on the new pan. Man it was incredible. What a difference it made from our old one. Super easy clean up too. Below is the pan, of course I forgot to take a picture of the steak haha.
Do you love using cast iron? What are some favorites you make in them?
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 Friday!! We are supposed to have a VERY rainy weekend here in Arizona, which is very rare for us. It might even mean that trick or treating is cancelled. 🎉😂 I always trade the kids for their candy anyway so fine by me if we don't even have to go out. Plus Penelope said she's too old for trick or treating and said she'll just skip it and take the money. 🤪😂
Other than that and church we have no plans this weekend, which I am excited about after a busy week. I might go get a day pass at a new gym that has a fancy steam room/sauna and cold plunge.
What are your plans for this weekend?
Happy Friday Evening Family!!
(Oh No! she's back!!) Sing some praises with me; the 2026 harvest is out of the field!! Farmer Hubby finished the corn today, the end in the rain. He ended up leaving a few rows in the field due to wet spots and steep new terraces; but the rest is out, including where the creek flooded and left logs/limbs. He got those picked up today.
You have no idea how grateful and relieved we are. This harvest kicked our behinds. We are getting older and the push and stress were something else. But now we're done. He'll clean up the combine and grain cart and truck and store them away for winter over the next few days/week. Then we'll concentrate on getting the cattle home and then winterizing what needs to be winterized.
Anywho... just wanted to report in that I'll be more "here."
Accountablility
Fresh air/sunshine/exercise/sleep
Not much/none (rain)/walking while doing errands/terrible with leg cramps for several hours.
Food
M1: Coffee and a chicken meat stick
M2: Carnivore...
Good Evening Y'all!! Day 30 of dairy free except butter and no eggs. Day 20 of no coffee. I have almost made it through my first goal. Starting a new goal Sunday. Y'all today was hard. I don't know why I craved so many sweets today. But I stayed strong because I don't want to botch my progress. I forgot to log my 6 little snackum' dill pickles tonight with dinner.
Here's my stats for the day.
