Sustaining Self
Nearly a year ago, I began a healthy living initiative after stepping on a scale at the doctor’s office. Yes, it was a middle-of-the-day visit with all of my clothes on, and I didn’t empty my pockets. But the number that displayed scared the hell out of me.
240.
I’m 5-foot-7. It doesn’t take a science whiz to understand that’s not a healthy weight regardless of “build.” And then blood work from the visit showed that for the first time in my adult life, my cholesterol level was above normal.
This was particularly humbling because just 10 years earlier, I’d lost 65 pounds. Now I was right back where I’d been before 2014.
In the week after the trip to the doctor, which happened to lead up to the Super Bowl, I gave a lot of thought to how I’d slipped so far. I realized a helluva lot of life had intruded—in the past five years in particular.
Let’s see. There were:
Career change to clinical mental health counselor, followed quickly by COVID-19 and managing the onset of telehealth in addition to in-person visits.
Major remodeling inside and outside of our house.
The loss of our beloved husky mix, Nilla, in early 2023.
A leg muscle injury in late 2022 that kept me out of the gym for nearly two years. Mind you, the injury healed in a couple of months; my motivation loss was what kept me out of the gym.
I also reflected back on my 2014 weight loss, which was done under the auspices of a hospital-based weight management center. At that time, my diet for six months was restricted to 1,300 calories a day, including 150 grams of protein. I also was required to eat five times a day (breakfast, lunch and dinner, along with mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks). After six months, I was slowly brought up to an allowable 2,000 calories a day, a number based on my exercise level and resting metabolic rate.
What became a problem for me was that I stopped counting calories, figuring that by then I could guesstimate how much things were. Yeah, sure I could.
So on Feb. 12, 2024, the day after the Chiefs beat the 49ers and I ingested some final indulgences, I began to do things differently. This time, I decided to create my own plan based on important factors for me.
Most important, I needed an accountability tool. So I began using the My Fitness Pal app again.
I set my personal goal at 1,600 calories a day, with a minimum of 80 grams or more of protein.
I would not beat myself up if I had a bad day or a slip, but I wanted slips to mean I was eating 2,000 or 2,200 calories on a bad day, not 4,000.
I would not eliminate foods I like, but I would start paying attention to portion size. For example, when we go out now, I frequently eat half and take the rest home for the next day’s lunch; the vast majority of American restaurants serve about twice the amount of calories that need be eaten at once.
Avoid the burger-based fast food joints.
Cut down on alcohol. My wife, Terrie, is remarkably creative with cocktails, but we’d gotten a little crazy during the pandemic and kept it up. I needed to step back. I now only have cocktails once or twice a week, and typically only one drink.
I also decided to set a realistic target weight range that I could achieve and then sustain the rest of my life. Back in 2014, I lost the weight so quickly that I became competitive and intent on reaching my college weight of 155. I was close, getting as low as 158 at one weigh-in. But ultimately, I looked gaunt and it didn’t feel healthy. I also was weighing myself all the time, which fed the competitiveness, and, ultimately, created a sense of failure.
This time I decided to set a healthy weight range: 170 to 185 pounds. That meant I had to lose 55 to 70 pounds from my original weigh-in. My new forgiveness-based diet would require patience, so I set a goal of reaching the range by the end of 2025. Oh, and I decided the scale would not be anything I did regularly; I’d tell how I was doing by how my clothes felt.
In effect, this blog is a mid-program report. In August last year, six months after I began, I went for another checkup and my cholesterol was back in a good place. My blood pressure also was as low as it has been in quite some time. And my clothes did tell the story; I dropped two pants sizes and now easily fit “large” rather than “extra large” shirts.
The scale, which I’ve been on a half dozen times since the diet began, tells me I’m down about 45 pounds.
The competitive part of me immediately wants to ramp things up further because I’m within striking distance of the outside of my target weight range well ahead of schedule.
But the smart part of me thus far is winning out. I got back into the gym about the time of second checkup and work out two to three times a week. I do so at a less strenuous pace than 10 years ago, but one that’s manageable for me and conducive to weight loss. I’m in a good place and I’m not in a hurry.
In my practice as a clinical mental health counselor, I often speak with clients about healthy lifestyle habits, from medical weight-management programs to the in-vogue appetite suppression injectables to the family of keto-paleo-WeightWatchers diets.
Based on my experience, I’ve taken to suggesting my clients consider one thing—choosing the plan that works for them. And know, as I found out, it might not be the first plan they try.