Alternate title: I like this problem better than the previous...
According to the weather reports, we were supposed to get spring-like weather today. It was supposed to reach 60ºF (I'm indoors all day so I really can't say).
So I reached into the back of the closet for the short-sleeve dress shirts. Now, since I started losing weight, I've had to update my wardrobe as my body got progressively less walrus-like. I started having to buy new clothes in earnest sometime last summer. I only wear short-sleeve shirts in the spring/early summer, moving on to polo shirts in late summer and back to long sleeve dress shirts come fall.
Anyhoo... I grabbed a shirt that I got maybe 3 or 4 years ago and have never worn. It's a XXL shirt that had always been too tight, and I was, quite frankly, embarassed that it was tight (and a XXL). Looking at the shirt, I was still a little leery that it wouldn't fit. Even though I've lost over 85 pounds, and currently wear a size Large shirt, I was still apprehensive. Old habits die hard and all that.
Of course, as it turns out I was right - it didn't fit. I look like a little boy wearing Daddy's shirt...
I like this turnout much better... :)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Have you reached your goal weight or did you ever really set one?
I was wearing a size 48-50 pants when I started. Now a 44 is too big and a 42 is too small. But I am making the 42's work because I don't want to have any room for expansion.
What do you eat when you are going through withdrawals?
Buck,
I have had many "goal" weights.
When I started, I weighed 270 pounds. My first goal weight was 220 pounds - what I weighed in college. When I came close to that goal, I could see that there was still plenty of room for further loss.
So the new goal was 200 pounds. Then I hit that goal, and started to research what my "ideal" weight should be (quick answer: no one knows. The range for a guy my height is anywhere from 140 - 195 pounds).
At the last two doctor's visits (last month and this month; I am off my blood pressure medication and he's been monitoring me) my doctor has told me to stop losing weight, so I guess my goal weight is ~ 185.
I started out wearing size 44 pants (and a good number of them were tight...). I am currently wearing size 34 pants, and will be trying a size 32 this weekend.
BTW, EXCELLENT job.
As far as withdrawals, I tried really hard to modify my diet so I wasn't specifically avoiding anything, just eating less of it (in some cases, a LOT less). It has meant staying away from some old favorites like hot dogs, but I've found new favorites like Chex Mix...
What I *am* finding now is that I literally cannot bring myself to eat certain foods - like hot dogs - or at certain restaurants - all fast food - because I know just how bad they are for me. I've noticed that my body reacts poorly to "fast" food (basically, that's the way it travels through my digestive tract and out the other end...)
I *have* found a significant source of joy for the chocolate cravings: BJ's carries a multi-pack of Hershey's chocolate covered pretzels and chocolate wafers that are REALLY tasty and come in 100 calorie packs. Overall, though, I'm fortunate in that my cravings run more towards the salty end of snacks, so tortilla chips and hot salsa do the trick for me. Hot salsa is a double whammy - I drink LOTS of water, which fills me up. The whole snack is between 200 - 250 calories...
HTH!
Thanks Jay. In a rough estimate, how many calories do you try to limit yourself to daily.
I started off simple: 2000 calories a day. I took about two weeks and religiously catalogued every single item I ate, and was simply stunned to realize I was consuming between 3000 and 3500 calories in a given day.
Why 2000? Very simply, it's the "average" daily calorie count used on most nutrition labels...
Gradually, as I got more "into" the diet, I moved the intake down to 1750, then 1500 calories a day.
Now I'm trying to stop losing weight (per Doctor's orders, which is not only a first for me but just plain WEIRD to hear!). I've upped my daily caloric intake to 2200 calories, and seem to still be losing weight. I will bump it to 2500 and see if that stops or (perish the thought) reverses the trend...
A general rule of thumb I've come across is that to maintain your given weight, multiply your current weight by 10 if inactive and 14 if active. For me to maintain 185 pounds, I'd need to consume an average of 1850 calories per day were I sedentary, and ~ 2500 calories for active.
You're a great help my friend. A great help. I really appreciate it.
Post a Comment