I posted a few weeks ago this initial post: https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/i57vxu/obesity_will_kill_me_sooner_rather_than_later_if/
Since then, I've made a lot of changes in my life. I quit my super high stress high pay 24/7 connected job that had no job security in a cutthroat environment (which was a constant source of stress for me) working for a psycho, and found a lesser paying but much better work-life balance job in a "for life" role with the government assuming I do a good job, starting at the end of this month. Time will tell if this was the right decision for me (40% pay cut initially, but I will be able to live decently anyway) but I've definitely enjoyed the couple of weeks off, and from friends who do the same job I should be able to have a much better work-life balance with this new job. I'm adding it in this update because this work stress has definitely been a factor in my weight.
I've had an appointment with my doctor and got some preliminary blood work done (actually I just got the results for blood work done 6 months ago but it lined up with the same issues I went there for), heart, kidneys and thyroid seem fine according to the results; will have another appointment for a diabetes test in the coming months (where they take your blood sugar on an empty stomach, make you eat a super sugary item, then take it again an hour later). I also did a test to see if I have sleep apnea last week but I will only know the results in a month or two. I don't know how they expect to get accurate data with that damn machine though, had an awful night of sleep with all the wires and attachments.
I've not followed my super strict exercise ideas from the original post (yeah yeah I know) but I have settled on a more reasonable routine. Daily 15 minutes of elliptical. Monday/Wednesday/Friday 15 minutes of strength workout (I want to be time-efficient so I don't feel like it's taking my entire free time, so I focus on full-body exercises like burpees and squat into curl into overhead press); other days I do 15 minutes balance/stretch exercises which are way too tough for me right now but whatever I'll keep at it. Added on is whatever walking I do for that day in the morning or evening. I've been pretty sporadic with that though and it's just extra. It's not a huge workout but the goal is to keep it at 30 minutes a day which is fairly easy to fit in my routine and still have it be impactful. Right now I still take pauses but the goal is to get to 30 minutes with no pauses to get the full impact.
As far as diet, I created a monthly meal plan starting in October that I'm pretty excited for. I wouldn't consider it a diet, just a long term meal plan with reasonable portions, with a different meal plan each month for foods in season, different ideas to keep it interesting throughout the year. The plan is also that if one day I suddenly go out to diner with friends I don't worry about the meal plan that meal, but for a normal day I just stick to it. Most of my poor eating is boredom eating or being too lazy to make a meal and ordering delivery, so having a plan that is easy to follow will make a big difference. I'll be doing meal prep every Sunday to eliminate my core issue.
In the past few weeks I bought a food scale and started using it to better understand the quantities I am eating and how many calories I consume each meal, and I've cleaned up my diet quite a bit overall which helped me build the aforementioned meal plan.
Overall I didn't do super great (quitting my job definitely wasn't an easy decision and I did comfort eat for a few days but I won't get into that anymore here) but I did lose ~8 pounds from my worst (312 lbs now), which really is more like 3 pounds if you consider my worst was after a binge. Originally I wanted to lose 1 pound every 3 days so I should've lost around 12 so far, but as my routine gets more settled in I feel more confident I can maintain this as a permanent change. I've got two more weeks to really get this routine fixed in before I start my new job and will then need to maintain both the healthier routine and the work routine so still some challenges ahead.
Thanks for your encouragement in my previous post. I wasn't in the best headspace when I made that post but I appreciated the comments and support.
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/it4glx/journey_to_health_and_life_update_1/
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