It's more than dieting for me -- it's rehab.

73 year old male, about 5’ 9”. When COVID got well underway, my wife and I quit going to the gym, which we’d been doing about 3 times a week for 12 years. A couple years ago, I developed SI joint instability, which took away my ability to walk very fast or for very far. I put on roughly 25 pounds and lost a lot of strength. I hit bottom on the only day this winter I went skiing (downhill). The first run was sketchy. I stopped several times to catch my breath. It was in the mid 40, and at that temp, if you’re skiing defensively, you’re also pushing lots of snow. My thighs went quickly up in flames.

The second run felt better, and I thought that by the third run, I’d be back on my game. Halfway down the hill on run three, I fell, probably because my legs were shot. I tried to get up using the polls, but quickly gave up on that. Too heavy and no strength. Next, I tried to point my skis downhill and slide off into a stand. I used to be able to do that. But not now. I was about to remove my skis when a guy, probably in his 50s, stopped and offered a hand. He was a big guy, but he couldn’t get me up. Another large guy then skied up behind me offering to assist. It was now a rescue operation, and other skiers were stopping to watch the show. They finally managed to right me and skied off together, having bonded I suppose over their successful joint mission. I skied down carefully to the lodge, dressed, and stumbled to the parking lot, wishing I had a donkey to carry my gear.

That was it. I resolved to get my ass back into shape. I’m not thinking of it as losing weight as much as being in rehab. I’m back to the gym 3 times a week, gradually building up my walking stamina (aided by a BOA SI belt) and watching what I eat. Here’s a graph of the progress to date of my weight loss.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x2s0cphb1cu1f4n/weight%20graph.jpeg?dl=0

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Stuck at 150 pounds and frustrated

Haven't made weight loss progress in nearly a year. I know it's as "simple" as eating in a calorie deficit, but I'm also trying to tone with exercise not just lose weight. For context, at my heaviest I was 167 pounds (I'm just shy of 5'3". I'm currently at 150 pounds.) I lost the first 10 pounds by stopping drinking soda and following a keto diet for a couple weeks. While I found great success with that diet I found it too restrictive and horrible for my mental health. That was at least 2 years ago, I've been able to whittle away a few more pounds and maintain keeping the weight off by staying moderately active. I got at least 10k steps five days a week at work and worked out for 30 min-1hour or so 2-3 times a week. (Mostly Emkfit's HIIT's but sometimes weights with friends)

Since January I've started doing one upper body day, one lower body day, and I toggle between full body or a HIIT workout (I did Emkfit's flex weight program from Jan-March which was around 45min-1hr of weightlifting 3x a week) but I'm currently just picking one of her videos that pertains to what I want to workout that day. So it ends up being 30-40min 2-3 a week. I've also been really working on getting enough water. Started this year with 80 ounces a day, I'm now drinking 95+ ounces consistently. And the past couple weeks I've been working on getting more steps on my days off (at least 5k instead of being sedimentary) I still get 10k+ steps on the days I work.

Any tips/advice, favorite low cal recipes/snacks are appreciated. And thanks for reading/replying to this long rambling post, but I really am trying. And while I do over all look a little leaner, and I know a pound of muscle looks better than a pound of fat I'm frustrated. I don't mind being 150 pounds so much as I do looking like I'm shaped like the Grinch.

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How to stop seeing the requirement to drive to my fitness related activities as a barrier/excuse?

I live in a rural area. The city itself is very car centric. I accept that I need to drive anywhere to do most things. When I was younger, I didn’t care about going into/out of the city multiple times a day. As an adult, however, I have an extreme aversion to it. It’s not anxiety. It’s not fear of driving. It’s pure hatred🤣. I hate driving. I hate wasting time. I hate the cost of gas. I hate the wear & tear on my car. This applies to everything not just exercise. Rural life has made me a bit of a minimalist in that if I’m making dinner & I don’t have an ingredient I absolutely do not go into town to get it - I just do without. I have one day/week in which I schedule errands I literally schedule them outside of rush hour & this takes a full day - adding exercise on top puts me out of the house for 8-10h on my day ‘off’ which I can’t do because I have house tasks to attend. Way before the WFH movement was a thing, I legit picked jobs based on commute time & route. You get the idea.

I need more exercise & I need to attend a facility for a pool as I’ve decided on aqua fit classes for health reasons. Yet the thought of driving for 30 mins each way fills me with dread. That’s 60 mins I’ve lost. To make it worse, in order to attend some classes, I’d have to go into town 2x/day because of work as none of them line up even remotely close to my shift start time. I thought about scheduling my errands & my exercise & my work on the same day, but it’s too much - I can’t leave my dog for 12h.

The ‘best’ case scenario is I go into town for just this on one of my other days off, but damn! That’s still 60-90 mins (depending on traffic) of my day just for a 45 min aqua fit class.

Now, I am aware this aversion is a flat out excuse. I get that. I own that. What I need help with is re training my brain so I start to see this travel time as either a necessary evil or a privilege? I need help sort of toning down how absolutely stickler I am concerning driving anywhere, but I can’t beat my brain.

People who commute to whatever or don’t hate driving what can I do to get over this? I don’t like music. (Seriously, I don’t listen to it.) & I can’t over saturate myself with audio books as I already listen to them 4-6h/day while cleaning, sleeping & other exercise outside of the planned aqua fit. (I need to ‘save’ them for when I walk/run as they’re my main reward system for that exercise.) Even as is, I’m already listening to them too much.

How can I just stfu & accept this needs to happen to achieve my weight loss goals? The thought of spending an extra $100/month or more on gas to get there is just so unappealing.

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A book on habits.

I hope it's OK to share this here. I started reading a book called "The Power of Habit" and while it didn't start my journey of habit change that's led to my 70 lb(so far) weight loss it gave me some valuable insight as to how/why it happened and how to capitalize on that momentum in other parts of my life where I had habits that negatively impacted me and my relationships. If you're a reader I highly suggest picking up a copy(or borrowing one from your library like I did). I now it helps anyone who is still struggling or just getting started on their journey. This passage is from near the beginning of the book:

Because for reasons they were just beginning to understand, that one small shift in Lisa’s perception that day in Cairo—the conviction that she had to give up smoking to accomplish her goal—had touched off a series of changes that would ultimately radiate out to every part of her life. Over the next six months, she would replace smoking with jogging, and that, in turn, changed how she ate, worked, slept, saved money, scheduled her workdays, planned for the future, and so on. She would start running half-marathons, and then a marathon, go back to school, buy a house, and get engaged. Eventually she was recruited into the scientists’ study, and when researchers began examining images of Lisa’s brain, they saw something remarkable: One set of neurological patterns—her old habits—had been overridden by new patterns. They could still see the neural activity of her old behaviors, but those impulses were crowded out by new urges. As Lisa’s habits changed, so had her brain. It wasn’t the trip to Cairo that had caused the shift, scientists were convinced, or the divorce or desert trek. It was that Lisa had focused on changing just one habit—smoking—at first. Everyone in the study had gone through a similar process. By focusing on one pattern—what is known as a “keystone habit”—Lisa had taught herself how to reprogram the other routines in her life, as well.

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Visualizing the Weight I’ve Lost as Extra Luggage

23F 5’8” SW: 210.0 lbs CW: 163.0 lbs

I’m traveling back home today to see my family for the first time since last October, and the last time they saw me I was right at 200 lbs. One of my goals has been to get to a healthy BMI in time for this trip, and as of this morning my BMI was 24.8. I know it’s an arbitrary bench-marker, but I’m proud of going from obese to “healthy” over the past six months.

I knew I had hit my goal, but the most surreal moment of all came when I was packing my suitcase. Since I don’t have one of those luggage weighing tools, I have to resort to holding my bag on the scale to make sure that I’m not over the 40 lbs weight limit. And when I stood on the scale, holding my completely stuffed suitcase, I looked down and saw the number 196 lbs.

I weigh less today, while holding my suitcase, than I did this time six months ago. That suitcase is heavy - I’m an efficient packer - it caused some strain for my back and arms carrying it around. I used to carry more than that around with me every single day…

Visualizing my weight loss like that was just really surreal for me…

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Brain fog - different diets

So it's time to do something about my weight and I have been looking all over gathering information what would be, for me, a good approach.

​

Inevitably I was reading up on keto and it took my attention that many (most) people say that keto helped tremendously with their mental clarity.

Short: I want that!

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However I'm sceptic (about most things) and I'm wondering if it's really keto(sis) that brings the mental clarity or is it the lack of crappy food that comes with switching to keto?

The other side of the coin, in what ways would a cico contribute to brain health? I would think that, also the lack of crappy food, would help the brain?

​

It's not my intention to create (another) x is better than y because abc. I'm genuinely interested by this and hope to use that to my own benefit when starting my weight loss journey.

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I'm so irritated at my scale at home. I don't think it's giving me an accurate reading.

To give context, I'm a 26M, SW: 379.8, CW: 343.6 (I think) that has been doing weight loss for almost 5 months now. My doctor has recommended a strict 1,600 calorie allowance for a calorie deficit and it was going well up until recently.

I'm very irritated and frustrated at my scale as of lately. Since last week, I have been worried that I was reaching a plateau (and part of me still is worried I'm getting close to one).

I weighed in at 344.0 on Friday of last week, the same weight as the week prior. I thought I was reaching a plateau as I have been counting calories and haven't been surpassing my daily allowance. The next day, I weigh myself and it says I'm at 340 pounds. I believed that is the accurate weight, but then I started to have trust issues with my scale.

This morning, I woke up and weighed myself. This time, I decided to experiment and try with different places in my house. I only counted times when the weight showed up twice. First the bathroom. It gave me readings as low as 327.0 and as high as 347.8 pounds. Then, I weighed in the kitchen. It gave me 343.6 and 346.0 pounds. This isn't even the times my scale wouldn't even measure correctly and

I'm so frustrated with my readings lately. I'm not sure what the problem is. Is it that the trailer I'm currently living in is unlevel in some areas? Do I have poor balance that could be affecting the scales? Is my scale not a good and accurate one? I'm not entirely sure, but I'm feeling irritated, frustrated, upset, and a lot more because I feel I'm slowing down if not halting the progress I've made.

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