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  #1   ^
Old Mon, May-17-21, 13:15
LiterateGr's Avatar
LiterateGr LiterateGr is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 163
 
Plan: Atkins/General LC
Stats: 240.0/167.2/155 Female 5 '9"
BF:36/29.5/25
Progress: 86%
Default Post-surgery gain

I had to move, rapidly, in late December, into a much smaller place. (WHILE working 60 hours/week for Amazon, because it was Peak.)

Needless to say, a lot of things got left behind... one of those things was my bathroom scale.

Now, under normal circumstances, I'm a daily weigh-er. I get up, pee, strip, weigh, and then do the rest of my morning-stuff. Little fluctuations don't bother me, but it helps me keep my eye on trends, and adjust accordingly.

Then, in mid-March, I had knee surgery. Prepped lots of food before-hand. (Cottage-pie, meatballs, etc) But I was actually using a wheelchair for those first 2 weeks post-op.

Recovery was slow, and one thing I didn't feel like doing (even after my pre-prepped food had all been thawed and eaten)? Was standing at the stove to cook. So I fell into this habit of snacking instead of eating. And, because I had so much time on my hands... snacking out of boredom.

I knew, at some level, that I was eating too much. But without the scale to "yell at" me, it was hard to pay much attention to that nagging voice.

Then, the other day, it was cool outside. I pulled on my custom jeans... and they were too $(#% tight. Really uncomfortable in the waist.

Uh-oh.

SO... went on Amazon & ordered a body-composition scale. (It was one of the cheaper ones, but it happened to come with an app, and I think I'm in love with the app. It tracks a lot of "body comp" stuff -- lean mass, water weight, fat, visceral fat, etc... but it also lets you record measurments: Shoulders, chest, waist,hips, left & right biceps, thighs, & calves. (And it actively tracks waist/height ratio)

This is exactly how I like to track, and I have a really hard time finding anything that lets me do that without also demanding caloric information.

So, from my low of 160, I'd gained 25 lbs. (Granted, that was based on mid-day, and not nekkid. Still.)

Time to get off "maintenance" and back into "Get your butt back in shape" mode.

Even before the scale arrived, I'd started cooking again. (Made a cottage pie... I was being lazy, and took a lot of shortcuts, so it's not as good as normal, but tastes better on the re-heat.) (Yes, I really like cottage pie. It's filling, and lasts several days.)

I've also let my water consumption drop down to... pretty much 0. Need to fix that.

And because I've been off work so long, I'm toying with getting a set of adjustable dumbells, to start trying to gain back some of that upper-body strength I know I've lost. (Doubt I could still lift 50 lbs over my head.)


The good news? Sure, I've gained, BUT:
  • I know exactly how and why it happened
  • I caught it while my BMI was still close to the "normal" range. Close enough that my physical therapist gets annoyed when I mention having gained weight
  • Fixing the problem is just a matter of overcoming laziness and getting cooking again
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  #2   ^
Old Fri, May-21-21, 07:14
LiterateGr's Avatar
LiterateGr LiterateGr is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 163
 
Plan: Atkins/General LC
Stats: 240.0/167.2/155 Female 5 '9"
BF:36/29.5/25
Progress: 86%
Default

OMG, what a difference water makes!

Been a busy week for me (& for my daughter, who's had state-testing. Which, when you virtual-school, means Mom has to drive you across town to a hotel conference area for your test.) One day? We were away from home for 13.5 hours.

So this morning, my sink was full of unwashed dishes. (Yup, in recovery-mode, now... didn't get a chance to wash them the past 2 days.) I have some leftover chicken-and-veggies-in-creamsauce in the fridge, but no other cooked food. I DO have half a cheesecake in there (LC, obviously), too.

So I woke up this morning ravenous. And with the 32 oz glass of water I poured myself still by the head of my bed, untouched.

Got up... pottied and weighed in, had to stop myself drinking before I stepped on the scale.

Got dressed, went into the front of house... and my stomach made this big lurch towards the fridge. "I'm STARVING! Cut some cheesecake!" (I know this is a bad idea. First, I don't usually eat this early. Second, cheesecake is only an "in the evening" thing, or I'll go back for seconds because it tastes good.)

Instead, I grabbed my water, and hammered it. (Don't panic -- this is how I usually drink my water.) Then, I had my coffee.

It' now 3 hours later, and I'm mildly hungry. Like, I might snack on a slice of swiss cheese, in a little while, before I go out. (I don't like to leave the house hungry if I can help it, unless I'm already planning to eat out. Finding LC-friendly fare on the fly when my body's screaming "I'M STARVING!!!" is never a good thing, and can lead to unhealthy compromises.) Or maybe, since -- once I leave today, I plan to be out kind of late -- I'll actually heat up those leftovers before I go, and have lunch a hair early.

But good grief, what a night-and-day difference, that water made!

I know what taking care of myself looks like. Just need to get back to it!
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  #3   ^
Old Fri, May-21-21, 13:35
Grav Grav is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 1,469
 
Plan: Banting
Stats: 302/187/187 Male 175cm
BF:
Progress: 100%
Location: New Zealand
Default

I imagine a lot of us could relate to your situation, if not so much driven by surgery, but just driven by the general lockdown situation that most of us have had to deal with on and off over recent months. Anything that causes a disruption to our regular daily routine can send things off in the wrong direction (as it has also done for me at times, but I'm working on that).

Sounds like you're figuring your way through it all, though. Keep up the good work!
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  #4   ^
Old Wed, Aug-04-21, 11:39
LiterateGr's Avatar
LiterateGr LiterateGr is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 163
 
Plan: Atkins/General LC
Stats: 240.0/167.2/155 Female 5 '9"
BF:36/29.5/25
Progress: 86%
Default

So I'm down a little over 15 lbs since the first post in this thread.

Been dealing with a lot of knee and now shoulder issues that make cooking less than fun, a lot of the time. But hanging in there.

Also, I've been able to do IF again. I use a website (PM me if you're interested) where you get paid to lose... and I was "behind" on some of my challenges there. So I did a couple fast-days, and I'm back ahead of track again. (I even managed this while visiting Epcot during one of their food-festivals.)

Was behind again this week, so yesterday was supposed to be a fast-day... but I was starving by about noon, so made a guac-swiss burger. (Wholey-guacamole does these single-serve containers ("minis!") that I LOVE. Since I live alone, I can have ONE serving of guac at a time, the rest doesn't go bad, and I don't have to hit a restaurant to fill my craving. And *drum roll* no added sugar. Because yeah, a lot of guac has that.) Woke up 1.2 lbs down from yesterday.

See, this is why I know I don't have an eating disorder, even when I do IF. If I'm actually hungry, I eat. On plan, and until my hunger is satisfied. (I had my guac-burger, wasn't stingy with it, and still felt a little "nibbly" after, so had some more cheese.)


BTW, those custom jeans I talked about, that became too tight?

Yeah... I'm wearing them as I type.
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  #5   ^
Old Wed, Aug-04-21, 11:41
LiterateGr's Avatar
LiterateGr LiterateGr is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 163
 
Plan: Atkins/General LC
Stats: 240.0/167.2/155 Female 5 '9"
BF:36/29.5/25
Progress: 86%
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by LiterateGr
... I'm toying with getting a set of adjustable dumbells, to start trying to gain back some of that upper-body strength I know I've lost. (Doubt I could still lift 50 lbs over my head.)


Know the set I want, but that's going to take money I don't have yet.

Instead, I filled a couple 2- and 1-liter bottles with water. 4 and 2 lb weights are better than none at all.
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  #6   ^
Old Thu, Aug-05-21, 04:54
WereBear's Avatar
WereBear WereBear is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 14,605
 
Plan: EpiPaleo/Primal/LowOx
Stats: 220/125/150 Female 67
BF:
Progress: 136%
Location: USA
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by LiterateGr
BTW, those custom jeans I talked about, that became too tight?

Yeah... I'm wearing them as I type.


Yay! I use pants preferably. There's no floor space in either of my bathrooms

Nothing like feeling crappy to encourage us to eat crappy food. Been there, gained that!

This, too, is our Low Carb Story. It's never one and done. It's always a journey. And hopefully, a lifelong one.
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  #7   ^
Old Fri, Sep-10-21, 11:19
LiterateGr's Avatar
LiterateGr LiterateGr is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 163
 
Plan: Atkins/General LC
Stats: 240.0/167.2/155 Female 5 '9"
BF:36/29.5/25
Progress: 86%
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by WereBear
This, too, is our Low Carb Story. It's never one and done. It's always a journey. And hopefully, a lifelong one.


Words to live by.

I'm not on a diet. There are simply certain foods I don't eat. A diet's a temporary thing. This isn't a diet -- this is me continually making healthy choices when it comes to food.


If I screw up.... if I overeat (ie: eat when I'm not hungry), if I eat "forbidden food", etc... well, I know the steps I need to take to get back on track.

And that it's not a diet?
Means that I can, for example, take a single taste of my daughter's amazing desert, and not feel like I need to have more of it . You cheat on a diet. Me? I'm trying to avoid foods that are poison to my body. (When asked, I'll point to my 2018 diabetes diagnosis.) (Doc says I can no longer tell people I'm diabetic, since I don't meet a single diagnostic criteria. I'm highly motivated to keep it that way.)

It's not a diet.

It's just how I eat... how I need to eat for the rest of my life, if I want to avoid the consequences of bad dietary choices.
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