Tuesday, August 27, 2024

Weight 120 - after a pasta dinner last night. Definitely have to eat more calories/protein. Travel days seem to either be filled with too much junk food or not enough food. Speaking of eating, I do want to try Peps suggested "reverse dieting". If you could suggest a good source(s) to read about it I'd appreciate it. I couldn't seem to find anything from Mayo when googling the other day, though I did find some other articles.

So happy to be home! But I realized that the bed here is much less comfortable than Florida. It used to be the spare mattress which DS said was too firm for him. I let him swap the mattresses when he moved since we are getting rid of this one anyway. I guess he was correct that it was too firm.

My condo is filled with hanging towels and piles of sheets to be washed when we get back in mid-October but I did get my own sheets washed and bed made along with clean towels for two. And the refrigerator was emptied of all stuff that would go bad. Mission accomplished (though I hate throwing out so much).

After being back there for a weekend I am anxious to return when our friends are there in a month and one-half. Lots to do before then though.

Today we are going to the New Bedford whaling museum, then to dinner with friends in that area. No rest for the weary.

Have a terrific Tuesday!

Peps, I'd like refs on reverse dieting, too.

Oddly, I'm having trouble right now keeping weight on. Am now fluctuating between 125 and 128. That's about 10 pounds less than my longtime post-VSG weight of 135ish. As I said before I don't hate this weight, but it feels odd. I'm guessing I've built a new set point for myself. (Maybe I accidentally did reverse dieting?)

We're submitting an offer today on a new domicile in KY. If and when it's accepted I'll describe it more, but it feels good, even if only temporarily, to have found something we really like in a great neighborhood.

Today's schedule includes termite spraying and hornets nest removal, town errands, and house cleaning.

Happy trails to everyone.

Fingers crossed on the new place.

This article offers a nice over view: https://www.health.com/diets/reverse-diet

This one is good, too: https://www.goodrx.com/well-being/diet-nutrition/reverse-die ting

Thank you, thank you, Peps!

So, the key to successful reverse dieting is gradually adding back HEALTHY calories over time instead of in gross. Some people only increase several hundred calories PER WEEK. When my nutritionist had me do it when I first started with her I had been yoyo crash dieting after my VSG regain. She wanted to make sure my metabolism was on track, so that's why I did it. Turned out my metabolism was pretty strong to begin with, but I did raise it so I can now maintain easily on an average of 2,500 calories per day. I lose weight at a pretty good clip at 1800 calories per day. 2,000 per day gives me between .5 and 1 pound per week it seems depending on activity level.

Scale victory today! I broke the decade mark... Granted I had gut issues yesterday and ended up not wanting dinner, so I skipped it and had a snack later around 9:30. But I'll take it, even if it is for a single day. Still headed the right direction. Gut seems more settled today. Not sure what I ate, but something got me. Boooooo.....

While tirzepatide really does help with the food noise, I can't say that it is a 100% miracle cure. I do believe it allows me to navigate the lack of hormone, the cravings, and the dysfunctional eating behavior much more easily, but there is still a concerted effort to eat appropriately for weight loss. The first 10-20 pounds off, not so much, but the last 30-40 pounds have taken a conscious effort and monitoring choices and seeing how those choices effect my weight loss. I have an acquaintance who lost about 80 pounds, but still needs to lose about 30-50 pounds to get to a healthy weight. She has not lost any weight for 6 months. She bemoans the fact that the Mounjaro took her only this far. We talked about it a while ago and she is not willing to exert the effort to lose the last bit. I asked her if she was happy where she landed and she said no. Kind of made me sad. I thought to myself and asked, then why not put in the work to lose the last bit? Answer: The drug was supposed to do the work for her. I totally get it because secretly I felt that way about VSG. Even though I "worked at it", I did believe that VSG would magically keep the weight off and that I would be able to eat anything I wanted, just in super small amounts. And then the evil truth revealed itself.

I do feel better today. I have a few things hanging over my head that are heavy (sale of RV, van, etc... then dad is having another drop in cognitive ability). I realized, too, that Diamond D. is correct. I am thinking about that big upcoming change. I'm not worried about the not working part, but I'm worried about the reduced income part. I think that is a very normal concern. So, I'm sitting with that and thinking about ways in which to prepare better for that change.

That's what I've got for now.

My hesitation about doing this is that "the calorie counting that reverse dieting requires can be tedious and stressful, such as in cases where you need access to the calorie content of foods." This is the first time I have lost weight WITHOUT counting calories (or WW points) which I found very freeing. I am reluctant to have to go back to it. I kind of did this in a way after VSG because I was counting calories at that point. I added 200 calories per wee****il I stopped losing. I think my biggest problem is lack of muscle mass. I need to start working on increasing it. My physical therapist said though it is unlikely that range of motion can be increased after a certain point, one can always increase muscle if you work at it diligently.

Big thunderstorms earlier today! Impressive shelf cloud led the way. They always look like spaceships to me.

I have my non-profit board meeting today and my HOA board meeting tomorrow... Blech. Only 4 more meetings for the non-profit! Too many to count for the other.

That's about it! Boring, I know...

We had the storms here too!

There were some nasty storms in New England on Monday before I flew in. There was flooding and a really horrendous accident on Cape Cod during them.