I didn't realize how closely mental and physical health were tied together until I started this newsletter
I didn't realize how closely mental and physical health were tied together until I started this newsletter
Weigh-In Wednesday: April 17, 2024
Every day I track my calories – from normal, healthy foods – and almost every day I come in under my net calorie goal of 1,500. When I exercise, I earn additional calories to eat, which explains some of the numbers I am about to share.
Net daily calories for April (1,500 goal)
April 1: -334
April 2: -696
April 3: -1,111
April 4: -853
April 5: -1,150
April 6: -1,581
April 7: -249
April 8: Forgot to track
April 9: Forgot to track
April 10: -402
April 11: -147
April 12: +158
April 13: -1,366
April 14: -29
April 15: + 83
April 16: -397
For the month, I’m thousands of calories under. You’d think the weight would come off. Yet I’m weighing in at 177-178 consistently since February.
Which makes me wonder.
Am I coming at this the wrong way?
My goal has never been to lose weight per se – it’s to get rid of the spare tire. I set 170 as a weight goal because it was my best guess on what I would need to weigh to look like an Ohio 7 in a dress shirt.
I had a light bulb moment at the gym the other day.
Maybe – MAYBE – I ought to be approaching this less as a weight-loss project and more as a body-shaping project.
So, here’s what I’m going to do:
Stay the course on the low-carb, high-protein diet
Reduce cardio exercise and increase resistance training to build muscle
There’s one other very important thing: stress. I need to get a handle on it so I can exercise regularly. Toe made its 2024 debut last week, and it kept me out of the gym. I’m fine. Nothing serious. It’s never just one thing with Toe. Like with plane crashes, it’s a combination of novel factors that bring the plane down.
“It is often said that aircraft never crash because of one single issue. It’s almost always a combination of factors that lead to an accident and therefore it is very difficult to provide accurate statistics as to what the cause of an aircraft crash is. This is compared to the holes in a Swiss cheese such as Gruyere, and it is said that when the holes in the cheese line up, then an accident occurs.”
Sometimes the holes in life’s cheese line up perfectly.
I’ve reluctantly come to accept that stresses naturally pile up as you get older. I had been telling myself that if I just got past THESE stresses then I will swim in a sea of tranquility. What I have discovered is that the more things you love, the more opportunities for stress. That sounds like complaining, but it’s not. Having a good job is tough — it comes with stress. Being a parent is great — it comes with stress. Owning a house is something to be proud of — it comes with stress. You get what I’m saying.
The things you love are not necessarily the direct cause of stress, but they open up new avenues. A thing I am still trying to wrap my head around is the idea that the opportunity for tranquility comes not from reducing the things you love, but from managing the accompanying stress. My relationship with stress is in the process of shifting from “I hate stress and want it to go away” to … “If I didn’t have stress, I probably wouldn’t lead a very rewarding life.” Like I’ve said before, attitude is everything.
That’s the mental side of managing stress.
For me, the physical side of managing stress takes three forms – sleep, exercise and writing. My wife – who is much smarter than I am – long ago encouraged me to put strong fences around all three of those things. She’s good at knowing what I need before I do.
What I didn’t know, until I started this weekly journal, is how important it is for me to actively reduce stress, which helps me stay mentally fit, which allows me to be active, which … actively reduces stress.
It’s all connected, man.
Drum roll, please...
Starting weight: 187
Last week: 177
This week: 177
Goal: 170
Feeling: Happy to be exercising again.
Shoutouts
Laura wrote: Ugh! I am so tired of food and I can't wait until I can eat next. Do normal people feel this way? Have you ever heard someone say "Oh, I forgot to eat lunch today?" That is not normal. I think we are the normal ones. We will never waste away to nothing.
Seriously, food has me in a funk this week, but mostly it's about how I feel. I lost the pound I had gained, but I don't feel good (and I don't mean well - I am not sick). I just don't know what the answer is, so I'll keep plugging along.
And I was the mom (like yours) who dished out the pizza to my three boys and all their classmates until their Catholic school finally opened their cafeteria when the youngest was in junior high. I'll have to ask how they felt about their slices, but my boys were all thin so they could eat anything. I attribute that to their dad, not me.
Good luck. We can do this.
Hey Laura: You wrote, “Ugh! I am so tired of food and I can't wait until I can eat next. Do normal people feel this way?” I feel this way, and I have thought about it a lot. I hate you, food. I need you, food. My theory is that people want some pleasure in their lives, and food is the pleasure of the innocent. For some, pleasure comes through drugs, alcohol, smoking, vaping, gambling, gossip, money, lust, etc. For others, a cannolli.
If you’re a “normal” person, and you seek simple pleasures, there’s food. There are wholesome pleasures to be sought elsewhere (making art, music, conversation), but they’re not as easy or ever-present as food. What’s helped me is changing my relationship with food so that I think about how it leads to other pleasures. While I’m still down for a decadent meal every now and then, I now view food as, basically, energy pellets that allow me to fully experience things I want – like getting up early in the morning and writing, exercising at the gym or doing yard work, keeping up with my young kids, etc.
The food leads to pleasure instead of being the pleasure.
Changing my thinking on this has been like turning a battleship, but it’s possible.
Attitude is everything.
We can do this.
“reduce stress, which helps me stay mentally fit, which allows me to be active, which … actively reduces stress.” …chicken or the egg :), or in other words what you are saying in this well mentally exercised quote of yours is what I see this a the universal connection that pretty much sums up life as I know it. ☯️ fun stuff 😊
I have experienced just about everything you wrote, only with me it’s WW points rather than calories. I usually have leftovers at the end of the day. At this point I feel as if I’m trying to prove a point, and that point is it’s not my fault. I’m doing everything right so there must be something wrong, right? I don’t know what else to do but stop eating, and I know that’s not gonna happen.
And as far as stress, this year has convinced me to retire in December, a little earlier than I had planned, but a necessary move. The job I used to love has become stressful and at this point in my life, it’s just not worth it. Fortunately that seems to be the (basically) only stressful part of my life. Well, that and not losing weight.
Down .5 this week. This is hard.