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Starting Down the Path to Losing 25 pounds

Steve Krenek

• 3 min read

See if this happens to you…

Executive Summary : This is my first blog article - an account of why I decided to learn more about how to be healthier.

Contents

  1. Uh-oh
  2. Success!
  3. Failure…
  4. More motivation to be healthy
  5. Success!
  6. Failure…
  7. Success!
  8. Where we are going…

Part 1 – uh-oh!

2/8/2020 – It was just weeks before the pandemic hit with full force, and I had been trying to lose weight for almost 2 years without success.  Oh, I lost 5 pounds here or there and gained it back within a month or two. I considered cutting out my liter-a-day soda habit, but that seemed too difficult, so I decided to read some diet books instead.  (Procrastination disguised as learning!).  Here are the books I purchased on February 28, 2020.  Thanks Amazon!  

  1. Why We Get Fat And What To Do About It by Gary Taubes
  2. Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution by Robert C. Atkins, M.D.
  3. Low Carbohydrate Living by Jeff S. Volek, PhD, RD and Stephen D. Phinney, MD, PhD

Uh-oh!

What I learned shocked and frightened me.  I learned that consuming too much fructose (high fructose corn syrup = HFCS = the sugar in most sodas) can cause fatty liver disease.   Uh-oh!

Given the size of my soda habit, I was a little panicked at this information.  I resolved to cut back on fructose intake, especially sodas.

Success!

For me, the pandemic turned out to be a bit of a blessing.  I began working from home and I decided to commit to using my former commute time as exercise time.  I began walking 2 miles in the mornings and 3 miles in the evenings. The calculations:

  • Walking is approximately 100 calories/mile for the average person
  • 5 miles x 100 calories /mile = 500 calories /day
  • 500 calories/day x 7 days = 3500 calories/week
  • 3500 calories is equivalent to 1 pound of fat

So as long as I stayed at the same food intake, I would lose 1 pound per week.  I tracked my food intake in MyFitnessPal and bought a scale that tracked my weight and % fat.

Based on some studies on ideal weight, I set my target weight as approximately 155 pounds.  https://www.calculator.net/ideal-weight-calculator.html

Armed with my new enthusiasm, from February to August, I dropped from 170 to 153.5 pounds.  Yay me!  Calculations:

  • 25 weeks to lose 16.5 pounds, or 16.5/25 = 2/3 pound per week.

So, I fell behind my 1 pound/week goal, but I still got there.

Failure…

Maybe the weight loss had seemed a little too easy.  As the fall rolled in, the days got shorter and colder and I began to skip my walks here and there.  Also, the stress of year-end work deadlines took its toll, and I also began stress eating.

By the end of January, I was back to 164 pounds.  And I put on another few ponds through the spring. Sigh.

More Motivation

My dad died in February 2020 and my mom died in April of 2021.  The good news was that my parents lived to be 91 and 90.  The bad news was that they spent the last 9 and 8 years of their lives unhappily in assisted living facilities.  They were especially unhappy about the loss of freedom that they experienced.

In reflecting on my parents’ lives, I resolved that 1) I would be able to live independently to the end, and 2) I would learn what I needed to do to avoid their fate and that I would do whatever that was.

I selected a goal: To be hiking in the mountains when I’m 95.

Success!

Armed with my new resolve, I tackled weight loss again.  After doing some more research, I settled on a target weight of 145 pounds, based on the MetLife tables regarding who lives the longest. (http://www.assessmentpsychology.com/metlife.htm).  After reading about having your body being able to burn fat as well as carbs and sugars ("fat adapted"), I added ½ cup of nuts (almonds/cashews) to my daily food intake.  I found that this greatly reduced food cravings.   Walking regularly went back on the schedule.

Over the next 23 weeks, I lost 22.5 pounds.  Call it a pound a week.  Yay me!

Failure…

And then the next fall came. Colder, darker, more work stress. Over the next 4.5 months, I added another 18 pounds. Sigh…

Success!

In February 2022, I retired.  In March, I started running (slowly) 5 times a week and cleaned up my diet (again)  By July 2022 I was back to 145.  Whew!

Can I keep it off this time?   Stay tuned…

Where Are We Going From Here…

My goal with this blog is to document what I learn about staying healthy enough to meet my goal of hiking in the mountains when I’m 95.  I hope you’ll come along.

I Plan to Publish on Fridays…

Coming articles:

  • 2 Things to Stay Healthy
  • I Did a Senior Fitness Test
  • What is the difference between a carb and a sugar?
  • My Philosophy of Weight Loss