Jabberwockey
Well-Known Member
Ok, here's the deal. I've never been the healthiest of people. Even when I was in the military I LOVED to eat and had a tendency to repress. Back then, I got enough exercise that it didn't make a huge difference and was a borderline alcoholic to, and I say this semi-jokingly, reduce my stress levels. Well, like many of us on this forum, I'm getting older and my metabolism is slowing down. Not that my body was ever the most efficient engine on the planet but you know what I mean. I also don't repress my feelings as much but then, have significantly more....substantial?, real?....problems to try and deal with. You're on this board so you understand, wont bore you further with details.
I find my pants getting tighter even though I'm maintaining my, and lets be honest here as I'm beyond overweight, current weight of around 280 lbs. The reason I'm maintaining my weight but getting fatter is lack of exercise is causing me to lose muscle, and since muscle weighs more than fat I'm gaining size if not weight. The medical profession says my optimum weight should be around 160 or 170 lbs. While I could probably make that weight, I cant see being comfortable with it so my target weight range is between 200 and 220 lbs. This will not be reached any time soon. Not being negative, just being realistic and acknowledging that breaking a lifetime of bad habits will take time.
All of you understand the stress that Lil and I have in our lives at least to a point. Everyone's circumstances are different but you all understand the basics of what's going on. We both work desk jobs so our days are fairly sedate. We work a part time job cleaning so get a minimal amount of exercise from that but it also makes proper meal planning difficult and in all honesty, there have been weeks where we spent as much or more on eating out as we earned from the job. Its not high pay and I took it initially just so we could build up savings a bit while our son was at college but don't want to give it up just yet, maybe another year or two.
The hours are flexible so we can work as much or as little as we want during the week, with consideration to special events. We've started to adjust our work schedule to where we have Saturdays off and while this gives us one full day off a week (we clean after church on Sundays but it takes less than an hour) it does make the whole proper meals each night and time to exercise...I guess time to sleep too...more difficult. But by the time we get home from the main job, we relax for an hour or so then go to the part time. Then we say "Lets relax for a few, then we will get to...insert chore/project of the day here...in an hour or so". Before we know it, its 10:30 or 11:00 at night, the chore/project isn't started much less completed, and we're getting to bed an hour to and hour and a half later than intended.
Ok, that's disturbing. Just made a cup of coffee and looked at the creamer nutritional information. I'm consuming almost 200 calories a day of non-dairy creamer. No other significant nutritional value. Disturbing. Time to start drinking it black. Or quit drinking it all together? One thing at a time.
Sorry, this is becoming a bit of a ramble. I know what to do, just not how to do it. We need to eat healthier, we need to get more exercise, we need to get more sleep. The question is, HOW? While most would describe our house as "lived in" the fact of the matter is that one of the first things we sacrificed to life was house work. Oh, we still do a little of it but after cleaning for an hour or two at the church its VERY hard to bring ourselves to clean our own home. Its not filthy but needs work. What happens when we make one change only to have it swallowed by something else like when we reorganized the garage only to empty our basement into it for home improvements?
It really all boils down to time. We don't have enough to do everything we want or need to do so things are prioritized. Eventually, the lower priority things are sacrificed to either lack of time or something else more important coming up. And now we're talking about purchasing a piece of property that will consume even more of that time as we set it up to make it usable for its intended purpose.
Stopping now as this is getting out of hand. Basically looking for in general advice on how to get you life back on track. Do we do a major overhaul and change every thing? Do we work on one tiny project at a time and ignore everything else till its completed? Or something in between? Sorry, but I woke up this morning feeling crappy (not sick but unhealthy) and just a little bit overwhelmed.
I find my pants getting tighter even though I'm maintaining my, and lets be honest here as I'm beyond overweight, current weight of around 280 lbs. The reason I'm maintaining my weight but getting fatter is lack of exercise is causing me to lose muscle, and since muscle weighs more than fat I'm gaining size if not weight. The medical profession says my optimum weight should be around 160 or 170 lbs. While I could probably make that weight, I cant see being comfortable with it so my target weight range is between 200 and 220 lbs. This will not be reached any time soon. Not being negative, just being realistic and acknowledging that breaking a lifetime of bad habits will take time.
All of you understand the stress that Lil and I have in our lives at least to a point. Everyone's circumstances are different but you all understand the basics of what's going on. We both work desk jobs so our days are fairly sedate. We work a part time job cleaning so get a minimal amount of exercise from that but it also makes proper meal planning difficult and in all honesty, there have been weeks where we spent as much or more on eating out as we earned from the job. Its not high pay and I took it initially just so we could build up savings a bit while our son was at college but don't want to give it up just yet, maybe another year or two.
The hours are flexible so we can work as much or as little as we want during the week, with consideration to special events. We've started to adjust our work schedule to where we have Saturdays off and while this gives us one full day off a week (we clean after church on Sundays but it takes less than an hour) it does make the whole proper meals each night and time to exercise...I guess time to sleep too...more difficult. But by the time we get home from the main job, we relax for an hour or so then go to the part time. Then we say "Lets relax for a few, then we will get to...insert chore/project of the day here...in an hour or so". Before we know it, its 10:30 or 11:00 at night, the chore/project isn't started much less completed, and we're getting to bed an hour to and hour and a half later than intended.
Ok, that's disturbing. Just made a cup of coffee and looked at the creamer nutritional information. I'm consuming almost 200 calories a day of non-dairy creamer. No other significant nutritional value. Disturbing. Time to start drinking it black. Or quit drinking it all together? One thing at a time.
Sorry, this is becoming a bit of a ramble. I know what to do, just not how to do it. We need to eat healthier, we need to get more exercise, we need to get more sleep. The question is, HOW? While most would describe our house as "lived in" the fact of the matter is that one of the first things we sacrificed to life was house work. Oh, we still do a little of it but after cleaning for an hour or two at the church its VERY hard to bring ourselves to clean our own home. Its not filthy but needs work. What happens when we make one change only to have it swallowed by something else like when we reorganized the garage only to empty our basement into it for home improvements?
It really all boils down to time. We don't have enough to do everything we want or need to do so things are prioritized. Eventually, the lower priority things are sacrificed to either lack of time or something else more important coming up. And now we're talking about purchasing a piece of property that will consume even more of that time as we set it up to make it usable for its intended purpose.
Stopping now as this is getting out of hand. Basically looking for in general advice on how to get you life back on track. Do we do a major overhaul and change every thing? Do we work on one tiny project at a time and ignore everything else till its completed? Or something in between? Sorry, but I woke up this morning feeling crappy (not sick but unhealthy) and just a little bit overwhelmed.