Healthier Me - one year later
Last year after months of taking care of Brian's mom while she went through her cancer treatments, Covid life, and just slacking on taking care of me physically, it was time. I had gained ten pounds through Covid times and I saw myself in Hadley's grade 8 grad photos and I was the weight I was when I was 9 months pregnant with her. Mentally, I was in the place to make a change.
So, I started small. I made a goal to track my food, drink six cups of water a day and increase my intake of daily fruits and vegetables in place of cookies and whatever else I was eating.
This went on until August when I added in daily online workouts which I subscribed to through Beachbody on Demand. It works kind of like Netflix, but for workouts. At first I picked basically the dance videos, but slowly I ventured into other things and now have a collection of weights to use during my workouts.
I bought a Renpho scale, which has been the key to daily decisions. It has a collection of stats that go directly from the scale to my phone on an easy to use app.
I love this! Mostly because it stops me from focusing only on my weight and more of me as an overall package. Sure there is the weight, so I will start there... after one year, I am down 35 pounds. This is exciting because I feel more comfortable in my skin. I still have more to my journey but I feel good about this first year. I allowed myself to live and enjoy moments that were either out of my control, or just fun events but tried to stay in control of my food intake 90% (or more) of the time. I am still in the overweight section but happy to be out of obesity.
But this scale goes further than that. It tracks my BMI (I am currently in the over weight level, down from obesity), bodyfat, (which is the only part that is still in the obese category but only by 1% now), my fat free body weight, subcutaneous fat (fat in my skin which is still on the high side but much lower), my visceral fat (fat around my organs, again on the high side but much lower), interestingly enough... I can predict that this number will go up if I eat chips, or pizza, etc. My body water, (which honestly I was pretty dehydrated when I started, but now I am proud to say after a year I am now on the low side of normal. I drink a lot of water. It is hard to increase your water percentage)! My skeletal muscle is also still in the low needs work area, but I continue to keep trying. My muscle mass however is high which is great! My Bone mass is also high, again...good news! Protein was so low when I started and I daily try to keep on top of it. I am happy to report that I am now at a standard level, but I keep trying to get to adequate. My BMR is perfectly average. (This is the minimum energy needed for calories). But the really exciting thing that is measured is my metabolic age. When I started I was aged at 50. This is supposed to match your actual age... I am 43. So... after a year, I have brought this down to 46!
I am a year in, and still mentally and physically on board to keep up this lifestyle. I use an app called Healthi to track my food intake to keep me on track. I also wear a fitbit watch which tracks my steps. I don't really have a goal for that other than to try to beat my friend at weekly challenges.
Mostly, I am just happy that I started. That was the hardest part. Day one. But now I know that most days will be good, some days will be harder, but you just have to keep trying.
I have learned that exercise will not help you lose weight, that happens in the kitchen. The exercise helps with your organs and shaping your body, but not the weight loss. So... if anyone is reading this and needs advice... start in the kitchen one meal at a time.