A Shitty Way to Lose Weight

 This year has one of those times when I put in a new weight floor (back in February) and then I struggle for weeks or months just to revisit my old low again. Sometimes even a modest change in prescriptions can have dramatic effects; one of my sisters gained a lot of weight over a mental health medication. I don't think I've had a year over year gain for some time  but it's embarrassing to weigh in at a doctor's office maybe 12-15 pounds you think over your weight. In one annoying case my BMI went up over a reading I had for an outpatient procedure earlier this year.

This, in the middle of the current COVID-19 madness a week back I got hit by some nasty bug from hell; no, not COVID-19 symptoms, but I rarely get run down, so this was new. It's amazing how unprepared I was just to take my own temperature, just to confirm no fever. I had bought a digital thermometer years back from Walmart, had never used it, and the weird batteries had died. I ordered a no-contact Chinese-made one via Amazon, and was unable to get it to work until I flipped position of one of the AAA batteries. I was about to order a replacement unit--no legible instructions on battery placement.

I have my scale in the kitchen and it can be sensitive with placement. Occasionally one of the batteries will dislodge and I have to reseat it. So I was skeptical when I first saw it dip below my February low. But down I'm down nearly 9 points since that target, almost ready to break another 10. Make no mistake; I'm still obese but I'm roughly in the middle of a range where I was during the 1990's.

But for the moment my appetite over the past week is crap. Solid food still nauseates me; I'm barely tolerating fruit and soup

The Struggle Continues; Food Dreams

It's been quite a while since my last post, and I wish I had an improvement to report, but immediately after reaching a new multi-year low, I went on the beginning of a monster bounce, which eventually peaked about 15 lbs.; as of this morning, it's back down to about 7 over my low, and that's after a whoosh over the past week or so. Part of the story may have involved going off an old med because the prescription changed but under COVID-19 office staffing issues, it had been delayed, and I transitioned to a new health plan which vastly increased my prescription co-pay to about my car payment. I'm now on a new med which costs less, and it may be helping my weight as a nice side-effect. Of course, it may just be a coincidence.

I don't know about whether other dieters dream about food, but I often do. I really haven't eaten college food since graduate school at UT/Austin. (I briefly lived in off-campus graduate school housing at UH but didn't subscribe to a meal plan on campus.) I did eat lunch on campus at two university clients in 2008. Anyway, I often have nightmares about old days as a college student pursuing 4 degrees. Quite often it's something like I'm sitting for a final where I haven't attended a lecture or opened the textbook all semester. Usually these aren't food related, so this was novel. I was back in a cafeteria line, and all the entrees  were crap. I noticed at the end of the buffet there were a couple of trays of succulent roast chicken sections, and I asked the worker for a portion; she refused saying that I had missed the afternoon deadline to place an order.

In a different dream, somehow involving WWE wrestler/executive HHH, I came into a room where obviously 3 or 4 colleagues had stuffed themselves with pizza. (Pizza is a staple for IT worker shared meals; I've had many at company/HR lunches and/or after-hours maintenance work.) But apparently the only pie left wasn't my desired pepperoni or supreme, but something that looked like gravy smeared over flatbread. Pass!

A Weight Threshold is Crossed

Well, for 2 months now I had a weight resistance level that seemed to defy being broken. This one was 3 pounds over an even 50-lb. increment on a physician balance scale. So the next time I go to the doctor, they'll finally have to go down a notch on the big slide. A pound loss is just like any other pound, but it's demoralizing to see nurses have to reset a balance scale from the last patient up a notch or two. So, yes, I finally took out a 2-month low--and overnight that 50-lb. barrier. I don't know if the new 3/3.5 net new low exhausts the whoosh. You might hope for maybe a 1.5-lb loss per week, maybe 6 pounds a month. The last time I went through a long-term resistance level, it seemed to lead to a more normal weight loss schedule for the next few weeks.

Ironically I was on yet another bounceback earlier this past weekend when I caught a nasty cold/flu. In a weird sense I've rarely had these for most of my adult life and until the last couple of years haven't taken the usual flu shot. I basically lost my appetite in the process; true, I welcomed seeing the latest bounce water gain drop off, but it's a shitty way of losing weight.

My New Year Diet Resolution Continues

I had to re-read my last post; in fact, shortly thereafter, I took out my 2004 low, only by a couple of pounds, but still... And then I had one of my rare demoralizing super bouncebacks, nearly twice or so the usual 6 pounds or so. And in the middle of all this I went to Texas for a week over the holidays with my Mom and also 3 siblings. I had two family holiday meals and went out to 3 restaurants (although I didn't get my usual BBQ plate, say at Bill Miller's, or fast food breakfast tacos (no, not McDonald's version)).

One of those was an all-you-care-to-eat Chinese restaurant, which is far different than the ones I've been to in the past, which were typically a line of buffet pans with eggrolls and Chinese-American dishes like chow mein and the like. This was analogous to the buffet I experienced at Biola University when I worked for SGHE 12 years back. That was unlike anything I experienced while boarding for my first 2 college degrees, typically single buffet lines where you might choose among 2-3 entrees. Biola had a bread island, a couple of entree lines, including a more natural foods line, a fast food island (where you could order burgers and fries), etc. The variety of offerings dwarfed what I remembered in campus cuisine or your typical pizza or Chinese food buffets. I'm sure I would have gained more than the freshman 15 pounds.

So this Chinese chain has an amazing variety, including racks of sushi (which I've never seen in a buffet before; personally I'm not into sushi--I remember my friend Ray in Sao Paulo, promising to find a restaurant that cooked fish). But they had a grill section where you could have a small steak cooked to order, crabcakes, crawfish, fried shrimp, pizza, sausages, the typical things you might see at a Panda's like Gen. Tso's chicken, side dishes (e.g., baked potato), soups, salads and more, not to mention a vast variety of desserts, fruit/melons and ice cream. I think it costs maybe $16 plus drink. I did not eat everything I mentioned; I did have steak, a crabcake and egg drop soup and a few other items.

But I find, especially as I've gotten used to small portion Nutrisystem foods and perhaps my aging metabolism, that I really can't eat that much food anymore. My Mom and I went to this seafood place (she particularly loves the gumbo); I also ordered the "catfish special" which came with so many fillets, I had to take a doggie bag home and made a full meal with the leftovers.

Long story short, I quickly dropped 4 pounds of water gain returning from my trip, maybe a typical bounce away from my new low a few weeks back. I can't predict when I'll revisit my low; I remember the last time I was in this situation, I dropped 6 pounds, just to see another 6-lb. bounce.

The nice thing is I now get fit into slacks 4 inches smaller than last year and I can use some of my late Dad's longer belts; also I can fit into shirts one or 2 sizes smaller. I still have a long way to go to get to my goal, but I'm probably in the weight range I had in the 1990's. I'm maybe 40 pounds from breaking the bottom of that range. Ironically, my cellphone holster slipped off one of Dad's old belts, and water-related damage required replacing the phone. (I recently wrote a related post in my core political blog.)

Nutrisystem wasn't happy when I postponed my next shipment by a month, but in part I knew I would be gone for a week, plus I had a backlog of certain products  Sometimes I just want a change of pace, like eggs or grass-fed beef.

Although I still follow a lower-carb regimen, in part for health reasons, I'm more price-sensitive relevant to nutritional elements. For example, I'm less willing pay a huge premium for food just because it has 'organic', 'paleo', 'keto', 'free-range', 'wild-caught', 'low-carb' or 'grass-fed' in front of it. For example, it may very well be that Eggland eggs or cage-free eggs have modest nutritional benefits over a dozen Walmart commodity eggs, but first of all, I don't eat that many eggs and if and when Walmart prices eggs at less than $1/dozen it's hard to justify paying double or triple that for premium eggs. Eggs are still nutrition powerhouses. Don't get me wrong: I still review nutrition labels and have preferences in ingredients. I am also more tolerant of potatoes which have gotten a bad rap; I simply eat them on occasion with protein and limit the serving size. But gone are the days I'll shell out $5 or more for a loaf of bread. For instance, I can buy Walmart Great Value 100% Whole Wheat bread for about $1.50 a loaf, with about 10 net carbs and 70 calories per slice. Some ingredients make me cringe a bit; I wouldn't classify it as a health food, but I've used it, e.g., to make a sandwich with Nutrisystem's BBQ chicken spread, and I don't eat bread most days.

This probably isn't a big item on most people's grocery lists, but as a native Texan, I love Tex-Mex and tortillas. Of course you can use tortillas for fajitas and various wraps, but I'll often use them for omelettes, topped with salsa or hot sauce. At any rate, I spotted some lower-carb tortillas in the Walmart bread aisle, including some sprouted wheat (like, although not, Food for Life) offerings at about $3+ a pack. I sometimes buy the Tumaros "ancient grains" packs on sale at Shoprite.