My weight vs how I interact with the world and sit down vs stand up
I am really beginning to understand how systemic my weight/inflammation issues are now that I have been watching what I eat and putting a little more structure into planning my meals. It is amazing how different my body feels when I am eating healthy vs not.
I woke up today and it was a good morning. One of several as I had been closely monitoring my diet and eating foods I planned and staying completely away from fried foods, fast foods and all soft drinks - and actually all sweetened drinks.
I could feel it in all directions. This body wide inflammation - this was over and above fat - it was largely gone. When I put my face in my hands (like you do when you are tired) and feel my face, my eye sockets are not inflamed, my cheeks are less puffy, my whole face is smaller. When I clean out my ears with q-tips in the morning and the ear canal feels well wider/more open. The way that there are suddenly less inches to pinch on my hips and I slide back down into a lower size range of pants (comfortably). The way my body is not "in the way" of itself when I try to do simple tasks. My joints work better, my range of motion improves.
There seems to be this balancing act I have to do with my food and my activity - it seems if one thing is not in balance then everything goes to hell then I get frustrated and just let myself go. I have been reviewing all of my habits and structure and environment and trying to improve how my life is organized. Because it seems at some point in my past, I was "doing everything right" combined with "being young" and that was enough.
I find it much easier to keep some sort of structure / control to my eating when:
I am very concerned about doing anything too extreme that will blow all of my efforts to crap. In the past, going overboard on these things have knocked down my house of cards:
I keep thinking that daily life structure is flawed - that I have to change my overall general environment, instead of doing all this crazy stuff to "make up" for my sedentary life. If my general environment did not "put me in a hole" in the first place, there would be nothing to make up for.
I am convinced that there is something to the idea of standing all day - being on your feet all day - to lose weight. I keep thinking about old fashioned clerks from the olden days, standing at tall desks/counter, and writing everything out by hand. Back before machines took all the labor out of our lives. Our bodies were not designed to sit on their butts all day. Is it realistic to expect to stay a healthy weight when you sit all day?
Before I got a desk job in 1990 I was always under 160-165 pounds. After I got a desk job, I was NEVER under 180 Pounds. I usually float between 180 and 235. Right now I am theoretically at 220. When I was working in Knoxville and taking dance lessons, I had got at low as 190. Every time I try to plan to lose weight, I keep coming back to this... I am not structured enough or consistent enough to "exercise all of this desk time away". It's been 22 years (nearly as long as I have been in the SCA) . It has not happened...
Last night, I took a porters stool, and placed it on top of the desk I have my computer on at home. Then I stuck my monitor and keyboard on it and stood for a bit. I felt like a musician standing at the keyboards, it was surprisingly comfortable.
But I still had to bend over to move my mouse on the regular part of the desk. I am going to try to build a high desk.
I talked to my boss too, because I want to do a 30 day experiment where for 30 days all of my computer time - both at home and at work - is done in a "standing" position He is amenable to the idea and they even have an extra drafting table. They also have a matching tall office chair (like a barstool) I can use as a backup in case my back begins to hurt.
I want to keep a food diary or keep my food levels / choices / portions as stable as possible for a few weeks before, and also during the first 30 days, and see what happens. See if I lose weight or tone up or whatever. I just want to see if this is what I need to break the cycle. And if it works - then I want to keep doing it and see how it works out in the long run. I really have no idea what to expect. I know it may not be the "magic pill" but darn it, it should have SOME effect at least.
I woke up today and it was a good morning. One of several as I had been closely monitoring my diet and eating foods I planned and staying completely away from fried foods, fast foods and all soft drinks - and actually all sweetened drinks.
I could feel it in all directions. This body wide inflammation - this was over and above fat - it was largely gone. When I put my face in my hands (like you do when you are tired) and feel my face, my eye sockets are not inflamed, my cheeks are less puffy, my whole face is smaller. When I clean out my ears with q-tips in the morning and the ear canal feels well wider/more open. The way that there are suddenly less inches to pinch on my hips and I slide back down into a lower size range of pants (comfortably). The way my body is not "in the way" of itself when I try to do simple tasks. My joints work better, my range of motion improves.
There seems to be this balancing act I have to do with my food and my activity - it seems if one thing is not in balance then everything goes to hell then I get frustrated and just let myself go. I have been reviewing all of my habits and structure and environment and trying to improve how my life is organized. Because it seems at some point in my past, I was "doing everything right" combined with "being young" and that was enough.
I find it much easier to keep some sort of structure / control to my eating when:
- I do not watch TV (with all the food commercials)
- I don't socialize - because
- people often go out to eat, or
- interacting with others can be emotionally distracting / stressful / stimulating
- it throws my schedule into disarray
- it throws my budget into disarray
- I get enough sleep
- I plan my grocery list before I ever go to the store
- I get enough protein during the day to not trigger hunger
- I eliminate enough sugar to keep my blood sugar levels stable
- Sadly enough - when I don't over exercise...this is one of the MAJOR hurdles which I need to resolve .. You see, when I begin to work out regularly, my hunger blows through the roof and I could eat the whole fucking world. I am hoping that increasing the protein intake as needed will deal with that, but I am a little afraid to proceed for fear of triggering that hunger spike because it is so very acute when it hits.
I am very concerned about doing anything too extreme that will blow all of my efforts to crap. In the past, going overboard on these things have knocked down my house of cards:
- eaten too little, which caused me to then eat too much in reaction,
- exercised too hard, and injured myself, and had to stay still to recover
- exercise too hard and triggered massive hunger (as mentioned earlier)
I keep thinking that daily life structure is flawed - that I have to change my overall general environment, instead of doing all this crazy stuff to "make up" for my sedentary life. If my general environment did not "put me in a hole" in the first place, there would be nothing to make up for.
I am convinced that there is something to the idea of standing all day - being on your feet all day - to lose weight. I keep thinking about old fashioned clerks from the olden days, standing at tall desks/counter, and writing everything out by hand. Back before machines took all the labor out of our lives. Our bodies were not designed to sit on their butts all day. Is it realistic to expect to stay a healthy weight when you sit all day?
Before I got a desk job in 1990 I was always under 160-165 pounds. After I got a desk job, I was NEVER under 180 Pounds. I usually float between 180 and 235. Right now I am theoretically at 220. When I was working in Knoxville and taking dance lessons, I had got at low as 190. Every time I try to plan to lose weight, I keep coming back to this... I am not structured enough or consistent enough to "exercise all of this desk time away". It's been 22 years (nearly as long as I have been in the SCA) . It has not happened...
Last night, I took a porters stool, and placed it on top of the desk I have my computer on at home. Then I stuck my monitor and keyboard on it and stood for a bit. I felt like a musician standing at the keyboards, it was surprisingly comfortable.
But I still had to bend over to move my mouse on the regular part of the desk. I am going to try to build a high desk.
I talked to my boss too, because I want to do a 30 day experiment where for 30 days all of my computer time - both at home and at work - is done in a "standing" position He is amenable to the idea and they even have an extra drafting table. They also have a matching tall office chair (like a barstool) I can use as a backup in case my back begins to hurt.
I want to keep a food diary or keep my food levels / choices / portions as stable as possible for a few weeks before, and also during the first 30 days, and see what happens. See if I lose weight or tone up or whatever. I just want to see if this is what I need to break the cycle. And if it works - then I want to keep doing it and see how it works out in the long run. I really have no idea what to expect. I know it may not be the "magic pill" but darn it, it should have SOME effect at least.