Health & Fitness • Page 149

I’ve been on semaglutides for probably almost a year now? Definitely since at least last summer. I’m diabetic and I had just been on metformin for like a year. Dieting is pretty much impossible for me. I’m very active and love working out. If it were up to me I’d be in the gym 7 days a week for 2.5 hours. But food is definitely my weakness. It’s my comfort.

I was started on rybelsus but it really didn’t do anything for me. I still ate like crazy and wanted sugar all the time. After a few months they put me on monjauro. They started me with the base dose but once they increased it I stopped getting hungry. And I stopped craving types of sugar. Before any of this I was the type of person that drank soda like water. I’d lose track of how many I could have in a day, especially at certain jobs I worked at. After my body adjusted to the monjauro I stopped craving soda altogether. I maybe had like one or two a month and even then it would just be sips, I could never finish a glass or even a can. However I did replace my soda addiction with coffee. Sugary coffees. But my body seems to metabolize that a lot better. I also used to have a candy a day if not more. Now I can’t even eat a chocolate bar without feeling sick. I still eat out all the time but I crave things like fish, salad, or sandwiches. If I get chicken or burgers I never eat the sides.

The drug can still be overpowered by your mind though. Again I have a really unhealthy relationship with food. Because of my job and kids, I’m usually away from home 13-14 hours a day. So I always have the mindset of “you better eat because if you don’t you won’t get the chance until 12 hours later”. This is because I used to get really sick and weak if I didn’t eat every couple of hours. But that doesn’t happen anymore but I’m so trained that way that I stick to it just in case. And I messed up this week because I went on an 8 day cruise and missed my weekly dose. Then came home and didn’t have any here. So I ate like shit and drank a lot of soda.

most importantly, my glucose and A1C are down drastically. Like life altering levels reduced. So if you’re diabetic, I’d say it’s been a life saver for me. Bonus is that it’s led to a good amount of weight loss. But of course you gotta check with your doctor and do your research. You can and will lose weight if you take it, but it’s not for everyone. Just giving my experience.

 

Weight loss is all calories in/calories (CICO) out so find a diet that works for you and just be consistent in logging your calories in some sort of app (definitely measure/weigh everything and don’t rely on the default amounts) for a while until you start getting a feel of generally how much you’re eating vs how much your expending. Once you get that down, logging calories isn’t necessary as long as you’re being somewhat mindful of your CICO. Kaitie did Noom for a while and liked it, I use LoseIt and it’s fine.

For exercise, Couch25k is popular for building cardio, the Nike Run Club app has a “just getting started” program and I’ve used the Nike app since 2015 and love it, currently in the middle of their half marathon plan. Coach Bennett and the other coach’s do guided runs that talk to you throughout the run both in terms of what you should be doing, feeling, thinking, focusing on, etc and also they do motivation and mindfulness during the runs too. There’s also Apple+ workouts, YouTube workouts, and all sorts of other at home/no equipment workout plans you can find. Just the big thing for fitness and/or weight loss is finding something you and enjoy and building consistency. If you don’t enjoy it then you won’t be consistent, if you’re not consistent you’re not going to see results, and if you don’t see results you’re going to get frustrated or quit. Best of luck!

 

I've been reading the book Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture and it's been an enlightening read and I identify with a lot of the struggles articulated as someone who has always been in a smaller body but has a parent with an eating disorder who projected a lot on to me, which sort of caused me to implode when I transitioned into a bigger body and the "overweight" BMI category for the first time and have struggled with coping and the psychological stressor of it. It's weird to cope with thinking that my larger body is my own parents worst nightmare for themselves. On the one hand it's healing information as she's disputing aot of the common misconceptions about eating disorders and health, but hearing all of this about what we SHOULDN'T do, I'm eager to get to the part where I presume she'll talk about what TO do.

All that to say, I've found reading books that are healthier in outlook and dismantle some of my thinking and perceptions has been helpful for me on my journey if the psychological aspect is also a struggle for you. Not saying you have to read this specific book or whatever but I've found it's just as important for me as excercise and eating habits to read/listen to stuff. The Maintenance Phase podcast is also good imo if you prefer that medium and I'm def reading Aubrey Gordon's book next

 

Thank you both for the insight! Very helpful info all around, and I agree that finding something I can sustain feels most important. Using a workout app or guided workout sounds VERY helpful. That book also sounds like required reading as a lot of my body image issues come from my mom projecting her fears (she grew up a little bigger and has been under 120 pounds now for most of her adult life, eats half a stick of gum "because of the calories" and constantly negs me about my diet despite not knowing what or how I eat. Even at my thinnest, I don't feel thin enough for her). So yes, this is all really great and wonderful advice. I appreciate you both :)

 

Good luck! Truly. Part of why I've never been super set on being a parent is the fear I'd project my parent's disordered eating onto any children I have because I know I've not healed from it, and that thought makes me feel very guilty. My parent negatively commented on my weight a lot during sensitive puberty years when my body was changing, and growing up she felt proud she could fit into the clothing of her literally middle school aged children and neggedmy diet for yeeears too. Sometimes just seeing her activates my stress response and heightened sensitivity around food and weight stuff so I have a long way to go! But if I ever do decide to raise another human, I hope the fact that I'm even so concerned about it and have enough insight to know the problem exists would put said tiny human in a better position than I grew up in

 

I go thru excercise phases and I am NOT about the strength training life rn. Just forced myself to do a 15 min leg/glute workout and that's so short but I kept looking at my watch, trying to tell myself not to look at my watch. I know it's important but it's felt like a slog lately. I'm in a cardio phase rn but I keep telling myself I want muscles so I better work, bitch

 

Yeah I only care about cardio right now as well. Such a wuss when it comes to weight training

 

come to the gym with me bestie

 

that’s what I need dude, a COACH

 

lol this is me with any cardio ever, other than just a nice walk. It’s a constant, “keep going, don’t look at your watch, don’t look at your watch until the end of this song, okay I know I’ve listened to 3 songs, that’s 10ish minutes, listen to 3 more songs before looking at your watch” etc.

Exercising is almost harder mentally than physically for me.

 

Dudes got pool noodle arms you don’t want him as a coach

 

Started using a macro tracking/diet app (Macrofactor) for cutting weight and its been an awesome tool so far. Doesn't even need you to track you expenditure since it only uses trends in your scale weight vs. your calorie intake. I'm cheating a bit by keeping my calorie intake like 200-300 under the daily total it recommends and have lost like 3 lbs in the past week or so of using it (the plan it has me on is -1.5lb/week) so I'll just keep doing what I'm doing since it feels good. Also the food tracking is way easier than other apps I've used in the past.

 

Yeah MacroFactor is really great. The team behind it is awesome

 

I joined the gym across the street from work so I can do cardio 4 times a week on my lunch break. Doing 25 minutes on 15 incline, I'm up to 1.96 miles, up from 1.80 miles when I started on the 18th.

 

Lunch Break Exercisers Unite!

 

You guys don't get sweaty?

 

Your gym doesn't have a shower?

 

You have time to work out, shower, and get back to work?

 

Yes

 

Haha I flip flop. I went thru a phase where I only wanted to do weights for months and now I'm bored of it and liking cardio again, but only lower intensity zone 2 type jogging or dance.

I have been liking pilates lately tho but I'm not always convinced I'm doing it correctly lol


I used to be a lunch breaker excerciser and I miss it! Easier when I lived in a smaller town where everything was close by. Sometimes I go on a walk during my lunch break but it's all I can rly do now

 

Anybody hear have had to deal with vertigo in the past? Where you can be anywhere and all of a sudden your balance goes off, you get nauseated, and sometimes throw up? I've been dealing with it since last fall, once in October, and then like 4 or 5 times since February. I recently saw a specialist, who couldn't quite tell what caused it for me, but that it could be either stress/anxiety related, or something related to allergies. He even had me go through both a CT scan and MRI to check on anything with my brain, but they found nothing. Pretty sure its stress or allergy-related, and I've started using something called Meclizine (which I think helps), but wanted to see if anybody else here has dealt with it in the past, and any good solutions they've come across

 

I’m assuming it was an ENT? Meclizine is normally used for migraines but it probably has some use in treating Vertigo. Maybe get a second opinion?

 

I decided to get gastric sleeve surgery at the end of January. I was losing and gaining weight and just couldn’t stay consistent. It was the best decision I ever made because my habits are not only so much better, but I enjoy the challenge of eating well and working out. At my heaviest I was just a little over 370 pounds. Just a little over four months since my initial diet began in early December, I weighed in yesterday at 270 pounds. I look forward to working out and seeing the results on the scale now. I gave myself a second chance at being healthy and it’s been awesome.

 

I'm at a pretty good place when it comes to muscle right now so I started cutting this past week and will probably keep at it the next couple months. Instead of lifting 5 days a week with 1 day of cardio I've adjusted to more cardio and less weightlifting. Don't need to cut too much, currently at 16% body fat, trying to get to around 10-12% by July.

I cut all cheese out of my diet last summer and got to 12% by the end of July. Will do the same again, but a bit earlier than I did last year.

 

I'm considering buying a cordless jump rope so I can do it on my balcony. I used to jump rope forever as a kid. As an adult, it's like 30 seconds and I'm on the verge of death. Would be cool to build up endurance without having to find somewhere with enough space. But I also don't want a bunch of novelty things I'll use like twice and then never pick up again (looking at you, slider disk thingies).

Speaking of specific things, why are some yoga blocks so expensive?? It's just a foam block!!