Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Fighting gut creep

I'm tall, about 6' 2'', and I'm thin. Or I was for the majority of my life up to date. I have a narrow frame, and I was skin-and-bones well into my 20's. I was 145 in college, and sat at 155 for several years after. Too skinny. Then I go a little older, got married, and got a desk job. Since then I've been putting on a few pounds every year, not more than 5 a year. No big deal, right? I was too skinny to start with, and its just a few pounds a year.

Well, I topped out at 185. That doesn't sound heavy for someone of my height, but remember, I have a narrow frame. And little muscle mass. Also, ALL of it settles around my midsection. All gut. I still have the skinny legs and skinny arms, and this gut. So vanity wise, not great. Health wise it can't be great, either, and the trend is certainly bad long term. The insidiousness of the creep is that you think, "Few pounds a year, no big deal." Then 10 years later that's 30 pounds, and by the time I'm in my fifties I have a real weight problem. So I'm stopping the trend now.

No fancy diet. I'm lucky in that I'm still not a person who has to struggle with dramatic diets to lose weight. Basically, I'm eating less. I'm taking smaller portions, and trying to leave a little on my plate. I'm avoiding the really bad stuff, like I rarely have french fries. The struggle for me has been dealing with fealing hungry. I'm terrible at it. Thank goodness I'm starting to have the experience of the stomach shrinking, so you feel full with less food.

I've been fighting gut creep for 3 or 4 months. I've lost about 10 pounds. I feel good about it.

1 comment:

Josh Gentry said...

What you gave me were congratulations on progress towards a goal, not sympathy. Your recant is unjustified.

In terms of what I need to do to fight gut creep, and when I had to start, I have it easy, which I acknowledged in the post.

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