one good thing, I guess

[jay]

All of the stress and missed meals over the past 5 weeks has led to some modest weight loss... 10 lbs since mid-May, and that with an irregular workout schedule. I'm back down to 15 lbs over my actuarial-table "ideal" weight of 167. One belt notch. Some more exercise would be good, both for toning the abs to fit and for stress reduction...

Comments

I'm right there with you...

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

I lost about a stone nursing our poor departed Orange cat, and missing meals and not exercising. This was very much a Mixed Blessing... I've kept the weight off for 5 months by exercising and eating healthily aka by putting my own health near the top of my list of priorities. I'll go back up if I slip up...

What I'm saying is, it's better to be healthy and fit than to reach your so-called 'ideal' weight. And that takes ring-fenced time, energy and commitment... best shared with sweeties, to leverage the Copious Free Time factor, I think: G & I are going to the gym together, D&I are going to aikido together, and we all cook together, whenever we can.

Re: I'm right there with you...

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

5 months... excellent! That shows rigor and discipline on your part, methinks.

I wish there were someone here locally to exercise together... Pat isn't likely, and I have LDRs otherwise. Some compensation is that the gym is located at work, increasing the convenience.

Re: I'm right there with you...

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

What does Pat do to exercise at the moment? The UK guidelines are for at least five bouts of 30 mins (or, if you must, 10 bouts of 15 mins, but no shorter bursts) each of aerobic exercise per week for adults (twice that much for children). Could you join her in that?

Re: I'm right there with you...

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Pat used to do lap-swimming during the week, daytimes...

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

The media and, in this case, the insurance indusrty, always gives us the means of distrubutions. I wonder what the standard deviation is on that actuarial ideal. I suspect its a lot broader than many expect, so that neurotic focus on hitting the figure on the nose does more harm than good.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Probably at least 5-7 lbs, I'd guess... I'm not targeting that figure, I'd be happy with just staying a bit lower than the present. Or in reality, whatever weight and muscle tone would cause attractive women to fancy me... (chuckle).

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're not being doctrinaire in following some claimed average. But maybe, if your aim is to cause attractive women to fancy you, you should ask the attractive women what they fancy? Of course you could already have done that...

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

(smile) that was firmly tongue-in-cheek. I have no expectations that attractive women would fancy me for *any* reason! Hence no reason to ask... ;-)

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

You might be surprised, especially among those who are self-described geeks.

And if your attempts at being attractive are doomed to failure, why bother slimming down?

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

I might be surprised someday, but it hasn't happened yet. In any case, slimming-down is just a beneficial side-effect of being too stressed to eat regularly... it wasn't planned.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Brian, historically, attractive women have fancied you. One married you, and you're involved with at least two. I have no idea where you get some of these ideas. Were you being serious?

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Yes -- those were exceptions to the broader rule?

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

As far as you're willing to believe, perhaps.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

You know, I'm really full of c$%^ on this one... sigh. I am handsome, intelligent, and even sometimes charming. If people aren't closer to me it is because I keep them at a distance, or they're wary of my emotional baggage. Those three were/are exceptions... in that they persevered past the smokescreens and emotional traps I set.

A little secret

[trinker.livejournal.com]

(I didn't see this post, earlier, so I'm coming to it now.)

"Attractive women" are in the eye of the beholder, and "attractive men", likewise. Meanwhile, what I find attractive is self-confidence and competence, and kindness. Weight and muscle tone may help contribute to eyecandy, but I've turned down many offers from eyecandy because they were unkind, or thoughtless, or unclueful, or arrogant, or obnoxious, or physically hamhanded.

[joedecker.livejournal.com]

According to a study mentioned on Dr. Dean Edell's show last week, if you back out the level of fitness (how much exercise people get, etc.), weight has no statistical predictive value for health.

I was in the car, I don't have a citation.

Thus the link of weight and health, or at least the dominant fraction of it, appear to be a result of the correlations of each with exercise/aerobic fitness.

[geekchick]

I found this while poking around. The source he quotes here was apparently the American Journal of Epidemiology, March 15, 1999

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... there does seem to be a link between weight and high blood pressure, greater susceptibility to certain cancers... and one just can't be as lively or bouncy when carrying around the equivalent of a 40-70 lb backpack, all the time...