February 07, 2023

Jerry Loses His Dad Bod: Week 4


It seems like I just started this series--we can't be four weeks in already--?!

(In the photo above, Jerry was trying to imitate my face while I was taking the picture. I was backed up to the wall and couldn't back up any farther--so I pulled the camera as close to my face as possible, while smushing my head toward the wall. His imitation is spot-on.

It's funny how Jerry's attitude toward weight loss is so different than mine. I wish I had his attitude! He's working hard on losing weight, but he honestly doesn't care about the scale. He doesn't worry about weigh-ins or overthink anything (meanwhile, I overthink EVERYTHING).

So, how did Jerry do this week?


His weight was at 191.2, which is down just a little from last week's 192.0. He started this whole thing four weeks ago at 193.6. While he definitely wanted to be down more by now, he's just cool with the fact that he's losing at all.

His body fat and waist measurements were down this week, too, which is great:


Last week, his body fat was at 23.8%, and four weeks ago, his body fat was at 24.4%. Now it's at 22.9%. His waist was 37 inches and now it's at 34.25 inches (Last week was 34.5). I'd say that's good progress! Jerry has always lost body mass before his weight starts going down, so that may be why he's only lost a couple of pounds, but there is a noticeable difference in his waist and body fat.

But anyway... Here is Jerry's recap of the week, in his words:

"This week was really difficult for me. Although the scale shows a loss, I feel like it should've been better. Eating wise, it didn't seem so difficult. It was emotionally difficult and my work schedule was garbage. A couple weeks ago my grandfather died and they held a memorial for him at the local VFW. He was the last surviving veteran of WWII in his branch and the service was emotional to say the least.

If that wasn't enough, my cousin on the same side of the family died unexpectedly a week prior to my grandfather's memorial. With that said, I had a whirlwind of emotions... grief and guilt being the highest on the list. I was close to my grandpa when I was younger and then as an adult I didn't see him as much as I wish I would have. That's the guilt. And it's sticking in me like a knife.

With the death of my cousin, it's just made me wish that it didn't take a death or something serious like this to bring everyone together. So, there are some plans for the future to get people together and hopefully bring this once tight-knit family back together. 

My work schedule this week also played a role in some way. I had to get back onto a dayshift schedule for a couple days for some training I had yesterday. The switching back and forth is difficult. However, it gave me a couple days of being up in the morning and hanging out with the family all day. I miss those times and I haven't felt that good since I started night shift. So, it was worth it. 

Plans for this week? Well, I want to maintain my activity at work but I think I'm going to start incorporating some running, at least for now. I don't have a plan, just winging it and getting my baseline back. And with the eating, I'll be trying to bring more fruits and vegetables into the diet. Good luck to me."

Wow. I typed my portion of this while he was typing his thoughts out to give me. So I didn't read it until after I was done writing my whole intro. While I knew this was a difficult week emotionally, I didn't even think about how it would affect his weight or eating habits. After reading that, I'm super impressed that he wasn't emotionally eating all week long.

I'm proud of him--he's been working hard! (Definitely harder than I.)

9 comments:

  1. I'm so sorry to hear about two huge losses in your family. That's tough. He's such a good guy. Congrats to him on the continued, gradual progress through it all. Hugs all around.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The lovely night shift. I did it for decades. It's not normal, and it's really hard on the body. I couldn't sleep in the daytime which ruins your life. I heard on television (so we know it's true) that after you stop working night shift, it takes 5 years for your body to heal. What's even worse is the switching back and forth. Besides the sleep thing, it messed up my bathroom habits so bad. Don't know if it's just me? It would be so great for your whole family to have a well deserved fun vacation.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Is there any way at all Jerry could work day shift regularly? Night shift workers are more likely to experience diabetes and heart disease. And relevant to this series, obesity. Poor guy, if this were my husband I'd do everything possible to help him to get back on day shifts as soon as possible.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Agreed. It really is awful health wise to work night shift. I get it if he just doesn't have that option, but it would be so much better for his health if he could work days more regularly. Depression is also more common in people who work night shift. https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2021/04/27/nightshift-cancer/

      Delete
    2. Katie has been extremely supportive in my trying to get back onto dayshift. It's a possibility but for the time being I'm doing the best I can for my body. I find that a lot of people that work the night shift or swing shift will go home in the morning, sleep for a couple hours, then get back up to enjoy the rest of the day before heading back into work. For me, the best thing to do was to stay on the shift. I would sleep for 5-7 hours in the daytime and then get up for a couple hours before heading into work. On an off day I stay up all night and have a little time to myself while everyone else is asleep. When I lost 90lbs in the past I was working a swing shift and that did wear me down. However, I was able to lose weight and keep it off while still working the schedule.

      Delete
    3. That's great. I just remembered Katie mentioning a few times that it was really stressful for her when you worked day shifts so I thought maybe Jerry was working nights to help Katie out with driving the boys or something.

      Delete
  4. It sounds like the night shift has been taking a toll, if you felt better after adjusting to day shift, and maybe looking into getting on day shift permanently would be a good thing for you (and the family)? I'm sorry for your losses, I was close to my grandfather as a kid and I was in college when he died. I realized I hadn't spent nearly as much time with him as he would have liked, and that is hard. But take care of yourself, because your grandfather loved you and would want you to be healthy and happy.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Tell Jerry I am so very sorry for his losses. I think it a great idea he had to get the family together. Tragedy is a sad reason to see one another. Stress can effect weight loss due to cortisol. Jerry sure had some. He sure has a great attitude toward weight loss. I should take a lesson.

    ReplyDelete
  6. i also hope Jerry can not off night shifts, if possible. It is SO MUCH BETTER for your health to be on a typical schedule. My husband did the night shift for 12 years when our sons were small (we both worked full-time and somehow on very little sleep we managed without day care). But once they were in school full-time, he was able to switch and immediately lost weight, slept better, blood pressure went down. It was incredible. He found that when working night shift you sometimes just ate to stay awake and keep functioning. Sorry for the losses in your family, and thinking of Jerry!

    ReplyDelete

I used to publish ALL comments (even the mean ones) but I recently chose not to publish those. I always welcome constructive comments/criticism, but there is no need for unnecessary rudeness/hate. But please--I love reading what you have to say! (This comment form is super finicky, so I apologize if you're unable to comment)

Featured Posts

Blog Archive