Jerry Loses His Dad Bod: Week 10

I told Jerry to let me know when he wanted me to take his picture for this post, but then while I was on my computer, I got an airdrop from him--apparently he used the timer on his phone to take his own, hahaha. 

We didn't end up having a bonfire last night after all. The time flew by yesterday and we were exhausted. Today is another nice day, though, and I spent the late morning and early afternoon working on the sliding patio door. I had no idea how easy it was to remove the door--you don't even have to unscrew anything! You just lift it up an inch or so (from inside the house) and pull the bottom slightly inside. Then lower it so the bottom touches the floor and voila--door removed.

I laid it on the floor and then removed all of the old pile weather stripping, cleaned it really well and put new stripping on it. Then I removed the wheels on the bottom and cleaned them very well (it took a long time!), then oiled them and put them back on. I'm so glad to have gotten that done. I *never knew* that the door could be removed like that, so I've only ever cleaned the track at the bottom by cleaning what I could reach. This is definitely something I can do every spring and fall.

Anyway, I'm writing this before Jerry wakes up, so I'm not sure yet how his weigh-in will go. I wanted to write this first because it doesn't matter what his weight his--from what I could see, Jerry did really great this week! True to what he said last week, he didn't try to deliberately eat less for the last couple of days to try to make up for overeating early in the week. He was consistent all week long.

I'm curious if what he has to say reflects what I noticed. I don't know how he did at work, but I'm sure he'll probably write about it below. Here's Jerry...

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Welcome back, friends! 

This past week was extremely challenging. Care to take a shot at what the hardest part was? Listening to my body. It wasn't about anything else. I drank my water. I felt like I was eating slower. But, it took me until Saturday to really, really think about it while I was kind of reflecting on my week.

Katie had made some vegan shawarma and I was packing some up to take to work. Normally I look at my food that I take to work and think 'Is this going to be enough food for 12 hours?' That popped into my head a couple years ago when Katie always used to ask me that. She would look at the food I was about to bring to work and always worried that I was going to be 'starving' at work. So, she used that question a lot and it just got stuck in my head.

Then I would bring something extra just in case it wasn't enough and I would eat it just because. Fast forward to now, looking down into my lunchbox I realized... that's totally enough. The tough part was yet to come.

When I got to work I performed my inspections on the two areas I cover (where the temp is hot) and went back into the control room to cool off and down some water. I looked at my lunch box and just wanted to eat. I had the urge. That's when I realized that I'm not even hungry. Why am I trying to eat right now? Because it's a habit. It's routine. It's what I do.

A couple weeks ago I think I mentioned that it was easier to stay on track with food at work as opposed to home because of the availability. Obviously I have more access to food here at home and I only have access to what I bring with me at work. But, combined with bringing 'enough food for 12 hours' to work, eating at the start of the shift, and then snacking a couple times I can keep the weight on fairly easily and then throw my hands up in the air saying 'I don't know what I'm doing wrong'.

So, all that realization came on Saturday. Sunday was fine and Monday was surprising. Monday was surprising because I snacked, then I stopped because I was satisfied. But it wasn't just any snack. It was the new Lays Wavy Funyon flavor. F**king delicious. And, normally I can house a whole bag of chips like it's nothing.

But I stopped, closed them up, and put them away. That's some discipline. That's willpower. And this is what I've been trying to do this whole time. Katie asked me if I remember what my starting weight was before I had started this post and I was thinking 196 or something like that. When she went back in the blog and looked it up, she told me it was 193.6 I was a little shocked. A little dejected.

However, it occurred to me that I don't care about that. I'm learning so many little things here and there. When I don't get the result I want on the scale I reflect on what I could've done differently. I have little epiphanies here and there that I share on here. I'm sure I'm not the only one who struggles. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who has little epiphanies like that.

But, maybe I'm a rare breed when it comes to admitting my faults, type them out, and have my wife publish them on a blog. "The greatest teacher, failure is." -- Yoda to Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi. 

That quote couldn't be more true. How much easier would life be if we failed, admitted it, learned from it, and moved on with that knowledge? And what good is knowledge if you don't pass it on? So while I might fail it feels good to admit it and pass on what I'm learning to everyone else so that they might benefit if they are in the same boat.

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Even though Jerry's weight is going down slowly, it's been consistent since he started; so, that's working well for him. And he broke into the 180s today! I think if he stays consistent and keeps making small changes like he has been, the weight loss will pick up; even if it doesn't, he'll continue to lose slowly.

I like that he's making small changes like this because in the past, he usually gets very gung-ho about weight loss and makes changes that aren't sustainable for the long haul. From what I've seen, everything he's done so far are habits he can keep forever.

I've had a really good week and I'm hoping that the scale reflects that tomorrow!

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Jerry Loses His Dad Bod: Week 9

Clearly, I spent too much time working on that photo, hahaha--I forgot to take a picture of Jerry before he left for work, so I made one. I even downloaded Star Wars fonts (*groan* I can imagine the targeted ads I'm going to see now for Star Wars stuff!)

Jerry and I had a good conversation about weigh loss today and he brought up a very wise point about trying to lose weight in general and having weekly weigh-ins. I've thought of it before, but the way he said it just seemed to make better sense with a simpler explanation. So, that's what he wrote about today...

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Welcome back. 

Every week it seems like I have an epiphany about weight loss. And it always seems to come off as an excuse for my slow weight loss, but I don't think it is. It's more of a realization and I'm learning something new all the time. So let's just rip the band-aid off, 190.6. That's a gain of 0.6 from last week. 

I did fairly well, or so I thought. I felt heavier over the last couple days and felt a little uneasy about what I was actually doing as far as my diet was concerned. But something dawned on me last night and I think it might ring true with almost everyone that does a weekly weigh-in.

While I always feel like I might be doing okay through the week, I have a tendency to spend the couple days before my weigh-in trying to eat better because I don't want to see the gain on the scale. So, if I can do that for the couple days before the weigh-in why can't I do it every single day? Why can't I just make it a lifestyle change as opposed to treating it like a temporary thing just to meet some number I want to see? 

I stress myself out on Sundays and Mondays because of the weigh-in and it doesn't have to be that way. That said, I will be making another change in how I eat and approach this week and we shall see how well I do. 

Also, I'm a firm believer that old habits die hard. Habits are like Vigo the Carpathian from Ghostbusters 2. He was poisoned, stabbed, shot, hung, stretched, disemboweled, drawn and quartered. Before his head died he said 'Death is but a door, time is but a window. I'll be back.' Those are my habits. LOL. The bad habits die when I work on them and then after some time, they come back.

I talk of bad habits because I have a couple. One glaring one from this week was eating when I'm not hungry. 'There are starving kids in [insert third world country here]'. Every kid heard it growing up. Every kid. As an adult it transformed into not wanting to waste food.

So, I eat everything. Even when I ain't hungry I still eat just because I don't want to waste the food. That's stupid. So, new mindset with that as well--don't eat if I'm not hungry. This will be the absolute hardest thing to do, for sure. More than portion control. More than eating healthy. More than eating slowly. Eating when my body is telling me I should and listening to it will be the hardest thing. 

So, I have my work cut out for me. Wish me luck.

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I felt bad when Jerry said he feels stressed out on Sundays and Mondays because of his weigh-ins on Tuesdays. I wanted this to be a fun series for him! I told him that we can quit this series so he doesn't think that way, but he wants to keep going with it. Hopefully with the realization he had last night about it, he can keep it in mind this week.

I *try* not to have that mentality before my weigh-in, and I've gotten much better about it. In the beginning, I was careful not to eat too much sodium the day before my weigh-in and not eat anything too heavy, etc--it makes no sense in the long run! It works great if you need to drop a few pounds within a week's time, but if you're working on losing a large amount of weight, it's much less stressful to just make better choices daily rather than trying to "catch up" right before a weigh-in.

I've eaten really well this week and I hope to see that on the scale tomorrow--but not enough to stress out today, worrying about sodium and volume of food. I made a vegan version of chicken paprikash for dinner tonight and I had to keep adding salt to it--for a second, I thought, "My weigh in is tomorrow--that's too much salt!" but I'm not going to worry about it. I didn't overeat and the ingredients were healthy, so if I gain a little water weight overnight, it'll come right off if I just continue with healthy habits.

Jerry has always had a hard time with listening to his body's hunger/fullness cues, so I hope this week goes well for him!

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Jerry Loses His Dad Bod: Week 8

This week went by so quickly I'm not even really sure what to say about it. I definitely noticed Jerry being more careful about his portions and about how much food he takes to work with him (he is always saying that he takes too much and if he brings it with him, he eats it--whether he's hungry or not). It's been kind of nice having us both on the same page as far as our eating habits go, though!

I won't speak for Jerry about his week, so I'll shift the spotlight over to him...

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Welcome back to another episode of 'Jerry Loses His Dad Bod'. I'm your host, Jerry. And I'm trying to lose my dad bod. Over the last couple weeks it's been increasingly difficult to get the weight off. I do feel like there is a plateau and I've run right into it.

I'm only down 0.2 from before. Does that even count? I started at 193.6 at the beginning of this dad bod thing. 

Think of the weight loss as the cartoon road runner... and that would make ME Wile E. Coyote. All my weight loss ideas and attempts I make are ACME products and I just keep getting blown up or run into the ground. I'm always going back to the drawing board and trying to figure out what went wrong. I've come to the following conclusions: 

1. I need to start weighing or measuring out my food. My portions might be too big. I always make excuses in my head about the fact that the food I eat is plant-based. However, calories are calories in the long run. I haven't been super snacky, and I have been eating more fruits. But, ultimately, I have been eating too large portions of feed and it's getting me. 

2. Exercise. I ran once last week and felt okay. I didn't push myself too hard and stopped when I started to feel pain in my knees. In the past I've run through the pain to finish a run. I'm thinking it's only made my knees worse. So, I'm going to finally listen to Katie and just start slow and build up to the milage I want and stop when the pain comes. 

Overall, I think of myself as healthier than a lot of people my age. All of my numbers have always been good. And I am making progress, very slow as it may be. 

Stuff on the horizon... well, I'm trying to fix my car which wouldn't start the other day. I found that the battery was dead and needed to be replaced. Normally it's an easy fix by just replacing the battery but the cable end on one of the battery posts was somehow fused to the post and the terminal pulled completely from the battery. I'm waiting on parts to finish that up. Katie's already working on making a sexy calendar of me posing in front of my hot rod.

Season 3 of Star Wars; The Mandalorian started last week and I'm waiting for the kids to both be home so we can all watch it together, and I'm excited for that. 

Anyways, thanks for reading. Always. Your comments are always welcome and always so nice. Til next week, this is the way. 

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Katie here again. I really like reading Jerry's thoughts each week--we don't normally talk about our eating habits, so it's kind of news to me too when I read his post every Tuesday. I can definitely echo a lot of his thoughts--especially about using vegan/plant-based food as a reason to eat more. Even though it's totally subconscious, I think that sometimes because of my vegan diet, I probably eat more than I should. (And yes, I did just recently write about how it's very possible to eat an unhealthy vegan diet!)

Well, my weigh-in is tomorrow and even though I've had a good week, I don't expect to see a big loss on the scale. All week, my weight has been up a touch from last week. I'm drinking lots of water today, so hopefully it'll help me let go of enough water weight to see a tiny loss on the scale! One of the most frustrating parts about losing weight is when you know you've done really well but it's just not reflected on the scale. I think that's a critical point, though--it's super easy to quit then--so if we keep going, it'll catch up eventually.

Now I need to go take a hot shower. I was working on the storm door outside and it's 30℉; it doesn't sound too cold for Michigan, but when you're standing out there for a couple of hours, the cold goes right into your bones. It feels impossible to get warm! 

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Jerry Loses His Dad Bod: Some "before and after" photos

I think this was 2009 versus 2013

I'm going to do this a little differently today, at Jerry's request. He's had a rough morning! He had a doctor's appointment at 11:20; the doctor isn't there in the afternoons, which is rough when you work a night shift. So he came home from work, woke up after a few hours, went to his doctor's appointment, came home and slept for a few more. Doing his "Dad Bod" weigh-in wasn't exactly on his mind, which is totally understanding.

Still, though, he had a great week! It was funny a couple of days ago--I'd asked him to make his Beans & Greens, which is one of my favorite comfort foods. I was working on my blog post while he cooked, and it smelled amazing. When we sat down to eat, I took one bite and thought, "Holy salt!"--Jerry made a face and said "Woah, this is really salty."

We both tried to eat it and we managed one bowl, but we didn't even save the leftovers. Bummer! What does this have to do with weigh-in?

Even though I ate really well all day, my weight was up nearly two pounds yesterday morning. And Jerry? His weight was up THREE pounds. We both knew it wasn't from poor eating; it was clearly the amount of salt we'd eaten. (Jerry isn't sure where he went wrong with the salt.)

Instead of posting about Jerry's "dad bod" week, I figured I'd share a little of his past with his weight struggles.

In August 2009, Jerry's weight was 253 pounds. As funny as it, that was MY starting weight, too! Hahaha. It makes sense, considering we pretty much ate all the same things (and I matched or exceeded his portions). (I'm not at all kidding when I say that we would share: a large order of cheese breadsticks with garlic butter dipping sauce, a deep dish pizza with pepperoni and bacon, a six pack of beer, and each of us would have a pint of Ben & Jerry's. Seriously.)

This was how Noah played soccer--the whole game--hahaha.

Jerry didn't start losing weight until until January 1, 2010. I had already been losing weight since August 2009; Jerry saw how good I was doing with it, so he decided to give it a go, too. He likes to say (now) that he "lost weight by default" because he just ate whatever I cooked. He doesn't give himself enough credit, though! He is constantly tempted by food at work when people bring it in to share--and it's not exactly healthy food.

This is when we were both at our goal weights in 2013. My friend Stephanie, who is a great photographer, did an amazing photo session.

This all happened so long ago that it's hard to remember the details. Essentially, though, Jerry started eating the same sort of diet as I did, and the pounds started coming off. And naturally, they came off faster than mine! Don't they always when boys lose weight? So not fair! ;)  He joined Weight Watchers and eventually reached his goal weight there (I believe in 2003--I'll look for the link). He weighed in at 168, which was a total of 85 pounds lost!

An 85-pound difference

For exercise, he started running a little--nothing too serious--and then trained for the Indy Mini half-marathon, which he finished strongly.

Now, over the years, his weight as gone up and down just like mine, only his hasn't been quite as extreme. His lowest weight was 167 pounds (I believe this was in 2013) and his highest (since then) was earlier this year, when he was about 200 (he doesn't remember the exact number).

Considering that the odds are stacked against him, he's done an amazing job keeping off all the weight that he has! He'll get back to his usual post next week!

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Jerry Loses His Dad Bod: Week 6

Jerry is now six weeks into his "Operation: Lose Dad Bod" goal. When I mentioned to him just now that this is week six, he was shocked. He said I might as well not even do this series on my blog because he's not making any progress. It's entirely up to him whether he wants to do it or not, but he said he'll give it another week or two; if he isn't seeing better progress, he thinks it will be a waste of space on my blog. (I disagree)

He just told me that this is a "completely reevaluate how I'm going about this" week, which he is going to write about below. He looked so serious when he was typing--and it's pretty long!

He actually did really great this week. The scale has been going down, but very slowly. I can understand his frustration, because I've been through it countless times; he's doing everything right but not seeing the progress he feels he should. I don't want to speak for him on all this, so I'll just let him take over.

As an update from last week, Jerry hasn't throw up at all ever since! Like I said, it's so weird how there really isn't any rhyme or reason for when/why it happens. I appreciate all the suggestions/ideas via comments and email. 

Anyway, here is Jerry... 

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Down from 190.8 last week

Captain's log, star date 2.21.2023.

It's week 6 of my journey and I feel like I'm spinning my wheels in the mud here. I'm trying to lose the 'Dad Bod', and maybe even see my chin one day soon, and I'm feeling pretty good with my eating but I'm not seeing the results I was expecting. I used to lose the weight pretty easily when I gained a little bit but that's just not the case. So, I think I need to re-evaluate how I'm going about this.

Here are some of my bad habits. I'm sure everyone would agree that they're terrible:

1. I shy away from fruits and vegetables, unless they're mixed in the meal.

2. I eat way too fast. Katie has been nagging pointing out that I eat remarkably fast. 

3. I snack too much. Pretzels are my go to. I used to have hummus with them. That transitioned to mustard. And, now it's evolved into spritzing olive oil on them and adding some sort of seasoning to it. I'm also sure that I eat, at least, 3 servings of them. Not good. 

4. I try to eat within a certain window and tend to eat 2 smaller meals at the same time as opposed to spreading them out. 

5. I don't exercise. I make it a point to stay active at work, but other than that, I haven't been exercising.

See? Pretty bad. Now, I can pinpoint all the problems with all of the bad habits: 

1. Fruit is pretty delicious. I love bananas and cuties. I could probably expand my love of fruit to other fruits if I would just do it. With the vegetables, I have never been the kind of guy to just eat veggies just because. I don't think I even ate a salad until I met Katie and we went to Red Lobster where I enjoyed a caesar salad. Now, I love salads. So, I need to incorporate more into my daily diet just for the nutritional value. And, just to be a responsible aging adult, I should take my multivitamins.

2. I know I need to slow down with my eating. I understand the benefits mentally and digestively of eating slower. However, I've always had this mental thing where I have to eat and drink things at the temperature they're supposed to be consumed. So, I can't let hot foods cool and vice versa. It's stupid, I need to work on that. 

3. I really should measure out how much I eat. Or, just put it in a smaller bowl or whatever. Maybe both. I don't really think that there is anything wrong with what I choose to have as a snack, it's more of how much I have.

4. Intermittent fasting is easy and a lot of people do it without defining it or being conscious of it. Essentially, it's eating within a window and nothing outside of that window. For me, defining it and putting a time on it mentally makes me feel like I have to eat my entire meal quickly. Oddly enough, though, I eat better when I'm at work than at home. With work, I'm limited to what I bring with me for lunch whereas at home I can have whatever I want and even go to the store if I want something different.

5. Exercise is something that should be a priority. Working nights can make things a little difficult but it's no excuse. That doesn't stop me from using it as one, though. LOL. I can, however, use a lack of space as a reason. I have always enjoyed HIIT (high intensity interval training) because I feel great after using my body to it's full ability and it never gets easier. With HIIT you're always pushing for more and more reps in the same amount of time, you don't just do 10 of something and you're done. You keep going until either you can't go anymore or the time is up. I've never been big into running, it's just so boring to me. But, I need to figure something out. 

Goals going forward... try to work on all of these. I'm not going to be perfect, and there is no failure. There is progress though and that's what I'm going for. 

Medically... I know some people voiced some concerns about my throwing up/regurgitation last week. I'm fine. It happens from time to time. It started a couple of years ago and I went to specialists to try to figure out what was going on. They ran tests and just told me I may have GERD and gave me Prilosec. Well, it never helped and I don't think that's what I have so I've given up until it becomes more serious. I'm tired of the constant guessing games these doctors or specialists play. I will tell you that I do take my health seriously. If I don't feel right I do seek help.

As far as my extracurricular activities last week... had a blast. The kids always enjoy the local wrestling shows when we go, although they won't watch the shows on TV with me. I've been a fan since I was 6 years old and I watch wrestling 4 times a week.

As far as 'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania' is concerned, we loved it. The kids and I have a long standing tradition of seeing Marvel and Star Wars projects together. Even the shows on Disney+, they're all us. I won't go into detail about the nerd stuff because I imagine most readers don't want to read about Marvel and Star Wars.

Thanks for reading. 😘

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Well, he definitely sounds more positive after writing the post and making a plan. I think he's making great progress, even if the scale is moving super slowly. While exercise has never played a major part in my weight loss/gain (meaning my weight doesn’t correlate with whether I’m exercising or not), I think it's different for Jerry. When he's been successful at losing weight, he's usually exercising in addition to making changes to his diet. So maybe he'll see more noticeable progress from adding the exercise. Regardless, he's been putting in the work!

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Jerry Loses His Dad Bod: Week 5

What a week. Poor Jerry. (That face is saying how crappy he feels right now--he thinks he's getting a cold.)

A few years ago, Jerry was having issues with throwing up frequently--from five days a week to twice a day. There was nothing that really seemed to trigger if and when it would happen. He saw a few doctors about it and even had an endoscopy, but nobody could figure out what it was.

Thankfully, it gradually happened less and less frequently until we realized that he couldn't remember the last time he'd thrown up. It just stopped after that, and life went on as normal. (I think it had been happening for about nine? months.)

Warning: TMI about vomit. And out of nowhere, Jerry started throwing up again about a week ago. After reading more and more about it, we learned that he's not actually vomiting; it's technically regurgitation. It sits in the bottom of his esophagus until it's forcefully expelled, usually about 1-4 hours after eating. When regurgitating food from the esophagus, it hasn't entered the stomach yet, so there is no stomach acid. Essentially, whatever you swallowed comes back up looking and tasting the same as when you swallowed it. The doctors thought it was probably due to GERD (a common "answer"), but he doesn't have the usual GERD symptoms and the GERD medication didn't help.  End TMI.

I felt bad for Jerry all week because he just didn't want to eat--when you throw up so frequently, it naturally becomes something you want to avoid at all costs. We never got answers and when it stopped happening, we just forgot about it. But it's looking like we may need to seek answers again.

After hours and hours of googling, we have never been able to find a condition that matches his symptoms. It's frustrating, especially when the doctors can't give you answers. I remember the toll I felt emotionally when I was trying to get answers for my chronic pain and I felt like nobody believed me.

Anyway, Jerry didn't want to skip his weigh-in today, even though his week wasn't ideal, so I'll let him share in his words about the week.

[I assumed Jerry would write about all this that I just wrote! After I wrote my intro, I read his words (below) and he doesn't even mention it--he said he doesn't know what to say about it--but he doesn't mind talking or writing about it. So I'm leaving my intro as it was, but it's worth mentioning that Jerry left it out of what he had to say about the week not because he doesn't want people to know, but because what is there to say? We didn't do his body fat and waist measurements today--just forgot!]

Here's Jerry...

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Well, 190.8. Can't be that disappointed. After all, a loss is a loss.

Down from 191.2 last week.

I would love to say that I was seven for seven in good days this week but that was simply not the case. Although I had a loss, I had one bad day. However, that day wasn't really all that bad. I had decided to stay home for the Super Bowl this year and watch it with the kids.

Katie made that "cheeze" dip again from the night before, for the kids and I to enjoy. And I decided to make some chili for dinner. Chili seems like a big game staple so I wanted to make it really good this year. I made some tofu crumbles and added them to a chili recipe I found online.

I had wanted to double it so I could have some leftovers. But, I think I doubled the recipe for the spices and tomatoes and quadrupled the bean content. I think I added seven cans total of three different kinds of beans. 

Needless to say... I'm a little bound up at the moment.

The fiber intake had to be through the roof and I just keep chugging water to try to get it through my system. I can't help but love beans. I've always loved beans, even when I was a kid. I'm always reminded of a little ditty I heard when I was a kid:

"Beans! Beans! The musical fruit;
The more you eat, the more you toot;
The more you toot, the better you feel;
So lift your leg and let 'em squeal!"

It's super catchy, I know. I hope that you remember this song and pass it on to the little ones.

Anyways, plans for this week include eating normally and maybe cut down on the beans a little. The kids and I are going to local pro wrestling show tomorrow and on Saturday we are continuing our tradition of seeing comic book movies together with the release of 'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania'. I'm super excited for this movie as it starts off the MCU's Phase 5 and will give Kang the Conqueror a more central role as the new super bad for the upcoming series of movies. Sorry, nerd moment.

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I have to say, I'm really impressed that Jerry has stuck with this for five weeks. His progress has been very slow, but also very steady. I got more serious this week with adjusting my habits, and I think that helped both of us. I'm hoping it pays off for me on the scale tomorrow, but even if it doesn't, I feel much better after a great week!

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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.)

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Jerry Loses His Dad Bod: Week 3

I feel like I should feel bad that I get a sense of relief that it's Jerry's weigh-in day and not mine, haha. Of course, mine is tomorrow, so there isn't much difference. But when writing today's post, I have a bit of a relief tingle in my belly.

I do feel bad that I wasn't very helpful this week as far as Jerry's diet goes. I was sick for a few miserable days this week, so I didn't cook. I haven't been cooking the best foods and I've yet to make and stick with a meal plan. Why is meal planning so hard?! It seems like I spend so much time writing things out, going grocery shopping, and prepping food, only to learn that nobody is going to be here for dinner or that they just ate something else after work/school.

Jerry keeps telling me just to make whatever I want to make, and if nobody else wants it or they eat otherwise, that's not my fault. My mom guilt is always high ;)

Anyway, back to Jerry's week of working on losing his dad bod. He said yesterday that he knew he wasn't going to do good on the scale today. And while it wasn't terrible, he didn't lose any weight:

He was at 192.0, which is a gain of 0.2 pounds from last week. I'd say that's no big deal! (Although, I also know how a little gain like that can turn into more and more until they add up to 25 pounds.)

His waist measurement stayed the same at 34.5 inches but his body fat percentage went up by 0.5% (from 23.3% last week).

I can't help but feel at least partially responsible! It was my idea to have him do this publicly, so I could have been more helpful.

Since I'm starting a challenge for February (eating ONLY at the dining room table with ZERO distractions), I think it's going to be easier to help him. I'm definitely not going to want to snack if I have to sit at the table to do it, so I'll likely be in the mood to prepare an extra good, filling dinner. When Jerry eating a bigger dinner at home, he tends to eat less at work.

Okay, I asked Jerry to write his thoughts about this week, so I'll hand it over to him:

Todays weigh in was a little disappointing but I'm not going to shy away from my shortcomings. At this point I figured I would've been down a lot more than this. In the past it seemed like I would lose a lot faster but not this time. It's been a struggle. I know where I go wrong and I'm trying to experiment with different eating habits. 

WRONGS: 

- Snacking. When Katie and I are just hanging out I tend to snack. It can be worse when everyone is asleep and I am watching a show alone in the living room. There have been times where I've been aware of what I was doing and stopped and other times I just can't resist the urge. It's a difficult habit to break. 

- Fruits and vegetables... not enough. I've had more than I normally have but I feel like I need more. 

- Exercise. I need to put more of a solid effort in figuring out what I should be doing here as opposed to just saying "I'll figure it out tomorrow". 

RIGHTS: 

- I've been downing the water. No problem getting that in. 

- Katie and I have been talking about just eating better overall. Better, overall nutritious meals that are smaller in portion. We've both admitted we are aware of the portion sizes increasing in our meals and that they've come to lack some of the nutrition we need. 

Overall, I'm feeling better... even though the scale isn't saying that. I know that I can do better and I'm making an effort to do that. Being more conscious of what I'm eating or what I'm doing helps me in knowing what I'm doing right or wrong and that is helping me to make improvements.

It sounds like he knows what's going on and what he'd like to change, so hopefully I can be a better help this week! Wish me luck for tomorrow ;)  Hopefully I can make it through Day 1, hahaha.

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Jerry Loses His Dad Bod: Week 2

Well, I'm feeling no better than I was yesterday. I actually feel worse--much more congested and my throat is killing me. I'm also super exhausted for no reason. I'm incredibly bored just sitting around, but I physically can't do much without getting winded and tired. I haven't taken another COVID test yet--I'll take one tomorrow if I still have symptoms.

It's kind of funny how just a few years ago, I would have just thought I had a cold and felt like crap for a couple of days and not really thought anything of it. Now, though, any sort of sickness symptoms immediately makes us think COVID. I am supposed to see friends this weekend--twice--and I'll be super bummed to have to cancel.

Anyway, today is Jerry's second week weigh-in day for Project: Lose Dad Bod. His results...

He was at 191.8, which is down from 192.4 last week--so, not a huge drop, but a loss nonetheless! (Definitely more than I can say about myself recently.)

As far as his body fat and waist measurement go:

His body fat was at 23.3%, which is down from 23.6% last week--not bad for a week!--and his waist measurement was at 34.4, which is the same as last week. I'd say he did good overall!

I asked him how his week went and here is what he said:

"I stuck to my plan all week except for Monday when I snacked after work. My food has been heavier than normal; I tried to mix it up a couple of days by adding fruit (I'm really bad at eating fruit and vegetables), and I felt good about eating the fruit with my usual stuff at work. I drank my entire water goal except for yesterday; it seems like it's harder for me to drink all my water when I'm at home. I ate inside my intermittent fasting eating window (8 hours, but I usually keep it to about 6 hours).

The goals I want to aim for this week: eat more fruits and vegetables; eat things that aren't as dense and heavy; maintain my water intake; maintain my activity; and hopefully not get COVID from Katie (we keep calling it COVID, but we don't know if that's what it is yet).

I *might* go to the rec center this week to work out with Eli. Eli's a beast and it would be fun to work out with him. But we'll see."

Overall, I'm happy for Jerry that he's sticking with this! I've been a terrible example for him, even though I try to be encouraging. He inspires me on Tuesdays when he does his weigh-in and it makes me wish I looked forward to my weigh-ins again. (I used to like weighing in every week when things were going well.)

I'm going to state right now that I'm not doing a weigh-in tomorrow. I'm going to use my birthday AND being sick as an excuse to skip the scale. (Yes, I know it's an excuse, and a lame one, but I just need a break right now. The last few weeks several months have been rough on me.)

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Jerry Loses His Dad Bod: Week 1

If you missed my post last week, "The One Where Jerry Loses His Dad Bod", I explained that Jerry is going to start doing weigh-ins on Tuesdays (similar to my Wednesday Weigh-Ins) because he's ready to lose the weight he's put on over the last few years. He isn't happy with the tire around his middle (that came with middle age and probably too much beer and pretzels).

To lose the weight, he decided to keep things simple at first and not make too many changes at once. He is intermittently fasting (with an eating window of eight hours) and drinking 64 ounces of water a day. No exercise yet, and he already eats a plant-based diet (although his diet definitely could be better!).

Last week, his starting stats were:

Weight: 193.6 pounds
Body Fat Percentage: 24.4%
Waist Measurement: 37 inches

And for fun, these were his "before" photos, haha:

I was kind of nervous for him today! I hoped he'd have good results for his first week. Intermittent fasting has worked well for him before; usually, though, he loses inches/fat before the scale shows a big loss.

Thankfully, when he got on the scale when he woke up today, it showed that what he's been doing has been working:

He was down 1.2 pounds on the scale, but I wanted to see his body fat and waist measurement the most!

His body fat went from 24.4% to 23.6%...

And I was really shocked about his waist--it went from 37 inches to 34.5 inches! I'm meticulous about how I take body measurements; when I worked at Curves, I had to take body measurements of each woman every month; and I used to work at Leggs Hanes Bali Playtex (a bra store) where I had to do measurements as well. So, I know that I didn't screw up the actual measurement!

Week 1 Stats:

Weight: 192.4 pounds (down 1.2 pounds)
Body Fat Percentage: 23.6% (down 0.8%)
Waist Measurement: 34.5 inches (down 2.5 inches)

And even though it's only been a week, I figured I'd do a side-by-side of a couple of his photos:

I have to say, I am super impressed with his progress! He said he stuck within his eight-hour eating window all week and he drank 64 ounces of water every day. He admits he needs to eat healthier food, though--he doesn't eat many fruits or vegetables.

I'm excited that he's off to such an auspicious start! (Yes, that is my vocabulary word for the week, haha--you may see it a couple more times.)

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The One Where Jerry Loses His Dad Bod

Rather than having Jerry write another post today, I decided to just go for it and hope I don't say something stupid. This is my first time NOT taking my meds since my diagnosis in 2017, and I'm kind of nervous about it!

I talked to the pharmacist today and she was sympathetic but said that it was an insurance issue, so she suggested that I call the insurance company. I called when I got home, and they said that I have to pay out-of-pocket until I meet a $3500 deductible. The cheapest price I've been able to find for my medication has been $240 per month. I know people pay a lot more than that for medication, but I've always been lucky in that the most my co-pay has ever been was $30!

I called my doctor's office, and since my psychiatrist retired last month (the timing couldn't have been worse, right?!) they said they can't make changes to my medications. However, they had just gotten a cancellation for an appointment tomorrow morning with my new psychiatrist--so I jumped at the chance and said I'll be there. I'm guessing he'll prescribe me a comparable (and cheaper) medication.

But enough about that! I'm kind of excited about this new series I plan to do. I've had this idea for a little while now and Jerry decided he wants to go for it. Over the past five years or so, he's put on some weight; nowhere near his highest, but a considerable amount. The distribution of the excess weight has changed, too, maybe because he's older... but it's all gone right to his midsection. He admits that he's developed a dad bod, and he's unhappy with it.

When I asked him why he wants to lose weight, he said that while it sounds vain, he wants to look better. (Actually, his words were, "Not to look like a big sloppy bitch", haha.) He wants to feel better about himself--more confident. He also wants to lose weight for his health--he doesn't have any energy, and he feels drained all the time. He's been sleeping a lot more than he used to but he said it doesn't feel like restful sleep--he wakes up still feeling tired. I've noticed that he started snoring again, too, which he hasn't done in years.

Jerry's lost weight before (and gained weight right along with me), but we've never really publicized the process on my blog. When I suggested the idea to him, at first he thought no way--he doesn't want to fail when thousands of people are "watching". I told him it was totally up to him, but I thought that maybe making it public would help him stay accountable. It's helped me several times.

He liked that idea, so I asked him about his plans. I'll write it all out here and then once a week, I'll do a Tuesday weigh-in/check-in with him about how he's doing. I think he'll probably enjoy having people follow along!

We took his stats today: weight, BMI, body fat percentage, and waist circumference. For the record, he's 5'9" tall.

Day 1:

Starting weight: 193.6 pounds
BMI: 28.6 ("overweight")
Body fat percentage: 24.4%
Waist circumference: 37 inches

His "before" photos. Naturally, he couldn't be serious ;)

His goal weight is 180, which gives him 13.6 pounds to lose. He's not necessarily on a timeline, but he'd be happy to lose it by the end of March. His goal of 180 would still be considered overweight based on the BMI chart, but to be in the "normal" range would mean under 168--that's pretty low for him! He'd be happy at 180.

This is what he looked like at about 180 pounds:

His plan to lose the weight:

He wants to take small steps instead of making big changes all at once, which I think is a good idea. He still plans to eat a vegan diet, but he is going to reduce his portion sizes. For example, he always bring his lunch to work in the largest-sized nesting bowls we have, so he's going to switch to using the medium size ones (see pic below).

Portion control without actually measuring

He also plans to do intermittent fasting. This has worked well for him in the past, particularly when he's at work. His eating window is going to be six hours (he said if that's too hard, he'll increase it to eight hours). 

He's going to increase his water consumption. He drinks a ton of coffee all day at work, so he doesn't drink much water. His goal is to drink 64 ounces of water a day.

As far as exercise, he doesn't plan to do anything formal yet. He wants to get his eating under control first. He said he'll probably do the BeachBody workouts when he's ready (his exercise of choice is workout videos--I don't know how he can stand them!).

I think that's about it as far as the start of this new series! I hope it goes well; if Jerry is willing, I'll post his progress every Tuesday :)

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