Fortieth weight progress report

This post is yet another weight progress report, continuing the previous one, part of a long series since I started in January 2015.

My weight for this year ended up slightly lower than at the beginning of the year, but over the summer and fall I regained almost all the weight that I lost in the first quarter.

It has been remarkably difficult for me to keep off the weight that I lose. If I’m home during the day, I have lunch and snack and my weight creeps back up.

I’m hoping that the first quarter of 2020 will be like the first quarter of 2019, with a loss of 10 pounds.

My bicycle riding was more consistent in 2019 than in 2018, because I rode up to campus 3 times a week in summer and fall, either for workouts at the gym or for the physics class I sat in on.

I’ll be biking up to campus 5 days a week, but my walking will be reduced somewhat, as my left heel has been bothering me. I don’t think I’ll have time to go to the gym, so I’m not bothering to renew my membership—I’ll probably get myself some resistance bands, so I can at least pretend that I’m trying to maintain some strength in my upper body.

Thirty-ninth weight progress report

This post is yet another weight progress report, continuing the previous one, part of a long series since I started in January 2015.

My weight is almost the same as a year ago, showing a steady increase since classes ended. This does not bode well for my retirement years.

The pattern for this summer looks the same as for last summer—I’m going to have to try to drop my weight this fall, and not wait until January.

I’ve been exercising more this summer than last year, cycling up the hill to work out at the OPERS Wellness Center about three times a week. I’ve been averaging 3.77 miles/day for August and September. That exercise does not seem to have affected my weight gain, though. I like to kid myself that the exercise has increased my lean body mass while reducing the fat, but one look at my waist disabuses me of that notion.

I think that being home and having available food at all times makes a bigger difference than exercise in failing to control my weight (I say, having just eaten a chocolate-chip cookie my wife baked this afternoon). Not only are the way too many chocoloate-chip cookies in the house, but my son and I will be baking a big batch of Shakespeare shortbread cookies tomorrow, also, though we’ll be giving most of them away on the bus trip up to Ashland for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Thirty-eighth weight progress report

This post is yet another weight progress report, continuing the previous one, part of a long series since I started in January 2015.

My weight has been about the same as a year ago, but I hope that I don’t put on as much weight as I did last summer and fall.

My exercise level has been a bit low, averaging 3.4 miles a day of cycling in July.  This is a little misleading, as I have started doing some weight training, treadmill running, and elliptical machines at the “Wellness Center” on campus, though not as frequently as I should.  It also does not include the walking I have been doing, which is hard to keep track of.

When I was young and skinny, I did not realize how difficult it was to lose weight once one put it on—in those days my problem was trying to increase my weight, to keep from looking like a skeleton.

Thirty-seventh weight progress report

This post is yet another weight progress report, continuing the previous one, part of a long series since I started in January 2015.

Except for weeks when I’m making a deliberate effort to diet, my weight seems to increase about 7 pounds a year.

I’m now back to about the same weight as I was a year ago, but I’m going to try not to repeat last summer’s and last fall’s weight gains.

Because of the days (weeks!) I spent staying home grading, I only averaged 3.03 miles/day of cycling in June, and I’ve had to stop running (at least for a while, see Running hiatus), so my exercise level has been low.

As I said in last month’s report “The end of Spring quarter and the beginning of summer seem to be bad times for weight gain—I think that the heavy grading load results in less physical activity and more snacking. Then the lack of bike commuting kicks in and my level of physical activity drops even further.”

I’m still thinking of paying UCSC $22.84 a month to use the OPERS “Wellness Center”, so that I can do low-impact running-like motions (treadmill and elliptical machine).  (The rates go up to $30/month in September.)  I’ll probably check that out tomorrow.

 

Thirty-sixth weight progress report

This post is yet another weight progress report, continuing the previous one, part of a long series since I started in January 2015.

I was finally getting my weight back into my self-chosen target region when further progress slowed, and I’m seeing a gradual weight gain again.

Keeping my weight down has been an ongoing struggle. If I don’t pay close attention to how much I eat, my weight creeps back up, and I have to work pretty hard to reset it.

I’ve been bicycling an average of about 5 miles a day, but I’ve had to stop running (at least for a while, see Running hiatus), so my exercise level has been ok.  That is about to change, though, as I only have one more week of classes, after which I’ll be bicycling to campus much less frequently.

The end of Spring quarter and the beginning of summer seem to be bad times for weight gain—I think that the heavy grading load results in less physical activity and more snacking. Then the lack of bike commuting kicks in and my level of physical activity drops even further.  Perhaps this summer I’ll get a gym membership or pay to use the University equipment, as I want to learn how to run on a treadmill (which is supposedly easier on arthritic hips than running on pavement).  I’m going to have to do something, as I have 6 months a year for the next two years of not needing to be in my office on campus, and bike commuting is currently about my only exercise.

I have been snacking a lot during my grading, and it is likely to get worse: I estimate I have about 85–150 hours of grading to do in the next two weeks, depending on how much commentary I put in the student papers.  I generally reduce the feedback on the last paper, because I think that very few students look at the feedback when they know that they won’t be doing another paper for me.  But even at the minimal level that I consider responsible, I have more than a full time job grading for the next two weeks.  I’m already running a little behind schedule (about two days), as I had hoped to have started grading Lab 12 this weekend, but I only just finished grading Lab 10+11 late Sunday night.