Tag: Weight Loss

Pros and Cons of Weight Loss

I’ve created two previous posts about my experiences with self-sufficiency as they apply to health benefits: Health Benefits of Self-Sufficiency and Health Benefits of Self-Sufficiency (Part 2). A number of people have read those posts and come away with some ideas that might not reflect the reality of my weight loss or weight loss in general. The five biggest concepts in my weight loss program are:

  • I never specifically set out to lose weight.
  • There wasn’t any dieting involved, the weight came off naturally as a result of the techniques I used.
  • The motivation was to become self-sufficient, which means eating food we grow ourselves.
  • Growing your own food involves a lot of exercise, but it isn’t the sort of exercise one gets from a gym.
  • Part of the solution involves getting proper rest and following the cycles of sun availability throughout the year (for example, we get up 2 ½ hours later in the winter than we do in the summer).

It’s important to step back at times and review how a specific set of actions has affected you, which is something I have done as part of this weight loss adventure. The person who crafted the statement, “There is no free lunch.” hit the nail on the head when it comes to weight loss at least in my case. Every weight loss journey is different, especially when people go about different ways of shedding the pounds, but as long as you’re willing to stay committed and motivated throughout this journey, then that’s where it all begins. Whether someone chooses to watch workout videos, visit the gyms three times a week or even stick to programs like the 14 day rapid fat loss plan, finding a suitable routine is what will hopefully make this weight loss journey easier.

Those previous posts stated a lot of benefits for losing weight. Getting rid of my medications, gaining stamina, lowering my blood pressure, controlling my diabetes through diet alone, and increasing my flexibility are all incredibly positive reasons for losing weight. Even though I have no way of proving it, I have probably increased my lifespan and I’ll be able to enjoy more of that lifespan. Just the decrease of pressure on my joints would be worth the loss of weight.

I keep getting asked whether I feel better. People seem disappointed when I tell them no. I actually don’t feel better-I feel different, but not better. When I weighed as much as I did, I was no less happy than I am today. I didn’t walk around constantly sad and I didn’t feel fat. Sure, going through a Houston weight loss regimen would be good for me – it is why people get a phentermine alternative to help their loss, after all – but it wouldn’t change how I feel about myself. A better word would be that I felt robust. The fact of the matter is that I was still quite active, even with all that weight in place. So, I would consider the whole issue of feeling better as a neutral element of weight loss for me.

There are negatives to my weight loss and there are people who seem surprised that I would have any negatives to express. The obvious negative is that I’m not able to eat all of the foods I used to enjoy. I’ve replaced those foods with healthier alternatives. To say that I don’t occasionally eye something that would absolutely trash my body and still feel a desire for it would be absolutely incorrect. I sometimes indulge, just a little, in those old habits, but they’re no longer part of my daily life. The reason is simple-I don’t want to spend my hard earned cash on those products (an answer that many find surprising). I do greatly enjoy my new food choices, but anyone who is honest about the matter of diet will tell you that the old food choices really do retain some level of appeal. I resist those options because they simply cost too much to attract my attention and I’ve grown used to the taste of better alternatives.

An interesting negative, at least for me, is that I can’t stay out in the cold as long as I once did. My body, sans the blubber that used to insulate it, simply doesn’t deal with the cold as well as it did in the past. The fact that I can work faster and that I’ve gained flexibility tends to overcome some of this limitation, but there are times when I would like to stay out longer, but simply can’t because my body won’t allow it. Observing nature is one situation in which I find the lack of durability in the cold to be an issue. I’m also having to be more concerned about the potential for frostbite when I work outside.

My work strategy has had to change. I replaced muscle and weight with flexibility and stamina. A log that I would have easily moved when I weighed more is no longer easy to move. I now have to apply other techniques to move the log and those techniques have to rely on my new fortes. A number of people have wondered why the muscle hasn’t been replaced since my weight stabilized. I don’t have an answer to that question, but I do know I have less muscle now than I once did, despite working hard to increase my muscle mass. I do have the muscle required to perform common tasks. For example, lifting 100 pound sacks of feed doesn’t present any sort of problem.

After talking with my doctor for a while, we decided that I do need to keep a little extra weight on for times when I get sick. I was finding that I would get incredibly weak quite fast when ill after losing weight. When I weighed more, I’d hardly notice any effect from being ill, except the actual illness (such as stuffy nose). The weakness afterward is a new wrinkle that I’m having to deal with. That said, I don’t get sick very often and the amount of extra weight is quite small (about ten pounds). Given the amount of weight that I have lost and the level of activity that I experience, the doctor and I both felt the trade-offs were acceptable.

The point is that any sort of major body change is going to involve choices and consequences. To gain the things that I have through weight loss, I’ve had to accept the consequences. Before you embark on a journey that involves a major body change, make sure you talk with your doctor and do some research. Be aware of the consequences of your actions and make sure you are willing to live with those consequences. Let me know your thoughts on weight loss at [email protected].

Health Benefits of Self-Sufficiency (Part 2)

One of my earliest posts on self-sufficiency touted the health benefits of this form of living. I most definitely stand by that post–anything you can do to improve your health is good. In the time since I wrote that post, I’ve gotten critical illness insurance quotes, looked into any illnesses common in my family, improved my diet even more, had more frequent doctor check-ups and lost still more weight – and I now control my diabetes using diet alone. In fact, I no longer take any sort of medication to manage health issues. I’m still not out of the woods–nor is my wife. We both know that we have further to go if we want this lifestyle to produce the desired results. However, it’s nice to see the progress that we’ve made. We’re intending to have the condition of our health regularly checked over by services that can be provided by Southwest Care or a similar health clinic to ensure we are always progressing in the right direction.

Some people are under the wrongful assumption, however, that simply changing diet, losing weight, and living healthier will undo the wrongs of the past. My situation is a case in point. Losing weight has actually caused a health problem in my case and I recently had to have my gallbladder removed to solve the problem. Many sites tell you that rapid weight loss will cause the formation of gallstones, but this isn’t quite true. Every medical professional I’ve talked with has told me outright that any weight loss greater than 50 pounds can result in gallstones. If you’re diabetic, the gallstones are especially troublesome because they can cause problems with the pancreas–an organ already overextended by diabetes. Certainly, my 4 pound per month average weight loss isn’t rapid and well within the recommended guidelines. My take on all this is that there is no free lunch–if you’ve abused your body you’re going to pay a price for it.

However, in the grand scheme of things, losing a gallbladder is certainly preferable to the problems I’d experience if I remained at my former weight. Diabetics have all kinds of increased health risks, including loss of eyesight, heart troubles, kidney damage, and nerve damage. Getting my weight and diabetes under control was the right thing to do, even if it cost me a gallbladder to do it. You can easily live without a gallbladder, but you can’t live without a heart and life is far less liveable without eyes. In fact, if you’re living a healthy lifestyle, you’re unlikely to even notice that the gallbladder is gone once you get over the surgery.

What bothers me in all this is that the medical profession is lax about telling anyone the potential consequences of a seemingly healthy decision. Perhaps the thought is that any discussion of anything negative will only discourage people so that even fewer will take a positive course of action. Everything you do has a consequence, so it’s best to be informed. I hadn’t gotten very far along my current path when I discovered this potentially negative side effects of weight loss, but I had to conduct my own research to obtain the information. Of course, that’s my recommendation to you as well. You need to go into any health-related decision with eyes open. In my case, I made an informed decision and realized early there were risks.

So, what does this all have to do with self-sufficiency? Getting rid of the medications, learning to eat right, exercising nearly every day–all of these goals are part of being self-sufficient. As part of my self-sufficient lifestyle I’ll maintain more of my muscle mass far later in life (my 78 year old uncle can still lift 100 pound bags of feed), but I’ll pay for that ability with additional joint wear, so I imagine that I’ll need hip and/or knee surgery at some point. A self-sufficient lifestyle isn’t for everyone, perhaps you prefer the gym or simply a walk in the park, but getting healthier is a benefit to everything–most importantly yourself. I encourage you though to research your decisions and make the best decisions you can, realizing that there are always risks that you’ll have to deal with as part of that decision. How are your healthier living goals progressing? Let me know at [email protected].