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While life is good, there are a few things I have to work on.
Let’s begin with the number 36. No, Chrissy isn’t trading me in for a couple 36 year old studs, 36 is the waist size I reached early in 2025. I was not happy with that. Now, sadly, some of my 36 inch pants are whispering into my ear; 38,38,38. It’s like an evil form of tinnitus that speaks instead of rings. It’s not that I don’t exercise, I’m at the gym 3 times per week using resistance and stair step machines, as well as lifting dumbbells at home. I’ve gained weight because of my lazy eating habits.
On the very last day of 2025, I reached another milestone. It was the first time in my life that I broke 200 pounds on the bathroom scale.
My lousy diet began about 30 months ago after prostatectomy surgery. I had been maintaining my weight at a healthy 170 prior to surgery. After my operation, I lost ten pounds, and felt skinny. Wanting to regain the weight, I totally blew my diet discipline.
I’d been practicing ½ of the KETO diet. You know, the part where you eat all the fat you want, while ignoring the half of the diet that actually makes you lose weight. My budget for new pants is totally busted.
I have implemented my plan by cutting out sweets and snacks, and only eating until I am full. A couple pieces of pizza can sate me, yet I can easily keep eating until the pie is gone. Now I ask for a dogie bag/box before I even begin eating, and get half the order out of my sight.
I’ve lost ten pounds so far, if I run into a brick wall, I will go full KETO until I reach my goal, then revert to a better balanced diet.
What good is it being financially fit in retirement, if we eat ourselves into poor health?
Just some related material. Read an an article recently titled something to the effect of “Why you can’t exercise your way to weight loss”. Cited 3 things. One, exercise is an appetite stimulant, ie., you’ll want to eat more. Second, people overestimate the calories burned during their exercise routines. Third, people underestimate the calories in the “rewards” they give themselves for having exercised. They think they just burned 1000 calories walking or running and reward themselves with three cookies that they estimate at 300 calories when actually the inverse is true. The article went on to say that they absolutely do not recommend this approach due to the many other benefits of exercise such as cardiovascular, mood, sleep, etc. but that if weight loss was one’s sole motivation, they’d prob have more success foregoing exercise and concentrating 100% on diet. Other authors have noted that your outward appearance is probably 80% diet and 20% exercise. I’m no expert but based on my unscientific analysis of friends and family, I’d say this is accurate. It’s overwhelmingly about the quantity and quality of input into one’s pie hole and not gym time. That’s why all these “successful” exercise programs that are sold to consumers always have the caveat “when combined with a sensible diet”. It’s the diet that predominantly drives the results not the exercise.
Mark, thanks for posting, and I agree with you. I go to the gym to maintain muscle and balance. I have also fallen prey to rewarding myself afterwards, but no more. I agree with George Counihan’s wife, “You go to the gym to get in shape. You lose weight in the kitchen”.
It’s definitely easy to let the pounds creep up with age. I was 12 pounds heavier than I wanted to be at the end of 2024. I started tracking every calorie I ate and ended up losing one pound a month throughout 2025. I make sure to walk at least 12,000 steps a day (about five miles) but most days I come closer to 16,000-18,000 steps. About half of my walking is with our dogs and in our (very flat) neighborhood and half is on a treadmill at a 4 mph pace and a 4% incline. That seems to rev up my metabolism quite a bit.
I have noticed that my appetite isn’t nearly what it used to be a decade or more ago. I try to really pay attention to whether I’m really hungry or not before I eat something.
My husband and I both do low-carb, no-sugar diets. He’s more strict than I am but I usually don’t eat more than 50 or 60 grams of carbs a day. I’m convinced processed foods are the devil.
I do indulge in Diet Coke and a couple of other carbonated, sugar-free caffeinated beverages every morning. I feel like I need it, especially on days when I train all of our dogs and then go out and teach four hours of dog obedience classes in our community.
Kristine. I think your discipline is remarkable. I think that 50 carbs and steady exercise are the keys, keeping in mind the difference between good and bad carbs. Of course, there aren’t any good arguments for carbonated soft drinks, still, I think it’s okay to allow ourselves a little guilty pleasure. I try to limit myself to 24 ounces per day, though it’s hard if eating out, when the server keeps topping off my glass.
Thanks for posting, it’s good to hear from you.
You don’t drink water with meals? (And a little wine with dinner, in my case.) Doesn’t drinking Coke or whatever alter the taste of the food? I feel fortunate that I wasn’t exposed to Coke et al until my teens, when I didn’t like the taste. I am sure one reason for the obesity epidemic is giving kids sodas and sweets at an early age. BTW, 24 ounces sounds like a lot to me, but I don’t know how much you used to drink.
I actually drink water in the morning and with dinner, as well as at the gym. I drink a 12oz soda at lunch, and another in the evening while watching a movie on TV. I don’t think soda takes away from the taste of food. Again, I acknowledge there is no redeeming value in these drinks.
I agree with you about kids. We didn’t give the kids soft drinks, and very little candy. As adults, my kids do not have a sweet tooth, or weight issues.
Not only is there no redeeming value in those drinks, the artificial sweeteners (aspartame, sucralose, acesulfame) aren’t good for your gut. I used to drink Coke Zero but switched to making iced green tea sweetened with stevia.
Dan,
We buy diet soda in the very small cans and not more than 1 per day, usually when I get sick of drinking water 5-6 water bottles full/day).
When I went for my end of the year physical in 2024 I knew I had gained some weight. But, what the heck… everybody gains five or so pounds a year. I had gained 27 pounds and my kidneys weren’t functioning.
My dad had a kidney transplant when I was a child and I didn’t want that to happen to me.
Over the next six months I quit drinking my sweet tea, started eating oatmeal with fruit every morning, eating more steamed veggies, started going to the gym or at least moving more daily. I lost nearly 50 pounds and am still maintaining the loss by simply creating new habits.
P.S. – My kidneys and blood work are all good
Great post, LH. That’s a true success story.
Three or four months back I acknowledged that I looked pregnant. The last time that happened I had a (benign) ovarian tumor, but before going to see a doctor I thought I should try losing weight, in case it was just fat…
I had read a number of articles about how seniors needed more protein than the RDA, and had been adding protein powder to my breakfast granola. Now I read that extra protein is stored as fat. I stopped adding the protein powder and cut back a little on the other ingredients. I also cut my one square of (medicinal!) dark chocolate with my after lunch espresso to weekends only, and wine with dinner at home to two ounces. I have lost six pounds so far, only look a little bit pregnant, and it has been painless.
I should add that I have never drunk sweetened or carbonated cold drinks (I used to put sugar in coffee, but that was decades back). I also mostly cut out white carbs and sat fats when my PCP wanted to put me on statins.
I admire your willpower. I’m sipping on an ice cold (medicinal) Coke Zero as I read your post, Kathy. I know that there are no redeeming values to any such drink, either with or without sugar. Otherwise, I’m doing well cutting back on the white carbs; but why do they taste so darn good?
And congrats on not being pregnant.
“I’m doing well cutting back on the white carbs; but why do they taste so darn good?”
The answer Dan is that we are an ancient species and our body is still designed to crave excess energy to store as fat in case we go a long time before eating because we can’t find food. The brain craves carbs, sweets (carbohydrates essentially) to fuel itself. Problem is in our modern society we do not have difficulty finding these components of a diet, in fact they are too easy to acquire.
in a nutshell were are an ancient species living in modern society. Quite a mismatch!
I think you are correct on all counts, Dave. Jonathan also applied the ancient species analogy to our financial proclivities.
I would cause a major sensation if I were pregnant!
Not much will power involved. The first time I drank Coke I was in my mid-teens, and I didn’t like it. I don’t have a sweet tooth. When I first moved to the US, all the bread tasted too sweet, so I made my own. Now I have an artisanal bakery nearby, but still, only one of the loaves has no sweetener.
Eat more vegetables! And don’t drink any calories that don’t come in a minimal amount of alcohol. Focus your mind on fitness, not food. Thinking about a “diet” keeps us thinking about food, and leads us to it. How about a follow-up in June bragging about your 34-inch pants that feel too loose? i’m pulling for you.
All good points, Ed. For all I’ve written about my time in the beer business and the ElderBeerMen, I typically only drink around six drinks per month. However, just one beer/wine/mixed drink is enough for the voices to begin whispering eat, eat, eat. I don’t think about eating when I’m busy at something, but when I’m just faffing about the house, my mind seems to go into some sort of auto-eat mode. Is it lunch time yet?
My wife the personal trainer has a little sign on our frig – You go to the gym to get in shape. You lose weight in the kitchen. I have been known to refer to her as the “food Nazi” but she keeps me in line! Takes a lot of hard work but my blue jeans are 32’s – the same size I wore in high school 55 years ago.
Your wife nailed it, George! It took my waist growing three inches for me to learn that lesson. My goal is to get back into the size 34 jeans that are patiently waiting in a storage box under my bed.
I follow a podcast called Zoe and have learned a lot about the food I eat. I try to follow their advice as much as I can by eating vegetables and fruits and limiting the ultra processed foods. I also use the app Yuka that gives a rating of foods I buy from Costco or the supermarket.
Good tip on the app, Nick. Avoiding ultra processed foods is a key to a good diet, but it does present a quandary for frugal shoppers. Healthy choices in the supermarket are often more expensive than the foods that hold bad intent for our hearts and waistlines.
I still have and fit into the suit I wore to my wedding in 1988—a feat I attribute to an extremely active sporting lifestyle, though let’s be clear: I’m no dietary saint. My friends have branded me a certified chocoholic, and I’ve yet to meet a chocolate bar too large for a single sitting 😂. As for the suit itself, I was genuinely devastated when forced to purchase a replacement despite having a perfectly serviceable one hanging in my wardrobe. Apparently, according to my wife Suzie, the padded shoulders were screaming 1980s louder than a Miami Vice rerun.
LOL, Mark, must still be a Miami Vice fan out there.
I hear you Dan!
I keep a daily calendar of weight and activities. I just finished tallying up the numbers.
her are the numbers 84 stationary or outdoor bicycles for over 1,300 miles. 99 trips to the club for lifting weights. And finally 71 days of yard work (only counting at least one hour of activity- the lawn takes 1 1/2 hours with a self propelled lawn mower-all hills). All tolled I exercised on 254 days, keeping in mind 5 weeks of vacationing with some exercise.
And my reward? I gained 7# this year, all from too much on the intake side of the equation. 😢