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Dumping the Pandemic Pounds
Feb. 13th, 2021 12:34 pmLike a lot of people, I gained weight during the pandemic, though this problem really began before-hand. In all, I've gained about 15 pounds since Darwin and I got married, ten since the pandemic began. So I've joined a commercial weight modification program.
Like most such programs these days, this one de-emphasizes denial and emphasizes behavior change. It has an app for keeping track of your weight, watching your daily eating, and sending you chirpy "You can do this!" messages. One thing this program DOESN'T emphasize is exercise. In fact, they barely even mention it. It's not until you're in for more than a week that the program off-handedly mentions that for every calorie you burn in exercise, you get half a calorie added to your daily allotment. You would think this would show up prominently as a way to encourage movement, but no. And while food and weight entries are easy to get to on the app's menu, the exercise section is buried a couple levels down. I'm not sure why this is.
The program also tries to move you toward a plant-based diet without actually saying so. They don't say, "Eat vegetarian," but they definitely de-emphasize meat of all kinds. The recipe section is filled with vegetarian offerings:
Crisp Stir Fry Vegetables
Winter Squash Risotto
Lemony Fennel Salad
Tofu Pad Tai
Eggplant and Mushroom Pasta
They seem to have a love affair with soups:
Mushroom and Rice Soup
Minestrone Soup
Carrot Ginger Soup
Vegetarian Barley Soup
Corn and Tomato Chowder
Autumn Harvest Pumpkin Soup
I don't object to this. It's just odd how they quietly emphasize this without actually saying so. Maybe they figure if they draw your attention to it, you'll resist.
My goal is to lose at least 15 pounds, and make a run for 20. (I always find it useful to tell myself, "Get this far with and you can stop, but you can keep going if you want to.") Right now, I'm in the honeymoon phase, when weight loss is quick and easy. I've lost five pounds, in fact. Eventually, my metabolism will say, "Wait--what?" and slow itself down, making it harder to lose more, but for now I'll enjoy being a third of the way toward my first goal.
I'm also discovering the plethora of what I call fake foods. There's a vogue on for creating food substitutes out of vegetables. We have spiral-cut veggies that masquerade as pasta. Frozen risotto and rice dishes filled out with vegetables. And, of course, plant-based meat substitutes. The Impossible Burger is the most famous substitute for ground beef, but I've found plant-based sausage and plant-based sweet-and-sour pork.
In a self-inflicted orgy of "what the hell," I snagged a big pile of all this stuff. I've long been a fan of the ground beef substitutes, but rarely bought them at the store because they're expensive, but I decided I'd spend it now. So far, I'm liking the results.
I've also become a fan of pre-made salads, another new-ish item in the store. They're various styles of salad that come in a sealed bowl and separate packets of the dressing and crispy ingredients inside. I like these because the only other way to make a mixed salad involves buying an entire head of lettuce, a bag of carrots, a head of cabbage, and so on. You chop up ingredients for a bowl of salad, and you're left with huge amounts of leftover ingredients that, in my case, usually go bad before you can use them all up. These bowls let me have a variety of different kinds of salad without leaving piles of vegetables in my crisper drawer that turn into black sludge. The only objection I have to them is the amount of packaging. By volume, the packaging is nearly as much as the salad itself!
My goal is to lose fifteen pounds by early June. We'll see what happens!
Like most such programs these days, this one de-emphasizes denial and emphasizes behavior change. It has an app for keeping track of your weight, watching your daily eating, and sending you chirpy "You can do this!" messages. One thing this program DOESN'T emphasize is exercise. In fact, they barely even mention it. It's not until you're in for more than a week that the program off-handedly mentions that for every calorie you burn in exercise, you get half a calorie added to your daily allotment. You would think this would show up prominently as a way to encourage movement, but no. And while food and weight entries are easy to get to on the app's menu, the exercise section is buried a couple levels down. I'm not sure why this is.
The program also tries to move you toward a plant-based diet without actually saying so. They don't say, "Eat vegetarian," but they definitely de-emphasize meat of all kinds. The recipe section is filled with vegetarian offerings:
Crisp Stir Fry Vegetables
Winter Squash Risotto
Lemony Fennel Salad
Tofu Pad Tai
Eggplant and Mushroom Pasta
They seem to have a love affair with soups:
Mushroom and Rice Soup
Minestrone Soup
Carrot Ginger Soup
Vegetarian Barley Soup
Corn and Tomato Chowder
Autumn Harvest Pumpkin Soup
I don't object to this. It's just odd how they quietly emphasize this without actually saying so. Maybe they figure if they draw your attention to it, you'll resist.
My goal is to lose at least 15 pounds, and make a run for 20. (I always find it useful to tell myself, "Get this far with and you can stop, but you can keep going if you want to.") Right now, I'm in the honeymoon phase, when weight loss is quick and easy. I've lost five pounds, in fact. Eventually, my metabolism will say, "Wait--what?" and slow itself down, making it harder to lose more, but for now I'll enjoy being a third of the way toward my first goal.
I'm also discovering the plethora of what I call fake foods. There's a vogue on for creating food substitutes out of vegetables. We have spiral-cut veggies that masquerade as pasta. Frozen risotto and rice dishes filled out with vegetables. And, of course, plant-based meat substitutes. The Impossible Burger is the most famous substitute for ground beef, but I've found plant-based sausage and plant-based sweet-and-sour pork.
In a self-inflicted orgy of "what the hell," I snagged a big pile of all this stuff. I've long been a fan of the ground beef substitutes, but rarely bought them at the store because they're expensive, but I decided I'd spend it now. So far, I'm liking the results.
I've also become a fan of pre-made salads, another new-ish item in the store. They're various styles of salad that come in a sealed bowl and separate packets of the dressing and crispy ingredients inside. I like these because the only other way to make a mixed salad involves buying an entire head of lettuce, a bag of carrots, a head of cabbage, and so on. You chop up ingredients for a bowl of salad, and you're left with huge amounts of leftover ingredients that, in my case, usually go bad before you can use them all up. These bowls let me have a variety of different kinds of salad without leaving piles of vegetables in my crisper drawer that turn into black sludge. The only objection I have to them is the amount of packaging. By volume, the packaging is nearly as much as the salad itself!
My goal is to lose fifteen pounds by early June. We'll see what happens!
