Losing 10 Pounds After Age 50

Recently I’ve been working on one of my greatest personal challenges which happens to be in the arena of health and fitness. It’s one of my greatest challenges because it’s something that I’ve thought about for years, at times have worked on, but failed to make the progress I’ve hoped for. For years now I’ve lived at a body weight that I haven’t been comfortable with. While I have felt healthy and have been able to do many things that the average person my age can’t do physically I can see the stomach pushing out on my shirt in photos and I can feel pants and shirts I wore years ago getting tighter on me. To the point where I can’t wear some of those clothes any more. Well, I could wear them but it would look ridiculous. 😂

Up to now I have taken it as a victory that, although I’m unhappy where I’ve been physically, I have been able to stem the tide of weight gain and keep myself in reasonable physical shape. For many people that would probably be sufficient but I’ve had to be honest with myself and admit that I’m not a person who quietly resigns himself to mediocrity in other areas of my life. Our bodies are the only vessels that carry us through our existence so keeping mine fit is extremely important to me. That’s why four months ago I decided to make another run at getting my body weight under control.

Disclaimer: What follows is not specific advice for anyone in terms of a diet and exercise plan. Consider it documentation of my experience. Always consult a physician or other health professional when making changes to your diet or exercise regimen.

What spurred my rededication to bringing my body weight down was a long due physical exam that included having to get on the scale and do some blood work. The scale revealed that I’m about 15 pounds above where I would like to be in terms of body weight and the blood work revealed triglycerides almost double what’s recommended for a man my age. And while I’ve convinced myself that I feel good for a guy over 50 the truth is that I also know that the creeping spectre of weight gain via being sedentary and having a poor diet can get out of hand before you know it and lead to chronic health problems that seriously impact quality of life. I want to retain a good quality of life for many years. So it was time to make a change.

I mentioned above that at the time of my checkup that I was about 15 pounds above where I’d like to be in body weight. I set a short-term goal of losing 10 pounds because that would still be a drastic improvement and would be more achievable within about 2 months. Years ago I was a fitness trainer and found that for many people losing 3/4 to 1 pound per week was a reasonable goal. It is possible to lose more but only if a person has more time than usual to dedicate to exercise and planning meals. So for me ten pounds it was. Then I would start thinking about achieving my stretch goal of an additional 5 pounds (for a total of 15 pounds) lost. After that would be a maintenance plan to keep myself close to my ideal weight. I started on my new program on the first of June. Most people wouldn’t pick the beginning of summer to start a weight loss program but when you’re seeking to improve your life now is always the best time to start.

The first thing I did was to dust off my old digital scale that was lonely in its box in the closet. I placed the scale next to my night table close to the head of my bed with the intention of weighing myself first thing in the morning every single day I was at home. For better or worse I would record that number on a daily basis as a way to keep myself accountable for my goal. The next thing I did was to address the diet side of my weight loss program by inventorying all that I eat in a typical week. Finally, I took stock of what my exercise regimen had been like recently. The key when evaluating diet and exercise is honesty. You need to be honest with yourself about your habits or else you won’t be able to change them.

Below is a quick list of the actions that I took that ultimately helped me to lose the initial 10 pounds over about 2.5 months.

• Increased the time and intensity of my exercise, which mostly consisted of about five times a week of brisk walking and once or twice a week with light to medium dumbell weights combined with body weight exercises like pushups, situps and burpees.
• Eliminated sugary desserts such as frozen yogurt or ice cream which had become common for me after dinner and replaced them with fruit.
• Became more deliberate about portioning my food, using measuring cups to limit portions wherever possible.
• Eliminated my bad habit of waking up in the middle of the night and having a snack of crackers and fruit. Yes, it was just crackers and fruit but it was also additional calories I didn’t need while I slept.
• Deliberately filled my cupboard and refrigerator with fruits, vegetables and proteins while limiting carbs and sugary items.
• Cut back on snacking between meals and in the evenings. Not so much that I felt deprived but enough to reduce my daily caloric intake.
• Avoided alcoholic drinks and sodas in favor of drinking water, naturally flavored seltzer water and pure fruit juices.
• Resurrected my dusty old juicer and started making fresh fruit and vegetable juice from time to time.

If the list above seems like a lot, you’re right it is! 😂 The truth is that when you want to make any difficult change in life then bold action is required. In reality though all of the above represented a series of small changes (tweaks, if you will) to my habits. Then again, changing any habit that has developed over a period of years is no easy task. That’s why the two things that are always needed when achieving something difficult have been needed during this period for me: patience and discipline. I’ve needed the patience to understand that achieving my weight goal would take time so I didn’t give up even though the process seemed slow. I’ve needed the discipline to make the correct choices in terms of my exercise and diet during this time.

All of the above is wrapped in that ever elusive package known as motivation. There’s a lot more to be said about that. The bottom line is that I lost the 10 pounds and am now working on the additional 5 pounds. It’s not easy but having cleared my first hurdle I’m confident that I can make it there. Hopefully soon but if it takes a bit of time that’s okay too. In all things worthwhile we must have patience. That’s all for now. 😁✌️