Walk with me: Last of 2024

Missing the mark

Once I started losing weight at a consistent pace, I set an ambitious target of being 100lbs down by the start of 2025. With three days left, I’m pretty sure I will narrowly miss that target. The target was based on an estimate of losing a pound a day, which I was able to achieve in the early fall, but became harder to maintain as I entered Winter. Given that this is the first Winter I’ve successfully lost weight in a long time, it’s still a massive victory moving forwards. To be fair, 94 is pretty close to 100 in the grand scheme of things!

The Orange line assumed 1lb/day loss

Letting down my kettlebell

Previously I started an ambitious habit of attempting 100 kettlebell swings a day. I choose a lower weight to avoid injury, but this was an attempt to figure out what was possible for an at-home daily workout. Truthfully, I had naively assumed it would be the thing that would single-handedly “make scale go down”, and preliminary results showed that wasn’t really happening. I also struggled with enduring the pain of constantly recovering from such an intense workout. That said, I also noticed feeling significantly stronger in a very short time. By day 6 I felt noticeably stronger. After day 10 or 11, I decided to take a break as I try to focus on staying diligent over the holidays. This is something I would like to attempt again, but with introducing different kinds of workouts instead of just kettlebell swings. I can make it more of a gradual whole body workout instead of focusing entirely on a single exercise

Making weight loss more ‘center stage’

I’ve been encouraged by close friends to move these updates from my ‘quiet’ personal site to a more visible platform. For what it’s worth, this site will always be the primary home for this content. So in addition to this being the first place (with the RSS feed) for sharing my weight loss journey, people will also have the option to follow on my new Substack Micro-dosing Failure. I wrote an introduction post to get anyone who hasn’t been following up-to-speed so I can continue these updates without delay.

Reflecting on personal training

I realized I haven’t really shared how personal training has been helping me much. In some ways, this is because it is going so well. I greatly appreciate having the opportunity to work with a knowledgeable friend who has an incredible grasp of body mechanics. In the audio I elaborate more on how I’ve found it helpful.

Trainer for scale, who was kind enough to retake the photo.

Gratitude

I’m recognizing the importance of gratitude for not only the kindness of others, but also your own accomplishments. I think it’s very important to also have gratitude for progress and changes in your own life. I find that I still haven’t really let losing over 90lbs actually ‘sink in’ simply because I have so much further to go.

2025 New Year’s Resolutions

Read more

I had only read two books in 2024. Which while still an improvement over previous years, I’m hoping to reach higher. I want to make reading a regular habit of mine. I want to read more than just what I agree with, but also read to broaden my perspective and learn from others. As part of this, I’m not sure I plan to share the books I’m reading, at least for now. Currently, I have three books started. I think this can help, so that instead of asking myself “Do I want to read now?” I can instead ask “What would I liked to read now?”.

Out-perform month-to-month

Instead of starting out with a new year-end goal, I plan to focus on the smaller scale and just start out working for January to be better than December. If I can successfully lose more weight in January than december I’ll consider that a win worth celebrating. I think at least for the start of the year, a month-to-month pattern of goal setting seems reasonable.

Improve sleep

While my sleepy hygiene is radically better than last year, I still have a long way to go. I still want to work towards waking up and getting to sleep earlier. I’ve found shifting my waking hours more into the daytime quite a boon to my productivity and helps me a great deal.

Meal-prep for myself more

Every time I meal-prep I find the days significantly easier to work with. I find meal-prepping a great investment in reducing ‘decision fatigue’ and eating better. As somebody who still struggles with ‘high-agency tasks’ this is at least a great way to get the most out of an afternoon.