Tag Archives: lifestyle change

December 31, 2025 · 12:28 am

Getting the Lard Off Report Dec. 2025

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Today is New Year’s Eve here in Thailand – time to account for my efforts to lose the lard.

For me, this finally started about two years ago. I had developed lots of health issues, plus my husband was diagnosed with Type II diabetes (he never has admitted this – only says he ‘has a sugar problem‘.) Anyway, it was time for us to try to get serious about changing our ways.

We adopted a low carb diet plan. I got lots of help from Suzanne Ryan, who wrote “Simply Keto” a diet plan with recipes. She also has a blog called, “Keto Karma.”

Last February we got another wake up call – my husband and I both getting Type A Flu, his with pneumonia and mine with bronchitis and low blood oxygen. I went to the ER, died twice Feb. 11th, and was given a second chance at life with a temporary, then permanent pacemaker.

We were too sick to care for each other, so I wrote our son, who lives in
Thailand. He dropped everything, flew 24 hours to get to our home, nursed us back to health and convinced us to sell everything and move to Thailand to be close to him.

We moved to Thailand the last day of March, moving into an air bnb in the same building as our son. Two weeks later my husband had a stroke and is now in a nursing home. I have a condo now in the same building as our son.

I have been using my second chance at life to live it to the fullest, incorporating joy wherever possible. A visit to a doctor here showed blood pressure in the danger zone. I was told to lose weight, exercise, and was put on high blood pressure medication.

REPORT:

To date I have lost 86.6 pounds and 83 inches. I’m in the healthy range on the BMI charts for the first time I can remember. The healthy range for a 5’4″ female is 108-132. I started at 205. I’m at 118.3 this morning. My goal is 115-110, TBD.

I am eating breakfast and dinner, with a coffee or chocolate drink as a snack some afternoons, watching my portions. I’m not as strict on the low carb, being in Thailand where carbs are king, plus “Western food” being more expensive by far.

I am walking a mile on the treadmill at the gym every morning. I used to hang onto the bars for dear life, but now am able to walk without holding on at all. (My brain and body need to be retrained on balance since my experience at the hospital, and my inner ears are still causing problems when I’m walking and turn my head to either side.) I am improving, though, so I’m grateful.

I’m doing old lady yoga stretches one day – along with special exercises suggested by my son, Brian, and the doctor – and I’m trying to do a plank for as long as possible; alternating with arm exercises with water bottles the next day; plus Internet balance exercises daily and dancing like a nut to some great music. (I wear headphones so I don’t bother the neighbors.)

So that’s the report. I’m hopeful that in 2026 I’ll reach my final weight loss goal and can switch to maintenance, plus add to, or modify the exercise program I’m following now to gain stamina, strength, and flexibility.

Onward and downward!

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April 16, 2022 · 9:51 am

Accuracy

The Arbors

A couple of weeks ago at Lunch Bunch, we were having a discussion about habits. I was saying I wanted to build a habit of exercising every day. Bud, Kay’s husband, said he thought that I should be saying “regimen” instead of ‘habit’ because habit could be good or bad and could be broken, while regimen suggested concentration and motivation.

I went home and looked up the words and have to agree. I want to build a REGIMEN on exercising that becomes so ingrained that it’s automatic in my day. I told him yesterday that he was right, and he was pleased. :0)

My REGIMEN is now made up of –

  • A monthly exercise planner provided by Mike of MoreLifeHealth.com consisting of 4 different ‘workouts’ during the month (1a, 1b, 2a, and 2b) warm-ups, stretches, physical activity (I’m doing 10 minutes on my elliptical trainer) etc. in a pattern.
  • Added to this, I’m doing two different videos of his with weights.
  • And then I’m doing half an hour of ‘senior’ (I hate that word) yoga stretches.
  • When the weather is cooperative, I’m doing some work in the yard and in my garden.

I’m eating low-carb, mainly using recipes from Suzanne Ryan’s Simply Keto. These are delicious recipes not requiring weird or hard-to-find ingredients, and don’t take a lot of preparation. I can make double recipes, freezing the leftovers into individual portions. I’m also experimenting with trying to find some recipes for low carb dinner rolls. (I’m trying a new one today.)

My goals are –

  • to make the REGIMEN and low-carb eating NOT diet and exercise programs, since that sounds temporary, but a lifestyle change. I want it to become my way of life to try to stick to 20 carbs or less daily, watch my macros and calories using MyFitnessPal.com
  • I want to get as healthy as possible for my age (advanced, but not in the ground yet :0) ) . I know that getting the lard off and exercising may help me avoid lots of pitfalls, diseases, and more. I want to increase my strength, flexibility, and balance.

I will finish Week 3 tomorrow. Onward and downward!

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November 29, 2018 · 2:34 pm

Getting the Lard Off Progress Report -11/29/2018

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Short answer –

I’ve lost 30.6 pounds and 29.55 inches on Nutrisystem. When you add what I lost on a low-carb emphasis before that, the totals are 43 pounds off and 45.95 inches off.

Longer answer –

We are still on the plateau from Hell, but we’ve been eating homemade beef stew and bread for dinners three nights in a row, so I guess it’s amazing we didn’t GAIN weight this week.

The larger point is that we are AWARE of what we’re eating now. We’re incorporating flex meals (where you eat something other than Nutrisystem meals) into our lifestyle. We’re SUPPOSED to eat ONE flex breakfast, ONE flex lunch, ONE flex dinner, and ONE flex snack per week. We’re going to have to continue doing some changing to be able to eat only ONE meal of beef stew and then freeze the rest for other weeks, rather than simply having a bowl each night until it’s gone.

Other changes noted –

  • I’m ALMOST down another size in jeans. I say, ‘almost,’ because I have four pair of the next size down and I’m only able to get into one of them. (I’ll claim victory when I can get into all of them.)
  • I can again wear a fuzzy brown vest we bought in the Grand Canyon Gift Shop umpteen years ago. I wore it for that winter, but then it has been WAAAAY too small to even get on, much less zip it up, ever since.
  • I am incorporating a bunch of abdominal exercises into my yoga practice every other day. My husband started trying to do sit-ups when I was on vacation. He’s a former Marine, and was able to ‘give me 50″ at the drop of his superior’s hat easily. That was some 55 years ago now, and he was appalled that he couldn’t do ANY. He is now up to about 10. I discovered I was equally challenged, but I’ve been working at it about 6 months longer than he. I’m up to 30 now, plus am doing leg lifts, and whatever you call the exercise where you’re lying on your back and you have your arms folded behind your neck and try to touch opposite elbows and knees while in a sit-up pose. We’re trying to cheer each other on in our efforts.

Most of our progress lately has been in attitude and confidence that we CAN lose the lard and get stronger with persistent effort. We have made a lifestyle change, trying to be aware of what we’re eating, the portion we’re eating, and modifying the rest of the day if we overdo at one meal. We’re consciously trying to move more and gain strength and flexibility. I’m also working on balance stuff, but have a long way to go on that, too. I’ll feel as if I’ve REALLY made progress when the hardest thing is NOT getting up off the floor from my exercising! :0)

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September 10, 2018 · 9:43 am

Encouragement

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I’m feeling encouraged this morning in my weight loss efforts. I had gotten to this ‘decade’ on the scale recently – put my hands up in jubilation – then apparently ate some lead that day because I gained a pound. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks trying to get that off again. Finally, this morning, I got that off and a bit more. Hooray!

Losing weight is always hard. Losing weight when you are age-challenged, as I am, is even harder. Getting the lard off when you are overweight, old, and are happiest when you are sedentary is the hardest.

My husband and I are making progress, though. And we intend to keep it off once we get to our goals. People are starting to notice that we aren’t carrying as much lard as we used to, and that’s really encouraging. The fact that our doctor noticed because of significant improvement in our latest blood work is even more encouraging. She said that, at the rate we’re going, we both may be able to stop taking some prescriptions!

My husband isn’t exercising at all. I would like it if he would do something he enjoys to get some, but I choose my battles. He’s almost in the normal range on his A1C now, after a high of over 16. I’m so happy for him and proud of his efforts.

I am pushing myself to keep moving more each day. Today I’m starting with the elliptical trainer in the garage, and then I’ll either do yoga, the firming exercises from my walking video, or both.

The biggest thing is that we’re changing our lifestyle. We are on Nutrisystem for the second time after a whole lot of years. Their program has improved, not only in better choices of food, but also encouraging us to prepare our own meals or eat out in the real world for one breakfast, one lunch, one dinner, and one snack each week. They call these “Flex Meals.” This has given us the most trouble – since we tend to gain weight with these. The whole point of this, though, is to learn how to cook in a healthy fashion, which foods now fit with our lifestyle, and most of all, portion control in our controlled environment at home and then out in the real world.

An example is that I cooked scrambled eggs for breakfast this morning – our flex breakfast for the week.  Before we changed our lifestyle, we would have eaten 7 or 8 scrambled eggs between us, two pieces of toast and jelly each, some bacon, plus orange juice and coffee. This morning we shared 5 eggs (my share 2, my husband 3). He had sugar-free hot apple cider. I drank a bottle of water with breakfast and am now having a cup of coffee.

We won’t get any prizes for fast weight loss, but we are slowly getting healthier. We feel better as we shed the lard. I am having less pain in my joints and am working on strengthening my core and improving my balance.

One day at a time.

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