A waist is a terrible thing to mind
Says it all, for the pandemic one-year anniversary:
B., to whom I sent this, graciously replied that my jeans would stretch. I did the old high school recline-and-exhale move; I got them zipped but could not sit up. These are new jeans (now past a return date), and dammit, I had bought two pairs!
Susan said, "Stick them in the back of your closet for when you lose weight", but I don't do that. My weight has remained stable since the pandemic began, so I suspect this shift is loss of muscle mass, probably due to quitting weight training when my gym closed for good last March.
Le Duc biked the jeans to a donation centre while I did three things:
1. Took out a tape measure: same bust and hip measurements I've had for years; waist, one and a half inches more.
2. Reunited with my copy of the e-book "How to Watch TV and Get Fit", a little gem that trimmed inches off in winter of 2017. "Watch TV" in the title only means that you can chunk the exercises into four or five-minute segments if you wish; I did a fifteen or twenty minute routine three to four times a week, in addition to my usual walking or cycling.
3. Looked for strength training/no weights required videos on YouTube and bookmarked a batch. I have a resistance band, but otherwise will use my own body weight.
This is not wholly about vanity; muscle mass is essential to maintaining strength, stamina, balance and metabolism. Building muscle also boosts bone density and reduces risk of osteoporosis. (Source, which provides some cool info.)
I should have kept a pair of the jeans to see if they'd fit after a couple of months, but there's always the tape.
Has anyone else had similar body shifts? We hear a great deal about pandemic weight gain—I'm wondering about other fitness wobbles as well.
Comments
Weekly pilates, ballet and daily dog walks help keep me mobile and somewhat cheerful but it’s a hard slog some days. We’ve had another blast of winter here and I am so not wanting to walk and be cold.
Good luck with your exercises.
Jane: my downfall is bread and our farmers’ market has many tempting items, too many!
I was losing muscle as well as I could not go to the my fitness club which has been part of my morning routine in retirement. I have osteoporosis so that has been motivating me to keep going with some sort of fitness routine at home. I am doing lots of planks - they help keep my middle section strong and hopefully trimmed down.
Luckily my pilates instructor/guru switched to Zoom so I do three classes a week with mat work and therabands substituting for the machines. Seems to work pretty well. I try to walk most days although chronic pain and tightness prevent me from doing so with the vigour I would like.
Spring is definitely on the way here so that's very encouraging!
I think you are too hard on yourself.
I am not walking as much as usual since I've been working remotely. Strangely though, I've lost quite a bit of weight. e
Essentrics-- & I don't work for them-- cured me of chronic sports injuries in 23 minutes a day, and though it's not my particular problem, I've heard from others that it also works to lose a pants size without eating less.
I don’t diet, don’t restrict calories but I intermittent fast ( for almost two years) and my weight/waist went down since last year. It’s not for everyone but it works for me.
But then London was put into lock down again, and in November it was announced that there would be no household mixing at Christmas. I felt so low about this that I ate far too much (cake!), did not do as much exercise as usual, and managed to put all the lost weight back on. So now things feel tight again...
Now that the winter is gone, I have no excuse to let this weight stick around. I do daily core exercises to keep up muscle strength (primarily to benefit my back) but that does nothing to address the extra padding on top of the muscles.
I know that the theory of losing the weight is pretty simple - the Dolly Parton method normally works for me. As she put it: "I just got my nose out of the trough". But, though simple, it doesn't feel so easy at the moment.
Jane in London
I've done practically all of movement regimes going in the course of over 45 years, and I'll bet many of you have too, from Body Design by Gilda, the very earliest Pilates; professional dance classes and the fun stuff from jazzercise to Zumba; more yoga than you could shake a mat at, you name it. And the upshot of this is, now I have to do more at home. The best program is •the one I will do• until I can get back in the studio.
LauraJ: I find Frank's classes pricey (though I loved him as a teacher when I lived in TO). I can see though how a student would want to support him through these times, and when you have a teacher of that calibre, you don't want to change.
Jane M: The key world is "routine"!
E. (posting as Tom): As a frugal sister, you know how much donating two new pairs of good jeans galls! It's not so much vanity as economy ;)
CassandraBeth: Three pounds is an entirely normal fluctuation. I don't obsess about my weight but dammit, those jeans.
Ms. Liz: I'm not above boasting that I have not missed one day walking at least 75 minutes, since last March 9. And I need to add some of your other resources!
Royleen: I am glad that your condition was discovered. Slow and steady is smart, we can build strength with even 15 min/day.