When I came across this meme early in the lockdown, I saved it to my phone. My name is Debbie and I’ve struggled with disordered eating for most of my life, so naturally I assumed I’d want to make a joke about my weight gain at some point. Oddly, I’ve been fine. I’d been doing Weight Watchers before coronavirus hit, and I’ve just kept going. I’ve lost six pounds since this all started. I can’t tell you how extremely unusual this is for me—I’m the queen of emotional eating. I really can’t explain it.
Now I’m working on a piece for WebMD about the “quarantine 15,” since it seems a lot of people are struggling the way I expected to. My son, for example, is eating non-stop, as far as I can tell mostly out of boredom. Not all junk food, either—there’s plenty of fruit and popcorn. He just seems to need to eat. Which I totally understand.
I also had a lifetime of disordered eating but went low carb about six months before this. It was life changing, and amazingly I’ve stuck to it. I’ve also been working out almost daily instead of once a week. I wonder if it has something to do with keeping control over this one area in life when everything else seems so chaotic.
I started Noom just before the quarantine, and have lost about 6 lbs in 12 weeks. The ability to have total control over the food options available to me is probably the key - there are no longer the temptations of cupcakes in the break room at work, or even healthy but not-portion-controlled lunches brought in for meetings. The drawback, of course, is that what I do have is always available in the kitchen just a few feet away, and the feeling that I "need" or "deserve" a delicious treat is more prevalent in this crazy time. Still, having a piece of chocolate after lunch and dinner is probably better a better choice (for me) than eating an entire chocolate cupcake just because it's there. And I'm getting a little more exercise, because I'm not commuting.
My eating for the last 79 days has been awful, no schedule/laid off of my job, feeling depressed and just mindless eating and without the gym being open, honestly I'm not motivated to work out. Last week I hit "rock bottom" Just beyond disgusted with myself and the way my clothes are fitting, I got on that scale and found I put on 10 pounds, not good. So I bought a fitness app to get my butt motivated and back on tract and today June 1st I started two challenges, first up is Sugar Free 3 (21 days of no sugar, no processed food, just clean eating and I know exactly what to eat and can change it out if I don't like the suggestions via the app, it tracts everything for me, a no brainer) and the Second one is the 21 day Amped up Workout challenge which I started this morning with a 3 mile run followed by a 40 minute Barre class, which this is how I normally work out when my club is open. It is interesting, I know exactly what to do, I've lost 60 pounds and have kept it off for years, but this quarantine just killed me.
Yesterday after 68 days I got to the "I need raw frozen chocolate cookie dough" portion of quarantine. Two squares and glass of milk. But generally, doing okay. I weigh the same as when this all started which is too much but I'm doing alright. Today I did some wimpy burpees. Trying to do 30 throughout the day.
I also started Noom a little before this, and initially had success for the first few weeks of quarantine. Then I hurt my back, and started eating all the comfort food I was making for my kids, drinking more to deal with the frustration, and couldn’t exercise. I undid the hard work of the initial few weeks and I’m now basically holding steady. A lot of my personal distraction has come with cooking projects, None of which are good for the calorie count!
I also had a lifetime of disordered eating but went low carb about six months before this. It was life changing, and amazingly I’ve stuck to it. I’ve also been working out almost daily instead of once a week. I wonder if it has something to do with keeping control over this one area in life when everything else seems so chaotic.
I started Noom just before the quarantine, and have lost about 6 lbs in 12 weeks. The ability to have total control over the food options available to me is probably the key - there are no longer the temptations of cupcakes in the break room at work, or even healthy but not-portion-controlled lunches brought in for meetings. The drawback, of course, is that what I do have is always available in the kitchen just a few feet away, and the feeling that I "need" or "deserve" a delicious treat is more prevalent in this crazy time. Still, having a piece of chocolate after lunch and dinner is probably better a better choice (for me) than eating an entire chocolate cupcake just because it's there. And I'm getting a little more exercise, because I'm not commuting.
My eating for the last 79 days has been awful, no schedule/laid off of my job, feeling depressed and just mindless eating and without the gym being open, honestly I'm not motivated to work out. Last week I hit "rock bottom" Just beyond disgusted with myself and the way my clothes are fitting, I got on that scale and found I put on 10 pounds, not good. So I bought a fitness app to get my butt motivated and back on tract and today June 1st I started two challenges, first up is Sugar Free 3 (21 days of no sugar, no processed food, just clean eating and I know exactly what to eat and can change it out if I don't like the suggestions via the app, it tracts everything for me, a no brainer) and the Second one is the 21 day Amped up Workout challenge which I started this morning with a 3 mile run followed by a 40 minute Barre class, which this is how I normally work out when my club is open. It is interesting, I know exactly what to do, I've lost 60 pounds and have kept it off for years, but this quarantine just killed me.
Yesterday after 68 days I got to the "I need raw frozen chocolate cookie dough" portion of quarantine. Two squares and glass of milk. But generally, doing okay. I weigh the same as when this all started which is too much but I'm doing alright. Today I did some wimpy burpees. Trying to do 30 throughout the day.
I also started Noom a little before this, and initially had success for the first few weeks of quarantine. Then I hurt my back, and started eating all the comfort food I was making for my kids, drinking more to deal with the frustration, and couldn’t exercise. I undid the hard work of the initial few weeks and I’m now basically holding steady. A lot of my personal distraction has come with cooking projects, None of which are good for the calorie count!