Pandemic Weight Gain..another hurdle.

No one is really talking about it but we all or most of us all have mirrors.   This is a real thing.  First of all quit beating yourself up.  One day at a time.  

Most of us gain weight during the holidays despite any unusual problems BUT if you add the stress we have all been under, excuse or not, we have gained weight.  If you haven’t, consider yourself blessed and lucky.

I looked at my Christmas pics and said, Oh Good Lord.  This is ridiculous.  I read on Web MD that the majority of Americans before Christmas had put on 8 to 10 extra lbs.  Average weight gain during the pandemic is 12 extra lbs.

Forget the New Years resolution, it won’t work this year.  This has to be a real  deliberate, set your mind thing.  I never found resolutions to work all that well.  

This is extremely difficult for some of us who have hormonal issues such as Graves disease, a thyroid condition  that speeds the metabolism BUT you have to take pills or have thyroid procedures  which puts weight on you, either way.  Hashimoto, another thyroid disorder is a weight gainer.

Why?  You ask why that extra 5, 10, 15 lbs?

Well, for one thing, we are stressed. which releases a hormone that packs on fat.

Another thing is we are sleeping too much or too less.

We are not  cooking correctly or using take out.

We are not going anywhere.

We sit or sleep and not moving as much.  I DO NOT PROMOTE THE GYM.  

Add worry, eating comfort food, feeling depressed and sleeping too much or too light and not moving as much and we have a problem with weight.

We are going to have to motivate ourselves to stop this.   We may be masking, and keeping distance but we are harming ourselves in other ways and I told myself. “ This has to stop”.   A lot of Comfort food...out.  

Move instead of napping so much.   Some of us are having extra pains and some of that I believe is from carrying around extra weight AND stress.

You have heard over and over, “ You are not alone”.  That includes pound packing as well.  You are not alone.  

2020 has been one heck of hard year but the effects of 2020 will be carried right over into 2021.  We may not can do too much about the pandemic but we can try and motivate ourselves to make a conscious effort to those who are not, to get out of the housecoats and do some constructive stuff.  It is real easy to stay on the puter, in front of the TV, or fret.   We have cleaned, painted, reorganized for 9 months and for the past 2, we have literally kind of put ourself in robot mode.

Let’s get our anger, emotions, and hurt in check.  Let’s look inside and I have finally come to the conclusion, there are some things I just can’t control.  I can’t help people fall out of the cult.  I can’t worry so much.  The serenity prayer is what I have been thinking of here lately.  We have lost money, friends, family and it is taking a toll on us.  Let’s just try and stop.  At 70, things get pretty depressing anyway because I feel one gets a little more emotional as years and people pass.

This pandemic is really hitting us in the gut, in more ways than one.

www.muhealth.org/…

If you’ve packed on pounds since March, know that you’re not alone. In a poll of more than 1,000 WebMD readers, nearly half of the women and almost one-quarter of the men said they’d gained weight “due to COVID restrictions.”

I have put on about 10 lbs.  Not good with high blood pressure.

I wish I had some answers that were easy.  None of us can afford Jenny Craig.  Some of us cannot afford to even eat balanced meals.   We all throw ourselves toward some donuts and pies or bread.

If nothing else motivates you...Let us use this as an inspiration and try our best to take care of ourselves and pay attention to that scale that we dread.

I am sure gonna try because I hate this sluggish, overwight feeling.   We have enough to depress us.  

If we lose a lb a week, we will notice a chance, I surely believe.

Don’t feel alone.  We are all in this boat. It is just that we are requiring bigger seats and we need to throw some weight overboard.  It won’t be easy.  We don’t have to starve ourselves.  We just have to be a little more disciplined.  We won’t run marathons or even walk more at first.  We need some motivation and music is a great motivator.

My husband has told me over and over, action proceeds the feeling.  You have to get up and do things before you feel like it.  As a PTSD expert and he is, I think he knows a little about managing stress as best he can and mindfulness even if it is ongoing and taken him years of therapy,   It is never ending.   I am trying to make things at home as normal as I can before the  pandemic without exposing myself to this virus.   It is hard and heartbreaking, especially when you are surrounded by people who live in alternate realities and are causing you so much stress.  This is another hurdle we have to pass.   

I think the folks in the south are really overdoing it with the gravy and potatoes and homemade biscuits smothered in honey and jellies.  I know this household is.  

Sooooooooooooooooooooo easy not to be mindful.    I have come to the realization that I can’t change people’s behavior, even those I love so I have to do the best I can and hope for the best and try to stop the anger which is hard.