"Help! I've become ... fluffy" ☁️ ☁️ ☁️
Image: Portrait of a Woman with a Squirrel, Francesco Montemezzano (attributed to), 1565 - 1575, Rijksmuseum. Used with permission.
Hello, friends! So glad you're here. This week, another reader question. From JM:
. . . heard of you through MDK - which I love so much . . .
My eating frustrations are that, now that I'm 67, I am eating WAY less than when I was younger, like pre 60 I would say, but the weight just s-l-o-w-l-y creeps on. I know this is part of aging and that is okay, but I am size 12 and don't want to be heavier than that. I don't want to be skinny, just healthy. I am 5'4" and now over 150 and am carrying enough in my middle that i overly feel it tying my shoes. Weighing 140 is reasonable. I swim once a week, go to yoga 4 times a week, run with my dog doing agility and am very active during the day. It does not agree with me to have anything much in my stomach until my exercise is over, about 11a.m. So I do not have a regular breakfast. I am vegetarian. I am a carb and dairy lover. I need to eat more fruits and veggies more regularly. I do have things like yogurt and nuts and grains. This is longer than intended . . . SHORT VERSION: helpful hints for older women to get rid of "fluffy fat"
THANKS - so looking forward to this addition to my day/life/joy/etc. << Thank YOU, JM!
Here's the TL;DR
The situation
Eating less and weighing more over a lifetime.
Plenty of moderate activity.
Carb and dairy lover. Not enough fruits and veg.
Want less "fluffy" fat.
The solution
Create a calorie deficit. START SMALL. The End.
The details
We think we're eating less than we did in our youth, but it's hard to recall what we had for dinner two nights ago. General ideas based on a few scattered memories just don't provide the kind of data we'd need to make a comparison.
Anyway, does it matter? We're here today.
Let's figure out what we're eating right now. Maybe it's less than we used to, maybe it's ... not, really. As Adam Savage says, the difference between science and [not being serious] is writing it down.
So I suggest a short-term food diary, because I always think that no matter how bad the news is, it's better than not knowing and letting things get worse.
Many people dislike the idea of food diaries because they feel they're being patrolled and possibly punished. Ugh, NO! You're just gathering intel. It's like a James Bond communication: For Your Eyes Only. No need to modify your diet, either--not before you've seen what's happening.
You can think of it as an awareness practice, if you like <- that always helps me be a neutral observer.
Once you have a week's worth of honest data, then you can decide which knobs to turn. Pick a couple actions that are 1. easy and 2. effective.
For example, it might be easy for you to do a longer yoga class once a week, but it's unlikely to move the needle.
It would be effective for you to give up all simple carbs, but for most of us it would simply be too hard. Not worth it = not willing = too hard = forget it. Not a solution.
You've already identified a need for more fruits and vegetables. Adding one a day might be a good start. Maybe eliminating a simple carb you don't care about all that much would be another. You don't need to create a Michael-Phelps-workout-sized* calorie deficit. Just experiment with starting small.
Just try something you're actually willing to do, keep it up, and see what happens. Either your actions won't be effective, and you'll have to experiment with something else, or they will be effective, and you'll like the result, and you'll want to go further.
Let me know what happens!
*this can be between 3,000 and 10,000 calories a day for Olympian swimmers. Us regular folk don't achieve that kind of burn rate going to yoga and the dog park, but it's still a good idea to work out, obviously.