I Was Wary of my Winter Weightloss Wish Working

And it didn’t, but I still succeeded … sort of. As I have explained in prior posts, I was pretty sure I would gain weight over the winter. The key for me was to try and limit that weight gain. By late summer of 2020, I had lost 17 pounds through spring and summer. As soon as cooler weather in early fall arrived and I took our pool down, I almost immediately added back 2 pounds. I went into the winter months of December through February hoping to minimize my weight gain. I wanted to show some progress from 2020 to 2021. It didn’t help that I could not bring myself to go to the health club all winter while a pandemic raged out of control in the US.

I was limited to walking outside, our treadmill, and our elliptical machine. I never got around to setting up a bike on a stationary trainer like I wanted. Mild winter weather allowed me to still walk outside in December and most of January, but then winter hit here with a vengance in February. We had about 3 weeks straight of incessant snow and frigid temps. I was relegated to shoveling/snowblowing outdoors when necessary (which seemed to be daily) and walking/ellipsing indoors. Take a look at how my steps in February shrank for the third month in a row …

I did what I could to just barely stay above that 8,000 steps per day level. But I knew many of the steps were hard-fought pushing a snow shovel or snowblower around outside in the bitter cold. I was hopeful that some of the additional anaerobic work of snow removal offset the drop in the aerobic workouts. I also added in some Tabata workouts.

The good news is that I didn’t gain any more winter weight in February, and I am starting March of 2021 at a weight 12 pounds lighter than March of 2020. For those who eschew math, that means I gained 5 pounds from the end of summer to now. Not bad. I’ll take it. I have no choice. It is literally on me.

Starting down 12 pounds from a year ago, my first goal in spring is to lose those 5 pounds of fall and winter weight gain. I’m walking outside again, and my steps in March are already surging toward 10,000 a day. My goal is to lose those 5 winter weight pounds by June and the start of the summer months. Then, I would like to drop another 7 pounds over the summer. That would bring me to an emaciated, non-jiggly weight heading into fall and winter of 2021.

Besides ramping up my workouts, I am considering intermittent fasting. I have had unacceptable results in the past using similar-sounding plans of intermittent feasting and intermittent fatting. It turns out that a relative lost lots of weight using an intermittent fasting routine of 16 hours fasting and 8 hours of eating. Those hours seem a bit draconian to me. Normal for me is 16 hours of eating and 8 hours of fasting, although I hate to limit myself. I am considering meeting in the middle at 12 hours eating and 12 hours fasting. I guess that’s just common sense to not eat right before bed or while in bed or while sleeping.

So far, March has come in like a lamb, affording me no weather-related excuse to not get outside and get active. Coming in like a lamb, March may go out like a lion, but I’m not lyin’ around waiting for that to happen. I’m going to get active outside while I can and aim to drop a pound in March.