I put my wife and I on calorie deficits
We are now a lesbian household without cookies.
Not that you can't have cookies on a calorie deficit; you absolutely can if you plan on banking about 300+ calories for that coffee shop cookie or about 150, give or take, for a home-baked cookie.
Sadly, this includes my favourite low-carb cookies, which I would enjoy on Sunday afternoon.
She is post-menopausal and needs to lose about 40 lbs that she's accumulated over the last five or six years, and I, with my PCOS and hypothyroidism, need to lose about 100lbs, the last 40 of it picked up since 2021 when my thyroid started to go on strike hard. We were already good eaters in terms of our food choices and preparation, but after keeping food journals, we both discovered that we are subsisting on anywhere from 800 to 1200 calories each day. So now she has to eat 1500 calories each day, and I have to eat 1900 calories.
We are used to not eating, and this is really weird for both of us. I am finding it really difficult to process that eating more is going to help me to lose weight. Right now, I just walk around feeling stuffed and full of food. Because of my hypothyroidism and PCOS, I am used to not being hungry when I get up. In fact, I'm not normally hungry until lunchtime. So every day this week I have been making myself eat at 7:30 a.m., and it is just... ick, but I made a deal with my nutritionist that I would commit to a half a cup of muesli with almond milk every morning. She tells me that at some point in the next week or so I will start waking up hungry, but it hasn't happened yet.
I actually exercise every day, although most people don't think so looking at me. I walk about 4-5 miles on the track three days each week, walk around the neighbourhood on the other days, do yoga, and I have picked up my kettlebells again. My wife doesn't do nearly as much, and I'm not sure how to motivate her to do more. She doesn't want us to become "workout twins", so I guess she'll figure it out when she's ready. Before my immune system and hormones decided that they hated me, I was getting ready to get certified so I could become a kettlebell trainer back in 2012, so I know what I should be doing. Right now it is a matter of making myself do it. I've actually thought about doing the certification training while I am on this fitness journey, but honestly, I don't know who would want to take lessons from a fat trainer.
There is a part of me that is worried about eating more when everything I have ever been told by the doctors revolves around eating so much less. Eating this much food feels indulgent and greedy, even if it is good for me.
That's all I've got right for you right now! I'll write more about what we're up to another day.