How to keep your weight in check?

I was wondering what are some tricks to keep your weight in check? I’m not talking about the kind of weight when you scale in/scale out either! I looked down at myself today and noticed I’m disappointingly getting a potbelly.

I’m 30 and I have a good metabolism and I’ve never been overweight. With this job I’m doing a sawdust/chip haul since this summer and be ###### if I’m not packing on a few pounds.

I don’t understand why, I’m getting out every hour or so to tarp/untarp. I’m also climbing on the truck to wash it constantly. I’m dropping and picking up trailers all day. Long story short - I have had desk jobs and never been overweight, and I am staying very active considering the type of job this is. What gives?!

 

30 is about right.

You did not lay out exactly what you are eating and drinking in your typicalk working 24 hour period.

Please take a moment and write out the complete intake of food and luids you do every day as of today, That way some of us can generate a situation where some the foods will cause you to become obese in 10 years.

I am not talking about stereotypical overeating and that kind of abusive humor. I am thinking specifically about what you put into your body and what it has to do to process it.

 

In my lunch I generally take a sandwich on white bread, or pb&j. A protein pack, a small bag of chips, a Reese’s or other candy bar, two activia yogurts and 4-5 bottles of water. I usually go for the sandwich at first and then just snack the rest of the day.

The thing is tho, I usually don’t eat the entire lunch and if I do, I normally don’t eat dinner. I know the chips and candy bars are no-no’s, but I’m honestly not eating much differently than I ever had.

I’ve never been inside a truck stop, I’m home daily, and if I stop somewhere to eat, it’s subway. Also as a point of reference I am 6’4” and have always weighed between 150-170. I haven’t even got on the scales to look, but I’m sure over 170.

 

You're getting old!!

I kid of course. But, I had a similar situation. In my 20's I could literally eat anything and not gain an ounce, although I was very active back then. Then 30 hit me like a ton of bricks. Still being as active as I was iny 20's, all I had to do was think about food and I gained weight.

Being in the truck away from home didn't help either, with the poor choices of 'food' available. Fortunately, I landed a local job, which I'm still at 8 years later.

Being a local driver and home daily didn't make a difference though. I still was gaining weight. ( I went from 160 to 215 in about 3 years)

When I hit 215, and had to start buying Xtra large shirts and size 36 jeans, and the doctor yelling at me, I'd had enough. I cleaned out the cupboards at home, got rid of anything that I though wasn't healthy, quit drinking soda and coffee. I ate a lot of salad too.

Just doing that, I lost about 10 pounds in about 3 weeks. Then I hit a local gym in my free time. After 6 months, I was down to 175 from 215. Then I quit going to the gym, because I found it to be boring, and I was really busy working. But I kept a close eye on my weight and what I ate. And then I slowly crept back up to around 200. Then it was back to the gym. I've settled in right around 185, and I feel pretty good.

The biggest thing I've learned is stay active, and really pay attention to what I eat. It gets a bit tougher every year now that I'm in my late 30's.

I've never been a runner, the only running I ever did was to get to the refrigerator. But just two weeks ago, my daughter and I ran a 5k race, my first ever. I did nothing to prepare for it. My daughter joked that she was gonna have to drag me across the finish line. But out of 1395 runners, and starting near the back of the pack, we finished 212 and 213th, with a time of 31:15 So I was pretty happy with that.

If you're still reading this, just stay active, watch your diet, and don't fret over a number on a scale. It really doesn't tell the whole story.

 

Well at 6'4" and 170 you are a touch lighter than I am at 6 foot flat and around 180 give or take 10 depending on ater inake

and there is nothing for me to do with you. At 30 I was very fit at only 6 foot one inchish and around 150 having gained 10 pounds since 20.

Im past 50 and have gained a number of pounds of excess. Call it around 15 pounds.

I was overweight a few years ago as a direct link to excessive pain medicine and the laying around eating eveyrthing. Which was really stupid but understandable when one is in battle with Opiods. I was around 265 or so at my worst. Ex started boiling eggs and making availible a little bit of beef sausage in the morning it would get me going until Dinner. Which wasnt much most of the time. But we were not starving either. big crockpot or two working on Cabbage soup the entire neighborhool and the hydration took care of itself.

I got more active and changed pain doctors back then. Identified new problems with the body tha tneeded surgery to fix. The medicines were covering up the damage epecially as blood systems failed and died, taking nearby bones they supported with it. One could argue I was dying by degrees. And rotting by half.

It took a awful lot of getting squared away. It's after midnight and am working on a small amount of rice for a carb stretch into the late morning before i get rested. I should not have to rush the kitchen to get rest. Working small amounts of quality beef products into the situaton helps as well.,

 

Make a habit out of walking a lot, park in the back of the truck stop, when loading or unloading pace back and forth. Also, eliminate as much sugar from your diet as you can tolerate. Eat hard boiled eggs. Walking is the single best exercise a trucker can do, just do a lot of it. 10000 steps a day is hard to do for a busy driver. 10000 steps is roughly 4.5 miles and takes me about 2 hours and 15 minutes of walking time.

 

There are no truck stops, it’s from the mill to the plant 4-5 times a day. A local dust haul. I’m not saying there is nothing additional I could be doing, but like I was saying in the original post, while I am working I do the most I possibly can and as fast as I can.

I can’t pace when I’m unloading either, I have to stand there and make sure to hit the stop button when then chips start screaming out of the trailer, or if I don’t, they can get caught in the back and I’m blessed with digging them out for an hour+ (which I’m not being paid to do)

 

When you work like a horse and eat everything in the dead of winter... you know that I would not dare eat that much today laying around the house. I would be dead from Obesity like my cousin. My family line has always produced big boys and I am the one runt.

OTOH, the spine is gone, as is the sternum, the ankles are like that of a old woman, the knees are no good for praying finally (They lock in place and you need upper body to get them unfolded) and a couple of other considerations. Right at the mid 50's too, just like my trucking school instructor said. I had another instructor a good one delivering gasoline to my station one night into his late 40's and his back went out stowing hose, that was the end of line for him.

Im actually going to the doctor this week to examine two ribs for pathologial failure. One cracked and the other has a sort of lesion on the bone surface under the skin. The Doc will get some blood and run tests to see what we are dealing with.

No biggie. Just so we know what's what and go from there.

Truckers do not retire. They just run until they are delivered dead or alive. =)

 

Wow, I feel for you, and I hope I don’t end up in that bad of shape personally. I was thinking that this type of trucking job would be ideal for staying in shape. Every hour or so I’m doing fairly intense manual labor for about 10 minutes.

When I first started this haul, I was sweating and out of breath every time I got back in the truck. Now I’m use to it and I normally don’t break a sweat. I figured that, combined with not eating like a pig would keep me in better shape, but I guess I was wrong.

 

Thats the other side of it. When I had my last surgery I could not throw a bowling ball without falling down. And considering Ive been bowling essentially 50 years plus that's humiliating. But Ive relearned how to do it. And got my stamina back for three games like I usually do.

Scoring is not where I want it to be (Avg high 180's) yet, but again am relearning bowling. I am trying to get to the point that I can apply full power to that ball above my shoulder. The doctor yesterday morning in my annual physical (NOT DOT.. that will come later someday) found three things that he wants to shoot Xrays of and figure it out.

One thing I did not mention was bone loss. I have osteoarthritis that is apparently trying to mutate into a form of Rheumatoid Arthritis. Im drinking a lot of milk each week, a gallon or two if not more) and increased my vitamin in take, particularly D and B series which I am chronically short of thanks to the medicines I was taking. B1 in particular.

As long the body can make the necessary repairs during sleep it should improve in Bowling raltively soon. I am not in a hurry. Just need to develop that power until the lane radar says 24 mph for the ball speed. Best I can manage is 18 or so. Thats because I worry that the one foot will not be planted and go out from under me.

I may have to accept that limitation as a result of that surgery last year. Fighting back physically has been a journey for me, a good one.

No one needs to feel bad or anything about me. I am getting to do what I want to do in life and fixing what is possible to fix. If I can see it a problem before it really IS a problem. Drive my Doctors crazy and make them crack jokes about Menhaucins by Proxy (Spelling?) and conspire to commit me.

I actually liked being early 30's in life. The wife did too. We were a pair of ugly ducklings that needed some time to evolve in the back of that trailer throwing boxes down to the dock twice a day and drive another 1000 miles to deliver the next one the following day.

What I will NOT do is be 80 and warehoused in a nursing home. That's simply never going to happen. What would I do about it? Ask me again when I hit 79. IF I ever stick around that long.