u/Consistent-Way-2018

I think they’re just fine. I appreciate you Cronometer team.

The other day, I was weighing out my food for lunch for the day. My teenage daughter saw me and asked, "Are you going to weigh your food forever?" I told her that as of now, my hope is to continue doing so.

I am two years post-op and >95% of the time, I weigh my food. Specifically, if I am eating at home or I am packing food for work, I will weight it out. If we are eating out or are traveling, I don't bring a scale with me, though I still track my estimate in Cronometer. For me, it is an easy habit. I don't feel burdened by it.

This morning, after I got done eating my oatmeal, I was reminded why I continue to weigh my food. After I got done eating my breakfast, I could very easily have eaten quite a bit more oatmeal, mindlessly adding 300-400 more calories. Doing that multiple times per day, would lead to significant excess. So, I continue to measure to keep myself honest.

No doubt there are people who can and do manage to eat without having to monitor their intake; as of now, I am not one of those people.

I run typically run 3 or 4 days per week on the South side. All of my running has been done on the roads and unfortunately, I developed a shin splint. I took a break from running as it heals and I am hoping in the next couple of weeks to slowly get back into it.

Can anyone recommend gentle off-road trails that I could mix in with my runs? I am not looking for highly technical trails, but some that are relatively flat and without a lot of potential hazards (e.g., potholes).

Any advice would be appreciated.

I'm frustrated. I began running with the C25K program last year, but then found out about slow jogging, which has been my primary focus. For the last few months, I haven't really done any speedwork. I have been jogging four times per week, keeping my heart rate low and my cadence high. Unfortunately, I have developed a shin splint in my right leg, so I'm taking a break until I have some recovery. Part of the reason I practiced going slow and taking some regular breaks was hopefully to avoid injury, but here I am. Grr...

Two years ago today, I had a vertical sleeve gastrectomy. I’ve lost half my body weight (340 to 170). I would credit Cronometer as one of the most important tools I’ve used and continue to use. I’ve not missed one day since I started using it. It’s so much better than other tracking apps IMO.

https://preview.redd.it/f6tvfiq7e18h1.jpg?width=2618&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0f5a710219fa443d8122fa3c76e159bbf13b4ab8

Two years ago today, I had a vertical sleeve gastrectomy and it changed my life.

Several months prior, in late 2023, I tearfully expressed to my wife that I was so discouraged by my weight, which has been a struggle for me since my teenage years, but having my first grandchild brought a fresh, painful awareness of how obesity was affecting my life. I had reached 340 pounds (sadly, not my heaviest ever). Getting up and down off the floor was extremely challenging. I always hurt. I was always exhausted. I told my wife that I was considering bariatric surgery and she was entirely supportive.

So I met with a dietitian for 6 months. I met with an exercise consultant. I underwent psychological assessment. Having done all of those things, I was cleared for surgery, which happened 6/18/2024.

That was two years ago today. I have lost an incredible 50% of my overall body weight. I have been mostly stable since last November and I am happy at my current weight.

The mental work continues. When one has been obese for decades, the mind can be slow to adapt. For example, if someone were to ask my current weight my immediate response would be “270” rather than 170.

I am grateful for healthy habits I have continued to develop, beginning to see myself more clearly as an active person rather than as a “big guy.” Still, I am aware that it would be easy to revert to old, unhealthy habits and lose the gains I’ve made, so I persist.

Other than the sleeve itself, my top tools include:

Cronometer—this is a food tracking app. I tried several different apps, but this one is far and away my favorite. I have never missed a day since surgery.

A food scale—I still weigh my food most of the time when I am at home, which is far more accurate than volume measurements.

My Garmin fitness watch—I lam a numbers person, so tracking things like steps and so forth has been both fun and beneficial. I shoot for 80,000 steps a week.

Many people will say they do not want to be tethered to things like tracking calories. That’s fine. I get it. For me, it remains essential to stay aware.

Here’s on to year three.

Next week, I’ll be traveling to a different city and I am wanting to plan a run route when. I am trying to use the Connect app to plan a route before I get there and I cannot figure out how to set the start address. I am not going to scroll through a whole map of the US to try to locate the place we are staying. I assume there must be a way to do it. Can anyone help out here?

Is there a way to search our own diary
Instead of just the database? If not, it is something to consider.

As of this morning—May 31–I have 497,965 steps. My record month was 520,209. I had not had any plans to shoot for a record month, but shoot, I’m only 22,244 short. That would be a big day for me, but I’m not certain if I want to spend the day shooting for it.

As I was walking to work this morning, I began wondering how all of you get to your jobs/work. I am also interested in the distance you need to travel. Over the past few months, I have been walking to my job whenever it is possible to do so, which is about 90-95% of the time. My office is 2.5 miles (about 4Km) from home.

By all measures, I have been incredibly successful with the surgery. I have lost far more weight than I expected. I have changed a number of unhealthy habits, and my identity is—slowly—changing.

One of the things I’ve been aware of, however, is the judgments I make about certain members of my family. My spouse has poor eating habits, though her weight is reasonably in check, helped at least partly by a GLP-1. My 20 year old child is obese and has terrible eating habits—eating habits I handed to them. Multiple times per week, they bring home large boxes of donuts. They eat large amounts of deep fried and fast foods. I am not jealous, nor am I tempted to indulge. But I feel a certain level of disgust.

I recognize this judgmentalism is not about my wife or my kid. This is all about me. I suspect that rather than showing kindness toward them—or my younger self who ate the very same way—I engage in a lot of judgment. I am trying to bring a level of compassion and curiosity, not only to them but to that earlier self who was a compulsive overeater.

I am curious if anyone else has explored their reactions to others in their lives, especially those who reflect traits of their former selves.

Some days I burn a lot of calories; some days notably fewer. I am curious if you adjust base on intake or if you aim for the same target regardless.

Can anyone recommend a book of daily readings that may be helpful on the mindfulness meditation path? Jon Kabat-Zinn’s *Wherever You Go, There You Are* is excellent. I wonder if there are more that you could recommend.

As the title asks, how long do you all keep shoeboxes after initial purchase? Do you keep them through the possible warranty? Do you toss them right away? I have a stack of shoeboxes I probably don’t need. I’m curious to hear your pattern.

Last night, I forgot to charge my watch, so I put it on the charger this morning. I put on my HRM 600 and went for my run leaving my watch at home. It tracked my steps, which I expected that it would do, but it did not auto register as a run or specific activity.

Do any of you know, is there a way to go into Connect and earmark this as a run? Is there anyway I would be able to see my running statistics for this period?