Home Cooking
The downfall of Saumil Kapadia, a 41-year-old banking chief operating officer from Jersey City, was the aroma of his wife’s baking, luring him far too often from his bedroom workspace into the kitchen. Banana bread was a gateway to chips and croissants from neighborhood shops.
Now he’s doing 30-minute sessions with Dare, including running, lunges, squats and push-ups, working toward the day when he can slip into office clothes.
“Going back to work, you’re going to have two sets of people—one who completely transformed and others who have let it go,” Kapadia said via telephone. “I want to be back where I was prior to the pandemic.”
In suburban Atlanta, Carolyn O’Neil, a dietitian, author and onetime CNN correspondent, watched a friend lose 55 pounds by walking when his gym closed. Meanwhile, O’Neil—first to acknowledge that she knows better—went up a dress size and then some.
“The binge TV-watching and the binge eating went hand in hand,” said O’Neil, 65. “You didn’t have to go to the office tomorrow, so you were rebelling against the world with another episode of ‘Ozark.”’
The weight came off when she cut portions and traded wine and cocktails for fruit-infused water. “Passive exercise” is now routine: push-ups in a standing position against a kitchen counter, putting away household items immediately rather than piling them near stairways for later.
“Don’t be hard on yourself and don’t worry about one pound up, one pound down,” she said. “Look at changes that are going in the wrong direction.”
Skipping Meals
Around the country, more than 500 people have joined a free fasting program, via text, from Fairview, Texas-based Tolleson Health Advisors. The approach—including tips and links to 30- to 60-second videos—appeals particularly to those who realized that new weight puts them at risk of early death, according to company founder Shawn Tolleson, a 33-year-old retired pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Texas Rangers.
“I’m not selling you anything,” Tolleson said. “It’s better than free. I’m saving you lots of money on food and increasing your productivity because you’re not forming your day around these three meals that you don’t have to eat.”
Weigel, the Ohio dad who was trapped in his dress shirt, joined a gym after his daughter described him as “long and fat” to a woman at church. “I think she meant ‘tall and strong,”’ Weigel said.
The sauna is bringing relief to his ankles—aching and swollen, he said, from hauling the extra weight. Typically 200 to 210 pounds, he shot up to 240, and since has dropped 6 pounds. An in-person work event is coming up this month, and after that, travel to conferences. He prepared by spending $500 on larger-size clothing.
“I have three dress shirts right now that fit me,” he said. “Two pairs of dress pants.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.