If you’ve been following along, it’s currently my Sleep Health exploration month. I also shared six intentions for 2023, one of them being to start losing weight in a long-lasting way through lifestyle changes.

Getting adequate, restorative sleep is a foundational way to be at a healthy weight. When you sleep, levels of the hormone leptin rise; leptin subdues the feeling of needing to eat. If you deprive yourself of sleep, the hormone ghrelin instead increases, this being the hormone that tells your brain that you’re hungry.

To double down on this, I’m doing Dry January and not drinking. Not only does alcohol negatively affect your sleep, but I tend to binge eat both the night I’m drunk and the next day when I’m hungover.

Without changing anything else, as in no specific new diet, besides cutting out alcohol and committing to 7+ hours a sleep per night, I’m very excited and curious to track my weight loss.

These are my usual eating habits, to level set:

• loosely intermittent, I’ll normally eat my first meal at noon and stop eating by 8
• I naturally, genuinely really love fresh, nutrient-dense vegetables so they’re always a part of my diet — even if accompanied by other garbage choices 😆
• water, water, water all day long
• I’m picky about meat and dairy options (unless I’m in full-on trash panda mode) for health and environmental reasons. I prefer to be plant-based on weekdays, giving myself weekends to search out and enjoy fine, sustainable animal products (or cook them myself!)

Of course, all of these habits easily go out the window if there is free food involved.

Here are my stats as of January 10. I’m 5’7″ and 36 years old. I used my biometric scale and a measuring tape to gather the below. :

Weight	147.8 lbs
Muscle %	33.4%
Fat %	22.4%
Water %	55.8%
Neck circumference	13″
Waist circumference	30″
Hip circumference	40″
Thigh circumference	22″

I collect fat around my stomach and lovehandles first; then you’ll see it in my face, neck, and shoulder/armpit area. 145 lbs is a threshold for me—as soon as I pass it is when I start to feel uncomfortable in my body. My arms can’t hang at rest without bumping annoyingly into my armpit fat at that point, which is where I am now.

I luckily was blessed with good legs so I haven’t had to worry about cellulite and saddle bags. My thighs are going to be the last place where you’ll see noticeable weight loss, but on the flip side, they are the last place to gain weight there in the first place!

I think my heaviest weight ever was 152 lbs. In recent years, like last five, I felt really good at 137. But, I want this to be more about how I feel and look than what’s on the scale.

— CK