I turned 40 years old at the height of COVID. Even after the lockdowns ended, a more sedentary lifestyle remained, and it was like my metabolism slowed down and kept slowing down after I hit that big 4-0. In four years, I gained an astonishing forty pounds. :oops:  I had become such a hermit in the past few years that I was able to keep the weight gain from most of the world. But I was ashamed, and I hated myself. You can see in pictures from our trip to New Orleans that I was trying to hide (and I was "only" 30lbs overweight then). It wasn't like I didn't know I was gaining weight during this time. And it wasn't like I wasn't trying...