Wow, September already! In an effort to keep this thread from growing too large, here is the September version.
You people are probably tired of me reporting this but: Another full week without chocolate in my life. This is truly amazing. I have gone this long before - when I was on Atkins. But the difference for me this time is: NO CRAVINGS. None. I am not even tempted. I have even tempted fate by walking down the candy aisle and checking out the various candies. Nothing leaps out and begs to be tasted.
I saw a video that I had a part in early this summer and I must say, I have definitely lost weight! OK, I know the camera supposedly adds pounds, but there is a big difference.
Khadaji, we are definitely not tired of hearing about this! It’s wonderful!
As for me, I’m down another 3lbs. this week for a total so far of 65lbs. Now that I’ve hit a couple of thrift shops, and gotten “hand-me-downs” from a friend who had WLS several months before me, I finally have several outfits that fit me, and believe me, wearing clothes that fit really makes the loss noticeable! I’d like to lose about another 75lbs. before I start thinking about plastics.
For the first time since I started my new “diet” in July, I *was *tempted with some sweets. I was at the local farmer’s store and saw some pecan bites - little pecan pies about the size of a half dollar. I used to eat them up and almost bought them. But whereas in the past the craving would have been overwhelming, now it was just tempting.
For those who are interested, my success seems to be due to a book called Potatoes not Prozac which links a lot of my adult problems (overweight and chronic depression) to an addiction to sugar. After following the advice in the book I have had no problems giving up Chocolate, Cookies (and the like) and beer. I have also, on its advice, given up diet soda. Unlike other “diets”, this one has not left me feeling wanting. In fact, most of the time when I look at the bad foods I remember how they made me feel afterwards and easily turn away. The only real sugar that I have in my life now is hard candy and I confess I almost always have a piece in my mouth. I put the word *diet *in quotes because I don’t feel like I’m on a diet. As I said, I am rarely even tempted anymore.
I do miss the social aspects of drinking though. The bar was one of the few places outside of work where I intereacted regularly with other adults. I guess the next challange will be to find a new social outlet.
Anyway, I am in danger of becoming an evangelist, so I’ll stop now.
I haven’t posted to this thread in a little while. I was at 190. I am down to 162 but I am getting a little annoyed. I am stuck at 162. I have changed my eating habits (lot of salad) and am still working out three times a week. I have increased weights and the treadmill settings with my workout but I am still stuck. I was dropping ~two pounds a week and now I am just not losing anything. It’s not a huge deal, I am not all that concerned and it isn’t going to effect what I am doing, except maybe to get me to do more, but I really would like to see the scale at 150 something.
I still have too much belly but you can only really see it if my shirt is off so that is something to be happy about.
I kinda hit a stall most of last month–between MIL and SIL visiting (two weeks each, separate visits), I hadn’t worked out much at all, although I’m not having much trouble in the food arena. It seems like excercise makes a huge difference for me. Making adjustments in food intake doesn’t seem to do much of anything, but if I work out, even moderately, I’ll lose drastic chunks of weight in very short periods of time. It’s a big motivator, at least.
And I’m feeling really good about working out–I’m at the point where it feels so much better to do it than to not do it, which is great.
A nurse at work said some really nice things the other day, and asked me how I was doing at it–I said I felt really good, and that I was not quite halfway there. She thinks I’m being facetious, and that I couldn’t possibly lose another 70 and be a normal weight–but according to the BMI, I’d need to lose a total of 175 to be considered a normal weight. That’s 104 left to lose. I am, for all the excess fat, very muscular and strong under it all. My original target was 180, with an eventual goal of 165, which I know is heavy, but I prefer slightly squishy to very lean, and so does my husband. I also remember what I looked like at 145 and it wasn’t nice at all.
How likely is it for the BMI to be off? How possible is it for very, very overweight folks to actually make it to the BMI target and stay there, long term? One thing I’m concerned about is that I have absolutely no concept of what a healthy body looks like, on myself. I have no perception of my own physical self and how much or little space I take up, or what I look like. I feel like I won’t know what a healthy weight looks like, when I get there. Does anyone have any good advice in that vein?
Lastly, and this is wretchedly embarassing, what do you do about all the excess skin? I am bound and determined to never be this heavy again, and one thing I would love, love is to be able to wear tank tops in public, but no way in hell I am ever going to expose my upper arms… and I can’t imagine I’d ever, ever feel comfortable exposing them without cosmetic surgery or something. Does it ever go away?
I am not a nutrition expert or doctor and this is only my opinion.
I believe the BMI is only a good place to start, but is not the end. It does not take into account muscle mass or other factors. I don’t really plan to even look at it.
I feel your pain. I lost over 25 lbs. in 10 weeks (down from over 240 to 215), lost another ten pounds over the next six, and haven’t lost more than 2 lbs. or so since.
Trying to get down to under 190 by year end so I’m still not far off course, but it’s time to call it a “plateau” and change tack.
I fucked up and I’m hating on myself even though I know I shouldn’t.
I’ve been going to the gym when I can, though work commitments and a brief bout of bad tummy left me without for about a week and a half. But my eating’s gone to shit again. I’m back up to 140.8kg as of weighing this morning
I’m so pissed of at myself that I can’t control my own eating. That I don’t get satisfaction from anything but the worst things - fried chicken, chips, crisps, pizza, icecream, chocolate. I start with the best of intentions. Salad, grilled chicken, low-cal sweets for cravings. It goes good for a few weeks. Sometimes up to a month. Then something snaps. Maybe it’s a bad day at work. Or I’m going out over the weekend. I try to salvage myself but by then it just feels like a chore to watch what I’m eating. It’s easier just to eat. Sometimes I feel distressed at the potential that I’m not going to ever be able to relax, food is always something that’s going to control me, so why not just let it do its thing.
I’ve got nobody to blame but myself, and it’s self control and willpower that I’m lacking. I try to take it one day at a time, I try to get back in control and I fail and I hate myself for it. I just want to be eat, it shouldn’t have to be a juggling act all the time. But it is, and I keep dropping my balls.
Two years after I pretty much gave up sugar, I still feel like an evangelist. All my weird cravings and binging stopped. I can walk past a table of pastries and not want one. I feel everyday like a miracle happened to me
I’m not good at this part, I do not know what to write for posts like this.
The best I can say is if you fall off the veggie cart for a day or two, do not berate yourself, just go out and buy lots of healthy snacks and try to grab a carrot instead of a snack cake. Have a Sandwich with a little bit of really good tasty cheese and lots of lettuce, buy lots of low-cal ice pops and don’t sweat eating 3-6 a day. They only have 15 calories and help me more than anything else.
I have boxes of Frozen soft pretzels in the freezer that take 4 minutes to cook in a toaster oven and are better than any bag of potato chip and yet they are low fat and fairly low calorie. Just keep trying and don’t get down on yourself for a slip here or a failure there.
This just strike a chord with me. I could have written this at any point during my 20 years of failed dieting. I could lose a little weight, and give up. If I lost any weight, I would always gain it all back and more weight. I identify very closely what you said about your “best intentions” - salad, grilled chicken, low cal sweets. That’s what I always thought a diet was too. I also ate a lot of “fake foods” - diet this, sugar free that, no fat everything. None of those foods ever satisfied me.
It was punishment, deprivation, nothing that tasted good, something I hated and couldn’t wait for it to be OVER so I could go back to eating nachos and Mint Milanos.
I was always hungry, always miserable - I would always snap too. I used to think I didn’t have any willpower, now I realize I was starving myself because I used to restrict calories so harshly. Of course my body’s will to eat is stronger that my will to restict calories - that is our body’s gift, to keep us alive in a state of deprivation. Did a prehistoric woman gathering roots turn up her nose at a mammoth? Why should I be angry at my body for doing what I would ultimately want it to do if I were truely in a state of deprivation - slowing my metabolism, cannabalizing my muscle and holding onto ever bit of stored fat to keep me alive as long as possible.
Two years ago, I finally had to accept I had terrible eating habits. I finally had to accept I had to change how I ate forever if I really wanted to lose weight and keep it off. I went cold turkey on sugar. I looked at how I ate and made little changes that I could stick with forever (switch to whole wheat pasta, add more vegetables, reduce butter, cut down on booze, eat more protein throughout the day).
Quitting sugar was the biggest thing, it made a huge difference. A lot of weird cravings and bingy tendences disappeared over night. Once my tongue wasn’t numbed by sugar, I was amazed by how delicious good food could taste. Baked sweet potatoes, roasted cherry tomatoes, whole wheat toast with natural peanut butter, greek yogurt with blackberries - so good.
I pack healthy lunches every day - but it’s not a plain salad with a squeeze of lemon, it could be a turkey wrap on a whole wheat tortilla with hummus, red onion and lettuce and tomato. I go to the grocery store 2-3 times a week. I cut up vegetables on Sunday nights and make baggies for snacks at work. I buy produce in season (sad to see cherry season end). I absolutely adore the food I eat now. Before, I only liked big muffins for breakfast, I only wanted pizza for lunch, M&Ms out of the snack machines, venti lattes with whip, fettucini alfredo, piles of buttery garlic toast. Every day, I am amazed that these other foods are JUST as good and satisfying - I don’t miss the other food at all.
I’m not a dietician or nutritionist or a scientist. I can only interpret what happened through the prism of my own experience. I started “dieting” as a chunky feeling 15 year old at 140 lbs. I ended up a 200 lb 35 year old. Dieting made me fat. I always felt like an out of control, no will power loser. Restricting calories, eating food I didn’t like, it usually ended with my head in the bottom of a bag of Lay’s Salt and Vinegar potato chips. Switching to whole foods, switching to eating for my long term health, well, it’s like a miracle happened to me. It’s more work, some social awkwardness when I turn down birthday cake for someone I don’t really know at work, but totally and completely worth it. I lost nearly 70 lbs, 10 inches from my waist, from a tight size 18 to a size 6.
I know I typed so much, I just want to say that your problem may not be willpower, anymore than my problem was willpower. My problem was overly restricting calories, depriving myself and setting myself up for failure - a starving body WILL eat. Ironically, I was only successful losing weight when I started allowing myself to eat. Instead of “eat less, move more” I started “eating less bad foods, eating more good foods, moving more.” I am in radiant good health, blissfully happy, energetic and look awesome in clothes. I wish I could bottle my experience and give it to anyone who’s ever been unhappy with their weight.
Thanks for the words of support, Jim. It helps a lot to know I’m not the only one who has had to go through these things (sometimes it doesn’t help that hubby’s a beanpole. I love him, but god I’m jealous of his metabolism).
Glory, you look great in those after pictures.
I’ve been working on the weight watchers points plan. Which to a degree is about making sure you eat all of the points you’ve got all day, and you keep moving. But I guess it’s still the calorie restriction. Even though I can eat what I want on it, I’ve still got to keep within certain guidelines, to count and to keep an eye on it all. Which is still about control and deprivation, because in the end the goal is to get your points intake down.
Sheesh. I’m late for work. Continue this in a little bit when I get in…
I know a lot of people say moderation is key, keep eating small amounts of the food you love, but I could not do that. I know it sounds crazy to say it, but I really think I was addicted to sugar. If I ate a cookie, the cookie would still be in my mouth, I’d be chewing and I would think “I want another cookie.” If I ate a Hershey’s Kiss, I would want another, then another, then another. If there were pastries, I would want the biggest. I couldn’t share food easily. I binged. I felt terrible. Giving it up changed everything. I have slowly incorporated treats back into my life in safe, small doses (sharing a dessert in a restaurant vs. buying Godiva ice cream for the house, for example) and I seemed to have kicked the sugar beast.
In my 20 years of dieting, I could always LOSE weight, but I could never keep it off. I always always gained it back. This time, I thought about maintenance from day 1 - how I was going to stay slender forever. That meant, for the first time I had to something sustainable, some way of eating that would satisfy me, make me happy and that I could stick with forever. I needed something to help me be healthy, since my 4 grand parents had all died very young (cancer, cancer, diabetes, complications of Alzheimer’s).
For the first time, instead of a goal weight, I concentrated on my long term health. It was a revelation. Before, I would diet, reach a goal weight (or give up somewhere along the way) and quit dieting and return to the unhealthy eating that made me heavy in the first place. This time, there is nothing to stop. My goal is a goal for the rest of my life - long term health. I reached my goal weight in March 2005, but there was nothing to stop, this is just the way I eat now. I still eat all the foods I really loved (red wine, home made dessert, pasta, peanut butter) and I don’t miss the food I didn’t love enough to keep around (fast food, junk food, packaged baked goods). I don’t miss those foods at all.
I did cut calories to lose weight, but I was careful to not cut too many. I didn’t want to cannabalize muscle, I didn’t want to slow down my metabolism. I wanted to have a hot metabolism when I lost weight and I do. I had to find the “sweet spot” where I could eat as much as possible and still lose weight. I actually started at 1200 calories (when I first started, in my old diet mind set) and then increased to 1400-1600. I actually lost the last 15 lbs eating 1800 calories a day. I now maintain around 2000 a day (2200 if I work out). I absolutely do not feel deprived, ever.
But it’s true, for maintenance, it is forever. I use Fitday nearly everyday to track calories to stay at a maintenance level. I try to make good decisions about food everyday (while staying flexible and not beating myself up if life doesn’t go according to my plans). I grocery shop, pack lunches, try to exercise, use the stairs, drink water/tea instead of juice, order the small size instead of the biggest one, eat something every 2 hours to keep from getting hungry and making bad food choices, ask for to go boxes at restaurants as soon as my food comes to box up half, special order like crazy at restaurants. It was the easiest thing and the hardest thing I have ever done.
I’ve been wondering if perhaps I need to look into losing the ‘points’ plan on WW, and look into their ‘nocount’ option. It seems to be more in the line of the whole foods thing I’ve seen people talking about - eat until you’re full, but only on certain ‘nocount’ foods. Things like wholegrain bread, fruit, lettuce, lean meats etc. The propaganda says that it’s more about getting in touch with your hunger signals and controlling them than it is about counting calories and restricting food amounts.
My fear with that sort of thing is that it is still restrictive, in that the craving foods that I have seem to be verboten - cheese, chips, crackers etc. Take away my cheese, and I could happily skin you alive
I’d like to know more about all of this wholefoods stuff. I’ve heard bits and pieces, but what I actually know probably wouldn’t fill a thimble…
I’ve also looked into the book that Khadaji recommended, and I’ve ordered it from an online bookseller over here. Looking into why I eat, what’s going on in my head is probably something I really need to consider as well.
You know, you sound just like my Mom. My Mom had a big problem changing the way she ate and she’d get cravings for all the bad stuff (chocolate, sweets, etc) and never could stick with a food program for any length of time. Then she went on Atkins and she lost the weight and said that she no longer has the cravings she used too. Well, she still wants pasta but that is about it. She gets to eat lots of food you don’t get on most diets, like cheese, and actually enjoys eating.
Anyway, it is just a thought. Note, there are some on this board who hate Atkins with a passion. I’ve seen it work for some people and from what I can tell they lost weight and are way healthier than they used to be. Standard disclaimer, consult a doc.
I sincerely hope it helps you as much as it did me. I really believe it has drastically changed the quality of my life. It is only a piece of the puzzle for me, but a big piece.
Remember, you haven’t failed so long as you haven’t given up.
Well, I pretty much wasted a month’s membership on eDiets. What I have come to realize is that the “exchange diet” concept is so thoroughly engrained in my head that I find recipe-based diets too restrictive.
I did really well with WW points about five-six years ago. Sierra, can you give me the scoop on the difference between the “flex” plan (which I assume is points) and the “core” plan, which sounds like a pretty straightforward exchange diet (one bread, one milk, one fruit, one fat for breakfast, that kind of thing).
I’m thinking of doing WW online. Alas, I cannot STAND the woman who leads the meetings in our area.
