I’m so proud of everyone’s weight loss and of John T. Conklin for all of the long bike rides he’s done as well. Woohoo! And way to go, tdn!
Well, I started out in January with a non-special diet, just calorie restricted to 2000 or less a day (preferably no more than 1600.) That went until about the end of March, when I was sick of a month-long plateau (man, that’s a hard word to spell–can I call it a mesa instead?) and switched to a low-carbohydrate diet. I’ve stuck on that, more or less, since and am right on plan at the moment with 55 pounds lost in 5 months. (No, I’m not giving any hard numbers.)
It seems to be working, though I really need to get more exercise and this thing where the scale shows weight gain during the week and then plummets like crazy on the weekend is driving me nuts.
Oh, shut up. I mean… Thank you! 
I don’t know what it is about Fridays vs Wednesdays, but my weight on Fridays always seems to be less. I was going to post my Wednesday weight, but I was unhappy with the gain of yet another 0.4. When in doubt, weigh yourself another day and pick the most flattering! 
So what’s the deal with smoking? I love my friends in this thread, but I also love the receptionist in the nutrition center at the hospital. She’s always ready with encouragement and advice, I used to see her in the smoking room, but then she suddenly disappeared. And then they took the room away. Bastards!
Anyway, while I don’t consider her to be a terribly attractive woman, I’ve always admired her weight. Until recently. She looks a bit… thicker. As it turns out, she gained 5 pounds after quitting smoking, and she can’t seem to take it off.
That disturbs me. I know I need to quit, but is there a conflict of interest between that and losing weight? I really don’t want to fight a losing war on two fronts. If I quit smoking now, will I balloon up to 300 in a few months, despite my sweat and rabbit food?
To the best of my knowledge, quitting smoking doesn’t mess up your metabolism or anything. I think that when people gain weight after smoking cessation, it’s because eating gives their mouths something to do besides smoking. Of course, you could chew on a flavored toothpick, some sugar free gum, etc. But of course, smoking engages your hands, too, and gum and toothpicks don’t address that.
So, if I were you, I think I’d map out a strategy of what to do with my hands and my mouth before quitting. Do you have any hobbies that keep your hands busy? Or perhaps you could occupy your mouth and your hands with ‘negative calorie’ foods? These are foods that take more calories to digest than the foods contain. Celery is one of them. ISTR that just about all the salad greens fall into that category.
I suppose I could get a girlfriend, but that just ain’t happening right now. And sex just encourages smoking. And eating. But I’m trying to become an artist. That engages my hands a good deal.
I googled on “smoking weight gain”, and came up with this as the first hit. As it turns out, heavy smoking burns about 200 calories per day.
HA! I beat you, brick wall!
Lost 5.2 pounds this week!
tdn, that’s really interesting about smoking burning calories. My best friend and former roommate is a heavy, heavy smoker, and he’s absolutely stick thin - but when he’s tried to quit, he gains enough so that he weighs more than 110 soaking wet.
I don’t have any tips on quitting, although I’ll second the hobbies thing. I took up quilting when I went through a treatment program for prescription painkillers, and I really do think it helped a lot. I kept my hands busy so that I wasn’t just sitting around thinking about how much I was dying for a pill. Maybe try to learn a new form of art that you’re interested in?
Had my weigh in this morning, and I was down 2.2 lbs. So I’m now at 187.2, with 59.2 lbs to go total. Somehow, that doesn’t sound as daunting as the original 70 lbs I started with.
Jayjay, great job!
(I missed the damn edit window…)
You beat it into submission hun! I am so proud of you!
I had another nice loss this week too. I lost 3.8 lbs for a total of 79 lbs so far. I am now down to 304 lbs, and am looking forward to getting down into the 200’s in a few weeks.
I don’t think that I have been down in the 200’s since the early nineties!
Yay to both supervenusfreak and **JayJay! ** Give each other a big, celebratory hug!
I’ve realized that the last few months, I lose a lot of weight during the first two weeks and then stagnate the last two. This month is starting out like that too but I sure hope it doesn’t have the same ending.
60 minutes today. OK, I broke it into two 30 minute periods, but that is still 60.
The downside of my master plan is: If I get half way through a movie and find that I’m bored, I’m right in the middle of a boring movie. 
You’re really sticking to it, though. I’m proud of you, Khadaji!
Those elliptical machines intimidate me because they’re so big and I’m so short. I feel like the height difference of the pedals would be too much for me and would probably strain more muscles than strengthen. Are any of you short (I’m five feet even) and have had any experience with these?
OK, check this out.
I was down in the basement doing wash. When I was sick, some friends came and cleaned my house and unpacked a bunch of boxes. Some of the boxes unpacked were clothing that I had “grown” out of. On a whim, I put on an X-large T-shirt. Not only can I wear it comfortably, it is actually loose on me! I actually took it off to make sure that it did indeed say X-Large.
This from a man who has many many triple-X shirts and even some 4-X shirts in his closet. This from a man who, in 2003 wore dress shirts with size 22 necks (those were a little large, but I could only find sizes 20 and 22, no 21s.)
If I can find a large, I’m trying it on!
Woohoo! Way to go, Khadaji!
Starting weight was 208; weighed myself last week, and found that I was 209.4 lbs. Must be the premenstrual water weight. I hope.
Did a 40 minute yoga session today and feel a bit better about it. Goal for tomorrow is to do 30-40 minutes of cardio followed by a bit of weightlifting. I also need to sign up to see a trainer at the fitness center.
No loss, but just got back from the doctor and I was right–my DHEA-S level has crept out of the normal range. This usually means I don’t lose weight. A couple of weeks of treatment and I should be on target again.
Right now, I’m on the kidney stone/kidney infection weight loss plan, which is like this:
Morning: Large glass of Crystal Light, morning vitamins, as much Percocet as I’m allowed, and as much protein as I can force myself to eat.
Afternoon: More Crystal Light, more vitamins, more Percocet, antibiotics, maybe a little more protein.
Late afternoon: More Crystal Light, more Percocet. . .are you seeing a pattern, here?
My “exercise” is getting the child-proof cap off the pill bottle! Once I’ve accomplished that, I need a little nappy.
Sorry for your pain Norinew that really sounds like a world class bummer. Hope you feel better soon.
I’m having trouble keeping my eating habits in line because of my schedule. We’re hungry at midnight when we get home from the gig so we have a little snack and then go to bed. I’m sure that’s not helping.
So I still weigh 171.5 which has been my weight for like a month or more.
And I’m not sleeping enough which I know will hamper my weight loss efforts. Not sleeping also makes me mildly depressed. Not sad really, just not as optimistic as usual and more prone to worrying. I really need a nap.
tdn My husband and I quit smoking 2.5 years ago. I gained about 7 lbs to my highest weight ever (185) but managed to eventually lose that. The health benefits from quitting smoking are well worth the possibility that you’ll gain and I think that if you stick to your diet and exercise regime you won’t find that to be true.
Think of it this way, if you quit smoking now you can be a quitter and a loser at the same time.
As someone said upthread (please forgive me for not scrolling back to see who said it), the fact that there are so many other people out there trying (and succeeding) to loose weight makes it easier to realize that a) you’re not alone b) it is possible to succeed and c) we all have our ups and downs.
I’m still not weighing myself…I’m just going on clothing fit and how I feel. Right now all my clothes that were tight are either loose, or fitting correctly. I did try on my next size down jeans but they were a bit too tight.
Last week wasn’t a good one for me for either exercise or diet. My wife gave birth to our second child, so between munching on crap while sitting around the hospital and not being able to get my running done, I have no doubt that it wasn’t so good. I did notice that I ate less junk food than I used to. Instead of polishing off a huge back of BBQ Fritos in one sitting for instance, one small bag lasted me 3 days.
I’m back on track this week and my running is really starting to get back to acceptable levels. I did 3.5 miles yesterday in a little over 36 minutes. My goal is to get my daily runs up to 4 miles, then really work on decreasing the time. I’m adding in a day this week, so I’ll be running 5 days out of 7 now. Once I get comfortable with 4 miles, I’ll add the long run back in on Sunday.
Some amazing people in this thread really dedicated to changing themselves for the better. I may not post as often, but I read this thread just about daily.
One of the guys who used to work for me and has now moved was in town over the weekend and wanted to go out last night. I went and had a few beers - totally messing up my calorie count.
However, I do not regret doing so. Life is still for living and one still needs to sometimes have fun.
I guess I’ll have to work harder now!