How to lose weight when I hate everything associated with it?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
82

I HATE exercising. But I do it everyday. Now it’s just part of my routine. And, for me, that is the biggest reason I do it.

See, I commute into the city everyday. Generally, the later in the morning that I leave, the worse traffic is. So I leave real early. And I get to work real early. Fortunately, work has a fitness center where I can get in a good 45 minute workout before my day even begins.

I dread it every morning on the drive in. I keep telling myself that if it gets too hard, I’ll ease back and maybe only do half the workout. But I always finish the entire workout at nearly 100% intensity. Just out of sheer stubbornness, I suppose.

But the formula for weight loss is extremely easy. Take in less Calories in than you put out and you lose weight.

My biggest change was losing the sugary drinks. I use splenda in my coffee, and drink tea instead of pop (soda to you non-midwesterners). I also forced myself to reduce portion size. I’ll tell you, I was hungry for those first couple of weeks. But I got over it. Now I can feel overly full on only 2/3 of what I used to eat.

Back in May I was 327 pounds. This morning I weighed myself at 296. That’s a 30 pound loss in about 6 months. About a pound a week. Not fast, but progress is progress. I plan to keep it up. Everything I put in my mouth gets evaluated against losing a pound for that week.

It’s really an easy goal, too. If you’re maintaining your weight, just cut out a few calories here and there and the weight starts to drop. You don’t have to really deprive yourself either. I still eat cake and candy, just not as much as I used to. When that small piece of cake doesn’t quite cut it, I tell myself,“I already ate cake, I can have more tomorrow.” Some times I do, most of the time I don’t. But it helps fight the desire for more.

I am a software engineer, so my job is either sitting in front of a computer or in a conference room. So don’t go thinking that my job is physical and helping me lose weight.

83

Congrats! That’s great progress. Keep it up. I like how you are focused on the goal. You want your goal, so you do what’s necessary even if it may not be enjoyable.

To many people give up on exercise because exercise itself is not fun. They lose sight of the actual goal, which is to be healthy. You may or may not enjoy exercise in the same way that you may or may not enjoy homework or practicing the piano, but it’s a necessary step to being healthy.

And the cool thing about exercise is, you get the benefit even if you didn’t enjoy it! Sure, the treadmill was boring, but you still lost some calories, made your muscles stronger, gave your heart a workout, and reduced your risk for several health conditions.

Exercise comes in many different forms. If you truly hate one form, try another. You may find one that is actually fun it its own right. I highly recommend beginners try group classes. They provide guided instruction to help make sure you do it properly and you’ll probably exercise harder than if you were on your own. A class like Zumba (an easy form of Latin dance) is pretty fun and you’ll get a great workout. Or maybe yoga, or spin class, or whatever. Try them all and see what you like.

84

I’m not convinced we do disagree. I meant that it’s important to reduce wasteful calories from sources like soda and the various heavily processed salt/sugar bombs that I see people loading their cart with every time I go to the grocery store. It’s also important to subtract from portion size. When you’re eating three slices of pizza in a row you’re doing it wrong.

85

When I was in a bad mood, I started a thread similar in substance, if not mood, to this one. Might want to see what folks there said too.

86

Excuse me? Who died and made you the arbiter of how we should be? If you are unhappy with the way you are, change it, but there’s no moral element to being overweight.

87

Just tried these today. The zombies are brilliant! Thank you so much for the tip!

88

I think we are all (with a couple of possible self-righteous exceptions) are saying, “Yes”.

You’ve received some good, terrible, and useless advice; your wife will probably understand which is which.

It boils down to, sometimes you have to do things you dislike (you should make that as easy as possible), and you have to cut back on things you do like (you should find enjoyable substitutes).

I would recommend starting with more crunchy fruits & vegetables and (again) finding a safe way to walk with your nose in a book (2nd hand treadmill or exercise bike come to mind).

89

Speaking of, how are you doing now, Leaper?

90

Is anyone really going to lose significant amounts of weight just by cutting back on one or two problem foods? I know I wouldn’t. I’ve been dieting strictly for months and my losses have averaged half a kilo a week. If I’d done what you’re suggesting, it would’ve taken me years, not months to lose the weight.
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Jabiru, I couldn’t discern whether your post was in jest or not.
A kilogram still equals about 2.2 pounds doesn’t it?
I think that’s roughly what I figured it was when I was in Japan and trying make my American recipes with metric measuring tools. Most of my stuff tasted pretty much the same as it did back home, so I don’t think I did the math backward.
Anyway, if I was (am) correct, then “half a kilo a week” would be, as panache noted, “only lose one pound a week.”

While I don’t necessarily agree with the specifics of JohnClay’s suggestion (though I did read that it was a highly effective system for a woman who wrote up her testimony – for Penthouse Magazine) I do think it could actually be helpful if you were to work with your wife to set up a reward-and-punishment system of motivation. And while JohnClay and the Penthouse letter may be less-than-earnest in the suggestions, I think they’re on the right track of trying to include positive reinforcement and positive punishment in addition to the negative reinforcement and negative punishment. the concurrent use of all four facets of operant conditioning is known to work especially well in modifying behaviors (e.g. eating habits).

On the other hand, my personal advice is to not think too much about it – not that the problem will just go away if you ignore it, but my own best results seem to come from doing things that i enjoy and, incidentally, gaining the health benefits as well. I was a tiny skinny kid who was always picked-on and couldn’t play the regular team sports like the other kids, so I got into bicycle touring because it was something easy to do on my own. I declined an invitation from the cycling coach to come and join the racing team, saying “Naw, I’m too weak and skinny.” and he stood me in front of a mirror and pointed out my wiry muscle-wrapped frame, saying, “That’s neither weak nor skinny – and your shortness means you’ll have less wind-resistance. You’re already one of the first three in the pack whenever we ride, so you could become quite a racer with just a little bit of coaching.”

So find something you like to do that involves moving a bit (and yeah, Telemark, sex might be one of them) and get yourself engrossed in it. So long as you don’t hurt yourself or others while you’re doing it, then it could become a healthy obsession.

—G!
…an’ harm ye none…

91

No, not in jest at all. Yes a kilogram = 2.2lb and I’ve lost, on average half a kilo a week but it was by very strict dieting NOT by just “cutting back” one or two items. If I’d done that, I would have lost 1gram a week, if I was lucky.

92

I’ve just started back running again - In October 2011, I started - but about 3 months back I stopped for a variety of reasons…

There’s lots of things that helped me, that may, or may not help the OP…

  1. Sign up for a race or competition - when I first started I signed for a 6km “Fun Run” (pushing my baby in a chair). Having something to train for helped me a lot. I’m under no illusions, I’m a pretty poor athlete, and will never be good - but the mere fact of wanting to do “well” (for my standard of well) made a whole lot of difference for me. I built on this with 10km competitive runs, then I did a 15 and finally - about 10 weeks ago did a half marathon (after 2 years of training, I could still only manage 16 of the 21 km at the run).

  2. When I first started - I cut back on food a little, but after a while just relied on the exercise. I love food, and can never be bothered to “watch what I eat”. I lost about 8kg in an 18 month period - which is really slow by most standards - but hey - it’s not a race!! So long as you ARE losing weight while at the same time getting measurable fitness improvements - who cares?

  3. I tracked stringently the exercise that I was doing - I used runkeeper and then tracked by my own excel spreadsheet as well. (distance, time and calories burnt). Setting myself a daily average target helped me here. My first target was 9000 calories by exercise a month - which for me is abt 110 km running. Well 110 km is only 3km a day - or a 10 km run every third day. Which is not that difficult. Particuarly when you have been at it for a while - or when you “add” calories by cycling.

  4. I love cycling - and where possible, if you can incorporate it into your daily chores it makes a big difference. Need a bottle of milk from the supermarket that’s 5 km away? Cycle there and back instead of driving. Need to go to the bank - take the bike. For things under 10km (6 miles) away, a bike takes only marginally longer than a car - but a 10 -15 km cycle burns a significant number of calories

  5. When I do run - is when I “cogitate” on work. It’s when I get to “freewheel” with what can / cannot be done for clients, and to think through new ideas - so the time isn’t totally lost

Of course - since I stopped running, I gained 2 kg grrrrrrrrrr…so on Friday I started back again…

93

In case you didn’t read the title, I’m asking you: “Are you dead?”
If yes, (meaning you are clinically dead, not breathing, no heartbeat dead) then there is no hope for you.
If no, then there is always hope for you.

How is that possible? Two reasons:
1.) You have an idea what you are fighting (you know that you have a problem about what constitutes an achievement)
2.) You know that you hate everything that is associated with losing weight.

Heck, if you knew all of these and still be “clinically dead”, then you’re the first person in the world. (probably the only one.)

You’re first priority is answering the question:

“WHY?”

questions like:
*Why should I lose weight?
*Why do I see things differently than others?
*Why are my likes and dislikes different from people my wife is hanging around with at the park?

Because really, all of your bickering, all of the questions you are asking are useless unless you have a clear answer as to “why you even need an answer?”

That should be you’re FIRST priority, asking yourself “WHY?”. Sometimes the answers will just come to you, believe you me, it took me 5 years to figure out “why I have to lose weight myself” and when I’ve finally started, I was bombarded by habits that lead to weight gain all over again.

The key is: “To keep your head in the game”.

Or in your case, since you like reading in front of your pc:
“Keep your head on what will happen next”
Or
“Keep your head on how your story will develop”

After you have answers to those “WHYS”, I suggest you take what you like (sitting and reading in front of your pc for example) and make it your work-out.

I like sitting/lying down in front of my pc myself, so that’s where I started.

While sitting down, I move my feet as if I was running.
While lying down, I move my feet as if I’m swimming or riding a bicycle.

This way, you can do what you want and exercise at the same time.
easyweightlossfast.com

94

I sort of hate you now. I tried the zombies app out last night and went on my regular walking route which goes through a small wooded area. I was about halfway through the trees when I heard a real-life snap just as the audio had some bit about “the zombies are right behind you!” and I thought I was going to die. From now on, I exercise in broad daylight in heavily populated areas.