Making the Dope part of my weight-loss plan

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

This may be the most selfish thread in the history of the Dope.

I am a lard ass. I need to lose some of that lard. This thread is a desperate method of holding myself accountable.

A brief background: I can’t remember a time when I’ve not been falling off of, or planning the next weight loss strategy. This year alone I’ve started anew four or five different times, each lasting from three days to, maybe, two weeks.

I just returned from vacation last week, and I told myself that, starting Monday (yesterday), I would re-dedicate myself to healthy living. Specifically, I would work out 3-4 days a week and follow the Weight Watchers program.

I weighed myself yesterday morning; I think I am the heaviest I’ve ever been. 280 lbs. Damn, it hurts to even write that.

This is day two, and so far, so good (I know, I know). I worked out yesterday and today, and I’ve followed the WW system. Scoff if you must, but I feel good about making it to day two (and cripes, it’s early in day two!).

I will check in here at the minimum of once a week to report my progress, or lack of progress. That’s right – if I gained weight, I shall report that as well. Monday mornings are my weigh days.

So, Dopers, if you’re willing, I need your support. Give me a verbal kick in the (fat) ass if you think I need it. If I slip, don’t let me get away with it. Remind me of how confident I was back on Day Two, and tell me that I’ve let the entire community down. Rub my (fat) face in it.

And if I do well? I’ll take a pat on the head and an attaboy.

Here’s to a good week.

2

Ah you can do it!
I am working on weight loss as well. I don’t know what I weigh because I have no scale, but I’m pretty sure if I stepped on one it’d say “TILT!”

I watched an interesting documentary: 10 Things You Need to Know About Losing Weight
It confirms my belief that protein and dairy are really helpful in weight loss. I was on Atkins for several years and lost 80 pounds, but then I got myself knocked up and now I’m back where I started. I tried Atkins again a few months back but I just don’t have it in me these days so I thought maybe just focusing what I CAN eat and making that more appealing might help.
Anyway, the show was interesting to me, I’m with ya, we can do this, and all that good stuff. :slight_smile:

Oh yes, and making it to day two is something I rarely ever do either, so atta boy!

3

That’s awesome that you’ve gotten started! A few years ago, I lost 25 pounds using Weight Watchers’ online tools. I have about 25 more to go (how the hell did that happen?!) and have also stop-started several times over the last few years.

And don’t scoff at making it to day two. I’ve found that the first week is the most difficult, with week two being slightly less bad, then week three transitioning into that period where you really hit your groove. Part of the problem is that you think about food all the damn time at first. The first week, you’re thinking about the fatty, unhealthy food you want and the food you should be eating, then the next week is all about the addition of the fruits & veggies and getting used to thinking about that and planning your meals, then the third week is really when things get easier - eating lots of fruits & veggies in lieu of the unhealthy stuff becomes more intuitive and automatic than before.

Are you using the online version of Weight Watchers or are you going to the meetings? Some of my friends who’ve gone to the meetings find that it gives them more accountability. Personally, it feels too much like I’m turning into my mom, but it’s different for everyone and from group to group.

4

When I encourage you, do you want me to draw on my Army experiece and be a dick to you, or do you want me to draw on schoolhouse strategies and be cheery? Cause I can do either.

First of all, you need to quit counting days. Let’s say Tasticakes are your enemy. You go to Day 5 and you eat a cake. Do you start over at Day 1? NO! You go “Day 6, 1 cake”, then Day 7, Day 8, then you eat a cake. So you go “Day 9, 2 cakes”.

You’re letting one little slip-up totally derail your train. Stop doing that. Before long, you’ll hate watching that cake number rise and you’ll loathe the taste of the Tasticakes.

5

Rushgeekgirl: Thanks, I’ll check out that documentary. And thanks for the attaboy.

overlyverbose: I’m doing the online WW thang. Meetings aren’t my style (too much manufactured rah-rah stuff). I’m counting on this thread - where the rah-rahs seem genuine - to make me accountable.

Chessic Sense: Be a dick, by all means. Think ‘Full Metal Jacket’ x ‘An Officer and a Gentleman’. You can even ask me if I’m eyeballin’ you. And you’re so right about counting the days. In the past, I’ll have a Tasticake at some point, then say, ‘well, that diet didn’t work’. Talk about sabatoging my own efforts. When the time comes that I buckle and wolf down a Tasticake, I shall remember your advice.

Thanks, all.

mmm

ETA: I just googled ‘tasticake’ (Tastycake, actually) and found out they were real; thought you were making that up. Anyway, I’m partial to These.

6

MMM:

You are going to get up off your derriere and shake it till it falls off. :smiley: People here were a HUGE part of my weight loss: I just weighed in at 307 pounds. I started at 398. Yes, nine more pounds and I hit 100 gone. I’m just now catching up to where you are now. If I can do it, so can you. If it weren’t for the support of MsWhatsit, Ivylass and Olives in particular, and many more people in general, I wouldn’t have made it this far. A good support system and total accountability are key to weight loss.

Maybe when you reach your goal, you can get a promotion to Mean Col. Mustard.

7

Go, you! What are you doing for exercise? I have been walking like a fiend since spring and what they say is true: you get to craving those exercise endorphins. I can’t wait to get the kitchen cleaned at night so I can get my butt out there. I’ve had fairly modest good results; I’ve lost about 10 pounds, which gets me back to the “that looks like me” stage, rather than the “damn I look fat” place I’ve been in the last few years.

Anyway, I haven’t got as big a goal as you but I just wanted to encourage you to exercise. Podcasts are an excellent motivator for me. I’m always dying to hear a new Stephen Tobolowsky story or what they’re covering in microscopic detail on This American Life. Oh and The Moth is good too.

Good luck!

8

Can you have a small amount of the fattening food you crave, or are you a “every bag of chips is a single-serving size” kind of guy? I can have a bag of chips in my cupboard and eat a few every day, so I never feel like I’m depriving myself. If you can do that, I suggest you do. I’m not on a diet; I’m making lifestyle changes for life. I’ve been calorie-counting using an online journalling system for a year now, and my habits are pretty firmly engrained now. We tend to eat the same foods over and over, so it gets easier to journal them.

I do something for exercise every day; on lazy days, it’s walking around the block. On usual days, it’s walking down and up the hill to Safeway which takes about an hour, or digging in my yard (or both). I’ve lost 22.2 pounds, and I haven’t deprived myself of anything - I have no diet to fall off of. It’s just a new way of looking at eating, exercising, and weighing myself - I keep track of it, so I can see what I’m eating, what I’m doing for exercise, and what my weight is at - no more telling myself rose-coloured stories.

I think I’m pretty much over it now, but at the start, I had some issues with losing weight and my body changing and needing to deal with it psychologically - don’t think you’re some kind of weirdo if that happens to you. In spite of what people on the Dope say sometimes, losing weight is extremely complicated in some ways, and we don’t even know some of the things we’re dealing with.

ETA: What I often want to say in the fat threads is, if it was easy, we’d all have done it. Very few people would chose being a fat-ass over being a normal weight.

9

I just started a few weeks ago and I both joined the Dope’s monthly weightloss thread and started a weekly email to a few friends with updates on progress. I have found that when making food choices I stop and think of having to confess my sins and that helps keep me in line.

One thing I’ve definitely learned though is that high protein/low carb diets are damn hard to keep your daily calories high enough. I’m convinced my 2 week slump was entirely due to low calorie intake.

10

Ooh, this is good stuff here.

Ann Onimous: 100 lbs. is within your grasp - congrats! I think this thread / board - and the people within it - will only boost my efforts. I know it’s only part of the plan, but it, to me, is significant.

Ellen Cherry: For exercise, I’m running/walking. Believe it or not, I actually ran a marathon in '04, so I’m not new to moving my butt. Right now I can barely run a half-mile; I hope to increase that slowly but consistently.

I always listen to tunes on the ipod; I’ve considered podcasts in the past but have never followed through. I think I’ll look into those you suggest.

Cat Whisperer: Damn, I wish I could limit my portions like you do. Remember the Lay’s potato chip slogan, ‘betcha can’t eat just one’? With me, it’s more like ‘betcha can’t eat just one enormous handful’. This is something else for me to ponder, something else to work on.

What sort of issues did you have to deal with post-weight loss (if you feel like sharing)?

mmm

11

Off to look into the monthly weight loss thread.

12

I have to do this as well. It helps that our daughter is a type 1 diabetic: since we portion her food, it’s easy to portion mine. She needs accurate carb counts for insulin dosage. I also keep a food log: anything that goes in my mouth goes down on paper. It helps to keep me accountable.

13

You might be able to control your portions of treat foods with certain methods; one I use is to keep the treat food in a cupboard in my room or the kitchen - out of sight is out of mind for me. If the food keeps calling you from the cupboard, then maybe buying a small portion and eating it all at once would work better (perhaps even walking to the grocery store to buy it, to offset the calories).

As my weight loss was starting to happen in a real way, I found it somewhat unsettling for my body to be changing, and my self-image needed to change along with it. Even positive changes can be difficult, I found - moving away from what I was used to to something new.

14

Don’t let the weight thing get you down when you jump on the scale and it hasn’t gone down. The fit of your clothes is a better measure. Notice how it gets easier to haul your arse out of the chair or hop into the car. Look out for small things that get easier. I used to work with people losing weight and they’d be disappointed having only lost two pounds. I had a two pound bag of sugar I’d chuck at them. THIS is what you lost, this is what you’re now not carrying around. It’s a lot.

Chessic Sense has a very good point about the cakes. It’s just a little slip - or a big one - but don’t let it put you off track for the next day.

15

Well, here I am, back as promised. One week down.

And all is good. I’ve stuck to the Weight Watcher’s program (well, I drifted once at a birthday party, but immediately hopped back on). And I’ve kept my workout commitments.

And today, my first weigh-in, the scale reported happy news: I lost 9 lbs.

I am cautiously optimistic. I have no thoughts of backsliding; in fact, I am as pumped as I was on Day One.

So here I begin Day Eight, keepin’ my eye on the prize.

mmm

16

Excellent work. The best part is that the hardest week is now over. And now that you’ve lost some weight, you have that much more reason to keep it going.