OK, this is NOT something I normally talk about on here. Mostly out of embarrassment and fear, and not wanting to jinx any work I may be doing in that direction. But today was a good day, and I decided I might as well share my progress this once.
I have a weight problem. A (groan now please) large weight problem. I have always had somewhat of one, but over the past 5 years or so it has gotten grossly out of hand. The combination of stress and a second child spiralled me out of control. At this time last year I weighed my highest weight ever. 296 pounds. Just typing out that number fills me with self-loathing and guilt and excuses. But I have decided that enough is enough. It is my belief that all of my hard work on my INSIDE is FINALLY trying to make it on to the outside. A lot of people I know lately seem to be going the route of the gastric bypass. I have no problem with this, and honestly I have even seriously considered it myself. But, right now, I am nowhere near ready for something like that, and I think for me it is healthier to try in the regular way once again. Although, if I fail this time, I know not what else I could do…
I have known I was losing weight, but it hasn’t been so much a concentrated effort as a gradual thinking about what I need to change, and then doing it, and not beating myself up over my numerous failures, but just getting up and trying again. Like…the weight is just the next thing I need to tackle, not some insurmoutable, incomprehensible mountain. I visited a nutritionist today, and found out that I had lost another 4 pounds in the past 3 weeks, making my total weight loss to date 27 pounds. Not a huge number, but then as far as I know I have only been losing steadily for about 4-5 months now. So I think I will take it. I also joined a nutrition group that meets once a week for 8 weeks, starting tomorrow. I am going to give myself a goal of 12 pounds to lose in these 8 weeks.
Any advice? Fun exercise programs? Recipes? Old exercise equipment you want to sell cheap? Wish me luck? Come on, I need to lose a whole entire person here! Bye-bye, old me!
Categories: Miscellany
16 Comments
Ticklebug · March 2, 2005 at 4:38 pm
I could never be as brave as you — opening up like you just did.
Good luck on your diet!
RisibleGirl · March 2, 2005 at 4:43 pm
I’m feeling that loathing right now. I’ve thought about doing something to make myself accountable by posting stuff on my blog, but then decided against it.
I really need to jump on the bandwagon. I’m proud of you for doing so! 🙂
Thinking lots of weight loss vibes for you.
jen · March 2, 2005 at 4:54 pm
I’m doing Weight Watcher’s online. I’ve lost about 25 pounds so far. It’s going slowly, but I don’t mind…much 🙂
It’s healthy and reasonable and I find that doing it online and keeping track of every single thing I eat very helpful. Diets suck, but I have finally arrived at the place where I realise it’s a way of life – good eating habits – not a diet.
The very best of luck to you. You are not alone.
hdhale · March 2, 2005 at 9:42 pm
I went from 328 to 275, then a couple years or so later from 285 to 220. I’m around 230 now and looking to get back where I was in high school when I played football, that being 205.
No gastric bypass for me. What has worked is some simple things, followed by a healthy dose of Weight Watchers. Your support group is I’m sure similar.
1) Switch from regular pop to diet pop. You will save potentially several hundred calories a day.
2) Drink more water. Not the 10,000 gallons some people seem to suggest, but the equivalent of 8 10 oz. glasses.
3) Never buy large bags of candy, always single servings. Why? While the bigger bags are cheaper, if you are like me you WILL binge during a weak moment.
4) If you love to bake like me, go ahead and bake whatever you want, HOWEVER, bake for friends not just yourself. Having a ton of cookies or a cake around is just too much temptation, but if you have a serving or two and then pass the rest off on others, you are less likely to binge.
5) Avoid deep friend foods. This includes french fries. Have the baked potato instead.
6) Look at menus of restaurants before you go out. Look for low fat choices. Even McDonald’s has one or two items that won’t induce heart disease.
7) Read labels. I became a label reading when I was struggling to get below 300. i was shocked at the amount of fat (particularly saturated fat) I was consuming. I was similarly shocked what some food packagers consider a portion–portion for who? smurfs?
8) Related to #7, watch your portion sizes. Sometimes we buy stuff that is low fat thinking we are doing a wonderful thing, but if you eat something with half the fat and consume twice as much, what did you actually accomplish? Don’t be afraid to weigh food or measure it in a measuring cup, especially when you are unsure how much of something is a portion.
9) Excercise. If you simply cut calories, your body will at best start to look flabbier as the weight comes off, at worst your body will lower your metabolism to compensate and you’ll accomplishing nothing. Excercise keeps your metabolism up whil you are cutting calories. Always remember however that while dieting alone isn’t enough, neither is just excercise. Hoping on a treadmill for 1/2 hour doesn’t qualify you for a large Blizard at Diary Queen.
10) Most importantly…NEVER let a bad day discourage you to the point that you quit. Along the way you’ll have days where the scale must be lying, you eat a few too many brownies, or you get lazy for a couple of days and don’t excercise. Not be be cliche, but tomorrow is another day, and each day should be taken one at a time.
11) While I talk about wanting to weight a certain amount, the ultimate goal is LIFESTYLE change. If you achieve your goal and then fall back into old habits, you’ll go back to your old weight.
Good luck!!!!!
sede · March 2, 2005 at 10:27 pm
Super size order of good luck your way hon! I’m up so much, too, from inactivity and having 2 children in 2+ years. The “D” word always got under my skin so I think I did poorly if I called myself being on one, so these days I really watch what I eat and have a piece of clothing (pre-pregnancy Levi’s) that is my goal, not a number.
I hope you have much success!
Thanks for sharing, too!
Nona · March 3, 2005 at 12:30 pm
hdhale is full of good advice up there. -smile-
I’m just starting my journey to loose around 110 myself.
Melissa Star · March 3, 2005 at 6:14 pm
Greetings, dear Tricia,
Congratulations on your courage 🙂 May the Goddess bless your endeavour!
As someone who went from 181 lbs to 128 lbs last year and has kept it off, I would like to offer my support and experiences.
What I learnt from the experience was:
1. Unless you want lose weight (and have a good reason) more than you enjoy food, it cannot happen. In my case, although I wanted to be thin to “look better” for years I didn’t really want it enough to give up a lot of food that I really enjoyed (and the social situations that I thought depended upon it). What made the difference was that I becoming very fatigued and my doctor found that I was starting to develop insulin resistance. Not wanting diabetes and wanting to be healthy and strong and able to dance again was a lot more important.
I have seen friends lose weight because they got involved in sports or various forms of dance that they fell in love with and wanted to be thinner so they could play or dance better, but in every case there is always some reason other than appearance (which, based on my experience, doesn’t affect social life or anything really excepting unwanted advances from guys).
2. In my case (being a natural non-conformist and hating to follow orders from people) organised diets (and I tried enough of them before!) did not work. What did, this time, was actually reading enough about nutrition to understand what food was made of, how much of those bits (like protiens, carbohydrates, and various types of fat) the body needs and how much various types of food had in it. The discovery really surprised me – some things I really liked (like Subway wraps and Nandos chicken pitas and Sushi/Sashimi – especially Sashimi!!) were actually really healthy, while others (in particular almost *all* diet stuff from the supermarket) were made almost entirely of carbs and sometimes even the type of sugars that burn all at once and give your body an insulin spike (making you hungry like salt makes you thirsty). Understanding the theory, I find lots of food that I like, including take away and at restaurants (cooking diet food at home was never realistic for me!) but I eat smaller quanities and often give specific instructions when I order at restaurants. A good starting point in learning would be the resources and library at http://www.calorieking.com/ – if you have a PDA they also have software that you can use to look up any food you are about to eat and estimate what is in it…
Anyway, I suspect I am ranting too much, so good luck, and Be Blessed, and may the Goddess make all your dreams come true.
In Love and Light,
Melissa
Kayleigh · March 3, 2005 at 8:55 pm
Hey 🙂
I wish u the all best 🙂
Also i tell u what is great fun and exorcise.. Ball room dancing! might sound a bit odd but it really does work 🙂
again, I wish u well.
Goddess Bless
Rich Gautier · March 4, 2005 at 3:02 pm
Good for you! Recognizing the problem is step one. I weighed 230 before deciding to go on a diet and I weigh about 195 now. I’d like to get back to 175, but not sure if I can.
My Advice: Drink 2 glasses of water with each meal, no, wait – BEFORE each meal – that’s right – drink 16 oz. of water before putting food in your mouth. It’ll fill you up, hydrate you and clean you out, and you won’t have to eat as much food to feel full.
Good luck!
paul · March 5, 2005 at 12:12 pm
a dear friend of mine lost over 100 Lbs. on the herbal life dietary supplements…. I am not the one to recommend anything to anyone for fear of influencing their destinies; however, she is truly happy about her weight loss.
Jenny · March 6, 2005 at 12:38 am
i have the the weight issue, too, ever since my son was born it’s been getting worse and worse, but i’ve never been brave enough to blog about it. looks like you’ve been getting some great advice here. i so wish you luck, because reading other people’s success stories is what ends up motivating me. so i hope to be reading your success story soon!
Brandy · March 7, 2005 at 5:07 pm
Doin’t worry about the weight, but strive to feed your body healthy things find some activites that you love (or used to love) and do them.
I own a horse boarding stable and I see so many super sized people put off their horse dreams because of their weight. It really sucks how much that self loathing that comes from buying into what society thinks is beautiful robs us from doing the things we love.
The ones that rise above the self loathing and come to the barn and start taking lessons turn their lives around and sometimes that has meant losing a considerable amount of weight, but sometimes not.
I never fit society’s ideals for confomity, religion, politics, etc. etc. etc. I’ve always been proud of that. Why do I beat myself up about the fat??? And by trying to force myself into a weight, aren’t I just adding more power to what is estually a sick system of judging people by their looks? Why is that OK but judging people by the size of their nose or race bad?
Simming is a great sport, embrace yourself in a swim suite! If you love dogs, start doing agility or tracking with your mutt. When you were a little kid, what was the sport you were going to win an olympic gold medal in? I promise you there is still a way to seize the dream, have fun and get more active and healthy.
I think heavy people think that all their problems will be gone if the lose the weight and not losing the weight gives them permission not to face other issues. It’s not a pretty cycle. Break it!
If you do decide to pursue riding, here are some hints.
Horses can easily carry 20 to 25% of their body weight.
An average western horse weighs around 900 pounds, so can carrry a 225 pound rider.
An average english horse wieghs around 1100 pounds, so can carry 275 pounds.
A shire draft horse weighs around 2000 pounds and can carry a 500 pound human.
I don’t believe in the 25% rule after the rider has learned how to balance in motion with the horse. If the horse you are riding is close to its weight limit, I believe you have an extra responsibility to really focus on balance and harmony in motion first, and then you can pursue a specific discipline.
Anyway, not exactly what you asked for, but it’s my 2 cents.
..b.
donyell · March 9, 2005 at 1:16 am
all i can say is good luck 🙂 and give it time 😉
Daphne · April 2, 2005 at 12:34 pm
I feel your pain.hope – I’m in a similar place now. Good lucky, my thoughts are with you:)
ladiebug · April 4, 2005 at 5:35 pm
That is a awsome weight loss! Keep it up. You’ll do fine. The best advice I can give is have patience!
I myself am doing Beach Body’s : Power 90. I need to lose 130 pounds….
The catterpillar thought it was the end of the world…till it became a butterfly!
Jess · June 13, 2005 at 8:08 am
You rock
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