Weight Loss

[GreenEyedLady(GEL)]

Well summer is just around the corner and although I don't see myself wearing a string bikini I wouldn't mind wearing a regular swim suit lol My weight flucuates so horribly, and im a total sucker for any weight loss program I see on TV and have spent a pretty penny on them. For those of you have cruddy genes and gain just by looking at a piece of pie, you can probably relate. I am open to new ideas if anyone has any. Starting with a diet that I will be on from here on out , to the motivation and self discipline it takes to even get started. My motivation for dieting is just as bad as my motivation to excersise, and my motivation to actually cook for myself is almost as bad. Working at a state prison makes it hard when im at work to not eat in the mess hall. The food there is actually pretty good lol but very very bad for me. High in carbs, starches, ect. I do know what foods I should be eating ( chicken , fish , lots of fruits and veggies and drinking an average of 8 glasses of water a day ) It seems silly to me that I know what to do but refuse to do it. Im not to terribly fat, but im pretty chunky right now, and feel awful in my skin so its time to figure out a plan to make a change. Is anyone else going thru this now ? If so, and if you have any pointers send them my way if you would please :) Thanks

[Solomon]

this may seem totally off the wall, but putting up pictures of people with your ideal weight would do the trick.

it works, because it programs your subconsious.

in fact it works so well that i wouldn't recommend putting up any pictures of anything negative.

from what i've learned about millionares, they are extremely fussy about their environment.

[wildangel]

I've lost 16 lbs since February 1. I'm a member of calorie-count.com It's free. It's basically just about changing your habits and holding yourself accountable. It's worked for me. I'm in a size 4 again.

Good luck! Weight loss is a difficult road.

[Tom41bimwm]

I've dropped 34 pounds since last September. I'm done to 215 now. Last time I was there was about 7 years ago. Hopeing to get to 190 by Christmas 2007.

[Solomon]

hhmm i dunno, i think the pictures idea's a lot less like self harassment lol. of course Flex an I don't even think of weight all that much, and before me flex, had a little weight that she's long since dropped.

we didn't think about it all that much except when the kids would say to her "wow mom, i'm worried you've lost so much weight!" lol little devils.

not sure why both my parents are very overweight, but it's just never been a factor me so maybe i'm doing something wrong, i dunno.

i'm just trying to share that this is what seems to have worked for me :cool:

[ambi53mm]

Hi GEL,

My wife and I are councilors for a weight loss program that she's gotten excellent results from. She began last August and had tried every kind of diet with either poor results or little notciable results over extended periods of time. She watched a coworker drop nearly 80lbs over the course of a year and decided to give it a try. When she began she weighed 180 at 5'2" she now weighs 140 with a target weight of 135. Once she hits her target weight she goes into the maintence part of the program.
It's a program designed to take the weight off but follows up with a program to keep it off..We have nearly 30 people local to our area now involved and the results are pretty amazing. If this seems of interest send us a message and I'll let her fill you in on the particulars.

Ambi :)

[meteast chick]

How about a stress diet!? Worked for me!!!

I was always thin, gained weight with my 2 pregancies and never had to diet, didn't even know where to start. With everything going on in my world last year, I asked for a divorce in March/April, in March I started a 3 day fast to clear my thoughts, well, I lost control of it, ended up being 2 weeks and nearly passing out. My husband forced me to eat strawberries because he knew I was in insulin shock, I went to the doctor the next day and they couldn't even draw blood because I was so dehydrated, and pumped me full of 2 backs of IV solution. The benefit is that I lost 30 lbs in a month. I've went on to lost about another 15-20 just eating when I'm hungry like I did when I was younger, not on any set schedule.

So I went from 198 lbs to about 150 on a 5 '7" frame. I'd still like to lose another 10-20 but not bad where I am.
I also hate exercise but have a fondness for pilates because it destresses me.

Well that's my story, take from it what you will.
Good luck GEL!

luv and kisses,
xoxoxoxoxoxo
meteast

[s_shunpike]

I have struggled with weight issues for most of my adult life. I entered the US Navy barely on the line. Granted after boot camp I weighed much less, but it did not take long for it to pile back on once I was outside of a regular excersise routine. For years I did nothing, and it just kept coming. Being a regular disciple of the ease of fast-food and take out.

This last fall several of my co-workers decided to get together and form a biggest loser group. We did and initial weigh in (for those of us embarassed by the actual number it was kept secret in a hermetically sealed container). Each week then we would report any loss, and that would be charted. I have found that this was a tremendous motiviator. I had been given a Gazelle (which I highly recommend - about $100 at WalMart - as it's extremely low impact. I have spinal stenosis, bad knees and a foot with nerve damage and have no problems on it) and so used that for excersise. Rather than counting carbs, fat, etc I simply kept myself to 2,000 cals per day. You will soon find yourself making good healthy choices when you only have 2,000 to eat. When mayonaise is 100 cals and ketchup and mustard are 15, you'll ditch the mayo for a slice of cheese or extra lunch meat.

The key is to start slow and keep your goals realistic. I found that making easy goals for myself in the first month (i.e. 10 mins on the gazelle 3x per week, no more than 1 sweet per week, glass of milk once a day) I was actually able to do much more. I also found that I did not look at the fact that I wanted to lose 130lbs - that is a daunting goal. I made small weight loss goals (next pant size, next shirt size, etc).

The key to it all is being honest. I tracked my calorie count each day - worked better for me to see it on paper. If I went over, I was honest and wrote it down. This made me much more likely to pay close attention and refocus rather than see it as a failure.

Did it work? When I started this in October I weighed 354 and wore a size 48 pants and 4x shirt. I now weight 315 wear a size 40 pant and a 2x shirt.

Unfortunately for me my motivation was taken away by others stopping so I have slowed down. I have maintained that weight since the middle of January (which is an acheivement in and of itself). I have found new motivation and am climbing back up on the horse.

I personally don't believe in a goal weight. Doctors say that for my height I should weigh no more that 160. When I left boot camp I weighed 185 and people thought I was sick. I beleive that you should be at the weight that makes you feel most comfortable. Makes for a much easier goal as well.

Best of luck, hope this can help in some small way. Here is a site I used. Works well it has calorie counts for just about anything you could want and allows you to be able to track your calories for the day.

www.caloriesperhour.com/index.html

shun! :wiggle2:

[bohemian69]

Hey GEL -
Well for me, I had to start eating right. Not something I wanted to do, but Dr.'s orders. ( High Cholestreol and all that fun stuff). So I was limited to 30 grams of fat per day.
Trust me, it was not really easy to do in the begining, (Just ask my better half, she can vouch for that) but you soon learn to adapt and get creative with the food you do eat. Anyway, a few months after I started, I realized that my clothes were getting quite baggy on me. :bigrin:
But no matter what you do - you can do it!!! Good Luck! :bigrin:

[flexuality]

I grew up watching my mother try every diet ever invented. She even went for pregnant horse urine injections at one point to aid in weight loss. If a diet or weight loss progam has been invented, she's tried it.

She is still overweight. To the point where it affects her health.

So while a lot of these weight loss programs DO work for some, I believe that the 'mindset' is a huge factor in it as well.

My mother's attitude has never been .....what word shall I use?.....hopeful. She's one of those people that is the most happy when she's miserable.

She comes from a long line of "happy when they're miserable" people who are all under 5'5'' and over 250 pounds.

I am not trying to say that if one is overweight it's because they're miseable.

I do feel strongly that our thinking does affect our weight tho.

I had always been about 30 pounds overweight most of my life, then it increased to about 50 or 60 as the kids arrived. :(

I tried many of the diets my mother tried and lost weight on most of them, but always seemed to put it back on in no time. I spent a LOT of time back then with my mother who was forever talking about weight and diets.

I figured I was just doomed to always carry around extra pounds that I wasn't happy with.

It almost seems kind of strange the way I lost 60 pounds a few years ago and have had no problem keeping it off since.

I wasn't trying to lose weight at the time.

I didn't diet. I didn't follow any weight loss program or anything. I ate what I felt like, but I did stop when I was full. I am also lactose intolerant, so I avoid high fat just out of necessity, but I still eat some of that stuff.

There were a couple of things that I DID do, but not in an attempt to lose weight.

I started drinking a LOT more water. I did this because it seemed to ease some of the frequency and intensity of the cluster migraines I get.

I no longer spent time with my mother (that's a long story that I am not going to get into here lol!)

When I noticed that my clothes were geting looser, quite frankly I got a bit scared cuz I figured I was destined to carry around that weight forever.

I started "seeing" (picturing) myself skinny and it kinda scared me cuz the weight kept dropping off. I spent a lot of time with that image in my head - me thin!

It occured to me that maybe picturing it was actually helping! No diet had ever worked very long term before, and here I was eating til I was comfortably full, not worrying about what I was eating and picturing myself thin (out of fear! lol) for the first time in my life, rather than heavy.

Over the course of several months, I went from a size 16 (18 sometimes) down to an 8.

I had to actually STOP thinking about being thin in a fearful way cuz I kept picturing myself getting even thinner and I didn't really like being an 8, cuz for myself I think I look too scrawny that small.

So I just adjusted the mental picture and added a few pounds to that image, and now I am about a size 10 or so.

Kind of ironic....spent all my life trying to lose weight, and here I was trying to gain it! Never done that before! lol!

I didn't hang up pictues like Sol suggests, but I do agree that putting up pictures DOES help keep ones focus. 'course, like I said, I wasn't trying to lose weight at the time.

I DID however have a very clear mental picture of myself.

That's just my experience. :rolleyes:

[TorontoGuy2007]

i've dropped 25 pounds already this year. i've taken up long distance running. and i run almost every day now.. also been careful about what i eat.. healthy eating and daily cardo activities is the key to success. there doesn't have to be any fancy tricks to it. but it has to be a permanent life style change, short-term diets only work until the short-term period is over..