Hope you are feelin better :)

MAD PROPS TO MY BOO!

I'm so proud of BB. After a long, hard day's work hy biked while we watched Judge Judy and then had a blueberry health shake. I told hym that if hy keeps up the good work, hy's going to live to be 107 (at which point he noted that I would still be a youthful 90).

You can do it, Matt! I had three German chocolate cupcakes lastnight as a reward to myself for passing my panel interview!

We all are here to help you out,

Zimmy

Thank you, my friend! I am feeling much better; I took two aleve when I got home and my pb&j sandwich helped! I went walking for half an hour and the fresh cool air helped with my migraine.

How are you tonight?

Zimmy

Hey Matthew! i think you checking in and being honest is fantastic.

Just a suggestion. Have you ever tried writing down in a notebook everything you eat and drink in a day and why you are feeling the need to eat/drink it? This is what I did and it opened my eyes so much. I was taking in calories that, at the weight I was, would make me gain...rapidly. Its really amazing how much we can eat and not know it. I was drinking iced coffee also twice a day, that added about 300 calories to my day.

If you need anyone to talk to feel free to PM me. I've been to hell and back with my weight since I was 8 yrs old. Been almost 400 pounds once, when I was 18. Its tough and I understand.

I am proud of myself today for going to the gym even though I'm having my TOM and felt like crap!

:D

27 pounds down.

Sounds like Me sometimes lol ........... I tend to reward Myself with things like chocolate and pepsi and such when I should be choosing other things like a new book, or a magazine or a DVD (something thats not food). We'll get it eventually, it takes time but I know it'll happen :-)

Hi Softly

I'm just about at 400 lbs now and it just seems crazy hard to try and lose the weight especially when I'm stuck in the house all summer watching My sister (not that I mind). Its just hard to lose weight or even concentrate on Myself when I see the same four walls all of the time and can't get out during the day when I want to. I could easily go out in the evening but after watching chey all day, once My parents are home about 6pm or so I just watch tv and then soon its bedtime again. Its a rut that I'm stuck in and I can't seem to get out ~ I wanna be able to afford atleast buying a treadmill or something I can do at home but I don't have the cash right now so I just gonna learn how to deal with everything.

Some days I'm so gung ho to get things, and other days I don't have the motivation and My energy is non-existent. I bought a journal about two weeks ago and was going to start doing just that, writing down what I eat/drink and how much but I never did it ............ I am going to pull that out tomorrow, start writing down things and then review it in say a week or so to see what I come up with. I know sometimes I eat because I'm bored or because I'm very much an emotional eater (especially eating chocolate and potato chips). I'll get there, its just one step at time :canadian:

Walked 3 miles yesterday and 3.5 today. I carry a 15lb bar with me and do exercises with it while walking. Now if I could just learn to enjoy drinking water. Even with the different tricks to spruce up the water, it's still water. lol But I will do better.

I swear that I rebel against drinking water LOL even if its flavored its still water and I just can't seem to get over that fact ............ I'm working on it though, and will continue to do so even if it kills Me lol :seeingstars:

I'm also a pepsi fanatic and find it very hard to choose water over My pepsi ~ its evil damnit LOL

My first two attempts at reading this yielded "15lb JAR"......and I was *very* confused. Heh... I couldn't imagine you carrying a big ol' jar with you while you walked.

Got it now. ;)

I have always enjoyed watering lawns/soil because I see the ground soak up the water. Seeing that process reinforces to me just how much it was needed. I know it sounds all woo-woo and shit, but it really is (to me) such a beautiful process.

Thinking through all of that is what got me to start drinking water some years back. I've never enjoyed water, but I have always been very aware of how it hydrates my organs and flushes gross shit out of my body. That's definitely something I can get behind! :)

I still go through periods when I don't drink as much as I should; I am not a 64-ounces every-single-day champ!! But because I paid attention to all of the good it has done for me, I am way more aware of when my body needs it. The frequent peeing can be mighty inconvenient, but I shift my thinking to "getting rid of useless stuff" and feel better about it.

I wish I could "love water", but I don't. Thinking of it as watering my organs and cleansing my systems does the trick though.

Seeing pictures like the ones linked below always reinforced to me why I just couldn't continue drinking certain beverages on any sort of regular basis.

I hope this doesn't sound "preachy"; I don't mean for it to. This is the sort of thing that helped me; I'm just sharing in case it is able to help anyone else.

http://www.sugarstacks.com/beverages.htm

Once you start drinking a lot of water you'll start craving it. I bought one of those 2 gallon igloo coolers, fill with ice and filtered water. I keep it with me wherever I go even next to the bed. It makes it easy to drink water. Drink 16 oz when you first wake up to start up your metabolism and then drink 16 oz before you put anything in your mouth.

I've been juicing the past few weeks every single day at least 30 oz of leafy organic greens, carrots, cabbage, apple, celery, spinach, pears, sweet potatoes. whatever I can get my hands on thats organic. I didn't stop eating, in fact I started eating more in addition to juicing. I did stop dairy, which was hard and eat a lot of salads. I was also eating pasta & rice but cut back on meats. I have been losing weight, my clothes loose and I don't feel bloated.

My body seems to be detoxing though and strange things happening. But I'm coming out of that now, lol thank goodness. My skin looks incredible lately and my concentration much better.

I think that:

A) as we change and make changes which are kind to, supportive of, and with the intention to be more loving to ourselves which Include out bodies, we are on the right track and have much to be thankful for...

II) some people "like" water and some do not...as long as we do the best we can, and keep finding ways to do it, we are on track...sometimes we all do things 'cuz it's 'best' and that is the beginning, middle, and end of the process...and that is good, too...

3) spending years being disconnected to our physical selves is not unusual...the process of reconnecting is not linear nor is it predictable and it is unique to each one of us...

4) as we move along on this path things 'come up' which we didn't expect...there is joyfulness and feelings of positive achievement...I believe there are moments of mourning and self-discovery which can startle us...and, sometimes we can be most kind to ourselves to sit with it, to see it and understand, and then we find we can gather ourselves and move along as we desire...

this may be, or seem to be, or Be be, a load of nonsense and/or NinaBabble..
I hope not, and I am confident in the 'delete' feature, and the choice not to read posters who annoy...I feel it's worthwhile to not only focus on the pragmatic aspects of changing our bodies and ourselves (not unintentional)...
I admire you all...the ones who post here, and the ones whom I suspect may be in greater number, who come and read and take something which is of support to them...

as always, I wish all the best

be well and strong...

xxx

Nina

mmm, water!
 

Love letter
 

Keep in mind you could get too much water. Drinking too much is very dangerous as well.

Dear Diet Coke Drinkers (and you know who you are!),

Let me tell you a little story 'bout a girl named "Ang"
She drank lots of Diet Coke and it had her feelin' BAD
When up one day, she drank some H20
And figured out that water was the way she wanted to GO!

/Cheeserific!

Seriously, aspartame is not only addictive but is banned in almost every country except for the United States. The caffeine in Diet Cokes is also a no-no for folks with blood pressure issues.

When I decided to go cold turkey off of Diet Coke, the withdrawal was worse than when I quit smoking. Not even kidding.
I was bitchy and moody for about a month, had headaches, didn't sleep well, and alllll kinds of other issues.

I craved it almost every day and realized that my 12 Diet-Coke-a-day habit was way more serious than I had thought if the withdrawals were that bad.

I am now 5.5 months "clean" off of Diet Coke and feel a lot better. No more shooting pains in the kidneys, no more dehydrated skin and hair, no more heart palpatations from too much caffeine.

Now, I drink water, unsweetened tea (usually only when we go out to eat), some fruit juice, 1/2 cup coffee every morning, and the occasional Fuze or diet Vitamin Water. That's it. No sodas.

Water is worth it! Get it down however you can. Add Lemon or lime, try it with ice and without, use straws, drink it in bottles. Figure out how you will best be able to stomach it and get it done!

I have given up Diet Coke as well (Along with Meat) and since giving it up - have lost weight. While it is an appetite suppressant (and it is) - It is also filled with (as you said) such SHIT.

Congrats on the detox.

Checking in.

two weeks since last soda. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it. Drink the bloody, I mean delicious water. It's great surely no one will pick up on the sarcasm! I'm doing it. Going to get more after I submit this post.

Thinker you had me cracking up at the visual of clomping along on my walk with 15lb jar. :cracked: The bar helps me. I need to be doing multiple things for some reason. lol The bar and I will be walking in a bit. I may try to push to 4 miles. We shall see.

Oh yeah, I jumped on the scale this morning. -6lbs. Not a lot but it's a start in the right direction.

Keep up the good work everyone. You all rock!

Very true! lol Thanks for the lb perspective. And this water is tasty! Yeppers!

Six pounds is awesome, brother!!!!!!!!!!! Way to go!!

I think this is a good opportunity for me to share Leslie Sansone with everyone—she has changed my life, and she certainly won't hurt yours. I discovered her at the library, when I found a book called Walk Off the Pounds. A DVD was included, and the low impact, marching in place program appealed to me immediately. It took fifteen minutes for me to walk a mile with Leslie, and she added leg lifts, side-stepping, kicks and more to strengthen the core while giving me a good cardio work-out. I renewed my book as many times as I could, and finally had to let Leslie go back to the library. Earlier this month, I found her at Wal-Mart, and for under $10 I have her Fast & Firm! 4 Really Big Miles DVD which has 1, 2, 3, & 4 mile workouts on it—I am up to the 2 mile work out now and I look forward to being able to do 4 miles daily, which takes less than 45 minutes. Her philosophy is all about moving, and other than a DVD player, no special equipment is required. I enjoy walking with Leslie a thousands time more than I like walking on my treadmill, she makes it fun, and for less than an hour a day, I am getting stronger, losing weight, and gaining my flexibility back, it truly is a simple way to lose weight.

For more info, check out her website: http://www.walkathome.com/

Hi All. I have not written for a few days. Many of you saw my "Dear" post about my cock-a-poo Jani going into respiratory failure and I had to make the very, very difficult decision to put her down Saturday 8/6.

I am pretty much consumed with grief and it has totally taken my appetite away so I am an not having difficulty with my eating. For a couple of days I started thinking: "What's the point, who cares, I don't care" but I did not give into it.

I have made through the craving for sweets-think it might be 8-10 days by now. I am not allowing myself to think about them or I will be lost, I am just too vulnerable right now and am just looking for a reason to make myself even more sad and miserable than I already am-eating sweets would do it for sure. I could then throw in self-loathing for good measure.

I found that I can't go down the stairs at all as my knee gives out but for some bizzare reason I am able to walk upstairs without too terribly much pain. I about die on the 3rd flight but have now made it to 4. I don't know if it is enough to lose weight on but I feel better about having done it for the 3rd day in a row.

Regards,

Liam,

I think she sounds like she is worth looking up; I have not been to a library or a bookstore in so long so I may just have to take a look one day to see if I can find her book or DVD. Part of My problem is I make excuses as to why I can't; I wake up at 7:30 every morning to watch My sister and am pretty much up all day until bed which is usually about midnight or so. I can very easily get up and go for a short walk in the morning and then one at night but I have a hard time getting motivated to do so. I'm gonna learn, and if anyone wants to start up a buddy system for support I think it would be a great idea ........... what does everyone think?

I'm terrible for drinking alot of soda and while I was going without it I just couldnt take the cravings any longer and caved; now I'm in the process of trying to limit My intake again and slowly ween Myself off of the sugary stuff. I know how hard it is for Me to do that and its going to be a true challenge but I know that My friends are here if needed and thats what counts!

I know even for Me that before if I had only lost 6 lbs I'd have been pretty upset with Myself but I've gotten to the point where I know even just a pound or two lost is an accomplishment .......... thats a pound or two that I had before thats gone, and thats the entire goal right? I'm also not a fan of water and to stomach it sometimes just does not work for Me but I bought two bottled waters today on sale for less than $2 so I figure this is a start right? :praying:

I'm not a Diet Coke drinker however even just drinking the amount of Pepsi that I drink on a daily basis is not good either. I have problems with My feet swelling, My back being sore most days, dry mouth, acid reflux, knee pain ~ which I'm sure has alot to do with what I drink. I have two bottled waters beside Me, and picked them up half an hour ago (before I read your post) but its a start ~ I can handle water cold alot better than I ever could warm (YUCK) so its gonna come down to keeping the water cold in the fridge and making sure I grab that first before anything else ........ its gonna take some getting used to but its worth it :canadian:

(((((((((((Anya)))))))))) Aww sweetie I didn't read this but I'm so very sorry that Jani is gone but I'm sure that she is in a better place watching down over you. I've lost pets before so I know how devastating that can be, and I'm sure that your little one would want her Mommy to take care of herself and know that she is worth it. I know its so easy for grief to throw us into such a tailspin that eating sweets or drinking something unhealthy is the easiest thing for us to do when we are sad. You have friends here, if you need us don't hesitate to lean on us and know that we will be here for you anytime you need a friend to talk to :rrose:

Great Job GT! 6 pounds is a great loss and start!

Matthew ~ Happy to see you checking in. I hear ya when you say it seems tough. There are 2 things I want to tell u. The first being that any journey begins with a single step. Thats all it takes to get you going in the right direction. Second is that I would like to share a small bit of my journey. After being in an abusive 5 year relationship turned marriage, I found myself stepping on a scale and weighing 300 pounds. That was my heaviest ever! My immediate reaction was to eat. When I say eat, I mean I indulged in everything I wanted. My thought process was "fuck it" I had already gone that far and too hard to lose. One night, I was having trouble breathing, my feet were so swollen I couldnt walk, I could barely breathe....I stepped on that scale again. 305...I looked at myself in the mirror and told myself something that changed my life. I said "Today will be the last day of your life that you will weigh 305lbs" Over a year later, I kept my promise. I have lost 50 pounds. Yes I have had moments of weakness, but I maintain. Today, I am still striving to get myself healthy. I am more determined and seeing more results. All it took was a promise to myself and 1 Single Step in the right direction. Lets do this Matthew! We can do it together.

Good Evening Sunshyne,

A co-worker and I were talking yesterday about how she is trying to lose 10lbs to fit into her bridesmaid dress. I showed her a picture of me, from 2004, when I was over 200lbs on a 5'0" frame and she nearly fell over. She asked me why I had lost the weight and I told her, it was because I was fed up with having heart palpitations, problems breathing and being bloated all of the time. It will be five years come January 1st, 2012, that I have had a soda and I was drinking between 3 to 4 20oz bottles of Coke a day, before I went cold turkey; and I feel a helluva lot better today! I have since been able to beat heart disease, I can run up and down stairs until my knee gives out and I can walk almost 3 miles in about 30 minutes. I was telling my co-workers today, that I am shooting to lose another 20lbs by the time of the reunion, so I better get my ass in gear...I am enjoying reading Prevention magazine over the tabloids that my co-workers love to read when it is slow at work. When I start my new job next week, after training, I will have a set schedule so I can plan my workouts appropriately..

My next thing to give up is sweets..Which is going to be hard for me, since that is something I grew up on and is always available at my mom's house...

Yes we can do this and it does take, that first step to do it!

Congratulations to everyone and keep up the good work!!!!

Hugs,

Zimmy

Good Evening Everyone,

I had chicken soft tacos with Spanish rice and black beans on a flour tortilla for dinner tonight. I cooked in diced tomatoes and half of a green bell pepper with the chicken and let that cook with a little bit of taco seasoning while the rice was cooking. I made a small burrito out of the tortilla and I added a little bit of rice, black beans and chicken with a sprinkle of shredded lowfat mozzerella cheese. I had 3/4's of a cup of orange juice, to help with my blood sugar constantly dropping, with dinner and it filled me up...Now I want to go power walking, but I am afraid to, because of my sugar.

I will monitor how I feel and if I feel ok in the morning, I will go power walking then...

I can honestly say, all of the sodas, sweet tea and other sugary drinks is what messed up my blood sugar and they are something that I wish I had never drank...

Zimmy

That devil soda pop.
 

Yes,its the devils incarnete,so far I have only had a couple of diet cokes in the last fue days or what will total the amount of a couple of them..I take a sip hear and there but mostly drink water.No its not easy cause I use to love my diet cokes,I mean thay were diet cokes..werent they??Yesterday i was at the store and wanted something to drinl I reached in the cooler and got a bottle of water insted of the soda that was next to it.One small step at the time.AS for sugar I only occasionaly eat something..I injoy it then am done for a while,I had a huny bun a couple of weeks ago.

I think My very first order of business is to say that you, Sunshyne, have been a great inspiration to Me since I came into this thread and you never cease to amaze Me. To think that you were once 305 lbs really blows Me away, but since I am 374lbs its not too far off that mark but its much closer to 400lbs .......... a fact that I am not proud of but now its just a matter of really trying to lose this weight and take control of My life. I am kind of in an abusive relationship Myself right now but its not a romantic one; it has to do with My father and his emotional as well as mental abuse that I've dealt with for almost 18 years. He never fails to pick at Me about My weight and My eating habits yet he supports them and makes sure that certain things are in the house like he is sabotaging Me. He knows that I don't have the greatest willpower and when he sees that I've given in, he will either roll his eyes or smirk cuz he knows that I can be weak sometimes.

I'm slowly getting stronger one step at a time ........... the emotional ups and downs are not easy, but I'm getting there!!!!

I'm very proud of you Zimmy, you've come a long way in many ways over the last few years that we've known each other and I know that your gonna go many places honey :rrose:

I know that I'm going to have a very hard time getting off of the pop and I doubt I will be able to quit cold turkey but if I slowly cut down then I know I will be more successful ............. thats a big thing for Me :-)

Good morning everyone :)

I'm still struggling and contemplating and crunching numbers and doing all the stuff that is part of my personal process before I undertake a major change....but reading Matthew's recent posts got my brain going.

Matthew, I'm sending you a great big hug, because I know how tough this struggle is...especially when you have someone in the household actively sabotaging you.

Because I'm a "numbers" person though...in my work life I'm a project manager, and live and die by my spreadsheets...I did a little number crunching that might help to inspire you to make some changes.

Here's what I found....cold, hard facts...not to alarm you, but to show you what's going on inside...

One 12 oz. can of Pepsi probably looks harmless. It's small, it's cold...it tastes good. I had my own struggles with Coke...so I know how enticing and addictive it is.

But....one 12 oz. can of Pepsi contains 150 calories, mostly in the form of high fructose corn syrup. One of the biggest arguments against high fructose corn syrup is that it contains mercury...a neuro-toxin. I haven't read the studies, so I won't say yea or nay on that...but just the possibility of ingesting neuro-toxin daily scares the crap out of me.

Okay...but back to the numbers....

One can...150 calories.
Let's say you drink 4 a day....not hard for any soda drinker to do.
4 cans a day is 1,460 cans a year (how much does that cost? You could take a nice vacation every year for that money?)

1,460 cans a year at 150 calories is 219,000 calories.
Since it takes 3,500 calories to gain or lose a pound of weight...that's 62.5 lbs...in a year...on or off, depending on what you do.

Drink those 4 cans a day....gain 62.5 lbs. in a year.
Replace them with water...lose 62.5 lbs. in a year.
Of course, that's assuming that nothing else changes in our diet or activity levels.

The scarier thing for me....if the mercury/neuro-toxin thing is true....drinking 4 cans of Pepsi a day means you're consuming 59,850 grams of high fructose corn syrup in a year (41 grams a can).

Since 454 grams of anything equals a pound....that's 131.8 pounds of high fructose corn syrup running through your body each year.

This is the equation I ran for myself and my Coke consumption....right before I stopped drinking it forever.

Hugs to you all.

I must be chatty this morning :)

I have been struggling to get enough exercise...because, honestly, I just really don't enjoy it. I'm not even neutral on it. I know it's good for me....I just really don't like to huff and puff and sweat and be sore and all that other stuff.

Still working on that....and my Mobia is nagging me from the bedroom.

However...I found this interesting chart in my searching for data today. It's from Harvard, so I'm guessing it's pretty legit.

It shows calories burned in 30 minutes of activity for people of various weights. The top is exercise stuff (and if I'd get my butt on that Mobia for half an hour...ugh...I could burn over 440 calories)...but the bottom of the chart is what I found fascinating.

For me....roughly....sleeping for 30 minutes burns 28 calories. Watching TV burns 33....almost like sleeping! My job, since I work at a computer...burns just 61....not much better.

But....as soon as I got into even normal daily kinds of activity....cooking, light housework, putting things away, (presumably) taking care of the pool, mowing the lawn....the calorie burn jumps up into the 115 - 200 calorie range for 30 minutes of activity.

That's 5 times the burn rate of my sleeping, watching TV rate...and 2 or 3 times the rate I'm burning them as I work at the computer.

Amazing stuff...and a good argument for getting off the couch or office chair and doing something...even if it's laundry or pool care or sweeping the front walk or loading the dishwasher....

I now save the mowing, edging, and sweeping for my "off" exercise days because it ends up not being so much of an "off" day at all!!! I end up working in the sun, non-stop, for a little over an hour.

I love the way I feel after all of that more than I do after my cardio days, and I *love* the way the yard looks!!!