I have been overweight for years. I remember when I was young. I was not overweight. I was actually rather petite and small. My family moved from Pennyslvania to Florida when I was 12 years old. I wore a size 6...and I remember, I was so upset to go to that six. Suddenly; within the first year of moving, I gained weight. They said it was a combination of the 'culture shock' and me hitting those wonderful years that we all have to go through. However, my weight slowly crept up through high school. I went to college and it was probably one of the best times for my weight. I was always on the go.....for a while we exercised religiously at the "Y" (thanks Suzy and Rach....it was actually fun to go with ya'll) True, the Dairy Queen beckoned on the way back to the dorm...but I was so active that I was actually at one of my lowest weights in years. 214. I cringe when I see that......214 pounds was a good weight in my mind???
I left college and the weight started slowly creeping back on. I didn't work on it...I just let it happen. I had one time where I was close to my college weight...but it was due to a stressful job....NOT worth it. AND the downside.....when I left the job and the stress was alleviated....the weight returned with a vengence. When I say with a vengence, I not only returned me to my 'pre-stress job' weight...I added about 40 more pounds extra.
I turned thirty and panicked! I wanted to have a baby someday. I had always had one 'strike' against me. I was big...it would make a full term/healthy pregnancy/baby more difficult. BUt I always had 'youth' on my side. All of a sudden I had that "I'm in my thirties, I'm getting old" moment. I started working on my weight...and got myself back down to my 240. I plataued....and I have sat at 240-250 for the last 2-3 years.
During those last few years I've made half hearted attempts to kick start this process. However I just couldn't do it. Sadly enough, it is/was watching my mother struggle. She is a few years shy of 60 and she is struggling with her weight. It is terrible to see.....her health and her very life are contingent on her weight. I know that she has been lucky...it has only been in the last few years that these 'weight related' health issues have really surfaced. However, they are here and they are attacking! Typical mother, even as she struggles, she worries about my husband and I. She doesn't want us to go through what she is going through....and she knows it will most likely happen to us if we don't get this excess weight off.
Just recently it hit me. This weight is going to kill me. Not tomorrow...or the next day (hopefully). But eventually, it could very easily catch me in it's clutches. I can't let that happen. I have to fight!
For the last few years I have said..."well, if I get down to to 175 pounds I think that would be great". Just recently, I decided that was cutting myself short. Honestly, if I get there and just can't get it futher, I'm going to consider myself a sucess. However, I'm aiming more for what they "SAY" I should weigh....SO I am aiming for roughly 150... 100 pounds!
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
GREAT INSIPIRATION
I found this story on the internet while reading Blogs...couldn't help but post it on mine to reread whenever I need that little umf to help me stay movitaved and keep my willpower strong!
FOund on http://journals.aol.com/mmclem1112/marks ...just reading his blog is an inspiration in itself.....so far 172 pounds gone!
Posted by Kat on March 1st, 2005
Charles Laurence
The Sunday Telegraph
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Big Pete” Loiselle is a shadow of his former self. At 6-foot-6 and 260 pounds, he sits at his kitchen table and describes what it is like to be one of the most obese people in the United States.
The 40-year-old schoolteacher from Ellsworth, Me., told of being mocked at shopping centres, being unable to use public washrooms, suffering from severe body odour because of the sweat trapped in the folds of his skin and being scarcely able to lift himself from his living room chair to go to work. In the end, with his weight peaking at 763 pounds and a waist measuring 84 inches, his spine was being crushed by the pressure of his stomach whenever he stood up. It had come down to a decision between diet and death
“You get bigger a little bit at a time,” Mr. Loiselle says. “The bigger you get, the less activity you do. Even going to the bathroom is a problem.”
For 20 years, he could not go to a movie because he could no longer fit into the seats. He missed his sister’s wedding in Chicago because he could not afford to buy the two seats the airline was demanding before letting him on board. The mere act of staggering from his pick-up truck to his front door or into his classroom would leave him gasping for breath.
As he soared past the 700-pound mark in his early thirties, Mr. Loiselle worked out that he could get himself dressed more easily if he put his shoes on before hauling on his enormous, custom-made jeans. When he could no longer tie his shoelaces, he bought shoes with Velcro fasteners. “I could not go to my favourite restaurants because I could not fit into the chairs,” he says. “So I bought my own chair, tossed it into the back of the truck and hauled it into the restaurant.”
Mr. Loiselle did not, by his reckoning, “gorge constantly.” He did not eat breakfast and insists he was “never the kind of guy who ate all 12 eggs in the box” at one sitting. Rather, he regularly ate cheese crackers and peanut butter biscuits—“a packet or two at a time.”
There was plenty of food to be had, he discovered, if he volunteered for lunch duty at the Surry Elementary School, close to his home on the spectacular Bar Harbor coast of Maine. “The cooks always make too much for the kids, so I would eat all I liked from the leftovers. When I got home, I’d sit down and eat all that carbohydrate-sodium-sugar stuff that makes you feel good. Then I’d have an ordinary dinner—burgers, or something like that—only I’d have two or three portions. I ate all that I wanted and never counted the calories.”
If he had counted, according to the doctors who eventually helped save his life, the mathematics teacher would have arrived at a figure close to 10,000 for his daily calorie intake.
“I stopped going to the mall because of people pointing, staring and giggling,” he says.
Mr. Loiselle insists, however, that he was perfectly happy as one of the fattest men in the United States. At the age of 25, when he weighed about 650 lbs, he married Christine, now 45. “My love life? Well, I’ll say this: I’m still happy, and I’m still married. It’s another thing you learn to work your way around,” he says.
Christine laughs, and says: “There’s a lot less to love now, but a lot more loving. Pete was pretty big when I got to know him, and his weight was never an issue. He’s a really nice guy, and he has a wicked sense of humour. I always saw beyond what everyone else saw.”
At school, his pupils had never mocked him, even as he grew too big to get up from his chair below the blackboard. Mr. Loiselle had wanted to be a teacher since he was 13, and he has a knack for the job. He is known as a strict disciplinarian, but one whom the children love and respond to. When, in the end, he found himself in hospital, they made videotapes pleading for him to recover.
“The kids were my biggest defenders.”
By the time he was 36, however, Mr. Loiselle knew that his health was failing. He was developing cellulitis in his legs, an agonizing condition that causes inflammation of body tissue, which can lead to gangrene and amputation. While he was in hospital, he was told he would lose his legs within a year—and his life within three or four. It was considered remarkable that he had reached his mid-thirties at all.
Doctors called in surgeons and dietitians. They offered Mr. Loiselle a last chance plan: if he lost 100 lbs, they would offer gastric bypass surgery. After gastric bypass, however, a patient must stay on a strict diet for life.
Mr. Loiselle’s face still creases with horror at the thought. He decided he would forgo the gastric bypass and simply diet. “There was no big moment,” he says. “But I wanted to be with Christine, and I wanted to be big brother to my four siblings, all younger, and I wanted to see the 22 nephews and nieces they have grow up.”
With the dietitian, he worked out a daily regimen of 2,200 calories which enabled him to eat his favourite foods. He still enjoys peanut butter and burgers, drinks the odd beer and takeout from KFC. He just eats less.
For two-and-a-half years, he lost an average of 17 lbs a month—the total weight loss of almost 504 lbs is understood to be the largest achieved without surgery. After a year, he was able to exercise, and he now walks four miles a day and lifts weights daily. He has a body mass index of 30 and a body-fat ratio of 15.3%. “According to my doctor, I now officially have the body of an athlete,” he says, smiling.
Mr. Loiselle has, however, had one operation: his diet left him with folds of floppy skin. Surgeons removed eight pounds of skin from around his waist. “Yes, I’m happier like this,” he concedes. “I realized that my family had been keeping a little distance from me, because they were scared I was going to die.”
And not long ago, Mr. Loiselle was striding through Ellsworth when he encountered some pupils from his 700-pound days. “They were in shock,” he says. “And they were even in tears to see me like this because they were so pleased.”
FOund on http://journals.aol.com/mmclem1112/marks ...just reading his blog is an inspiration in itself.....so far 172 pounds gone!
Posted by Kat on March 1st, 2005
Charles Laurence
The Sunday Telegraph
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Big Pete” Loiselle is a shadow of his former self. At 6-foot-6 and 260 pounds, he sits at his kitchen table and describes what it is like to be one of the most obese people in the United States.
The 40-year-old schoolteacher from Ellsworth, Me., told of being mocked at shopping centres, being unable to use public washrooms, suffering from severe body odour because of the sweat trapped in the folds of his skin and being scarcely able to lift himself from his living room chair to go to work. In the end, with his weight peaking at 763 pounds and a waist measuring 84 inches, his spine was being crushed by the pressure of his stomach whenever he stood up. It had come down to a decision between diet and death
“You get bigger a little bit at a time,” Mr. Loiselle says. “The bigger you get, the less activity you do. Even going to the bathroom is a problem.”
For 20 years, he could not go to a movie because he could no longer fit into the seats. He missed his sister’s wedding in Chicago because he could not afford to buy the two seats the airline was demanding before letting him on board. The mere act of staggering from his pick-up truck to his front door or into his classroom would leave him gasping for breath.
As he soared past the 700-pound mark in his early thirties, Mr. Loiselle worked out that he could get himself dressed more easily if he put his shoes on before hauling on his enormous, custom-made jeans. When he could no longer tie his shoelaces, he bought shoes with Velcro fasteners. “I could not go to my favourite restaurants because I could not fit into the chairs,” he says. “So I bought my own chair, tossed it into the back of the truck and hauled it into the restaurant.”
Mr. Loiselle did not, by his reckoning, “gorge constantly.” He did not eat breakfast and insists he was “never the kind of guy who ate all 12 eggs in the box” at one sitting. Rather, he regularly ate cheese crackers and peanut butter biscuits—“a packet or two at a time.”
There was plenty of food to be had, he discovered, if he volunteered for lunch duty at the Surry Elementary School, close to his home on the spectacular Bar Harbor coast of Maine. “The cooks always make too much for the kids, so I would eat all I liked from the leftovers. When I got home, I’d sit down and eat all that carbohydrate-sodium-sugar stuff that makes you feel good. Then I’d have an ordinary dinner—burgers, or something like that—only I’d have two or three portions. I ate all that I wanted and never counted the calories.”
If he had counted, according to the doctors who eventually helped save his life, the mathematics teacher would have arrived at a figure close to 10,000 for his daily calorie intake.
“I stopped going to the mall because of people pointing, staring and giggling,” he says.
Mr. Loiselle insists, however, that he was perfectly happy as one of the fattest men in the United States. At the age of 25, when he weighed about 650 lbs, he married Christine, now 45. “My love life? Well, I’ll say this: I’m still happy, and I’m still married. It’s another thing you learn to work your way around,” he says.
Christine laughs, and says: “There’s a lot less to love now, but a lot more loving. Pete was pretty big when I got to know him, and his weight was never an issue. He’s a really nice guy, and he has a wicked sense of humour. I always saw beyond what everyone else saw.”
At school, his pupils had never mocked him, even as he grew too big to get up from his chair below the blackboard. Mr. Loiselle had wanted to be a teacher since he was 13, and he has a knack for the job. He is known as a strict disciplinarian, but one whom the children love and respond to. When, in the end, he found himself in hospital, they made videotapes pleading for him to recover.
“The kids were my biggest defenders.”
By the time he was 36, however, Mr. Loiselle knew that his health was failing. He was developing cellulitis in his legs, an agonizing condition that causes inflammation of body tissue, which can lead to gangrene and amputation. While he was in hospital, he was told he would lose his legs within a year—and his life within three or four. It was considered remarkable that he had reached his mid-thirties at all.
Doctors called in surgeons and dietitians. They offered Mr. Loiselle a last chance plan: if he lost 100 lbs, they would offer gastric bypass surgery. After gastric bypass, however, a patient must stay on a strict diet for life.
Mr. Loiselle’s face still creases with horror at the thought. He decided he would forgo the gastric bypass and simply diet. “There was no big moment,” he says. “But I wanted to be with Christine, and I wanted to be big brother to my four siblings, all younger, and I wanted to see the 22 nephews and nieces they have grow up.”
With the dietitian, he worked out a daily regimen of 2,200 calories which enabled him to eat his favourite foods. He still enjoys peanut butter and burgers, drinks the odd beer and takeout from KFC. He just eats less.
For two-and-a-half years, he lost an average of 17 lbs a month—the total weight loss of almost 504 lbs is understood to be the largest achieved without surgery. After a year, he was able to exercise, and he now walks four miles a day and lifts weights daily. He has a body mass index of 30 and a body-fat ratio of 15.3%. “According to my doctor, I now officially have the body of an athlete,” he says, smiling.
Mr. Loiselle has, however, had one operation: his diet left him with folds of floppy skin. Surgeons removed eight pounds of skin from around his waist. “Yes, I’m happier like this,” he concedes. “I realized that my family had been keeping a little distance from me, because they were scared I was going to die.”
And not long ago, Mr. Loiselle was striding through Ellsworth when he encountered some pupils from his 700-pound days. “They were in shock,” he says. “And they were even in tears to see me like this because they were so pleased.”
Monday, January 09, 2006
A bad day turns out to be not too bad
I sat here tonight all down in the dumps because I thought I had done so badly. I ate my meals and afterwards I just HAD to go to the cafeteria at work and I ended up buying a piece of cake and three cookies. I thought I had ruined my daily totals. So, it was with fear and trepidation that I entered my food intake into the nutrition log. I was very shocked to see that even with those extra foods I was still in my target calories..... I don't think I should do that every day. But at least I moderated my food intake.
Sunday, January 08, 2006
My work week begins
I feel as if I can eat better when I work. I pack a nutritious lunch and pretty much stick to that. I can't go back for seconds....I can't add anything else. I eat what is packed and when it's gone...it's gone.
I did get off the computer and exercise last night. I also got on the stationary bike first thing out of bed this morning. It is amazing how tired the simplest program makes me right now. It is a testament about what lack of exercise can do!
For me, this is probably the hardest part....not the getting started. I can start and go a day or two just fine. The hardest part is getting past the first 2-3 weeks. Once I get in a routine, I feel as if I do pretty good. ARRGGGHHHHHH unfortunatly, I am in that, 'first couple week' window!
I did get off the computer and exercise last night. I also got on the stationary bike first thing out of bed this morning. It is amazing how tired the simplest program makes me right now. It is a testament about what lack of exercise can do!
For me, this is probably the hardest part....not the getting started. I can start and go a day or two just fine. The hardest part is getting past the first 2-3 weeks. Once I get in a routine, I feel as if I do pretty good. ARRGGGHHHHHH unfortunatly, I am in that, 'first couple week' window!
Saturday, January 07, 2006
Getting on a Roll
OK, I'm at least cutting my calories. I've started using the slim-fast website. I signed up for my free membership and found they have some of the greatest tools to help track and manage this journey that I am undertaking. They have daily food logs that you can simply write down what you ate...I chose to follow the Nutrition Diary. It is a bit time consuming to log my food as I have found no easy way to enter a salad. I end up having to enter each individual item one by one. However, the end result is fabulous. It calculates your calories, breaks it down by meals, averages the week, etc. I think it is also really neat because it has a little section for journaling. I found journaling really helped when I was losing the last time. I discovered patterens that I perpetuted...sometimes unhealthy habits. It's easier to correct the problem if you know what the problem is!
I'm sitting here......and the exercise bike is calling my name. Ok, that's the guilt. I really am dreading starting. However, I KNOW that I need to do this! I can change my eating patterns all I want, but without the exercise it just wont work. (Or will work so slowly that I'll be discouraged)
I'm sitting here......and the exercise bike is calling my name. Ok, that's the guilt. I really am dreading starting. However, I KNOW that I need to do this! I can change my eating patterns all I want, but without the exercise it just wont work. (Or will work so slowly that I'll be discouraged)
Friday, January 06, 2006
The Master Plan
The other year when I lost the weight, I refused to call what I was doing at diet. I know that whatever I do to lose the weight, it needs to be a lifelong processes. I can't slack off when the weight is gone, or it will come back. So my first process was to get the word diet from my vocabulary. I was changing my eating habits. The other thing that was revolutionary (in today's day and age at least) was not following any of the diets out there. I truely believe that to be healthy we need all types of foods....just in moderate amounts. And right there is the key to my plan. I need to really pay attention to my portion sizes! Which means no double helpings....or 'big' spoon fulls. To do this the last time, I actually measured my food for a while. It is quite difficult to drop...because my body is used to eating that amount of food....and it seems unsatisfied when I don't get it. However, I found that eating till I am full is a totally different feel than eating until I am satisfied. And the feeling of being satisfied is a much better over all feeling.
The other portion of that magical sentence was 'all types of foods'. I don't limit my foods and say I can't have anything. I tried to make my base meals very healthy...plenty of vegetables and fruits. I ate lots of salads. I tried to eat very well rounded meals.
In this way, I feel as if I curbed some of the cravings that would naturally come. I believe that cravings or that feeling of being hungry for 'something' is actually our body telling us that we 'need' something. We may not know what it is...but our bodies need some nutrient. So by eating healthy well balanced meals....I suffered MUCH less of the cravings that I normally suffer. THere was no need...my body was being satisfied.
I also didn't deny myself. I ate the Pizza...I had a piece of cake....I had a cookie. I didn't deny myself when I saw something that really struck my fancy or when it was there. The operative attitude was that instead of eating THREE pieces of cake....I only ate one small piece. Instead of eatinc a half of pizza, I ate 1 or 2 slices. MODERATION. In this way, I never felt deprived.
Yes, I was exercising regularly.......which I plan on doing. I rode the exercise bike...walked with my husband....walked on my breaks at work......and did sit-ups (on the balance ball once I purchased it). I know that my plan was contingent on the exercise....but however it wouldn't have worked with both aspects!
So there you have it...my plan to get myself into shape!
The other portion of that magical sentence was 'all types of foods'. I don't limit my foods and say I can't have anything. I tried to make my base meals very healthy...plenty of vegetables and fruits. I ate lots of salads. I tried to eat very well rounded meals.
In this way, I feel as if I curbed some of the cravings that would naturally come. I believe that cravings or that feeling of being hungry for 'something' is actually our body telling us that we 'need' something. We may not know what it is...but our bodies need some nutrient. So by eating healthy well balanced meals....I suffered MUCH less of the cravings that I normally suffer. THere was no need...my body was being satisfied.
I also didn't deny myself. I ate the Pizza...I had a piece of cake....I had a cookie. I didn't deny myself when I saw something that really struck my fancy or when it was there. The operative attitude was that instead of eating THREE pieces of cake....I only ate one small piece. Instead of eatinc a half of pizza, I ate 1 or 2 slices. MODERATION. In this way, I never felt deprived.
Yes, I was exercising regularly.......which I plan on doing. I rode the exercise bike...walked with my husband....walked on my breaks at work......and did sit-ups (on the balance ball once I purchased it). I know that my plan was contingent on the exercise....but however it wouldn't have worked with both aspects!
So there you have it...my plan to get myself into shape!
Thursday, January 05, 2006
This is the time!!
A few years ago, I decided that I needed to get some weight off. I was the hightest I have ever been. I worked hard for about 6 months and lost about 50 lbs. However, I plateaued and got discouraged. Miraculously, I have been able to retain most of what I lost (within roughly 5 pounds). It is now the time to kick myself into high gear and finish this off. I was going to start the first day of the new year...however, the best laid intentions sometimes don't work. Just tonight, I went to the kitchen and literally threw away the last of my temptation foods that were in the freezer staring me in the face. (Cookie dough....yumm) I've got to do this....for my health!
Meanwhile, we are tying to eat more at home to reduce the spending.....this should help with the budget.....but also with the weight as it is much easier to eat the healthier foods at home.
Meanwhile, we are tying to eat more at home to reduce the spending.....this should help with the budget.....but also with the weight as it is much easier to eat the healthier foods at home.
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