Real Weight loss?

[Hawkeye6]

Track down a copy of Governor Mike Huckabee's book, Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork . I heard him speak on the Diane Rehm Show on NPR one day and hsi is a pretty impressive story.

Like you and me, he was pretty much a desk jockey. He walked into his staff meeting one day and sat down in an antique chair. It did not bear the burden. That was his wake-up call.

He basically outlines a 12-step program to end some bad habits.

I'm re-reading the book now.

I picked it up through Amazon Marketplace.

Bill Phillips books and programs can be helpful as well. But maybe read Huckabee's work and see if it makes sense.

Hawkeye

[Valigator]

Totally re-landscape your yard this summer

Paint your or your parents or your friends house

completely clean out your garage this summer

drink lots of water, have more romantic nights or days with your significant other, with the lights on.

Come spring, you'll look and feel like a million dollars...oh and cut back on the booze

[GoodOlBoy]

Aint had a drop in nigh on 4 months, I just aint a big drinker.

The other stuff I had planned to do anyway Val, some of it I just gotta convince the wife about.

GoodOlBoy

[GoodOlBoy]

Well I manage to dig my grandparents old excercise bike out two nights ago. Had the wife not reminded me about the cast iron and steel framed monster I would never have even thought about it. First time I got on it I thought I was going to have a stroke before the odometer hit a mile. I have planned a building schedual of more miles on it (IE first week goal 3 miles a night is just about to kill me so far) so here is to hoping. The best thing about it being of course that it actually holds all my weight.

Anyway. if anybody wants to keep this thread going I am more than willing to read any advice, discussions of past sucess (and failures) etc etc.

GoodOlBoy

[Valigator]

The one thing I can add about stationary bicycles are they add extra hanging space for your clothes.....

But good luck with it...we are pullin for ya darlin...

[skb2706]

Don't want to sound like a SA but anyone who suggests they don't have the time or money to take care of themselves has some serious priority issues.
A couple of thoughts from someone who has made a lifetime commitment out of not letting themselves get out of shape....thus not having to worry about getting in shape.

*it won't go on your ass if it doesn't go in your mouth

You need a serious dietary program, not "a diet" , a lifestyle.

*its not how much you exercise.....its how you use the time you have

Get the most bang for your buck. I am not suggesting a personal trainer but using your time effectively will get results faster.

*the single biggest problem most "new gym/home work out clients" have is staying motivated to continue the program

I see people spending hundreds of dollars on gyms and home workout equipment only to let them go idle or use them for laundry hangers.

*permanent results require a permanent 'life style change'

The results of short term diets are .........well........short.

Good luck and don't get discouraged.

[BILLY D.]

now heres a guy with the opposite problem. i had a very sickly childhood. by the time i was 6 i had contracted rheumatic fever and polio. and then came measles, chicken pox and mumps. consequently by the time i was nine i looked like an escapee from dachau. i always wanted to be big. never happened. i'm 5'11 and weigh 150#. i was always the runt.

i can get on a scale, get weighed, get off, eat two pounds of food, get back on the scale and weigh less than i did when i started.

i guess my mom had a lot to do with my eating habits. when you figure it took two dinning room tables to feed the family you might get the idea. we ate to live not lived to eat.

i can't begin to think what it would be like to go on a diet, shucks, i can't even quit smoking. even though i've done it a number of times.

i guess the point i'm trying to get to is to just eat less. instead of three or four pork chops eat just two, instead of a big scoop of taters get a smaller scoop. course thats easy for me, i'm not the one cutting back on portions. and yes i do feel your pain. it's the same for me when i decide to quit smoking.

sure i can sit here and speak words of wisdom about dieting but dieting to me is something totally different. some folks are just big. but there is a happy medium. you just have to find it for your self.

when i was in grade school they used to have what we called health class. food was a big part of it. at this time in history the diet consisted of about 3000 calories a day. i see now the dieticians are saying 2000 calories a day. thats because back in the days of yore people walked a lot more, worked harder etc. now we drive everywhere, don't do nearly the amount of physical labor.

theres only one way to stop weight gain, slow down on the eating. and portion your food. a friend of mine once said, the best way for him to eat was leave everything in the kitchen, fill his plate and go eat in another room and not refill his plate no matter what. it sure helped him.

if i were you on the bike i would star with a mile and add a tenth every other day. as far as the food goes don't try to cut everthing you in half in one fell swoop, moderation is the key here. do it in small steps. that way it isn't a crash.

good luck bud.

[Hawkeye6]

First time I got on it I thought I was going to have a stroke before the odometer hit a mile. I have planned a building schedual of more miles on it (IE first week goal 3 miles a night is just about to kill me so far) so here is to hoping.

GOB:

It sounds to me like you need to adjust your initial goals downward a little. Can you pedal the thing continuously for, say, 20 minutes?

If you can, great! That is not a bad place to start. Maybe do that three times a week for the first two weeks. Then add 5 minutes per session for the next couple of weeks, Then up it again so that you are now doing 30 minutes three times a week.

It will take a while to recondition yourself, but doing it slowly will reduce your chance of injury and not leave you so exhausted that you don't want to do it each time.

You might try alternating things, too. Three days you bike and three you walk for 20 minutes or so.

H.

[GoodOlBoy]

It is amazing how people assume it is food related. Of course most of the time it is. Let me break it down this way. Around six to seven months ago the Doctor made me write down everything I ate exactlly to the letter (I mean brand, etc too) What was discovered was that on the average day I was consuming less than 1800 calories. Thats for a hole day. Some days were much less (Had several 600 calorie days a week in there) and some days were a great deal more (Had a few 4000+ calorie days a month when I would go on a soda rampage IE looking at the notes I had 7 of those days in two months) What was also discovered was I had low thyroid, borderline diabetes, and almost zero activity in a given week (Winter was on. 99% of my activity was squirrel hunting on the weekends) A series of tests run on me also revealed that I have a metabolism that has de-evolved to what would probably have been considered the norm during the early middle ages. My system actually only needs around 500 calories a day to survive and around 700 to thrive. Anything in excess of 1000 was completely packed away as body fat. IE my system ALWAYS thinks it is in survival/starvation mode. Add the fact that I don't get enough excercise in and poof you have 300+ pounds.

Now as for not having enough time to take care of yourself? I am a 31 year old man with responsibilities. I don't live in a city. I spend 50+ hours a week at work and 20+ hours a week on the road. Now since your average week has 168 hours in it. -70 for travel and work = 98. - 14 for personal hygene and grooming (I spend about an hour getting ready every morning and another hour winding down in a hot shower at night) and you have 84. -49 for average sleep of seven hours a night = 35. -7 for bathroom breaks (totalling about an hour in a given day) = 28. now that leaves on average 4 hours a day of down time right? Wrong. -4 (and hour each time plus drive) for Church once on Wed and Twice on Sunday. = 24. Meals (about an hour each time beacuse thats the only time the family gets to visit. I am only home for supper since breakfast is now a granola bar eaten on the road. And including breakfast and lunch together on Saturday and Sunday) - 11 hours a week = 12. Now assuming that my wife and I are trying to have children (Which we are) and assuming I go grocery shopping for the house (Which I do) And the Yardwork (yep) and picking up my brother from work until he gets a vehicle (Can we see a pattern yet) Taking out the trash for two households (mine and my grandparents) feeding and watering the dogs and the chickens (3 dogs 53 chickens) gathering yard eggs. I give it approximately 20 minutes a day in which I collapse into a recliner from exhaustion. That 20 minutes a day is now spent on a excercise bike. And soon that lunch hour will be freed up for me to hit up the wellness center (assuming I ever get the hardware firewall configured and in place)

So don't assume I am a lazy overeating bastard just because that tends to fit the model. Believe it or not there are people in this world whose metabolism is not designed for the life we now have. 4 pork chops? It would take me over a week to eat 4 pork chops. I can't even finish a whole burger from burger king on 99 cent whopper wednesdays (and I don't care for fast food anyway) without the fries.

Don't misunderstand. I did not start this thread to whine about my weight and get sympathy. I started it because I needed advice because I HAVE to get rid of this fat. PERIOD. I needed a little encouragement no matter how childish that may be. My life should be all the encouragement I need. But what can I say other than it wasn't.

Lets highlight today for example. 1/2 of a natures own granola bar (Pecan Crunch Variety Serving Siz is two bars so deviding their Nutrition Facts that is 47.5 calories, and approx 2 grams of fat) . Two 20 oz bottles of Sam's Choice Purified drinking water. Half a take out container of fried rice from King Buffett, Nacogdoches Texas. And supper tonight will most likely consist of a small salad (Read about 1.5 cups of shredded lettuce and nothing else) with a tablespoon of Olive oil and a few grinds of black pepper on it. It is possible that later I will also snack on an 8oz bag of unsalted unbuttered microwave popcorn. And I would bet you I drink at least another bottle and a half of water before I get in some sack time. This weekend I will probably treat myself to some dead creature slow cooked on an open flame the way God intended.

I don't overeat, in fact I under eat. As it is I am so disinterested in food and eating that I literaly could care less about 99% of the food available on the market. Priority issues? Yes I agree. I let the lives of 4 other people be more important to me than my own.

You know that little thing that they say about diets and excercise? You should consult a physician? Well I already did. His answer was with my messed up metabolism, low thyroid, and other issues was that I should take eight types of medicine and get more rest because I am never going to do it on diet and excercise. . . . . . He's wrong. I will do it on excercise, diet I already have bagged.

Now back to the issue of needing more exercise and what kind of excercises work and what ones don't (BTW which ones DID work for you and which ones didn't?). We will see how the bike goes, and if I can make it into the wellness center on Monday in spite of myself.

Thanks for the encouragement everybody.

GoodOlBoy

[Edited to add] If anybody else is trying to loose weight and would like to start comparing weekly notes on loss/gain. Excercises etc Just let me know.

Thanks.

GoodOlBoy (AKA Fatman. . . . . . for now. . . . .)

[DaMadman]

GOB here is a little diet ( I use that word loosely) that If you are not a picky eat can help you lose enough to get started on your way to weight loss..


http://mikeandmandyonline.com/2005/0...nds-in-3-days/


You absolutely HAVE to follow the diet EXACLTY or it will not work.

I have seen several people do it and it worked for everyone that followed the diet to the letter.

I have also seen other people that didn't follow it exactly and id didn't work at all.

You can user the diet for 3 days to lose the 10 pounds then go off it for a few days and eat sensibly to maintain your weight then go back on it and lose 10 more and so on. It doesn't work well to use it for 6 or 9 days straight to attempt to lose 20-30 pounds.

Anyway like I said you can't be a pick eater because there are things on the diet that you have to eat like beets and plain tuna fish and broccoli and you have to eat them and cannot substitute other things for them.

Hope it works if you try it....

I can also tell you that my Dad was in a very similar situation as you are and he cut out eating one meal a day and lost a lot of weight. He would have his coffee and something light for breakfast, skipped lunch and ate a sensible Dinner and cut out all the snacking in between meal and he lost a lot of weight in a short period of time.

[GoodOlBoy]

Ok I was writing a long one and Hawkeye and Damandman responded while I was.

I probably could Hawkeye, but I think I will stick with mileage for now. If I force myself to have to do it, I think I can stick with it.

DaMadman as I responded above I already eat less than I should. That being said however I have been informed recently (IE by my boss during my typing of the above) that that could actually be part of the problem. I will see about giving that little menu a shot. After all what can it hurt.

Thanks guys.

GoodOlBoy (Will let you know soon if DaMadman's menu works for short term loss.)

Also - I was not trying to be rude or come off as mad with the above posting, I just want everybody to know that this was NOT caused by overeating. I really wish it had been, then I could just do push-aways (from the table that is) to help it.

GoodOlBoy

[skb2706]

GOB you said "It is amazing how people assume it is food related."

I said "if it doesn't go in your mouth.............."

I will stand but what I said.........you can not get to be overweight by breathing so the alternatives are few.

I also said it is a lifestyle...........everything about what you do makes you what you are..........good or bad.

[DaMadman]

Originally posted by GoodOlBoy
Ok I was writing a long one and Hawkeye and Damandman responded while I was.

I probably could Hawkeye, but I think I will stick with mileage for now. If I force myself to have to do it, I think I can stick with it.

DaMadman as I responded above I already eat less than I should. That being said however I have been informed recently (IE by my boss during my typing of the above) that that could actually be part of the problem. I will see about giving that little menu a shot. After all what can it hurt.

Thanks guys.

GoodOlBoy (Will let you know soon if DaMadman's menu works for short term loss.)

Also - I was not trying to be rude or come off as mad with the above posting, I just want everybody to know that this was NOT caused by overeating. I really wish it had been, then I could just do push-aways (from the table that is) to help it.

GoodOlBoy

That diet/menu that I posted the link to isn't about cutting the amount of food you consume it is about eating plenty of food but eating the right foods together that counter act each other when you body proccesses them. The acids in one food counteract the chemicals in another food that you eat in the same meal and cause some sort of chemical balance in your system. If you eat all the food that is listed for each meal, you will be totally full and wonder why you are eating so much and still losing weight.

GOB I feel you, while I am still around 200 pounds right now my weight has steadily increased for the past 8-10 years because I have a busted up back and am not as active as I should be or as active as I used to be. Before my back injust I was around 170- 200 depending on what time a year it was and if I was snacking or not. I mostly stayed in the 175 range and would go up to 190 or so in the winter when I was less active and then drop right back down come spring time. in the last 8- 10 years my weight has creeped up to around 200-210 and stays the same because I am not able to be as active as I should be. The catch 22 in my case is the doctors tell me if I exercise and lose a little weight my back would feel better, yet my back is always hurting and exercise make it hurt worse so I take more medicine then the doctors get on my about taking too much meds.

Anywho Good luck with the weight lose, and BTW that menu/diet thing (in case it doesn't tell you in the website) seems like a lot of food, but it is mostly filling food with low calories and it was also devised by a nutritionist or something that sat down and figured out that the certain foods counteract the chemicals in certain other food and it actually can help reset your metabolism.

speaking of which GOB you might want to do some research on that.... There are diets out there and dietary suppliments that are specifically made to boost and reset your metabolism

[Montana Cowboy]

Evening GoodOLBoy
Been thinking about you and was wondering how your doing. Got to thinking about you wanting to loose weight and it occurred to me that part of your weight problem could be heredity related.
Was your Dad or mother a big person? How about you grand parents?
A fella I work with has lost over 200 pounds. I haven't talked to him about how he went about loosing it since I see him only occasionally. Just keep at it and keep us posted. Like I said any exercise is better than doing nothing at all. MC

[GoodOlBoy]

Well me and the Bike, and me and the riding mower went round and round this weekend. I have not yet jumped on DaMadmans 3-day drop because I have not had time to get to the store (I live 62 miles from work, and 10.5 miles from the closest town) Anyway I hoped on the scale this morning and show about a poundand a half drop from thursday. Could just be all the sweating I did on the mower, could be the bike starting to help, could be anything or nothing.

skb2706 if any less went into my mouth I would wind up with malnutrition, the doctor already warned me about that. and yes lifestyle has had a great deal to do with it.

Montana alot of my problem is heredity. Dear old dad was over 300 before his heart surgery last year. (Aint that right BP?) Howsomeever I believe that just like me it is because our bodies were designed for a whole lot more moving around than the average Joe. We have those interesting body styles that woulda looked real good on a viking raider (IE built like a missouri mule, mostly gristle bone and muscle)

Anyway I appreciate it Montana, I will keep posting here even if nobody reads it. BTW I made a deal with the Assistant Chief (Did I mention I moved to the University PD a few months back?) and we are headed to the wellness center today.

Thanks

GoodOlBoy