Tag Archives: obesity

Over The Top

Posted on by
Reply

It seems that every time I listen to one of those hypnotic weight loss CDs or start reading about how this person or that person lost a whole lot of weight – lot meaning over 200 lbs – I actually start gaining weight.

I know, at some level, I’m trying to pawn off my personal responsibility for stuffing my body with tons of sugar and starch. Yet, I can’t help but feel there might be a kind of reverse effect from this stuff. You know. Read about weight loss and I figure that’s all it’ll take.

I’ve also been throwing hundreds of dollars away at a local gym because I’ve been paying their monthly fee and not going (the perfect client for the gym). I’ve tried counting calories and joined a website that helps me keep track but I end up frustrated, hungry and eventually stop counting.

Now I find myself at the absolute heaviest I’ve been in my entire life. I weighed n this morning at 305 lbs. That’s a lot of weight. My blood pressure is high and I’m on drugs for that. I have sleep apnea. I’m going through physical therapy for what is essentially arthritis in my neck. My left hip aches (more arthritis) and reduces a little (just a little) of my mobility mostly in the raising and lowering of my leg.

Long story short, I’m falling apart physically and it’s mostly due to being grossly – morbidly – overweight.

I really, really, really have to get hold of myself.

Week 1 – Awareness

Posted on by
2

I’ve been playing around with what to do with this blog for awhile.  Trying to find a voice, so to speak.  Nothing seems to be work as such and since I’m not using any of the “Get 10,000 subscribers in 10 Days” programs or methods I might as well keep a log of a journey toward a more healthy body weight.

There a lot of reasons to drop the weight.  Someone – who was selling me Isagenix product – liked to call it “releasing” since “losing weight” means you might actually find it again, as most people, including myself, do. Whatever. Releasing. Dropping. Losing. It all means the same thing. Going from my current weight of 302 to where I want to be at 180.

Inspiration

I got inspired recently by the story of Tyler Weeks who writes about his personal journey at 344 Pounds. Tyler is just a regular guy who woke up one day with the thought that enough was enough.  He knew he needed to drop the poundage and he knew the way to doit was by burning more calories than you take in – Eat Less and Exercise More.

It’s a pretty simple formula except that most people, including myself, have a hard time sticking with it.  We are constantly bombarded by systems or foods or pills or machines or {insert your favorite weight loss miracle here}. I’ve known people who have gone through surgery to change their body and now can only eat small amount of certain foods.

But, I digreee.

Tyler is just a regular guy. No fancy system.  Yet, he’s been able to go from 344 lbs to 211 lbs in 100 weeks.  Yeah. That seems like a long time but a lot of that way came off fairly quickly by looking at his progress chart.  So, along those lines, I would like to start my own journey follwoing in his path.

Weigh Ins

I have this neat Excel Spreadsheet that someone developed who was on Weight Watchers.  No, it doesn’t have points of foods.  It simply a week-by-week spreadsheet of how much you weigh with a corresponding graph that gives you a visual of the progress. It was already pre-designed for a weekly weigh-in. Interesting. Since in one of Tyler’s very early posts, he rights about doing the weekly thing because of weight fluctuations that can happen from day-to-day. (Although, I have a daily weight recording program called Weight Commander that I found on Dottie’s Weight Loss Zone. It used to be a desktop program.  I think it’s all web based now.)

Last week was when I first started reading 344Pounds, in earnest.  It was more of a curiosity thing and wondering if I could do the same thing. I read a lot of the posts, I joined the forum he has on the site and I became really aware that such a dramatic weight loss could happen.  More importantly, once the weight has disappeared it can stay gone, never to return.

That’s appealing.

The Result

So between last week – when I became “aware” and wanted to do something – and this week I’ve dropped 1 lbs. That’s right. 1.

The thing is this: I didn’t do anything differently other than kinda pay attention to what I was putting in my mouth.

I think I’m going to stay “aware” thought January 1st.  I need to get past the holiday meals and family get-togethers. I don’t want to start lying to myself that “I’m a new man. I’m really gonna work this thing.” when I know there is going to be lots and lots of food around.  Most of it going straight to my weakness: sweets and starches.

I’ve blathered on long enough.

Started recording at 303 lbs – Thursday, December 23rd
Week One recored at 302 lbs – Thursday, December 30th

Commitment

Posted on by
2

In my last post, I referred to a weight loss website/blog that wasn’t your typical weight loss website. It is the story of the personal journey of a guy from 344 Pounds to his current (at this writing) 211 lbs.

A couple of things struck me about the website:

  1. It’s about counting calories and “moving”. Eat less and Exercise More.  No magic formula. No special diet.
  2. It’s not a hokey site with lots of advertising and promises of magic results
  3. It’s by a man.
  4. It talks about gaols that real people have about why they want to lose weight.  Sure, health is in the mix but it’s not the primary reason for dropping all the poundage.  Things like sex appeal, being able to buy “regular” clothes, fitting into the seats at restaurants, movie theaters and airplanes.
  5. It talks about commitment.

It’s that last thing that always trips me up.

Commitment

Yes, I want to drop this huge amount of weight and I don’t want to be chained to special foods delivered to my door or picked up at the local gym. I’ve tried lots of stuff and, for some reason, it doesn’t kick in.

Why?

I think I know why.  I haven’t really committed myself to changing a lifestyle that includes eating sugar laden treats when the urge strikes me, high carb and high fat foods at restaurants and take-out joints.  It’s all about not being able to say “no”.

I’m a food slut.

This wouldn’t be so bad if the food I opened my mouth for were the fruits and vegetables that are supposed to be the road to good health and a decent waistline.  Instead, when I’m at various meeting and social functions and there’s a buffet of goodies, I don’t load up on the carrot sticks and cauliflower. I go to the meatballs and wings and rolls and cheese.

This is what the Miriam Webster Dictionary (online) has to say about commitment (in part):

a : an agreement or pledge to do something in the future

b : something pledged

c : the state or an instance of being obligated or emotionally impelled (a commitment to a cause)

Changing my lifestyle from one of indiscriminate eating and a sedentary lifestyle is one hell of a commitment.

An Inspiring Website for Weight Reduction (no selling hype)

Posted on by
2

I’ve been writing, on and off, recently about being overweight and not knowing really what to do about it.  I mean, I know that the magic formula is “eat less and exercise more” but getting the motivation to do that on any kind of a sustained basis is tough.

Well, my colleague in Atlanta, Rob McCance of Virtual Properties Realty turned me onto an interesting website call 344 Pounds.  It’snot your normal weight loss website.  It’s actually the inspiring story of Shawn Tyler Weeks (known as Tyler) who decided that 344 pounds was too much and went on a weight loss journey by…wait for it…counting calories and exercising.

It’s pretty interesting because it shows Tyler at various stages of his weight loss (he’s down to 199 lbs) complete with a spreadsheet that shows his weekly progress along with the narrative of his story.  The beauty of this site, in my view, is that there is no hard core advertising or affiliate marketing.  There is also a forum or “community” of people who are along for the ride.

Tyler as been picked up by a lot of media outlets who also find his story remarkable and his website boast a huge amount of subscribers.  Of course, there is the requisite social media ties ins on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and more.

All in all it’s an interesting website and gives me hope that if Tyler can do it, so can I.

Dessert First

Posted on by
3

In my last post I was, er, belly achin’ about being so fat.  It’s true.  I’m a porker who is a string bean wannabe.  And I know why I’m one heavy dude. I love the sweet stuff.  Yeah.  I love the starchy stuff, too. Bread, potatoes, rice.

It has been said, more than once, that a diet that is sure fire to work is to eliminate all the white stuff from your diet.

Sugar…Flour…Dairy

In other words, all the stuff you like and have grown accustomed to is out, out, out.

Which brings me to a recent post I read on an interesting and downright amusing blog called How To Get A Grip. The post: Start With Dessert.  The idea is that since you never know when you’ll kick the bucket, you might as well do the fun stuff now…and early.

Of course, I’ve been doing that with food for awhile.  Cake, ice cream, cookies.  You name it. I stuck it in my mouth.  The fun has now caught up with me and I’m so fat I can barely get on a plane or visit a movie theater and let’s forget the booths in restaurant.  Ironic, huh?  I’ve gotten so big I need a table or take out.

I get the point about not putting off life’s little pleasures while you doggedly try to become “a success” but the idea of doing all the fun stuff becuase I’ll be dead any minute doesn’t get it, either.  Do enough of the fun stuff and you may be living and miserable.

It might be better to spread it out.  Maybe.

Any thoughts?