Weight Control Support Group

Just wanted to say Shell, I hope you get to feeling better! I know how you feel about taking time off work with no pay...I have been home 2 days with a sick baby...no pay, and Thursday is inventory at work so I won't be working that day...so there's 3 days off this week with no pay.

Jason, I am glad you have joined us!!

I am trying to eat healthy while at home...and drink lots of water, but I have screwed up a few times....ate some cheetos yesterday. But today I am going to have chicken soup for lunch which is lowfat, and some fat free yogurt.

How has everyone done today??? Myself....so-so. I am still improving with the water but, I still have sooooo much work ahead of me.

Shell...take care of yourself. Trust me....I have been sick for over one month with pneumonia. It takes forever to go away.

Jason...glad you are joining us! Good luck!

Myste: Congrats on your 60 hours smoke free!!! Way to go! Hang in there!

Laurie, I sure didn't take your advice as 'negative'. Not to worry. That's what we are here for. To help, encourage, assist and direct one another in the right direction. Right now, Yoga is the exercise I am sticking with until I feel stronger and more capable of doing more.

Brenda, you should see my Yoga instructor! I am in awe of her. She has a 3 year old and I doubt if you can "pinch an inch' on her body anywhere! My little guy is 4....and there is much more than an inch to pinch on this bod! :LOL:

Debby, from all of your postings, it sounds like you are doing a great job and eating much healthier. A better job than me for sure. Keep up the good work.

Good luck everyone and stick with the program. You guys are all doing great!!!

Well, since you asked, and it is a good idea for us to "check in" here. At least it keeps us honest.

I've been doing good on the water. I actually thought about this last night, and I think I am underestimating how much I am drinking. I think the glass I drink from at work is really about 20 oz, but I count it as 2 (16 oz) and I drink 4 full glasses of that a day, and I know the glass I drink from in the bathroom is bigger than 8 oz, probably more like 12 and I drink 2 in the morning and at least 4 from the time I get home from work to bedtime. I think I'm actually pretty close to that gallon mark.

I'm doing better on the food than last week, with the exception of sweets. I know, I said I didn't really like them but there are a few exeptions. The problem is this: I went and bought 2 bags of M&Ms for Halloween - more than enough for the few kids we get. I didn't take Earl with me on purpose when I went to buy them. I won't eat M&Ms, I can have self control with them. Then he decides that we really need more when we went shopping, and now I have 8 bags of candy for the probably 5 kids we will get, and some of my favorites (3 Musketeers and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups - the rest I can resist!). And that doesn't count the cookies (which are now hockey pucks, so no temptation there) and the cake he made. Oh, and he's on a kick that we HAVE to get Krispy Kremes soon, "at least 2 dozen of the glazed and maybe more" (his words not mine). ARG! Why is it we haven't had this stuff in the house for like 2 years and now that I'm trying to lose weight he insists that we have it???

OK, I'm better now. I did go and work out last night, 35 minutes on the treadmill, going 1.5 miles. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I am actually looking forward to working out now. Amazing what the right mindset does! Oh, and I'm still working on the fruit and veggie thing. I tried broccoli the other night. The stems weren't bad but the flowery tops - YUK! On to the next thing.

I've done so-so. Most of my meals have been healthy ones except for two. It's another day until grocery day so instead of letting what food I already had go to waste, I went ahead and fixed it. Had a great workout yesterday and did cardio today. Soreness is really starting to set in so I'll be real stiff tomorrow.

Wow Heidi.....sounds like you are doing great!!!! Keep up the good work. You are funny too! So broccoli is out huh???

Good job with the exercising guys!!!!!

Way to go!!!!

We walked Sunday afternoon - and spent about 15 minutes doing jumping jacks (I did - Gary didn't with his back problems). And BOY is jump roping hard! How did we do it for hours as children?

Today was a BAAAAAAD day. We skipped breakfast. We ate McDonald's for lunch. Yes, a big mac, fries and a coke.

...and Christy - I'd totally forgotten about prunes and dates! I love them! Thanks for reminding me!!!!

Laurie

Heidi - I totally forgot to mention. As a kid I hated broccoli tops but loved the stems. Mom used to cut off the tops and serve the stems to me cut up like carrots or cucumbers or something. We ate them cold - uncooked! Of course then I ate them with a mayo/mustard dip....

:tounge2:

More celery today. Ugh. Had pizza for dinner, not exactly health food, but Mike and I gave blood today, so we treated ourselves. Hey, how much does a pint of blood weigh, anyway? At least I lost something today!

Yeah, hubby wanted to order pizza last night but the roads were sheer ice. I just asked him - Do you really want to put a poor delivery person through that drive? Of course, his reason not to was "It would probably be like an hour and a half wait." Way to care about your fellow human beings, hon. LOL

You know, one thing I like about this group is that even when we have a bad day there's no beating ourselves or each other up. Hasn't there been studies or something that the guilt associated with not keeping to a diet is one of the biggest reasons why people fail?

Laurie, I don't even want to TRY jumping rope! You are brave.

You know, one thing I like about this group is that even when we have a bad day there's no beating ourselves or each other up. Hasn't there been studies or something that the guilt associated with not keeping to a diet is one of the biggest reasons why people fail?

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Heidi-

I agree 100%. And guilt is one of the main reasons people abandon diets. I think diet is a loaded word, anyways. What I like to think we are doing is making healthy changes in our eating, drinking and living habits. That way, if we slip, we haven't failed but merely returned to our old habits!

Well I haven't been eating much because I have been sick. That also means I haven't been eating 100% healthy, but at least no junk food! I hope that my appetite picks up when I am finished my medication - it makes me nauseated. I have been drinking alot of water (an some coke).

well, after a month walking to and from the max line to work (about 3/4 mile each way) and a week eating nothing but fruit and soup at work, and a decent dinner (nothing fried, greasy, etc) I can now report that I have GAINED 3 lbs. I'm so upset and depressed, it makes me want to cry. If I wasn't on my way to work, I'd probably have a complete breakdown. And I don't understand why! I've been eating decent food (if you can call celery decent), non-fat where I can, and getting lots more exercise than I normally do!

Myste-

Keep in mind that muscle weighs more than fat, so if you have been exercising and dieting, it's possible to gain weight. The question to ask is are your clothes fitting better? Do you have more energy and get tired less easily? Hang in there!

Christy

Christy, that's what I was trying to say. That we're not necessarily "dieting" (as Garfield once said - diet is just DIE with a T ), but changing our lifestyles to a more healthy way of living, and pushing to loose weight too. That way we can keep it off once we get there.

Myste, Christy is right, as usual. Muscle does weigh more than fat. Weight is a silly thing, because of that reason. If you put on more muscle, it will help burn fat faster although it weighs more. The other thing is that sometimes if you make a drastic change, the body will go into "survival" mode until it realizes that it isn't a famine and will then start shedding the pounds it horded rapidly. Don't get too down. It WILL work!

I hope so. Clothes don't seem any looser, but I don't think they're any tighter. It sure is tiring having to go pee every 30 minutes all day though. But on a good note, after 2 failed tries previously, I finally donated a full pint of blood yesterday! Means I'm in better shape (slightly, in my opinion) and am drinking enough liquids! I'm going to the gym tonight for a 20-30 minute workout, probably on recumbant bicycles. Having chicken spinach alfredo for dinner. Had a slice of pizza for lunch today instead of soup and a bowl of grits for breakfast.

Myste, Unless you have a very expensive scale, I suspect it varies. Also, people who lose a lot of weight are usually just losing fluids. You WILL see a difference. When you exercise more, you burn calories faster; your rate of metabolism changes. Don't give up the ship!

Hey Myste - just think about all the exercise you're getting just going to and from the bathroom! LOL! :tounge2:

HANG IN THERE. I TOTALLY agree with Christy and Heidi. If we think of it as trying to change our habits as opposed to dieting, it isn't such a "disaster" (emotionally) if we slip. (I'm the one eating McDonalds and fries the other day. )

Anyway...haven't gotten any exercise the last two days. A lot of running around because the car broke down, and some walking because we were at a mall "killing" time while waiting to go to the Doc.

Have been drinking LOTS of water, though I just can't seem to bust through this two litres of water a day!

Laurie

Weight yourself at the same time everyday........

(I find I'm lighter in the mornings!!)

I've been bad on the exercise front, too. I wanted to start doing it at least Monday, Wednesday, Friday/Saturday, but it has been too darn cold to leave the house at night. I know, excuses excuses. Since it has been so cold we've had fires in the fireplace and I certainly don't want to leave those unattended, and Earl DJed last night so I was by myself. More excuses, I know. I suppose I shouldn't be so hard on myself. I did exercise on Saturday and Monday, which is twice more than I usually do.

When I was watching Headline News at lunch they had a segement on where to get nutritional information. They said that almost 75% of people get their information from TV. Pretty scary since there isn't a whole lot of nutritional information on TV. Anyway, they gave a few websites that they said are very good (or some university recommended, can't remember which now) and I jotted them down to share here. I haven't had the chance to check them out yet.

www.nutrition.tufts.edu is a newsletter from Tufts University on nutrition.

www.goaskalice.com is a comprehensive site from Columbia University. One really cool thing about this site is that you can ask your nutritional questions and their people will actually answer.

www.wfubmc.edu/nutrition is a site from Wake Forest University and has quizzes to assess yourself, and a really neat page that tells you the nutritional information from 12 fast food chains (Drive Thru Diet), including McDonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut, KFC and others. Just click on the Count Your Calories Because Calories Count link and it will take you to the interactive section.

I've been spending time on those web sites I mentioned above, and have found some really interesting information. The most disheartening is that you have to burn 3500 calories to lose one pound, by burning 3500 more calories than you intake either through taking in less calories or burning them off through exercise. It was also said that it is recommended that you exercise 6-7 days per weeks for 30 minutes per day. Do these people live in the real world? That may work for college students (since all the info is from universities) who only have 5 hours of committments in classes per day (on average), but for those of us in the real world....? Honestly, I'm a bit discouraged with all this information.

On to bigger and better and less overwhelming things. We need to make a goal for next week. Another baby step. So far we have done drink a whole-heck-of-a-lot of water, add fruit/veggies to our daily meals, and add or up one exercise. Any ideas???