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#1
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Very discouraged; please help
Can you help?
My progress just feels too slow, and I am discouraged. Number one, I don't weigh myself, and I'm not going to. I don't count calories, and I'm not going to. I'm 49yo, and I've been through that ****, and it wasn't productive when I was younger, and it's not going to be productive now that I'm older, perimenopausal, with all sorts of orthopedic problems. I don't count things in any aspect of my life. I'm 5'4", American , I have weighed in the 130s most of my life, size 8-10. I topped out around 230, size 22, while I was ill and my mother was dying last year. I weigh around 200 right now and am a size 16-18. I went through a couple of kinds of hell last year. When my mother finally died in March and I quit drinking my way through my pain in May, the first 30 pounds dropped off immediately. (I know this because I was going to the doctor and hospital frequently and was weighed there. Again, I don't weigh myself.) I write for a living and have an sedentary, academic, artistic lifestyle, except for the fact that I ride my bike to do my errands a couple of times a week, and I have large gardens (flower and vegetable) that my SO maintains and that I help in and walk around in every day. Add to that, I try to lift a couple of times a week (heavy, complex). I kayak, bicycle, hike, and swim when weather and my energy levels permit -- so I do one of these about once a week. I start my days with stretching, including yoga postures. I sleep 10-12 hours per day. Weird, I know, but I've always needed a lot of sleep to function at my best. I believe I have a metabolism that is toward the slow end of the spectrum. I also have some physical injuries (atrophied right rhomboid, chronic plantar fasciitis (sp?) in left foot, chronic subluxation of left hip, and, at the moment, tendonitis in my left shoulder and elbow that has been there for MONTHS and just WON'T get better). I am in fairly constant pain, which interrupts my sleep. Okay, so I quit drinking in May and started my current way of eating in mid-October. I keep a checklist of food portions on my fridge and check off what I eat, as follows: 2-3 dairy 3-4 fruit 4 veggies 6 meat/protein 8 whole grains/carbs The portions are as follows: Dairy: a cup of milk or yogurt, or 1-1/2 ounces of nonfat or lowfat cheese Fruit: a medium apple, banana, or orange; 1/2 cup of chopped cooked or canned fruit; or 3/4 cup of fruit juice Vegetables: a cup of raw, leafy vegetables; 1/2 cup of other vegetables (cooked or chopped raw); or 3/4 cup of vegetable juice Meat/protein: one ounce cooked lean meat, poultry, or fish; one egg; 1/2 cup of cooked legumes; three ounces of tofu; or two tablespoons of peanut butter Grains/carbs: one-half bagel, one slice of bread, 3/4 cup of ready-to-eat cereal, 1/2 cup of cooked cereal or pasta, or 3 cups of popcorn I add flax seed oil to my diet and take calcium and a good multivitamin daily. I take extra iron when I have a big blood loss, which occasionally happens during this phase of the Joys Of Middle-Aged Womanhood. I have adhered to this WOE pretty closely since mid-October. My butt shrank a little, immediately. My waist has not budged. Not BUDGED. My next goal is to get into a pair of size 14 technical pants I have hanging in my closet, and I am NO CLOSER than I was at the end of October. Before I quit drinking, started watching my diet, and developed a better exercise routine, I was bedridden for months at a time, slept even more than I do now, drank heavily, ate whatever the hell I wanted (including fast food, restaurant portions four times a decent portion size and swimming in butter, cookie binges, whatever). It seems to me that I should be seeing more results than I am. I'm still tired and fat, and I still have low energy. Are my expectations unrealistic? Is my thinking wrong? How can I see results? ep |
#2
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Very discouraged; please help
"Edna Pearl" wrote in message ... Can you help? My progress just feels too slow, and I am discouraged. Number one, I don't weigh myself, and I'm not going to. I don't count calories, and I'm not going to. I'm 49yo, and I've been through that ****, and it wasn't productive when I was younger, and it's not going to be productive now that I'm older, perimenopausal, with all sorts of orthopedic problems. I don't count things in any aspect of my life. I'm 5'4", American , I have weighed in the 130s most of my life, size 8-10. I topped out around 230, size 22, while I was ill and my mother was dying last year. I weigh around 200 right now and am a size 16-18. I went through a couple of kinds of hell last year. When my mother finally died in March and I quit drinking my way through my pain in May, the first 30 pounds dropped off immediately. (I know this because I was going to the doctor and hospital frequently and was weighed there. Again, I don't weigh myself.) I write for a living and have an sedentary, academic, artistic lifestyle, except for the fact that I ride my bike to do my errands a couple of times a week, and I have large gardens (flower and vegetable) that my SO maintains and that I help in and walk around in every day. Add to that, I try to lift a couple of times a week (heavy, complex). I kayak, bicycle, hike, and swim when weather and my energy levels permit -- so I do one of these about once a week. I start my days with stretching, including yoga postures. I sleep 10-12 hours per day. Weird, I know, but I've always needed a lot of sleep to function at my best. I believe I have a metabolism that is toward the slow end of the spectrum. I also have some physical injuries (atrophied right rhomboid, chronic plantar fasciitis (sp?) in left foot, chronic subluxation of left hip, and, at the moment, tendonitis in my left shoulder and elbow that has been there for MONTHS and just WON'T get better). I am in fairly constant pain, which interrupts my sleep. Okay, so I quit drinking in May and started my current way of eating in mid-October. I keep a checklist of food portions on my fridge and check off what I eat, as follows: 2-3 dairy 3-4 fruit 4 veggies 6 meat/protein 8 whole grains/carbs The portions are as follows: Dairy: a cup of milk or yogurt, or 1-1/2 ounces of nonfat or lowfat cheese Fruit: a medium apple, banana, or orange; 1/2 cup of chopped cooked or canned fruit; or 3/4 cup of fruit juice Vegetables: a cup of raw, leafy vegetables; 1/2 cup of other vegetables (cooked or chopped raw); or 3/4 cup of vegetable juice Meat/protein: one ounce cooked lean meat, poultry, or fish; one egg; 1/2 cup of cooked legumes; three ounces of tofu; or two tablespoons of peanut butter Grains/carbs: one-half bagel, one slice of bread, 3/4 cup of ready-to-eat cereal, 1/2 cup of cooked cereal or pasta, or 3 cups of popcorn I add flax seed oil to my diet and take calcium and a good multivitamin daily. I take extra iron when I have a big blood loss, which occasionally happens during this phase of the Joys Of Middle-Aged Womanhood. I have adhered to this WOE pretty closely since mid-October. My butt shrank a little, immediately. My waist has not budged. Not BUDGED. My next goal is to get into a pair of size 14 technical pants I have hanging in my closet, and I am NO CLOSER than I was at the end of October. Before I quit drinking, started watching my diet, and developed a better exercise routine, I was bedridden for months at a time, slept even more than I do now, drank heavily, ate whatever the hell I wanted (including fast food, restaurant portions four times a decent portion size and swimming in butter, cookie binges, whatever). It seems to me that I should be seeing more results than I am. I'm still tired and fat, and I still have low energy. Are my expectations unrealistic? Is my thinking wrong? How can I see results? ep Are your expectations unrealistic? Maybe. You want something that for most of us requires sacrifice, hard work, and diligence. You don't seem willing to do what it will take to reach the goal you want. Is your thinking wrong? That is very subjective, but imo, yes. You have a very close minded attitude towards counting calories. You seem to be unwilling to change, and ****ed off that you can't lose weight with your current WOL. Change happens when we become willing to take the necessary steps to make it happen. The question is, how bad do you want it? How can you see results? Stop feeling sorry for yourself and get with the program! You need to figure out where you stand with your current caloric intake to find out what you "maintain" on. You need to get your heart rate up and burn some extra calories to create a better deficit. Yoga stretches don't count. Doing exercise "when weather and energy permit" is a copout attitude. You need to make more of an effort if you want to see results. Walking for 30 minutes per day would be a good start. Sleeping for 10-12 hrs per day sounds to me like serious depression or some other medical problem that needs addressing. Have you had all your levels checked? Had a recent panel done? Ruled out any hormone issues? You're either going to have to accept your body the way it is now, or become willing to pay the price to reach your goals. You might not like hearing that, but that's the way it is. Losing weight doesn't occur through osmosis ;-) |
#3
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Very discouraged; please help
Well Jesus Christ, that's real encouraging. I don't think I've ever
received a message that unpleasant and discouraging in a support group from anybody -- except of course trolls. Fortunately, the message is so totally loaded with fallacies I can't take it very seriously. It focusses entirely on calorie-counting while failing to point out a single solitary thing I might change except suggesting I count calories. Plenty of people, in fact, MOST people lose weight without counting calories. Including people you purport to admire, like Krista, who knows considerably more about fitness and nutrition than you do. Trying to find a "baseline" and then work around it is voodoo dieting that fails to take account of how much a person's bodily processes and metabolism changes -- it's a waste of time unless the person takes some motivation from the counting process itself, and I don't. Furthermore, my reference to "weather permitting" simply means, for example, that I don't swim outdoors in winter (we just had an entire thread here about people who don't bicycle in cold weather, which, in fact, I DO) -- and your assumption that it means something else says a lot more about you than it does me. Oh, and thanks for telling me I need to stop feeling sorry for myself about my mom dying. Aren't you a special person. I could go on and on, but **** that, I have a life. If nobody in this ng can come up with anything better than that, I guess I know all I need to know about this "support group." Oh, and Betsy, **** you. "You might not like hearing that," but it's considerably nicer than and just as productive as what you've said to me. How's this for advice: You need learn at least learn some manners, if you can't manage to grow any compassion. ep "determined" wrote in message ... "Edna Pearl" wrote in message ... Can you help? My progress just feels too slow, and I am discouraged. Number one, I don't weigh myself, and I'm not going to. I don't count calories, and I'm not going to. I'm 49yo, and I've been through that ****, and it wasn't productive when I was younger, and it's not going to be productive now that I'm older, perimenopausal, with all sorts of orthopedic problems. I don't count things in any aspect of my life. I'm 5'4", American , I have weighed in the 130s most of my life, size 8-10. I topped out around 230, size 22, while I was ill and my mother was dying last year. I weigh around 200 right now and am a size 16-18. I went through a couple of kinds of hell last year. When my mother finally died in March and I quit drinking my way through my pain in May, the first 30 pounds dropped off immediately. (I know this because I was going to the doctor and hospital frequently and was weighed there. Again, I don't weigh myself.) I write for a living and have an sedentary, academic, artistic lifestyle, except for the fact that I ride my bike to do my errands a couple of times a week, and I have large gardens (flower and vegetable) that my SO maintains and that I help in and walk around in every day. Add to that, I try to lift a couple of times a week (heavy, complex). I kayak, bicycle, hike, and swim when weather and my energy levels permit -- so I do one of these about once a week. I start my days with stretching, including yoga postures. I sleep 10-12 hours per day. Weird, I know, but I've always needed a lot of sleep to function at my best. I believe I have a metabolism that is toward the slow end of the spectrum. I also have some physical injuries (atrophied right rhomboid, chronic plantar fasciitis (sp?) in left foot, chronic subluxation of left hip, and, at the moment, tendonitis in my left shoulder and elbow that has been there for MONTHS and just WON'T get better). I am in fairly constant pain, which interrupts my sleep. Okay, so I quit drinking in May and started my current way of eating in mid-October. I keep a checklist of food portions on my fridge and check off what I eat, as follows: 2-3 dairy 3-4 fruit 4 veggies 6 meat/protein 8 whole grains/carbs The portions are as follows: Dairy: a cup of milk or yogurt, or 1-1/2 ounces of nonfat or lowfat cheese Fruit: a medium apple, banana, or orange; 1/2 cup of chopped cooked or canned fruit; or 3/4 cup of fruit juice Vegetables: a cup of raw, leafy vegetables; 1/2 cup of other vegetables (cooked or chopped raw); or 3/4 cup of vegetable juice Meat/protein: one ounce cooked lean meat, poultry, or fish; one egg; 1/2 cup of cooked legumes; three ounces of tofu; or two tablespoons of peanut butter Grains/carbs: one-half bagel, one slice of bread, 3/4 cup of ready-to-eat cereal, 1/2 cup of cooked cereal or pasta, or 3 cups of popcorn I add flax seed oil to my diet and take calcium and a good multivitamin daily. I take extra iron when I have a big blood loss, which occasionally happens during this phase of the Joys Of Middle-Aged Womanhood. I have adhered to this WOE pretty closely since mid-October. My butt shrank a little, immediately. My waist has not budged. Not BUDGED. My next goal is to get into a pair of size 14 technical pants I have hanging in my closet, and I am NO CLOSER than I was at the end of October. Before I quit drinking, started watching my diet, and developed a better exercise routine, I was bedridden for months at a time, slept even more than I do now, drank heavily, ate whatever the hell I wanted (including fast food, restaurant portions four times a decent portion size and swimming in butter, cookie binges, whatever). It seems to me that I should be seeing more results than I am. I'm still tired and fat, and I still have low energy. Are my expectations unrealistic? Is my thinking wrong? How can I see results? ep Are your expectations unrealistic? Maybe. You want something that for most of us requires sacrifice, hard work, and diligence. You don't seem willing to do what it will take to reach the goal you want. Is your thinking wrong? That is very subjective, but imo, yes. You have a very close minded attitude towards counting calories. You seem to be unwilling to change, and ****ed off that you can't lose weight with your current WOL. Change happens when we become willing to take the necessary steps to make it happen. The question is, how bad do you want it? How can you see results? Stop feeling sorry for yourself and get with the program! You need to figure out where you stand with your current caloric intake to find out what you "maintain" on. You need to get your heart rate up and burn some extra calories to create a better deficit. Yoga stretches don't count. Doing exercise "when weather and energy permit" is a copout attitude. You need to make more of an effort if you want to see results. Walking for 30 minutes per day would be a good start. Sleeping for 10-12 hrs per day sounds to me like serious depression or some other medical problem that needs addressing. Have you had all your levels checked? Had a recent panel done? Ruled out any hormone issues? You're either going to have to accept your body the way it is now, or become willing to pay the price to reach your goals. You might not like hearing that, but that's the way it is. Losing weight doesn't occur through osmosis ;-) |
#4
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Very discouraged; please help
p.s. As an additional point, it's obvious you didn't pay any attention to
what I actually said in my post, given that you failed to notice the fact that I said I was "going to the doctor frequently" and "hospitalized." Yes, I've had all the bloodwork in the world done. And of course I've been depressed: references to having been through hell might have been a clue to that. ep "determined" wrote in message ... "Edna Pearl" wrote in message ... Can you help? My progress just feels too slow, and I am discouraged. Number one, I don't weigh myself, and I'm not going to. I don't count calories, and I'm not going to. I'm 49yo, and I've been through that ****, and it wasn't productive when I was younger, and it's not going to be productive now that I'm older, perimenopausal, with all sorts of orthopedic problems. I don't count things in any aspect of my life. I'm 5'4", American , I have weighed in the 130s most of my life, size 8-10. I topped out around 230, size 22, while I was ill and my mother was dying last year. I weigh around 200 right now and am a size 16-18. I went through a couple of kinds of hell last year. When my mother finally died in March and I quit drinking my way through my pain in May, the first 30 pounds dropped off immediately. (I know this because I was going to the doctor and hospital frequently and was weighed there. Again, I don't weigh myself.) I write for a living and have an sedentary, academic, artistic lifestyle, except for the fact that I ride my bike to do my errands a couple of times a week, and I have large gardens (flower and vegetable) that my SO maintains and that I help in and walk around in every day. Add to that, I try to lift a couple of times a week (heavy, complex). I kayak, bicycle, hike, and swim when weather and my energy levels permit -- so I do one of these about once a week. I start my days with stretching, including yoga postures. I sleep 10-12 hours per day. Weird, I know, but I've always needed a lot of sleep to function at my best. I believe I have a metabolism that is toward the slow end of the spectrum. I also have some physical injuries (atrophied right rhomboid, chronic plantar fasciitis (sp?) in left foot, chronic subluxation of left hip, and, at the moment, tendonitis in my left shoulder and elbow that has been there for MONTHS and just WON'T get better). I am in fairly constant pain, which interrupts my sleep. Okay, so I quit drinking in May and started my current way of eating in mid-October. I keep a checklist of food portions on my fridge and check off what I eat, as follows: 2-3 dairy 3-4 fruit 4 veggies 6 meat/protein 8 whole grains/carbs The portions are as follows: Dairy: a cup of milk or yogurt, or 1-1/2 ounces of nonfat or lowfat cheese Fruit: a medium apple, banana, or orange; 1/2 cup of chopped cooked or canned fruit; or 3/4 cup of fruit juice Vegetables: a cup of raw, leafy vegetables; 1/2 cup of other vegetables (cooked or chopped raw); or 3/4 cup of vegetable juice Meat/protein: one ounce cooked lean meat, poultry, or fish; one egg; 1/2 cup of cooked legumes; three ounces of tofu; or two tablespoons of peanut butter Grains/carbs: one-half bagel, one slice of bread, 3/4 cup of ready-to-eat cereal, 1/2 cup of cooked cereal or pasta, or 3 cups of popcorn I add flax seed oil to my diet and take calcium and a good multivitamin daily. I take extra iron when I have a big blood loss, which occasionally happens during this phase of the Joys Of Middle-Aged Womanhood. I have adhered to this WOE pretty closely since mid-October. My butt shrank a little, immediately. My waist has not budged. Not BUDGED. My next goal is to get into a pair of size 14 technical pants I have hanging in my closet, and I am NO CLOSER than I was at the end of October. Before I quit drinking, started watching my diet, and developed a better exercise routine, I was bedridden for months at a time, slept even more than I do now, drank heavily, ate whatever the hell I wanted (including fast food, restaurant portions four times a decent portion size and swimming in butter, cookie binges, whatever). It seems to me that I should be seeing more results than I am. I'm still tired and fat, and I still have low energy. Are my expectations unrealistic? Is my thinking wrong? How can I see results? ep Are your expectations unrealistic? Maybe. You want something that for most of us requires sacrifice, hard work, and diligence. You don't seem willing to do what it will take to reach the goal you want. Is your thinking wrong? That is very subjective, but imo, yes. You have a very close minded attitude towards counting calories. You seem to be unwilling to change, and ****ed off that you can't lose weight with your current WOL. Change happens when we become willing to take the necessary steps to make it happen. The question is, how bad do you want it? How can you see results? Stop feeling sorry for yourself and get with the program! You need to figure out where you stand with your current caloric intake to find out what you "maintain" on. You need to get your heart rate up and burn some extra calories to create a better deficit. Yoga stretches don't count. Doing exercise "when weather and energy permit" is a copout attitude. You need to make more of an effort if you want to see results. Walking for 30 minutes per day would be a good start. Sleeping for 10-12 hrs per day sounds to me like serious depression or some other medical problem that needs addressing. Have you had all your levels checked? Had a recent panel done? Ruled out any hormone issues? You're either going to have to accept your body the way it is now, or become willing to pay the price to reach your goals. You might not like hearing that, but that's the way it is. Losing weight doesn't occur through osmosis ;-) |
#5
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Very discouraged; please help
On Fri, 1 Dec 2006 15:54:50 -0600, "Edna Pearl"
wrote: Well Jesus Christ, that's real encouraging. I don't think I've ever received a message that unpleasant and discouraging in a support group from anybody -- except of course trolls. Fortunately, the message is so totally loaded with fallacies I can't take it very seriously. It focusses entirely on calorie-counting while failing to point out a single solitary thing I might change except suggesting I count calories. Plenty of people, in fact, MOST people lose weight without counting calories. Including people you purport to admire, like Krista, who knows considerably more about fitness and nutrition than you do. Trying to find a "baseline" and then work around it is voodoo dieting that fails to take account of how much a person's bodily processes and metabolism changes -- it's a waste of time unless the person takes some motivation from the counting process itself, and I don't. Furthermore, my reference to "weather permitting" simply means, for example, that I don't swim outdoors in winter (we just had an entire thread here about people who don't bicycle in cold weather, which, in fact, I DO) -- and your assumption that it means something else says a lot more about you than it does me. Oh, and thanks for telling me I need to stop feeling sorry for myself about my mom dying. Aren't you a special person. I could go on and on, but **** that, I have a life. If nobody in this ng can come up with anything better than that, I guess I know all I need to know about this "support group." Oh, and Betsy, **** you. "You might not like hearing that," but it's considerably nicer than and just as productive as what you've said to me. How's this for advice: You need learn at least learn some manners, if you can't manage to grow any compassion. You know, I was just about to try to write a constructive response to your message, Edna. But after reading all this hostility and profanity, I don't think I'll bother. Determined's message was far more polite than yours. Chris 262/130s/130s started dieting July 2002, maintaining since June 2004 |
#6
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Very discouraged; please help
If you honestly cannot understand why I was honestly upset by that post,
then I don't know what to say. Maybe we're from different planets or something. If you don't like profanity, I apologize, I'm used to seeing and using a lot of it here on Usenet and thought I had seen it used here at asd. Yes, I lost my temper, but I continue to believe her post was out of line and unsupportive. If you call that kind of behavior "polite," then, well, I don't know what to say. ep "Chris Braun" wrote in message ... You know, I was just about to try to write a constructive response to your message, Edna. But after reading all this hostility and profanity, I don't think I'll bother. Determined's message was far more polite than yours. |
#7
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Very discouraged; please help
Edna Pearl wrote: Can you help? My progress just feels too slow, and I am discouraged. Number one, I don't weigh myself, and I'm not going to. I don't count calories, and I'm not going to. I'm 49yo, and I've been through that ****, and it wasn't productive when I was younger, and it's not going to be productive now that I'm older, perimenopausal, with all sorts of orthopedic problems. I don't count things in any aspect of my life. I'm 5'4", American , I have weighed in the 130s most of my life, size 8-10. I topped out around 230, size 22, while I was ill and my mother was dying last year. I weigh around 200 right now and am a size 16-18. I went through a couple of kinds of hell last year. When my mother finally died in March and I quit drinking my way through my pain in May, the first 30 pounds dropped off immediately. (I know this because I was going to the doctor and hospital frequently and was weighed there. Again, I don't weigh myself.) I write for a living and have an sedentary, academic, artistic lifestyle, except for the fact that I ride my bike to do my errands a couple of times a week, and I have large gardens (flower and vegetable) that my SO maintains and that I help in and walk around in every day. Add to that, I try to lift a couple of times a week (heavy, complex). I kayak, bicycle, hike, and swim when weather and my energy levels permit -- so I do one of these about once a week. I start my days with stretching, including yoga postures. I sleep 10-12 hours per day. Weird, I know, but I've always needed a lot of sleep to function at my best. I believe I have a metabolism that is toward the slow end of the spectrum. I also have some physical injuries (atrophied right rhomboid, chronic plantar fasciitis (sp?) in left foot, chronic subluxation of left hip, and, at the moment, tendonitis in my left shoulder and elbow that has been there for MONTHS and just WON'T get better). I am in fairly constant pain, which interrupts my sleep. Okay, so I quit drinking in May and started my current way of eating in mid-October. I keep a checklist of food portions on my fridge and check off what I eat, as follows: 2-3 dairy 3-4 fruit 4 veggies 6 meat/protein 8 whole grains/carbs The portions are as follows: Dairy: a cup of milk or yogurt, or 1-1/2 ounces of nonfat or lowfat cheese Fruit: a medium apple, banana, or orange; 1/2 cup of chopped cooked or canned fruit; or 3/4 cup of fruit juice Vegetables: a cup of raw, leafy vegetables; 1/2 cup of other vegetables (cooked or chopped raw); or 3/4 cup of vegetable juice Meat/protein: one ounce cooked lean meat, poultry, or fish; one egg; 1/2 cup of cooked legumes; three ounces of tofu; or two tablespoons of peanut butter Grains/carbs: one-half bagel, one slice of bread, 3/4 cup of ready-to-eat cereal, 1/2 cup of cooked cereal or pasta, or 3 cups of popcorn I add flax seed oil to my diet and take calcium and a good multivitamin daily. I take extra iron when I have a big blood loss, which occasionally happens during this phase of the Joys Of Middle-Aged Womanhood. I have adhered to this WOE pretty closely since mid-October. My butt shrank a little, immediately. My waist has not budged. Not BUDGED. My next goal is to get into a pair of size 14 technical pants I have hanging in my closet, and I am NO CLOSER than I was at the end of October. Before I quit drinking, started watching my diet, and developed a better exercise routine, I was bedridden for months at a time, slept even more than I do now, drank heavily, ate whatever the hell I wanted (including fast food, restaurant portions four times a decent portion size and swimming in butter, cookie binges, whatever). It seems to me that I should be seeing more results than I am. I'm still tired and fat, and I still have low energy. Are my expectations unrealistic? Is my thinking wrong? How can I see results? I don't know if your expectations are unrealistic or your thinking wrong. I only know what has happened with me. I'm 50 and 5'3". I've been trying to lose weight for years. My numbers are below my name. I've been lifting weights, and walking on treadmills, and riding exercycles, and eating good foods. Nothing happened for two years, except that I became freakishly strong and able to take my exercise bras off easily. Recently I put myself on a formal diet and started running again. I've lost 15 pounds. Haven't changed any clothing sizes, but things are starting to feel looser. My suggestion to you, and feel free to blow it off, is that you do something to provide a short sharp shock to your system. Adopt a formal diet (there are ones that don't involve calorie counting). Or join weight watchers. Or start some form of formal exercise that really burns calories. But do something that you can point to as a constructive step. My other suggestion is that you do actually weigh yourself occasionally. Otherwise you don't have any reference points and you can't tell when you are actually making progress. Once a month might be a good schedule. I struggle with this also, along with my inability to actually read the numbers on the stupid thing. But this morning it was definitely below the 180 line and that's achievement to me. Good luck, Susan B. 195/180/140 |
#8
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Very discouraged; please help
Edna Pearl wrote: Can you help? My progress just feels too slow, and I am discouraged. Number one, I don't weigh myself, and I'm not going to. I don't count calories, and I'm not going to. I'm 49yo, and I've been through that ****, and it wasn't productive when I was younger, and it's not going to be productive now that I'm older, perimenopausal, with all sorts of orthopedic problems. I don't count things in any aspect of my life. I'm 5'4", American , I have weighed in the 130s most of my life, size 8-10. I topped out around 230, size 22, while I was ill and my mother was dying last year. I weigh around 200 right now and am a size 16-18. I went through a couple of kinds of hell last year. When my mother finally died in March and I quit drinking my way through my pain in May, the first 30 pounds dropped off immediately. (I know this because I was going to the doctor and hospital frequently and was weighed there. Again, I don't weigh myself.) I write for a living and have an sedentary, academic, artistic lifestyle, except for the fact that I ride my bike to do my errands a couple of times a week, and I have large gardens (flower and vegetable) that my SO maintains and that I help in and walk around in every day. Add to that, I try to lift a couple of times a week (heavy, complex). I kayak, bicycle, hike, and swim when weather and my energy levels permit -- so I do one of these about once a week. I start my days with stretching, including yoga postures. I sleep 10-12 hours per day. Weird, I know, but I've always needed a lot of sleep to function at my best. I believe I have a metabolism that is toward the slow end of the spectrum. I also have some physical injuries (atrophied right rhomboid, chronic plantar fasciitis (sp?) in left foot, chronic subluxation of left hip, and, at the moment, tendonitis in my left shoulder and elbow that has been there for MONTHS and just WON'T get better). I am in fairly constant pain, which interrupts my sleep. Okay, so I quit drinking in May and started my current way of eating in mid-October. I keep a checklist of food portions on my fridge and check off what I eat, as follows: 2-3 dairy 3-4 fruit 4 veggies 6 meat/protein 8 whole grains/carbs The portions are as follows: Dairy: a cup of milk or yogurt, or 1-1/2 ounces of nonfat or lowfat cheese Fruit: a medium apple, banana, or orange; 1/2 cup of chopped cooked or canned fruit; or 3/4 cup of fruit juice Vegetables: a cup of raw, leafy vegetables; 1/2 cup of other vegetables (cooked or chopped raw); or 3/4 cup of vegetable juice Meat/protein: one ounce cooked lean meat, poultry, or fish; one egg; 1/2 cup of cooked legumes; three ounces of tofu; or two tablespoons of peanut butter Grains/carbs: one-half bagel, one slice of bread, 3/4 cup of ready-to-eat cereal, 1/2 cup of cooked cereal or pasta, or 3 cups of popcorn I add flax seed oil to my diet and take calcium and a good multivitamin daily. I take extra iron when I have a big blood loss, which occasionally happens during this phase of the Joys Of Middle-Aged Womanhood. I have adhered to this WOE pretty closely since mid-October. My butt shrank a little, immediately. My waist has not budged. Not BUDGED. My next goal is to get into a pair of size 14 technical pants I have hanging in my closet, and I am NO CLOSER than I was at the end of October. Before I quit drinking, started watching my diet, and developed a better exercise routine, I was bedridden for months at a time, slept even more than I do now, drank heavily, ate whatever the hell I wanted (including fast food, restaurant portions four times a decent portion size and swimming in butter, cookie binges, whatever). It seems to me that I should be seeing more results than I am. I'm still tired and fat, and I still have low energy. Are my expectations unrealistic? Is my thinking wrong? How can I see results? ep I know some people don't count calories and manage to lose weight, but since weight loss and gain is a mathematical equation, it is best to keep track of calories consumed and your dietary needs. Knowing calories in foods also helps you make good choices. As far as exercise, you simply must get some to stay healthy and it helps with losing weight a little too. Walking is great exercise. Many people weigh once a week or so, but you have to weigh yourself to check your progress. Not weighing yourself otherwise becomes denial. People who are serious dieters are fanatical at keeping track of their weight usually. In fact, once someone with a weight problem stops weighing themselves, it is almost always because deep down, they know they are gaining weight and don't want to face it. Oh, they face it eventually when they are 100 pounds overweight. I wish there were an easy way to lose weight, but there isn't. It's calories, calories, calories. After that comes a moderate amount of exercise. The mix of carbs, fat, protein might effect your health, but it doesn't make any difference as far as your weight goes, IMO. dkw |
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Very discouraged; please help
"sueb" wrote in message
ups.com... I've been lifting weights, and walking on treadmills, and riding exercycles, and eating good foods. Nothing happened for two years, except that I became freakishly strong and able to take my exercise bras off easily. LOL -- We are on the same page. (Except I still have to struggle with my exercise my bras, because it hurts my tendonitis like the DICKENS to tug those things on and off.) And there's nothing wrong with being strong, by gosh! I really have gotten a LOT stronger. I was really weak, having been ill for so long. Now I'm benching 80 lbs.,, deadlifting 120, no problem. It really helps when I'm racking my kayaks and bicycles! And as I said, my butt did change shape rapidly. My thighs have improved too, so it's not like I'm not seeing any progress at all. I'm just really discouraged. It's been a tough couple of years for me, and I feel like I "deserve" more progress, I guess. I know building muscles is a good thing, because the muscles I'm building burn calories/fat. A lot of people who choose to get on track with their health the way we did find that it takes weeks or months to see a change on the scales. And it's really only been about six weeks since I've been systematically working on getting my health and figure back. But "two years" and "nothing happened" for you? Please tell me you're exaggerating. At least you became freakishly strong, right? :-D And did you do anything to *limit* your calories, in addition to eating healthy? Recently I put myself on a formal diet and started running again. I've lost 15 pounds. Haven't changed any clothing sizes, but things are starting to feel looser. That is awesome. May I ask what "formal diet" you're using? Running is out for me because of my joints, but I have other options of course. (See below.) My suggestion to you, and feel free to blow it off, is that you do something to provide a short sharp shock to your system. I have heard of this really working for some people, and it rings true to me in the situation I'm in. Adopt a formal diet (there are ones that don't involve calorie counting). Or join weight watchers. I do regard what I'm doing as a formal diet and it is very similar to what WW used to do back in the day: controlled portions, balanced diet. I don't know how much they've changed, but from what I've heard they've just changed some terminology. If you mean eating WW pre-packaged meals, I don't see that happening. Those things are full of chemicals. I would be interested in doing some regimented program if I knew it was going to be healthy. It's hard to buck up and confront the necessity of learning yet another self-improvement skill :-) but I'd be willing to learn something new if I have some confidence that it's not just another waste of time or unhealthy like Slim Fast or Atkins or whatever. Like, what I've heard about the "Mediterranean diet" and the "South Beach diet" and "Volumetrics" looks pretty healthy. I'll research them further. Does anybody here have any experiences to share on these? Like, do these diets incorporate EFAs, nearly-vegetarian, non-ketogenic, etc.? I just dread spending hours of precious time finding the info, absorbing it, and discovering I've stumbled into yet another of the jillions of dumb diets that are the subject of so many expensive advertising campaigns. Or start some form of formal exercise that really burns calories. I *do* stuff that really burns calories. I mean, kayaking for two hours or hiking for four hours burns a lot of calories. I am frustrated with the idea that I would actually have to *give up* all these outdoor type things I do regularly and replace them with an artificial routine of some sort. Like, somebody in this thread says "walk thirty minutes a day" and I think, "What? Am I supposed to do this *instead of* kayaking? That would be sad. Or *in addition to* climbing mountains, swimming, bicycling? That makes no sense." I think I'm just having trouble thinking this through. But the radical change/shock to the routine does seem to be called for. And it seems to me that something more structured could be productive. An idea: I wrecked a racing bike a while back. If I bought a new one I be motivated to "play with it," i.e., ride it every day for a few weeks in addition to whatever else I do. Sure, I might not hike as much, but that's fine. How does a forty-five minute bike sprint five days a week sound? (How many days a week do you run, Sue? Distances?) But do something that you can point to as a constructive step. I hear you. My other suggestion is that you do actually weigh yourself occasionally. Otherwise you don't have any reference points and you can't tell when you are actually making progress. Once a month might be a good schedule. I struggle with this also, along with my inability to actually read the numbers on the stupid thing. But this morning it was definitely below the 180 line and that's achievement to me. Congratulations!!!!!! I'm thinking that, at least for now, getting weighed when I go to the doctor's office is plenty. That's every few months currently. Good luck, Thank a million. Susan B. 195/180/140 Excellent! ep |
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Very discouraged; please help
wrote in message
ups.com... I know some people don't count calories and manage to lose weight, but since weight loss and gain is a mathematical equation, it is best to keep track of calories consumed and your dietary needs. I don't actually agree with that, but I'm not trying to argue, here. I'm responding to see if maybe we can communicate constructively. If neither you nor I get anything useful out of it because we're just on such different pages, then maybe somebody reading this will. Knowing calories in foods also helps you make good choices. I do, in fact, have a good idea of the calories in foods from having learned to count them earlier in life, as I said. I can pretty much look at a plate of food and count a hundred calories here, 65 there, etc., but I'm not going to bother to add them up. The PORTIONS I describe in my post do that for me. Counting portions (or checking them off a list, like I do) has the same import and result as counting calories. There is no relevant difference IF you know, as I do, that this vegetable or fruit has more calories than that vegetable or fruit, where the empty calories are and how to avoid them, etc. As far as exercise, you simply must get some to stay healthy and it helps with losing weight a little too. Walking is great exercise. So are kayaking, bicycling, swimming, hiking, climbing, weight-lifting, gardening -- all of which I do, as I said in my post. Walking is decent exercise, sure, but it's not my favorite because the repetitive, identical steps bother my bad foot if I repeat the same step/movement for any period of time. Many people weigh once a week or so, but you have to weigh yourself to check your progress. Not weighing yourself otherwise becomes denial. I don't agree with this. There are plenty of more meaningful ways to check progress than the number on a scale, unless you only count the numbers on the scale as progress, by definition, so to speak. Clothing size, the amount of weight you can lift, the distance you can swim, etc., are meaningful, functional measures of progress. A number on a scale is just an annoying social construct, to me. People who are serious dieters are fanatical at keeping track of their weight usually. I have no desire to be a serious dieter :-) I'm not trying to be snarky -- but do you see my point? I want to be healthy, I want to comfortable, I want to look good. I do not want to be a serious "dieter." In fact, once someone with a weight problem stops weighing themselves, it is almost always because deep down, they know they are gaining weight and don't want to face it. Oh, they face it eventually when they are 100 pounds overweight. That's sad. I feel pretty confident that I don't have much talent for denial of this type. Sometimes I wish I did, in healthy doses. A little denial is a good thing, believe it or not. :-) I wish there were an easy way to lose weight, but there isn't. It's calories, calories, calories. After that comes a moderate amount of exercise. Well, yeah, kind of, but this is really oversimplified. You burn more calories if your metabolism is higher. Muscle burns more calories than fat. Etc., etc. The mix of carbs, fat, protein might effect your health, but it doesn't make any difference as far as your weight goes, IMO. Well, no research I've ever read supports your opinion. There are ways of living, eating, and exercising that maximize fitness and fat-loss above (while also minimizing hunger) beyond the simple counting of calories in disregard of whether those calories are empty or nutritious or part of a balanced diet. I really don't think there's any debate about that in the scientific literature. You can take the simple attitude you describe and make a certain amount of progress with it, but that doesn't make it the last word on the subject. If you aren't interested in learning more about health and nutrition, that's fine, great, live long and prosper. By the same token, I'm not interested in counting up calorie estimates and pretending like the counts are telling me something I want to know. Again, I'm not trying to be snarky, I'm just saying what I have to say, and maybe somebody else can get something out of what I'm saying, or maybe you'd like to discuss it further, too. In any event, thanks for taking the time to respond and good luck with your fitness goals. I've somehow lost the part of your post that says that losing weight is not easy, or something to that effect. I hope you're not assuming that I think it's supposed to be; and I doubt anything in my post suggested that it should be. In my experience, change is challenging. It sure beats the alternative, though. ep |
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