It is 03:00 and I cannot sleep. Do you ever get nights where you brain whirs so loudly that it is impossible to ignore? I have never been big on sleep, it is rare for me to sleep right through the night without disruptions. I doubt I get passed the REM stage but the bonus of this sketchy pattern is that some of my most productive writing is done whilst the rest of the country lies tucked up in bed, unconscious rest at it's climax.
What I wanted to do is pass the baton across to the readers. Does anyone feel comfortable enough to answer the following questions? I am assuming you have found your way to my blog because you have either had a weight problem historically or are trying to drop the pounds at the moment. If there are people reading who just have an interest and have never suffered a weight problem, I apologise for not aiming this at you.
You can respond by leaving a comment and can do so anonymously, should you want to retain your anonymity.
1. How much do you have to lose? (for those who have reached goal, how much have you lost?)
2. What is your main reason for wanting to lose weight?
3. What is your most poignant memory of being overweight?
4. Can you identify why you gained weight in the first place?
5. What is the most ineffective diet you have ever tried?
Thanks in advance for answering any of the questions, I really want to find out a bit more about the people reading this :) Your response will not appear straight away as I have to manually authorise comments to ensure spammers leave me alone and dont start posting links to viagra distributors but I do look forward to hearing from you.
I am bleating on about everything but realise that anyone who is taking time out of their day to read my blog are probably mostly people who share a unique bond with me; fellow fat fighters.
Yawn, ok so now I try and get some kip. Sleep attempt take 4!
L xxx
10 comments:
1. How much do you have to lose? (for those who have reached goal, how much have you lost?)
I need to lose about 3 stone (I need to get from 90 kilos to 65)
I have lost 3 kilos.
2. What is your main reason for wanting to lose weight?
#1, I want to feel better, at 56 over weight starts taking a HUGE toll. #2. I'm sick of looking huge.
3. What is your most poignant memory of being overweight?
Ack! Seeing a photo of me singing at the mike, (I sing) and I look like a blue beach ball with a turkey waddle neck.
4. Can you identify why you gained weight in the first place?
Emotional, opportunistic, comfort eating. No brainer for me.
5. What is the most ineffective diet you have ever tried?
Low fat, high carb. It was just pure starvation.
I am back on a general low carb diet which is slower but more do-able, with daily exercise.
Thanks for alowing us to share!
JS
Hey, thanks for taking the time to leave those answers. I can totally relate to most of them!
Can I ask, in relation to the low fat, high carb diet, was that the Atkins diet you tried there? Photos are always a stark reminder of how we look in comparison to how we think we look. Thanks for your honesty there. Being a singer, you get quite a lot of attention standing on a stage right?
I swear that exercise is the key really (of course with diet a factor too.) Exercising tones, strengthens and elongates your body. What kind of exercise are you doing?
R xx
1.How much do you have to lose? 133 lbs...lost 94, gained back 36, now lost 11 (so I have 66 to go) on the way back down...
2. What is your main reason for wanting to lose weight?
Improve my health, stop the pains, look better and regain my self confidence.
3. What is your most poignant memory of being overweight?
My (now ex-)husband saying, "don't stand next to me I'm embarrassed to be seen with you" at my son's Little League game.
4. Can you identify why you gained weight in the first place? Two pregnancies back to back, children were born 11 1/2 months apart.
5. What is the most ineffective diet you have ever tried?
believe it or not, Weight Watchers.
~Sue
Hi Rain, the low fat high carb was The Rotation Diet; actually not so high carb but fruit and rice were big in it and that's a no no for LC. I tried Atkins, too high protein. I am on The Optimal Diet.I am in menopause so LC feels WAY better. My #1 prob is sticking to-it.
You have no idea how much your blog helps people! Just to see how both extremes worked out in one life and how you felt through it all, and then the success is so extremely valuable. I found your blog through an obesity forum. I am glad I did. What I need is to STAY ON DIET till its DONE. Should take me about a year to get to final goal. Janet
And, the other thing I realize is, I give up too easily on things when I run into uphill, including a diet. This can no longer be, so I'm confessing on YOUR blog to keep myself in self control unto the end. I think I fear success and I don't know why at all.
Janet
Sue, thanks for sharing those stats and congratulations on your loss so far, that is fantastic.
It is a good job your ex husband is your ex by the sounds of things, how cruel of him. People can be so insensitive.
I am not surprised to hear you found weight watchers ineffective, I did too when I tried it many years ago. Counting those points drove me barmy plus you cannot go through life doing that! Well, if you can then you have some serious patience :) Thanks again for sharing, keep going with it, compared to where you have come from you really don't have far to go! L x
Janet, I think your candidness about it all is fantastic, cheers for being so honest.
The optimal diet already has a head start with that word...optimal! It is really nice to read those positive comments about the blog, I know that when I was losing I would have read something like this and known there was hope and it can be done. I wanted to be as blantantly honest as possible about everything, some of it has not been entirely comfortable to write but I think it is important to share it as I feel that many of us experience the same things as we lose the weight.
So much of it is psychological changes too, that takes some adjusting to and I think the physical changes pale in comparison in many respects.
I think the key to sticking with it is not depriving yourself completely, I guess that saying 'we always want what we cannot have' can be applied to diets.
I am still writing the next post about what I did with the food and diet to drop the weight. I fear it is going to be rather epic but I think there are some useful tips contained that will help others. At least I hope so :)
Janet you can so do it, you just have to remind yourself during those weak moments how far you have come and put some perspective on it. I had plenty of tough days and accepted them as being simply that...a tough day. I did not feel like I had failed and I kept at it. The want to be healthier became so intense that nothing could have tripped me up. You get to a point where you have bounced around for so long at a heavier weight that it simply cannot go on.
If you want to continue posting in here, perhaps updates us as to how you are getting on? I am always on hand if you need somewhere to vent :) I would like to know how it is going for you.
Rainy xxx
27 October 2011 17:42
Hi Rainy,
Well, they say exes are exes for a reason! We have 2 kids that are now 23 and 22 so I don't have to have too much contact with him anymore. He's regretful for all the years of abuse but I'd hit the wall and he killed what love and respect I had for him long ago. Just took me almost 20 years to extract myself. Happy to say I'm in a very healthy, happy relationship now, heading towards marriage--an old college friend that I reconnected with. He's simply amazing in every way and even though I gained that weight back during our relationship, he never said a negative word--and fully supports my efforts to get healthier again. So don't feel bad for me, I'm in a good place and feel great since I started eating better and working out again!
all the best to you.
~Sue
Sure that is fantastic to hear, sounds like you have met a wonderful bloke. I still need to do that but patience is a virtue and hearing how happy you are tells me it is possible to find that. I think that if you are in a good head space and have someone like your man there, it really makes the challenge more attainable. Rainy x
Rainy,
Never give up hope. If it can happen for me, it can happen for anyone...I'd resigned myself to the bad marriage. Then when I got out of it, I had NO interest in dating, just wanted to get my head together and figure out who I was now that I wasn't a young child's parent, someone's wife (we met at 19 so I never had a 20-something on my own experience). It just happened when it did, fate I guess. My guy says we should have been together all along, and in a way I agree, but who knows? All the pain and hardships made me a lot smarter and stronger. Did damage of course but I work hard to overcome it--mainly trying to reinforce to myself that my happiness should never lie with another, it should come from within and that I am a person worth something. Ex constantly said I was "worthless" besides the cruel constant fat insults. So one day it was like a light switch turned on and I looked in the mirror and said, "Wait...I don't have to have this happen ever again". We were on vacation in Vermont, I packed up and we left 2 days early, and that was it. I was done.
The other example I always use, is a close friend of mine, she was 40 and always scared that she wouldn't find someone to share her life with. I would always tell her, "don't worry, you will when the time is right". She married last year and couldn't be happier--and I am SO glad she waited for Mr. Right instead of Mr. Right Now. I truly believe the universe puts us where we belong, when we belong there, for the most part. My story took 22 years to come back together. I hope yours comes faster!
~Sue
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