<p>
</p>
<p>Rich guys marry skinny chicks? :)</p>
<p>lol</p>
<p>witness Kate Middleton</p>
<p>I AM judgmental about weight, with some exceptions. I have witnessed many overweight friends and co-workers who claim to not eat much and don’t APPEAR to eat much, but they sneak food. It’s unfortunate, and there are often some psychological issues behind it. I also think it can get to a point where one gets so heavy that it truly seems impossible to change.</p>
<p>When I was a teenager (about a hundred years ago), I remember that the rule of thumb for women’s weight was, 100 pounds for the first five feet, then an additional five pounds for every inch after that. Does anyone else remember that?</p>
<p>At five feet zero inches tall, I always thought I was “fat” at 105 or so.</p>
<p>Well, there’s that pesky statistic that correlates income to weight, especially for women. What do we make of that?</p>
<p>I think that eating really “healthy” and exercising a lot, particularly in the ways that we can sustain as we age, generally requires income – not just money to pay for the running shoes and tempeh and yoga classes, but – perhaps more importantly – financial breathing room to lift our heads out of the bushes of scratching out a living and the luxury of focusing on ourselves in such a sustained and intense manner.</p>
<p>It is not just being slothful. A lot of it is circumstances. And I get tired of our society constantly portraying fat people as lazy, undisciplined, not serious.</p>
<p>The truth is that a lot of super duper exercise freaks I’ve known are extremely one-dimensional people who seem to be crowding up their lives with fitness because there isn’t much other meaning to be found in their lives. Have known a few of those. They are just as addicted as the worst obese people I’ve known, just a different dependence.</p>
<p>Well, at one point I was on a medication that, as a side effect, left me totally uninterested in food. As in, I had to remember that I really needed to eat something. Believe me, if that was my normal experience, I’d be a skinny slink of a thing, and not a whit to do with willpower. I have friends who have relationships just like that with food. It’s fuel, and just like you’ve got to remember to fill up the car when the gas tank gets low, you’ve got to eat. (And these folks don’t necessarily eat what anyone might consider really healthy food, or necessarily have high fitness levels.)</p>
<p>I wish that was my day-to-day experience. It isn’t. I’m less hungry on a low-carb diet, but I still think about food, have to plan my food, and am wistful about food I really enjoy that I simply shouldn’t have right now, like my truly excellent pecan pie. </p>
<p>I don’t think I suffer from a lack of willpower. I actually think that I’m using a whole lot MORE willpower to do what I’m doing than what those who are naturally very slender need to employ. They’re not super-skinny because of supreme willpower – they’re super skinny because their brain chemistry doesn’t send them a lot of signals about hunger, or is a whole lot more effective in sending satiation signals. Transplant my brain into her body, and let’s just see how her body will look in a year or two. </p>
<p>Take liquor – I can have a drink or two, but I’ve never pushed it beyond that, have easily available liquor in my home, and rarely need to buy more because we use it up very slowly. Is that attributable to my great willpower? I don’t think so. I don’t even have to think about not having too much to drink. I don’t have that urge. I don’t pat myself on the back and think, wow, what great self-control I have on the alcohol front, because for me, there’s no particular self-control required.</p>
<p>Maybe I’ll get to a health and fitness point where my brain chemistry behaves like that of my ultra-skinny friends, but that certainly isn’t where I am now. And just occasionally I wish for some little pill that would give some of those who are naturally skinny a sense of what it is like when your brain doesn’t work that way, and I can watch them and see willpower in action. Pass the popcorn.</p>
<p>^ I tend to agree with a lot of this. I think in general we give ourselves way too much credit for things that come easy to us and way too much blame for things that are difficult. </p>
<p>I was a pack and a half smoker from the age of 14 until about 22/23, don’t remember exactly. Over a period of a couple of weeks I reduced my smoking until I quit. Not much of a struggle, never missed it. My grandmother, always elegant and refined, smoked no more than one or two cigarettes a day for most of her life until she had no interest in those. In all likelihood, she and I were just lucky. I have relatives who have died in their 50s from lung cancer who could never quit, or when they did it was too late.</p>
<p>Ditto alcohol. I can take it or leave it. Rarely drink, and when I do, very little with no will power involved. I have quite a few relatives who are recovering alcoholics or died of alcoholism.</p>
<p>I exercise more, more regularly and more vigorously, and definitely eat more mindfully and less than one of my sisters, who is far more slender than I.</p>
<p>I don’t think I have superior willpower in the cigarettes and alcohol department. I attribute it more to genetic roulette - you win some, you lose some. Of course, that doesn’t mean that you just give up. I think, you acknowledge, that some things are more challenging and harder for some than others and then just have to keep trying.</p>
<p>Interesting discussion, sorry I missed most of it. </p>
<p>I agree that it is easier for the affluent to make better food choices. While I would certainly not put myself in the upper income brackets, we do make spending for food a priority in our budget. I’ve tried to encourage D to do the same and for the most part, she does. I worry about what S will eat when he moves as his diet seems to rely heavily upon processed, bulk foods (think Stouffer’s meals) but it is what he’ll be able to afford. We’ll have to work on the what to buy that will fill you up. Rice and beans are not good for every meal. </p>
<p>I used to really enjoy alcohol but now I go for months at a time without touching it. H has a much more difficult time. We don’t live far from a Whole Foods and were there yesterday - in a gross, general observation, most of the people there were thin or if not thin, certainly not overweight. Later we found ourselves at a Walmart where I spotted 3 or 4 women about my age so obese they were riding on scooter carts. I don’t want to be them. I also don’t want to be the kind of woman yelling at one child for putting the other in a headlock while she decides what kind of salt to buy from the salt bar.</p>
<p>I think that affluence certainly helps with diet and exercise if the affluence gives you the time to workout, prepare foods from scratch so that you can control ingredients, nutrition and portions, and afford the little things that make diet and exercise easier. Clothes, shoes, cooking equipment, sporting equipment, access to medical care, etc. make d+e easier. They aren’t essential but one thing that I’ve found with D+E: it’s very easy not to do the right thing when the right thing isn’t convenient.</p>
<p>I have access to four gyms (home, old YMCA, new YMCA, office) - that makes it much easier to workout regularly.</p>
<p>We have a little Tri challenge at the office: 1 mile on the treadmill, 3 miles on the bike, 500 meters on the rowing machine. Prizes based on gender and age. Total time will be recorded - only catch is that the fitness center manager has to be present.</p>
<p>Cool way to get people to workout.</p>
<p>What’s interesting to me about success at losing weight is the question of what clicks to get people into the mindset of making the changes they need to make to lose weight. I agree that it’s easier for affluent people, but everyone (regardless of SES) has to take steps and do the work that’s needed to lose pounds. After I broke my ankle and ended up with a staph infection, I was in a cast/boot for the better part of 3 years and gained weight for the first time in my life. After my ankle repaired, I tried hundreds of times to diet and it never clicked until a year ago. I went to WW with a “this-probably-won’t-work-but-why-not-try” attitude. I was shocked when WW worked. I didn’t have trouble with the exercise part, because I’d always been active and I enjoy pushing myself.</p>
<p>The food part was the toughest. Last spring, after I had lost weight (40+ pounds) on WW, I participated in a group (based on the work of Geneen Roth) that helps people (in this case it’s all women) deal with getting to the bottom of eating issues. (Her basic premise is that how you eat tells much about you.) Not sure that I buy it all, but doing the exercises she recommends (eat only when you are hungry, eat sitting down at a table with no distractions, i.e., book, newspaper, music, tv) is interesting and I’ve had some moments of self realization about why I overeat. BTW I found that sitting down and eating while not distracted was difficult. I am always doing three things while I eat–usually reading. I’ll read the back of a cereal box, if nothing else is available. When I can do it, I feel satisfied and full and rarely want to eat more until it’s time for my next meal.</p>
<p>Bromfield, those are great observations. Eating without distraction is virtually impossible for me. I use smaller plates, actual measuring cups and scales to measure a portion size instead of estimating, and eat a lot of the same foods over and over. I do fix a plate with everything portioned out and only eat that; before I would fix something to eat, then think, oh I must have something else and add to it. The calories add up quickly that way. I have an easier time with controlling food than motivating myself to exercise, but it must be done. My big thing is thoroughly brushing and flossing my teeth after dinner. No eating after that’s done because I sure don’t want to do it again. I will have to stick with the walking/running for now. I am looking forward to the day I have disposable income again - I think that will come in January 2013.</p>
<p>BC - that is awesome. I hope you will leave the competition in the dust! :)</p>
<p>My office’s real tri tradition died after the first year. Everyone seems too busy these days.</p>
<p>I did one triathlon in my life. 5 mile run, 1/4 mile swim, 15 mile bike. I had always done my swimming in a pool. With a concrete bottom. With lane lines. With clear water. </p>
<p>It was not one of my smarter ideas to participate in a tri where the swim started in a little river not used for swimming with 500 other people. </p>
<p>I had a full blown panic attack during the swim and the life boat guy came over and asked if I was ok. I said I was and just told him to keep an eye on me and I would be ok. I finished in 2 hours exactly, including my conversation with the boat guy. </p>
<p>And that was the end of my triathlon career.</p>
<p>Back in the gym today after a crazy weekend. Had lots of vistors at the house as Sunday was D1’s wedding shower. Talked immediate family in to going for a walk around Lake Calhoun. We are starting a famiy ritual of walking/hiking on the weekends. Great time even with the high heat and humidity!</p>
<p>Rode the recumbent bike for 45 minutes and then walked on the dreadmill for 45 minutes. Nice to be back at it! :)</p>
<p>Triathlons- I did several tris back in the 80s and 90s. The water in Dallas that you swam in was truly awful. One year there was a crocodile loose in the lake, believe it or not. Another year a guy drowned and wasn’t found for 3 days. People got ear infections…
I wasn’t a bad distance swimmer (my sprint skills were laughable) and swam on a master’s team for practice. My running was good, although it was SO hot by the time you got to run. My biking was my weak link, since I am too cautious and always afraid of falling. It got to be too much to train for 3 sports and the whole logistics of triathlon is pretty daunting. I hated the mass starts in the water. People kick you and swim over you. I never used a wetsuit, but that is another whole layer of expense and logistics…</p>
<p>Good workout, NMinn! </p>
<p>(This is not me complaining about the heat that I said I would not complain about…) We are having a dangerous heat wave. It was 78 this morning at 6am (usually 68-70 at worst) and humid. It will be close to 100 with heat index up to 110. It feels like Texas. It will last most of the week, I’m afraid. I managed 4 miles and will maybe do a couple on the dreadmill after work. Tomorrow for my 7 miler I think I’ll have to carry water. It’s bad outside.</p>
<p><a href=“This%20is%20not%20me%20complaining%20about%20the%20heat%20that%20I%20said%20I%20would%20not%20complain%20about…”>quote</a> We are having a dangerous heat wave. It was 78 this morning at 6am (usually 68-70 at worst) and humid. It will be close to 100 with heat index up to 110. It feels like Texas. It will last most of the week, I’m afraid. I managed 4 miles and will maybe do a couple on the dreadmill after work. Tomorrow for my 7 miler I think I’ll have to carry water. It’s bad outside.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Be careful out there! Weather.com says it’s 94 here with the heat index at 107 currently. Yesterday it had the heat index at 115!</p>
<p>Bike was my weakest part of my tris, as well. I had the power to go faster, but was fearful and overly cautious, so much slower than I needed to be.</p>
<p>I actually enjoyed the swim portion, although I wasn’t exactly breaking records speed-wise. I liked training in the lake, nothing more beautiful than an early morning lake swim. But I started having a bad reaction to the parasites in the obiquitous waterfowl poop - nasty rashes that just weren’t worth it. Swimming laps in a pool OTOH make the “dreadmill” seem fun and exciting in comparison.</p>
<p>today’s workout</p>
<p>Warm up: 250 m row
10 pass throughs, 10 airsquats, 10 push ups</p>
<p>Work Out
100 band assisted pull ups
100 push ups
100 ab mat situps
100 air squats</p>
<p>Took about 28 minutes to complete, because toward the end of the pull ups and push ups the recovery time to do 1 more rep started to become quite long. Rewarded myself for the week plus of strict paleo by hitting the UnderArmour outlet. Only got tops that I can also wear, even if I achieve the hoped for weight loss.</p>
<p>CJane, did you do 100 at a time or did you allow yourself to do 50 of one, 50 of another ,etc?</p>