<p>zoosermom, I agree - yours is a great strategy! Variety is the spice of life, as they say.
(BTW, Pop Chips are great! I hate chips, but I really liked this stuff)</p>
<p>ugh…day 2 almost done with “lifestyle” change. Had to get real since knee surgery is keeping me down. Thanks for the tips interspersed here. This thread was great company today when I didn’t think I was going to make it through! Thank heavens for water, grilled chicken breast and yummy fresh raspberries! Losing weight is definitely the hardest thing I have ever tried in my life.</p>
<p>MP/ZM- I know a couple of men with weird parental situations and I have always thought they eat like they have a hole in their heart, they eat like they are trying to fill up something missing. It is almost, but not quite obsessive and has a certain desperation. They both could lose 20-30# and have beer bellies, but do not drink.</p>
<p>It is both sad & scary what ones subconscious can do to us!</p>
<p>Why am I being contradicted? I clearly said I do not believe that an addiction is excusable, nor that they cannot be overcome. People who eat a lot and don’t stop eating are addicted to the foods that do that to them. Because they’re not eating foods and vegetable does not make them addicted to eating, per se, but it does make them addicted to those high-sugar, high-fat, foods. </p>
<p>The first step is admitting a person has a problem. People who eat a lot, and don’t stop eating, find that they psychologically feel they cannot stop eating are food {specifically junk} food addicts. I do not see why this explanation doesn’t suffice. It isn’t backing them up into a corner – there are drug addicts that overcome their drug addictions, etc. People become attached meat, dairy, and heavily processed foods, as comfort foods, celebratory foods, etc. That attachment is an addiction.</p>
<p>The attitude and the way we force ourself to think about any situation has huge impact. If something is identified as a problem (overeating is just one example), we should be involed in setting our mind to solving this problem, not putting ourselves in a corner with no escape (example, thinking that being fat is OK or “I am food addict and cannot do anything about it”). Thinking this way is the same as hating yourself, not treating yourself with respect. If any problem needs to be resolved, than just list options for yourself, choose the best one, develop plan and follow it. Do not forget about feedback to see if you are on a track to resolve a problem. In oveweight case, scale (yes, every day, please, at the same time in the same clothe) is must. Actually I have read many articles written by MDs that recommend every day weighing as a regular routine, since our food is very remote from what we suppose to eat and we have lost the sense of being full. Scale will show if you are eating normal amount, too much or too little.</p>
<p>
That’s my husband. His mother was the coldest, most uncaring person I’ve ever met in my entire life.</p>
<p>20-30 pounds to loose is nothing, very little effort needed. I would not even bother to mention it. My concern is 50+ pounds. 20 pounds could be lost in one month, which I have done in a past and kept it off with additional lost of few more pounds until my next pregnancy. I have been normal weight for over 15 years now with not much effort. I love to exersize though and have my favorite activities like swimming and rollerblading. You got to find the way to enjoy both food and exersize, otherwise keeping normal weight is another full time job. And keep in mind that human beings are part of animal world and we tend to loose/gain with the seasons. Do not be too harsh on yourself.</p>
<p>WOW MiamiDAP! If you wrote down your system to easily lose 20 lbs in a month you’d make a bundle and be famous!!! ;)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That sounds a lot like my fathers Mom. Sad, isn’t it? My Dad became an alcoholic; I never thought about it in terms of trying to fill a void left by a lifetime of feeling unloved by the woman who is supposed to most cherish you. He quit 25 years ago, though, and doesn’t have any other addictive behaviors. Though he did go through therapy after he stopped drinking, so maybe that helped. And he is the opposite of his mother: the most loving, affectionate man I’ve ever known, and always in a happy, postitive state of mind.</p>
<p>Easy, stick to cottage cheese and grapefruits (careful, they are no good with some medicine). I love both, you can use your own prereffed foods. I did not eat much of other staff at all. It is only for one month, not that hard. I also was busy working full time, going to college and taking care of family, so I did not have much time to think if I was hungry or not. I did not start exersizing yet at that period of my life. Exersize addiction came later.</p>
<p>Sorry Miami, but most any medical personnel would tell you that losing 20-up pounds in one month is NOT healthy. That’s 5 pounds a week! Any method where you eliminate appropriate food groups is not a good one and any weight loss that quickly cannot be maintained when you go back to good, sound eating.</p>
<p>Sorry, that really disturbs me to see anyone advocate that type of diet. Hands down, it’s unhealthy and potentially dangerous.</p>
<p>Of the two men I am thinking of who are over weight and eat to fill something missing, one had a very loving mother, but she was also quite dysfunctional, depressed and they grew up quite poor.</p>
<p>The other one has a mother who was a model, who starved herself, who made fun of his Rubenesque tendencies in front of everybody, who was and still is completely self-involved and was always cold & cruel. She even slipped dexatrim to his (not heavy, but not model skinny) girlfriends! I noticed the more she said about food the more he ate. She and her husband are both incredibily self-centered, the world revolves around them and nothing any one does is every enough, so they engender feelings of inadequacy and being unloved…as a matter of fact, this man says if it had been legal, he is certain his mother would have aborted him :eek:</p>
<p>Since misery loves company, I’m going to torture you all with an email ad I just received:</p>
<p>[:::</a> Sprinkles Cupcakes Calendar :::](<a href=“http://www.sprinkles.com/calendar/boo.html]:::”>http://www.sprinkles.com/calendar/boo.html)</p>
<p>Exersize addiction came later
Apologies to Gertrude Stein
Addiction, is addiction, is addiction.</p>
<p>Our society is really bad at cutting people off from themselves and from each other.
We don’t go out into the woods unless we are going to " hike the Wonderland trail 7.8 miles, stand at Paradise lookout and take snaps for family xmas cards".
We don’t have time to take a walk, we don’t have time just to sit and be alone with our thoughts ( who does? and we might think about things we don’t want to).</p>
<p>I never thought about addicted families while growing up, our family had it’s own issues, but we didn’t have the elephant under the carpet my husbands family does.</p>
<p>He grew up with noise, often the television was on at the same time as the radio, and they held conversations that way as well. He turns on the radio as soon as he gets home, and needs it for background noise while he reads. I wouldn’t say his mother is the coldest person ever- I would be more likely to lump my mother in that category, but he was taught to believe certain things about himself, and if he is ever going to change that way of thinking, the first thing he needs to do is admit his parents made mistakes and that isn’t something he can do- so he builds a wall with noise- some people build it with food- some with exercise or work or shopping.</p>
<p>Being overweight is not as simple as a metabolism that slows down as you become less active/older or learning to make different choices with food.
Sometimes it is what is going on in our brain.</p>
<p>For example, I am dyslexic/dyspraxic, my brain is reversed and very inefficient. It takes a lot of energy to read, to make a list or to get anything done. I used to use food throughout the day, because I needed boosts of blood sugar so I wouldn’t fall asleep. Because I was so tired all the time, I couldn’t even think of being physically active and snacking for the blood sugar much more than hunger made me overweight.</p>
<p>While I had also been diagnosed with ADD previously, I didn’t like the medication and I didn’t remember to fill the rx or even take it. I finally accepted that nutritional supplements were not enough, and I did get a rx for a medication that helped my attention enough so that I could stay awake without eating fruit or bread all day.</p>
<p>After that I lost 40 lbs in less than a year ( plus I gradually became much more active, now that I had the energy)</p>
<p>I also notice that the things I was allergic to as a child, I am still very sensitive to.
( dairy and wheat for instance). When I don’t eat dairy at all, I feel much better- less * cloggy*. However that has to be weighed against the short term thrill of eating choc chip mint ice cream for breakfast.
;)</p>
<p>“If there is no food in the house save greens and fresh fruits, will that individual go on a late night broccoli binge? I doubt it.”</p>
<p>Right. Which is why there shouldn’t be much food in the house save vegetables and fruits! I try not to buy cookies, chips, crackers, etc…especially my favorites. If they’re there, I’ll eat them.</p>
<p>It’s difficult to become obese by overindulging in fruits, vegetables, legumes, and lean fish. People eating that way may not be skinny, but they’re rarely obese, either.</p>
<p>Miami, when you say 20 pounds is a piece of cake to lose for anyone, do you mean a 200-lb person, a 150-lb person, or a 300-lb person? Cottage cheese and grapefruit is OK for a while, but if you continue eating these foods only for a prolonged period of time, you will deprive your body of nutrients and vitamins that are not found in these two foods. The best way to lose and maintain weight is to eat diverse foods, but stop eating when you are 80% full, like the Okinawa residents apparently do.</p>
<p>abasket,
I was not advocating anything, it was my way, not suggested way, I just advocate the fact that 20 pounds is not a big deal to loose, either do it in one month or in a year, you would spend more energy discussing it than actually doing it. It is not important how. In terms of being healthy or not, I am much healthier even with 5 pounds loss which is reflected in my frequent measurements of blood sugar, pressure and cholesterol. In addition, I found that I am much less prone to colds when my weight is down. I was miserable after my last pregnancy, being constantly sick and ended with pnemonia. I rarely get colds when I am my normal weight, maybe once in 3 - 4 years or so. And such a huge difference in lower back, I had few very bad instances in my life, but all of them while being overweight.</p>
<p>BunsenBurner,
I lost 20 pounds from 151 down to 131 and won contest ($50) and that is the reason why I remember all details, I love have $$ for nothing. It was soo long ago. I also lost 50 pounds after my last pregnancy from 175 to 125 doing 1 pound /week. That one was also very easy. But if one erect all kind of obstacles for yourself like notion of Food Addiction and such, then it becomes much harder. Just do it and do not think too much, follow your plan, whatever it is, as long as you are reasonable and do not go crazy into anorexia or bulimia mode and such, you will be just fine.</p>
<p>I don’t necessarily think posters are using food addiction as an excuse or an obstacle to weight loss but rather as a possible factor (of which there are many) contributing to obesity. Different diets will work well for different types of people; not everyone is enthused about eating the same foods day after day for the sole purpose of losing weight. </p>
<p>It was a beautiful day in Virginia, so two coworkers and I headed over to the park, walked 1.5 miles (probably not much to all you hardcore exercisers) and came back to the office for our salads. Healthy salads. Every little bit helps, right?</p>
<p>* I also lost 50 pounds after my last pregnancy from 175 to 125 doing 1 pound /week. That one was also very easy.*</p>
<p>But how much was baby?
With my first- I had been on complete bedrest for 16 weeks, and she only weighed 1130 gms!
( not to mention- section- no labor)
After I gave birth- you could barely tell ( and she stayed in the hospital for 8 weeks anyway- so I didn’t have a baby to clue friends in, who hadn’t seen me) ;)</p>
<p>But with my 2nd- eight years later, I had been in labor for three days! yes round the clock- I was exhausted, but when I saw friends at an open house a week later- they marveled at how good I looked. :rolleyes:.
They declined however, to take up my weight loss method.</p>
<p>I also didn’t attempt losing weight until I was done nursing, while I ate healthily and tried to keep my fluids up, the body hangs onto weight that it will need incase of famine to feed the babies until you all but stop milk production.</p>
<p>There are a lot more important things than fitting into a certain size.</p>