Posts by heatherket

Yeah, hate to be like, "ohhh, you didn't gain THAT much weight". But really, 125-131. Six pounds...honey, you can handle that. Trust me. A month of a bit of effort, and you'll be back to normal.

Me, on the other hand, I've gained about 32 pounds since starting college (from 182ish to 215, I'm 5'10" though, for some reference). A combination of emotional eating (dealing with all of my college savings being spent in two terms even with a 90% scholarship, stress of work and school, and my coworker's recent suicide), Depo, hardly any time for exercise, and cafeteria food...

In about three months, two of which I was off the boat completely, I've gone from 215 to 198, back up to 212 and now back down to 208...

You can do it. I know you can because I can.

Don't worry.

Some other things you can try for weights:

Pennies (or an equivalent in Mexican currency). 1000 pennies weighs 6 pounds and will only cost you $10. I made weights out of pennies and small bags. Wrapped the string of the bag around my wrist or ankle and did my knee exercises when I had to do physical therapy. Worked great.

Also try a thrift store. I volunteered at a thrift store this summer and we had three sets of free weights, all for less than $15.

5'10", medium/large frame, 198-202 pounds and I wear a 14/16.

I've been at least a 14 since 7th grade (still have those pants lol) and started wearing 16's when I turned 15...I've since lost a bit and my 16's are a bit loose now.

But I'm also curvy with a 38F, wide hips and a bit of pudge on my tummy.

A tiny input, but, I work the fryers at my college cafeteria. Literally everything we make that is "fried" (french fries, corn dogs, crispitos, chicken nuggets, mozzarella sticks, jalapeno poppers, steak fries, curly fries, chicken fried steak, chicken fried chicken, popcorn chicken, etc. etc. etc.), according to the box, can be baked in the oven for 6-15 minutes for the same, slightly healthier result.

You probably knew that chips were fried...all of these things are fried in the same oil. Chips only are in the oil for about 20 seconds, so it's not as bad as things like steak fries, that sit in there for 6 minutes, absorbing whatever the heck the oil has got in it.

I'm sure that if you peeled and sliced a potato really thin and put some seasoning on it and baked it you could make your own chips. It would work with almost any vegetable - potatoes, zucchini probably, carrots for sure, squash maybe. Fruits too, apple chips are amazing with some cinnamon I've heard. Or try drying them - dried potatoes would be pretty gross, but dried apples are amazing, as well as dried apricots and prunes. Fruit leather - definitely something I want to learn to make.

Edit: I read that article posted above and it said that both baking and frying can produce that chemical...but microwaving doesn't? So I would stick with drying fruit the old-fashioned way (I read an article once about stringing apple slices with lemon juice on them and hanging them in a window until they were dry. That sounds safe.)

It might take a lot to get them to eat healthier.

My dad is the cook in the family, but he is also the one that works, so he would never have time to cook. That said, I was raised on boxed foods - Rice a Roni and canned vegetables. Fresh fruits and veggies were rare.

About three years ago, I decided to become a lacto-ovo vegetarian. My parents said that they weren't going to "cook special food for me" (even if it just meant cooking the ground beef in a seperate pan than the canned spaghetti sauce), so I would buy my own food with the money I made from work. Little by little, my changes started influencing them.

What helped? I "accidentally" bought too many apples. I asked them to help me eat them so they didn't go bad. They were tired of me eating seperate meals (to make this relevant for you, do you ever just eat healthier meals by yourself?) and eventually wanted to eat the same thing together, so I helped them pick out some healthier boxed foods (I was still working like crazy at the time, from 4-9 almost every night after school). Then I looked through some recipe books for healthy things we could make together. I got their input so it wasn't something I was forcing them to eat. They were reluctant until I gave in and said that I would cook it myself. Your parents would love having you cook for them - gives them time to rest!

None of it really transformed them, or me, until last May. I wasn't obsessed with calories and sugar and carbs. I just wanted something that felt healthier. Well, last May my dad had open-heart surgery. It was to replace his bicuspid aortic valve that he was born with, so it wasn't his fault. His arteries and veins weren't filled with plaque either. Somehow he managed to stay healthy, even though he was over 300 pounds.

In order to recover from his surgery, he had to exercise. He had to change his diet to kick out a lot of Vitamin K. But when his aortic valve was replaced, he was able to breathe a lot easier (because the oxygenated blood was able to flow easier into his body). Almost dying really put into perspective how important health is. He was given a second chance, and he started exercising and eating healthier - and dragging my mom along for the ride.

I would feel terrible if had never told my dad before his surgery that he should try to eat healthier. Two extra years of unhealthy crap could have turned into plaque buildup in his arteries and more surgery. His work to prove that I wasn't eating as healthy as I though forced him to eat healthy by example. This mindset probably helped him a ton when he was done with surgery. He probably looked back and said, "That's what I need to be doing all the time, only better!"

I applaud your efforts. I know it's difficult, and I have a hard time doing it by example. If you can, great!

Not to be rude or anything, but I would ignore people who tell you to stop and that it's not your business. I would feel guilty for the rest of my life if my dad hadn't started exercising and eating healthier with my help after his surgery. It could have meant a much longer recovery and even more problems.

No offense to the previous posters, but I would have felt even worse if his habit was something like smoking - I know it's hard to help someone quit. I met a family in the hospital while my dad was having surgery. Their father/husband (different family members =D) was having like his fifth surgery for his lung cancer, and he still had no desire to quit. I know it's hard. But giving up trying to help him completely...I would never be able to live with myself after that. I encouraged the family to keep trying even though it looked like he was near the end. I know it's a lot of arguments and a lot of heartbreak. But if it can mean adding years to his life, do it. If it can mean having an even better relationship with him after he quits because you helped him, do it.

Good luck. =D

Well, I do know that I'm 5'10" and skating around 200 pounds (198-201)...and I don't look fat, but I blame that on my height.

When I do the wrist test, it says I'm medium framed, my thumb and every other finger just touch (including pinkie and index finger), none overlap, so I'm definitely not small.

But there is a bonier part of my wrist, the wrist blade I guess you could call it, where my fingers don't touch. It is based on that that I consider myself a large frame for that test.

But other things led me to that decision as well. I have broad shoulders, wide hips and a huge head. Even the boniest parts of my legs and arms are pretty large. In proportion to the rest of my body, my wrists and hands are small. I have little, delicate, but long fingers. I wear a size 5-7 ring depending on the finger. And when I won a fancy Fossil watch from the jeweler's, they had to take two of the links out for it to fit my wrist.

So I definitely agree that since we come in different shapes and sizes, we can be small in some areas and large in others. Do you feel like you have a large or medium frame?

The other determining factor for me was that I looked in the mirror for a long time at my body and frame, then walked around town and at my college for a while, comparing my frame to other's. I saw people about my age and height that were obviously small frames - they didn't look skinny but were smaller than me. I saw people in between, and then I saw other people like me. Granted, being 40-50 pounds overweight might be skewing this view a bit, but based on the bone structure, I am definitely medium or large framed.

Maybe you'll find that yours changes as well. ^_^

The thing is, I don't think I lost that much weight...if you look at my weight on Jan 22, it was 215 at the doctor's in the morning after breakfast, and two days later in the afternoon it was only 205.2. I think the doctor's scale is way off from mine.

The next morning, which is how I consistently weighed myself afterwards, started my 198-202 almost-month. I really think I've been stuck for a while but was tricked by seeing the numbers being about a pound down for more than one day, and then shooting back up...

I'm so confused.

That's ridiculous. I'm 18 now but attended a lot of different schools in a lot of different areas. Some schools banned parties like that because the parents/kids couldn't afford to bring anything.

But even at other schools where it wasn't banned, we were never expected to bring something for every holiday. We would hand out those paper Valentines to each other, and there had to be one for every kid. That was about it, unless the teacher said there would be a party, then we could bring food. A lot of schools required prepackaged goodies instead of home made. But it never had to be really fancy - I would usually bring in a box or two of Little Debbie desserts.

Usually it was the teacher's job to give out stuff, because all these goodies can be a distraction to learning, in my opinion - especially if everyone is bringing everybody else something for every holiday. The teachers would hand out candy for Christmas and Halloween and usually Valentine's. But that's it.

My parents did talk to a lot of schools about the added cost and how it was unneccesary and that we should be learning on those days instead.

I started my diet because of the weight on the doctor's scale. It was 213, and I went back a few days later on a scale in a different room and it was 215. A day or two later, I got a scale of my own, and weighed myself right after a huge lunch and was only 204.

So I'm positive my doctor's scale is off by 6-10 pounds. I still add it to my weight chart but I make sure to note that it was a different scale.

I looked around at one of the recommended websites about what sort of shoes to wear, and picked out some at Big 5 that felt good and had support where it was recommended.

I got a thin stabilizing knee brace I can wear. When I hurt my knee I wore a brace for quite some time. My physical therapist told me I probably liked to wear it because it also kept my knee warmer, loosening up the muscles.

I will force myself to stretch for longer periods and not work through pain.

Thank you for posting this.

My dad had open-heart surgery last May, to replace his aortic valve, and he was pretty overweight going into it. Having the surgery improved his circulation a lot.

Ever since the surgery, he's felt cold all the time. He stays cold. He was always so warm, his hands and everything, but now he's always cold. We thought it was because of his circulation improvement or because some of the medicines say that it can make you feel cold all the time.

Well, improving his circulation and deciding to eat better and exercise made it a lot easier for him to lose weight. He's probably lost about 50 pounds now. We never thought that losing weight could be the majority of it.

I'll tell him that so he doesn't keep worrying that it's the medicine. =D

I have to cook food to the point where it's so hot I can't eat it, then I blow on it until it cools off. Otherwise I don't feel like it's cooked long enough. I can't stand lukewarm food. I get afraid of food poisoning even though I've never had it.

When I used to eat fries (I really try not to now, unless it's a quality check while I'm working the fryers at work =D) I would shove as many as possible in my mouth at a time - 7? 10? I do the same thing with popcorn. Huge bites. It's more fun, more crunchy. Mmm.

I never chew with my mouth open, because it reminds me of cows chewing cud, so it's really fun to do the above and have my mouth shut the whole time I'm chewing. Hahaha.

I stir my food a lot as I eat it, especially soups and chili.

All my cereal has to have touched the milk. So I pour in cereal, then milk, then poke the cereal down in the milk with my spoon a bunch before I eat it.

Sometimes I turn the fork upside down - usually if I have to stab the food to pick it up and can't scoop it with the fork, like green beans or corn. I'll flip the fork over and pull it off with my teeth that way.

I usually don't drink a drink with my meal. If I'm at a restaurant where drinks are served first, I drink the entire drink before the food gets there. Then they have to refill it, and I don't drink the refill until I'm done with the meal. If I have food and drink at the same time, my drink usually hangs out until the food is gone and then I drink it.

If I pour something not liquidy into a bowl to eat - like peanuts I guess - they have to be level. I shake the bowl around until they level out. When I was really little and my hands were smaller I would pat the food down into the bowl.

If my food is warm and it has cheese involved, the cheese must be melted. I can't stand cold cheese on warm food. I think that's why tacos bothered me as a child - cold shredded cheese. Eww. Or when I'd get the side of nachos at Taco Bell, I made them warm up the nacho cheese if it wasn't. My Subway sandwiches are always toasted because sometimes I can't stand cold cheese on cold food either. ;)

Salads must be soaked with some sort of dressing - that's why I had to find a really low-calorie, low-fat dressing to use.

When I get food at the cafeteria here, the forks are right by the door. The idea is to get your tray (which I never use) and fork first, then go get food, put it on the tray, etc. Nope. I just walk right in, get my food, pay for it, then walk back in and get a fork. Kind of weird.

Wow, I'm just noticing how weird all this sounds when I write it out.

Wow, what a coincidence! I'm under 200 pounds today too - 199.8. YEAH!

I'm really starting to think the doctor's scale was off when it said I was 213/215 - there's no way I weighed 213/215 two weeks ago and lost 13-15 pounds in those two weeks...

It does feel good though. =D

I'm way prouder of you than me though...I've got a ways to go yet.

As many people have said, you can't spot train. Your body just wants to put fat there. One of the best things you can do is to accept it.

But girl, I'm sure at 130 you're absolutely gorgeous. I'm 5'10" as well, and weigh a good 70 pounds more than you. If I could make muffins with my muffin top...I would probably have at least a dozen muffins. LOL.

Cheer up. =D I'm shooting for 153 and any extra jiggle I've got then I'll be happy with. Heck, I'm happy with losing like a pound.

I just noticed, like, today, that it's kind of orange-red. When it fills up all the way or past it turns dark red.

But I know what you mean. The orange should be more orangey. And happy. And like, hey, it's OK, eat more food. =D