Posts by shandykat

Do you happen to know anyone who lives in York or McMurray?  You can buy it in store in both those cities.

http://www.fibergourmet.com/Stores.aspx

You could also buy the 12pack for $36.  It saves a little money, makes it $6 per bag. 

This should help you:

http://whatcom.wsu.edu/family/facts/frozcans. htm

Also keep in mind, this can alter the taste of the food as well and make it less palatable.

The easiest way to up calories is to stop eating low calorie versions of real foods.  In the morning eat whole eggs instead of egg beaters.  Eat real bacon instead of turkey bacon. (there's bound to be some people who freak out about that but there's really not that much wrong with a slice or two if you're healthy).  Eat a full serving of cheese instead of half a serving.  Eat real salad dressing instead of local dressing.  Add avocado to your salad or to your eggs, or as a snack.  Add more nuts or peanut butter.  Cook your chicken in olive or canola oil.  Add a red meat to your diet.  Add some fruit, you don't seem to have any fruit in your diet besides bananas.

There are lots of choices for you if you try and break the "diet" mentality and try to start looking at your food choices from a lifestyle point of view.  And enjoy!  You get to eat all this lovely food! 

This is slightly different, but may help.

I have a medical reimbursement plan that my employer pays for.  In order to use that to cover my Psychiatrist and my "Nutritional Therapy" sessions I had to get a note from my General Practitioner at my HMO that said this therapy was "medically necessary".  They considered the therapy sessions optional unless deemed "medically necessary" by my doctor.  

"Mary Did You Know?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFPHIK9ann8

This one gets to me every. single. time.

Original Post by floggingsully:

Original Post by shandykat:

Anyway, to answer your ab question, you can do the same crunch exercise while sitting.  You just basically tighten and release your ab muscles while bending foward just a little bit, not a lot, just like the crunch motion. Um, I disagree that training your muscles to pull you into a position of poor posture will do anything to releave back pain.  A lot of back pain is caused by poor posture and training your muscles to get into that sort of position isn't going to help any.  Squeezing the muscles is a great idea, just do it while your sitting up strait (the muscles around your mid-section are designed to hold your lower back in place, not move it around) 

The most important things for beginners to learn is how to isolate your muscles, that is, learning how to work your abs without engaging your back, neck, and butt and hips. :)  Why would anyone (especially a beginner) want to learn to isolate a particular muscle? Your muscles are supposed to work together, that's how they were designed, when they don't work together properly injuries happen.

I think being concious of your posture throughout the day (both sitting and standing) is a great place to start (it'll stregthen all your core muscles and likely help with the back pain).  Walking (while standing up strait) and some of the other exercises Spirochete suggested would be a great place to start.

And of course, improving your diet is what's going to drive the majority of your results, so really concentrate on that. 

 You asked why a person would want to learn to isolate a muscle?  So they can know they're working the correct muscles for one, and they can do the exercises correctly, and they can get the most out of the exercise they're doing. 

I did crunches for years and for years they made my back ache, and they never seemed to do much for me.  I never "got" it, never got what they meant when they said to work the upper, lower, obliques, etc.  It wasn't until I actually learned to feel these muscles and learned to isolate them during the exercise that I learned how to get the most out of the workout.  Now I can do amazing core workouts and can run circles (figuratively) around people who are in twice the shape I am and they just look on amazed.  Learning to isolate muscles is just as important as working them together. 

Don't get me wrong, I agree working muscles in combination is of utmost importance and I prescribe to the CrossFit style workouts myself, but there is a place for isolation as well.

As to your other statement, you might have a point about the poor posture position and the person who followed with the better position for the exercise with the beginning posture of leaning back would probably be a bit better.

Tell us what you typically eat during an average day and maybe we can tell you how to modify it to get more calories.  We can probably do this without adding very much more actual food, you'll be surprised.

Original Post by berriesandyogurt:

I was wondering about the side affects of these drugs. I know that they are both known to decrease appetite and promote weight loss, and that Topamax can cause short term memory loss and fatigue.
I am not too concerned with the side effects of the drugs, more about what will happen if I should decide to discontinue them. I have been diagnosed with binge eating disorder, and I am scared that my habits will return upon going off the medication. I also have mild depression: that's what the Wellbutrin is for. It's also supposed to help me focus, counteracting the "blurry thoughts" that are expected from Topamax. If anyone has taken these drugs before, please give me your input! I don't want to regain any weight I lose, or my old eating habits!

edit: I am in therapy for my binge eating and depression.

I take both of these, and while I can speak to the side effects while taking them, I can't tell you what will happen once you go off them because i'm still on them.  They do say that the effects of Topamax only last for the time you're taking the drug, which is a big reason I decided to take it myself.  The side effects are pretty hairy and there was no way I was going to take it if they were going to affect me permanently.

You can expect to have a tremendous loss of appetite while on both.  You will most likely also experience drowsiness, and a tingling in your extremities at times.  I felt it in my fingers and lips mostly. 

I suffered from headaches before taking Topamax and found that they've gone away completely (except for my monthy PMS headache).  This is a known positive side effect and it's curious to me that someone actually got headaches from this. 

Yes, my short-term memory is terrible now, but the worst part of this is I feel sort of sketchy now.  I'm not as "clear-minded" as I used to be.  Known side effect and one that should go away once i'm off the med.  The sketchyness could be a combo of the Wellbutrin and the Topamax.  And it's hard to concentrate and focus on tasks now, it feels like what I think ADD might feel like. 

That being said, I went from a size 18 to a size 8 over the course of a year.  But i'm starting to gain again so i'm glad to see you need to deal with your overeating issues because the meds are a temporary fix.  They're only meant as a way to get yourself back to a place of control in order to be able to work on your issues.  I'm glad to see you recognize that.

I'm so sorry, I know how hard this is for you.

How about taking some walks?  That would get you outside and at least keep you in the mindset of being active, but not forcing yourself to do something you don't feel like doing right now.  And walking is a great way to be alone and think things through, figure out where you want to go from here.

I know it's probably cold where you are, but bundle up and go.  Sometimes cold weather walks are really good for clearing your head.