Posts by razzberry

These things put huge pressure on your heart.  It causes the heart muscle to swell.  One day your heart will stop suddenly and that will be it.

I know that seems very harsh but it's the truth.   I already know someone who ended up with pulmonary odema (swelling of the heart) due to misuse of diet drugs.  He still takes them and it's just a matter of time 'til he dies.

Please, for your own sake stop taking them.   Trying to get a 'good figure' isn't worth killing yourself for.  One day you'll realise there's more to this life than constantly worrying how fat your ass is.

Hello Keith, nice to meet you too!

The thing I see here, is the same thing I've had. The doctors try to sort out the problem without getting to the cause. Nobody becomes super morbidly obese 'just because'. There are always underlying problems and usually an emotional attachment to food. If they would just give us some form of counselling, find ut why we have ended up the way we have, why those compulsions to eat are so strong and how to get around them, then just maybe we could get through it?

It seems that anorexics and bulimics get some kind of weird kudos for their eating disorders doesn't it? They have an illness. Fair enough, I agree. The over eaters? We're just greedy and disgusting and should learn to control ourselves!

A bypass should be a very last resort and there is risk. They expect you to lose 30lbs before surgery....I don't get that, isn't the surgery kind of the point? That you are unable to lose the weight? If you are sure about all this, then please get the counselling beforehand. Just because your stomach is smaller, it doesn't mean the compulsion will go away on its own. It's like an addiction...except with food you can't just give it up like you can alcohol cigarettes and drugs huh?

Even at your current weight, 800-1200 calories a day isn't enough. It's no wonder you're obsessing about food. As a male your body should never be consuming less than 1500 (I would say 1700-1800!). You're hungry! If you starve, your body will hang on to that fat like a woman in a purse sale! When we under-eat our bodies go into starvation mode and then when we start to eat a normal diet the weight goes right back on and more than before. I know this from bitter personal experience. I went through a long time of 600 calories a day and when I went back to 3 meals, whoosh, it was like a tidal wave!

I seem to be giving this same advice to people here, it's even on my profile because I believe it works and it works like no diet can. It's not a diet, it's lifestyle change. Food habits and activity habits that just need to be broken. Just starting by quickening the pace you walk, getting up and down more in the day and walking those short distances you might drive is all a start.

As for the food I try to live by this:

1. Only eat when you're hungry

2. Eat consciously and slowly, savouring and chewing every mouthful (20 times at least)

3. Don't put more in until your mouth is completely empty

4. Put your fork down while you chew

5. STOP when you're full; don't feel the need to eat everything that is in front of you. Even if you leave just a spoonful to begin with, just get used to that not having to eat EVERYTHING

6. If you get hungry again in an hour, eat again! Repeat 1-4

7. Aim for smaller portions more often, it'll speed your metabolism up

8. DON'T STARVE, you'll only binge later.

9. Keep food with you all the time, a cereal bar, dried fruit, seeds & nuts, a yogurt or anything that isn't just a quick sugar fix.

10. Eat WHAT you want WHEN you want and not because you're upset/emotional, just because you would like it. Just not to excess

11. Drink plenty of fluids (preferably water but I know how it is) as sometimes hunger pangs are just because we're thirsty.

If your day is centering around the preparation and consumption of food, perhaps you could prepare it all in advance? Write out a menu for the week. Prepare what you can and either refrigerate or freeze? Even if you mix it around a bit. Eat which parts you want when you want them. The minute you start saying no to yourself and depriving, is the minute you start to lose faith. 3 meals, 3 snacks and plenty of fluid. You won't get hungry because you won't give your body a chance to. Little and often works!

If you fall off the wagon, YOU HAVE NOT FAILED. Don't torment yourself with 'I shouldn't have eaten that!'. Accept you fell off and get right back on again. I used to do that and then binge the rest of the day. 'I've failed now, what's the point?'

There IS a point. YOU, your kids, your family, those that love you. It won't happen overnight and I don't expect you to take everything I say and necessarily use it but I do know how you feel and I have been there and these techniques work for me.

I wish you all the luck in the world and if you need to talk, just drop me a message to my inbox and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Take care

Vicki ~

Oh that's awesome news!  On here it logs them as being 403 cals per bar!  Someone must have put the per 100g measurement in the per bar bit.  I looked and the ones without yogurt are 403 cals per 100g.  D'oh!  But thank you so much!   Is your fave the one with cranberry?  I had one of those the other day and it was nice but the yogurt ones are going back to being my fave again now

Thanks! 

Hello Mary!

I'm Vicki, I'm going to add you as a friend.  Let me know if this is a problem!

Thanks

Vicki :) 

Hi there!

I'm Vicki, aged 34, have 3 kids (son 11, daughter 9 and another daughter 7) been divorced and now remarried.

 You sound like a fun gal so I'm gonna add you seeing as you said it was OK

Cheers!

Vicki ~ 

Hiya,

I'm Vicki, I'm 34, 5'7", married, 3 kids and about 340lbs now (was about 380). I haven't weighed myself (I get obsessed when I have scales in the house) but I have been measuring myself and have lost 10 inches around my middle and hips. I can tell from clothes fit roughly. I'm over estimating my current weight though. I know it's probably less but it'll be better to do that and be hopefully pleasantly surprised when I do get on the scales again.

I've had a lot of trouble getting any help from my doctors even though I have begged them to help me. I grew up with a yoyo dieting mum and a lot of emotions were attached to foods. I spent my teens and early 20s anorexic and bulimic, then ended up COED (compulsive over eating disorder, just in case you don't know ) through all the years of deprivation. I was prescribed Xenical (Orlistat) 3 times and all three were stopped because of mistakes on the doctors part (No I couldn't believe it either). Each time I felt defeated and was pushed into further decline in self esteem and gained more weight.

I went to college, started to lose some weight, was studying midwifery and everything was going great. Then my back went and I was unable to stand for more than a few minutes. (I have a weird dip in my spine now. Partly caused by years of heavy lifting but mostly due to obesity) Compensating for my back, my already worn knees got worse. So ended up physically disabled and fully dependant.

I gained a lot of weight over the next 18 months due to a combination of being housebound and miserable. Food seemed the only pleasure in life anymore and I wasn't going to deny myself that one thing! I also knew that it was part of the COED and that something needed to be done before I got to the point where I was going to have to be cut out of my house or something!

All the while I tried to get help from the doctors and all they did was tell me what I already knew 'You need to lose weight' Well done! Tell me something I didn't know! I asked for help with my eating disorder and they told me they couldn't help me. I asked for counselling, to see a proper dietician and they said 'no we don't do that, we are referring you for a gastric band' I said I didn't think a gastric band would help with my eating disorder and I was accused of refusing treatment. They said If I saw a consultant for lap band surgery they would 'deal with all that anyway'. Mmmhmmm. I'm currently in the process of changing doctors.

So, after all the emotional trauma of the doctors and being forced into full dependence at 32 (2 years ago) I've lost all and any interest in food. Sure the weight is coming off but I wish it didn't have to be all or nothing you know? Enjoy food & binge, or eat sensibly but don't enjoy it.

I hate that there are so many people in a similar position and that we're all made to feel so guilty and greedy and disgusting about it all. I have got to a point where I feel none of those things anymore. I won't let other people dictate how I should feel about my eating habits!

I would love to be friends on here and get to know more about your story and why you ended up with your eating habits. I'd like to be able to help people like us see what happens and that even though we think we'll just continue being OK, it can happen to anyone. I thought I'd be OK! I never in a million years thought I would be in a wheelchair aged 32! It's humiliating and it causes depression, guilt and thoughts of suicide.

Ever tried getting an electric scooter around the shops? I wish I didn't have to! People just think YOU are in THEIR way. They won't just step aside. They think you should wait. After doing that 40 times round the supermarket it's pretty annoying! They also assume it's due to your weight too, not that there's something else. Frankly I'd be too ashamed if it was just my weight!

Anyway, I've waffled on enough.

Hope to hear from you soon! 

Vicki