Posts by salrob

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/drmao/20270/w hat-soft-drinks-are-doing-to-your-body/

I just came on this link in another cc discussion thread. The doc writing this suggests adding honey to tea or a cinnamon stick. Check it out.

I have the fancy indoor kind but I always use my iron dutch oven. It is so wonderful! Season according to the directions. Then use, use, use. Nothing compares. Clean up is so easy! Fill with warm water. Let sit for 15 or 20 minutes. Wipe out with a cloth - no soap! Don't sit it in water; just fill it and sit it on the stove top or counter. Let it air dry before you put it away.

Periodically, iron needs to be reseasoned if you cook something acidic, like tomato sauce, or if someone dares to use soap on it.

My Lodge five quart dutch oven cost us $35 years ago and it is a mainstay in our kitchen.

My sister was very overweight. She could not get a date. She lost the weight and has kept it off for the past 2.5 years. She dates all the time now. She is not skinny like the models or chicks on TV but she is at a healthy weight. Men have told her directly that weight matters to them. Its the first thing they check out.

I rejoined an exercise group I had belonged to 10 years ago. I am loving it. I attempted to rejoin about 4 years ago and just could not overcome my shame at having gained so much weight. I am proud to say that as of today, I have been going for a month. I can tell already the positive effects it is having on strength, balance and muscle tone. All the more reason to keep it up!

Original Post by kewthi:

Since you are lifting weights, I think your muscles may be retaining water.

I used to freak out a bit too, but I remember someone linking to
http://primusweb.com/fitnesspartner/library/w eight/scale.htm

and it helped me understand a bit more how the body works. 

Rome wasn't built in one day, so keep on going to see more results!  Don't give up!

 Thanks for the link to this site. It was quite helpful and encouraging.

No Truus, I'm not scared away! I wondered away to another thread and now I am here. I've been with cc a month now and lost 7 pounds - from 195 to 188. Feels good but scary. I took me 9 1/2 months to drop 15 pounds. Now I worry that I am too caught up in the diet aspect of this and will eventually rebound.

I will be out of town taking care of my mom for a couple of weeks. Talk about rebound! That place and being around her is definitely a trigger to overeat. I hope I can find some wi fi and get online for support.

I would appreciate any words of wisdom anyone has to share.

Original Post by dave98z3:

Thanks Haley....I am glad I am not the only one who has had this happen...I have tried just about everything (except gain the weight back) to prove to my wife that I am not only healthy but I am in the best health of my life...I feel fantastic and yet its a shadowed feeling because the woman I love just doesnt feel that I am the same person.

 Dave, I am really sorry that you and your wife are having problems over your weight loss. The first time I lost weight, my husband lost interest in me. We worked it out when I regained the weight! I think this time it will be better for both of us as I am now losing it again. Hang in there with the therapy as long as she will participate. In therapy, I learned that families are really "systems". If the system is "upset", it will act to restore itself to its previous status. Your wife is uncomfortable with the change. I hope she can learn to accept the healthier you. You won't be doing yourself or her any good by regaining weight. If you can overcome this obstacle, your marriage will be stonger.

My experience has been very similar to yours. I agree with the other two respondants. Starvation diets do nothing but put your body in starvation mode. You will hang onto every bit of water and fat because your body is protecting itself. If you do a websearch on damaged metabolism, or metabolism repair, you will see a lot of information. If the sights you are looking at want to sell you something - DON'T LISTEN to a thing they are telling you. Find a website that is purely informational and medically based. It takes several weeks to recover but you will recover if you eat over 1200 cals (1500 is recommended by several sources). Good Luck!

Dear Katethegreat,

I hear you and I feel for you. I am the opposite of what you are doing to yourself. I overeat, gain then lose, then start the cycle again. But I am getting better all the time and I feel good about where I am and what I am doing now. My cycles are much farther apart now. The key for me has been to figure out what healthy is and to aim for it. I get sidetracked by weight and calories to be sure, but now I can swing my emphasis back to healthy.

I downloaded the DASH diet from a website because DH and I need to watch cholesteral and salt. (We are older.) This website also has excellent diet advice. Find out what the dietary recommendations are and make new goals to meet them. Instead of focusing on weight, look at your food log and the analysis. Challenge yourself to look at daily recommendations as far as fat/protien/carb ratios and salt, fiber, cholesteral intake. Look at your vitamin intake. Focus on getting those right. Try it for a day. Then two. Go slow. Give yourself a chance to bounce between old habits and new.

I think that professional counseling is absolutely essential to deal with body image issues. If you feel like you are endangering your health, and your message seems to be saying that you feel like you are, then please seek that counselling assistance. It really will help you be all that you want to be.

Sadly, I know what you mean. I did this about 10 years ago. I lost the weight. I felt and looked great. Two of my girlfriends became distant when their husbands said something - not to me but to other guys. At work, I got attention from a guy and before I knew what was happening, he made a pass at me. I dress conservatively and see myself as a mom.  I welcomed his interest as professional. Boy, was I wrong! I had been out of the "game" for so long, I forgot there was a 'game". Losing weight put me right back in. I felt guilty. I withdrew gradually and put the weight back on. Now, years later I am trying to take it off again.

Yes, the pounds are dropping consistantly but incrementally. I don't know about "winning" the battle though! I have lost 17 pounds since last October. In dieter's language, that would not be considered a win.

I am logging what I eat a few times a week so that I can see accurately what I am doing, even on the days that I go over my 1500 calories. My focus is more on activity and less on losing weight. Even on days when I have pizza and beer, I still have more activity then I did before. My weight will go up for a few days but overall, it is dropping very slowly. I think that after years of putting myself in starvation mode then rebounding, my metabolism is a mess. (Think Oprah.) What is happening to you, has happened to me. I don't know the science behind it though.

I'll consider it  a win if I stay active, build muscle and weigh less in six months than I do today. That's the goal I am working toward. I don't have a number of pounds to lose or a size I want to buy or a deadline. I want to be strong and active. I want to be alive. I want to fit in a plane seat. I want to walk up that hill without breathing so hard. I don't want to take medication for high blood pressure or diabetes.

I'm still very conflicted about food. Food is highly emotionally charged for me. I am afraid I will always be like that. I just need to find a way to cope with it and minimize the adverse health effects. This change in attitude seems to be helping me deal with the day to day fluctuations. I can accept myself more. I can like myself more. That lessens the struggle for me.

Does this in any way help? I have found that die-hard dieters do not agree with this approach at all!

I'm 5'2" and 192 pounds. At my best and most healthiest, I weighed 130. I exercised aerobically and did weight resistance training 4 times a week. I ate pretty much what I wanted. Because I was feeling good, I wanted good food. I put weight back on when I took a desk job and got stressed out. Try as I might, I could not lose weight by cutting calories and having only a little bit of exercise. I did The Zone, Weight Watchers and the 5 Factor. I became food obsessed. Lost and gained. I got up to 210. In the last 10 months, I have focussed on becoming more active. I walk about 4 times a week. I am now beginning to add crunches and weights. I feel so much better and I dropped a few pounds. Let me emphasize how much better I feel!

My first diet was at age 12 or 13: 800 calories a day and lots of walking up and down stairs. My weight began to yoyo and with each cycle, I got bigger each time. Now, here I am. I am trying to keep my activity up and my calorie count around 1500 a day for most days. Its a struggle. If I weigh less at Christmas time, even if its only one pound less than today, its still less than I was 10 months ago. Slow and easy wins the race? So far, I am winning.

Low calorie diets do not work. I wish I had known that sooner in my life. Its such a struggle.

You can publicly answer your dad by looking directly at him and telling him "Thank you for your support dad. I can afford these calories and still be within my diet plan this week!" Then continue to eat and change the subject with him. Privately, you can tell him that while you understand he is concerned for your health, he is embarrassing you when he comments on your food selection. Ask him to stop making comments about your food. Keep this up and he will most probably get the message and quit after a few more incidents.

I have learned in the last 4 years to NOT PARTICIPATE in discussions where one person is talking about what someone else ate. If its a group, I wander off and find another group. If its a one-on-one conversation, I let them finish and sit there quietly for 5 beats. Then I change the subject. I have trained people that I do not talk about what people eat. I always allow them some time to save face and change the subject themselves.

Unless they insist. One time, a particularly pushy woman challenged me at a dinner party in front of at least 8 other people. She was talking about how much her mother-in-law put on her plate. She was saying, "I just think thats so unhealthy!" When no one responded, she asked, "What do you think "salrob"?" I told her in front of everyone there, "I think its none of my business what food your mother-in-law puts on her plate." No one said anything for a minute. Then someone started up another conversation.  The message was clear. I am glad I learned to draw the boundry and stick to it. No other guest at the dinner table was offended by what I said.

I'm in Lake Quivira, KS, right near Lenexa.

Hi vmcbutterfly,

Its ok to give yourself a break from counting calories. You probably have a very good idea about what the nurtion values are for the foods you choose. I don't think any nutrionist or doctor intends for any of us to be obsessed with numbers. We need to know the true value of what we are taking in against what we are expending. Give yourself a break. Trust your natural hunger. Maybe the numbers are forcing you to eat less than you should? Women should not be eating less than 1,200 calories. Maybe you will allow yourself to naturally eat a little more if you don't record every bite. Good luck.