Posts by lionpaw

Good for you!

My motivation to run is the sheer joy of being able to.  My highest recorded weight is 310, and at that weight, I could barely walk up a flight of stairs.  In March, I ran a 5k in 37 minutes.  I can run an 11.5-minute mile and a 2-mile run is no big stretch.  I have run as much as 5 miles in a day and as many as 4 at one time.  These are big achievements for me, and the chance to continue to improve my times and distances is, at least for now, all the motivation I need.

There's also the fact that the people that ran the 5k with me are, some of them at least, training to run a half-marathon next year.  I don't think I'll be able to join them but we'll see - and the Knoxville marathon includes a 4-person marathon relay, which works out to about 10k per person.  That I think I will do, and there's more motivation right there!

I am also having a potassium issue, according to CC, and I'm careful to include potassium-rich foods in my diet, because I have found that low potassium intake leads to leg cramps (and that ingestion of soluble potassium in, say, a bottle of propel water, will cure those cramps).  Today I had a banana with breakfast and I'm about to eat a sweet potato for dinner, and I'm getting lots of potassium elsewhere, but I'm only managing 2700 mg.  I feel like I've heard potassium recommendations before and that they were more like 3500 than 4700, but that still means that all of us here are still below the RDI.  Given that we're all trying to eat healthy, that's a somewhat distressing finding.

I'll look into this when I have the time, and report back.

It's depressing how easy it is to get eating more-or-less right, and how many people get it wrong, but it has to do with education (and the easy availability of cheap, bad-for-you food).  There's too much information about diets out there, and not enough of it is the right information.  Also, apparently some people get taught about balanced eating in school, but I never did, and my parents didn't teach me.  I had to learn on my own - a dangerous thing in a world full of misinformation.  Do you know I didn't know that balancing your calories right would make you lose weight?  Like, I knew calories meant *something* but nobody had ever said to me 'ok, here's how you figure out how many calories you burn, count up how many you eat, make the eat less than the burn and you'll lose weight.'  I had to take a comparative nutrition class and come to this website before I got what I needed to know.

I wish everybody had to take a basic biochemistry and nutrition class in school.

Wise words, wise words!  I'm creeping up on my first 100 lbs myself - about 7 lbs to go.  The only thing I would add is:

Set new incremental goals for yourself periodically.  It helps keep you motivated.  Whether that is '100 lbs on the Seated Row' or 'run a mile without stopping' or 'the next 10 pounds,' little goals give you small things to celebrate and help you keep moving forward.  It's all about self-improvement.

Hey guys!  Thanks again for your responses.  As to the relatively-high-protein thing, I am both trying to lose weight *and* build muscle.  I am just under 6' tall and my maintenance goal is a muscular 185 lbs.  That is, I want to be the *right weight* at about 185, which if you look at the BMI charts is about 20 lbs 'too high.'  Both the calorie deficit and the desire to build muscle require a higher protein content in my diet.  And 25% isn't that much.

The poster who said most Americans get enough/too much protein is, I think, talking about Americans who eat meat at almost every meal and is also using somewhat outdated information.  IIRC, the biggest current dietary over-intake in this country is not protein but carbs, specifically simple sugars and starches.  Part of the problem is that the easy-and-cheap foods are all heavily laden with carbs.  Protein, especially animal protein, isn't nearly as inexpensive as, say, bread or pasta, and the average person will buy cheaper food before they'll drop their cable service.

Anyhow, I seem to have found a system that works for me, though I'm still trying to sneak in more vegetable protein sources where I can.  I wish I could do fewer processed foods, but the most limiting factor in my diet right now is time, both eating and prep.  I'm a vet student with a part time job and several side projects, not to mention 90 minutes of exercise every morning, so as you might guess I'm pretty swamped!  Thank goodness for protein bars, Carnation Instant Breakfast, and Campbell's light soups!

Those Green Giant steamers are pretty awesome, and I find at least one or two coupons for them every week, very handy.  My diet secrets are:

1) find healthy food you like that fills you up.

2) find activities you enjoy.

I figure, for most of us, this is a long-term deal, not just the getting to our healthy weight, but then maintaining it.  So we might as well enjoy the journey.  For one thing, if we don't, we're probably not going to stick with it all the way.

Original Post by cheryloo19:

I totally know whawt you mean. They are SO delicious and so are those dang mellow cream pumpkins

The pumpkins are my downfall.  Candy corn I like, but only for a handful.  After that, I lose my appetite for it.  But those pumpkins!  I could eat those all day.  Just think when you look at them: "High glycemic index!  Diabetes!  High glycemic index!  Diabetes!"  Put a few on your plate for lunch, and leave it at that.

My other major candy weakness is also seasonal: the Cadbury creme eggs that show up every Easter.

People here have some good ideas.  I too struggled with plateaus.  Most of them were short-lived and due to undereating, as people suggest.  Recently - that is, the last year or so - I was hovering between 235 and 240 and unable to break out.  After the plateau had stuck for 4-5 months I gave myself a break from counting and caring, as long as I made sure to eat all my veggies and fruits.  It didn't break the plateau but it was nice mentally.

I *think* I may have finally broken it now.  My routine changed utterly - I moved and started vet school, so rather than being slightly active all day (as a vet tech I was on my feet moving around all day), now I exercise for 60-90 minutes every morning and then sit on my butt for 8 hours in classes, and I started counting calories again.  That started in mid-August, and I'm finally seeing results on the scale.  I think the first part of it may have been a fat-to-muscle conversion because I definitely feel thinner and my weight-lifting has improved.

Good luck!

Real food is better, but if your real food isn't giving you sufficient fiber then supplementing is okay - kinda like vitamins.  The stuff from the real food is better but take vitamins if you need to beef it up a bit.

I'm sorry you don't like Fiber One cereal and bars - I think they're fantastic.  But yeah fiber can be found in a lot of things - whole grain, veggies, fruits.  Eat them and you'll be fine.

I feel your pain.  When I started counting calories at the start of 2008 I was 290 lbs, lost 50 lbs in 10 months.  Then I stayed at 240 for almost a year.  Recently I changed my habits (moved, started school) and finally I'm starting to see a little bit of change, but I'm still not losing as much as I 'should' be by the numbers.  I have a daily calorie deficit of ~750, which should translate to about 1.5 lbs per week.  At the moment I'm getting about 1.5 lbs per month.

I have to say that your other contributors may have already given you the answer.  At one point during my 10-month winning streak, reducing calories had become so easy that I went down to about 1700-1800 (with a burn of about 3100/day), and my weight-loss stalled.  It took me three weeks to pull out of it.

It's difficult, but exercise more and eat more.  Also, make sure you're checking with your doctor.  (That's my next step, once my health insurance kicks in.)  And this time, once you've lost the weight, do your best to keep it low.  One strategy I've heard that seems to work well (a friend of mine that lost >200 lbs uses this method) is: continue to check your weight every 2-4 weeks, and don't stop counting calories.  If calorie counting is a major pain and you think you don't have to do it, at least make sure to count calories for one week out of every month or two, just as a reality check.

Good luck!