I'd like to ask a question but I want everyone to know it is in absolute good faith and with the utmost respect. I just want to know your train of thought. I'll ask anyone who wishes to answer, whether they are slim, normal, overweight or obese.

Why do you have difficulty controlling your eating or exercising habits?




As for my story, I used to eat extremely unhealthily. I mean, in high school about 6 years ago I was drinking at least a 600 mL bottle of coke a day, and eating fast food 4 times a week. I didn't drink water at all.

However, I never got outwardly overweight. I weighed about 75 kg at worst, which equates to 165 lbs. I thought that obesity was a sign of health deterioration so it didn't concern me too much. Throughout the past 5 years I've been eating generally unhealthily thinking that I was obviously handling it.

Early this year in March, I took a blood test upon my mother urging me to get checked out. I found out that, despite outward appearances, I had some very poor results, such as a high cholesterol and very high sugar levels, lipids out of whack and all sorts of other things, leading to a moderately fatty liver. I had the liver of a 40 year old alcoholic at 22 years old, when I don't even drink that much anyway. Once I found out I had to completely change my diet and take up more exercise. From March onwards I have not touched a single alcoholic drink, not a single soft drink, no ice creams or milkshakes, no desserts or sweets, no cakes, pastry foods or steaks. I also avoid salty foods, and definitely no chips. Just because I was outwardly normal did not make me healthy, not in the slightest. I am certain, without doubt, that many overweight people were in better general physical condition than myself. Hell, I'm even used to water now and can't bear to think about drinking juices or soft drinks, and before I didn't even drink a glass a month of it.

Looking back on it I think the biggest blessing I had was that I could handle the change. I found it hard to change, as most of my friends were still gorging on kebabs and burgers, but luckily I had the strength to continue with my diet. I'm doing it for myself, not for anyone else. For that reason alone I persevere, and I do things properly. I don't say "I'll just buy a McDonalds burger and work it off later". If I'm going to diet I'm going to diet properly. I've come close to the border, bought foods that were borderline unhealthy, but I do not cross that line. I have 4 months to go before it's suppose to be back to normal. I have a medical checkup tomorrow to see whether I've made an improvement since March.

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my ex is a classic example of what you're referring to, engineer. tall & slim guy who underneath that is...diabetic, has graves disease, high cholesterol, & high blood pressure. my aforementioned hubby now has NO health problems at all. it's all about heredity, my friend.

best of luck with those tests, engineer - here's hoping your hard work has paid off!! 😃

First off Engineer, congrats on the change! You are not alone. Alot of people that LOOK healthy, because they are skinny, are actually ticking time bombs. I had a friend when i was a teen that would go with me to McDonald's. He would eat 7 hamburgers, 2 orders of fries, a large Coke, and a chocolate shake in the time it would take me to eat one Big Mac. Yet he was skinny as a rail.
ALOT of it is genetics, and thats something you can't do anything about. Both my parents and my brother died young of heart problems. So i wasn't real shocked when i ended up with a bad ticker.
I myself HATE the word "diet". Diets never work. To me, it has to be a lifestyle change in order to work. I also love to snack. But i have learned that in order for me to stick with it, i have to allow myself to "go off the wagon" once in awhile. Allow myself some "goodies". Not all the time mind you, but sometimes. Then i don't feel like i'm missing out on all the foods i enjoy, and i'm more likely to stay on good eatting habits. If you don't allow yourself a little of what you like, you are more likely to fail and give up. Thats been my expierience at least.
That was what made it hardest to control my eatting habits. The "all or nothing" way of thinking. I would give up the foods i loved, then get frustrated and give up completely, and return to 100% bad.

Now...on exercise. When i was a kid, we played outside every day. I got a workout every day. Rode my bike every day in the good weather. Yet i STILL was fat. Genetics.
Some people LOVE to workout. I think alot of it for me at least, is the pain I'm in. My knees grind when i walk, and i have a hard time walking up the stairs when i get home. My back hurts more when i walk. Heck....I'm in alot of pain right now, just sitting here. I can hardly stand it. Plus i have asthma. Yesterday i went for a brisk 2 mile walk, and could hardly breathe when i got home. The chilly air messed me up BAD. But i try to make myself do it, even though it's not "fun" at all.

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So, I'm fat. Get over it. You all don't need to make threads about it. Shit.

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Yeah Zero.....i WISH i was as "fat" as you!!!!LOLOL!!!

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What an interesting coincidence.

I just came back from a (small) grocery shopping trip. Talk about not being able to teach an old (Pavlovian) dog new tricks. So much for the convenience factor of being one mile closer to my house with the new store. Drove right by it, went to the (closed) old one, then back-tracked to the new one. This was a digression. I was listening to Colin Cowherd talk Mangini.

Cowherd is on the "Mangini is fat and depressed, hence an angry man because of his weight" bandwagon.

He is calling himself a "weightist". He states that he is openly against people because of their weight, and further states that they lack self-discipline, yada, yada yada. He would let them babysit his kids, but would never go into a business relationship with an obese person, etc.

Really.


You know what I heard in that diatribe? I heard a white American male that is running out of things that it is OK to be prejudiced against. To me, his examples made his prejudicial viewpoint even more egregious.

There is always intellectual trouble when you start stereotyping anyone, and Mr. Cowherd just went off a cerebral cliff, imo.

I could not help but think what would have happened if he had substituted African Americans, or gays, or whatever in lieu of obese people.

Being obese is apparently not politically correct, so that makes you fair game, I reckon.

Just goes to show you he's an idiot.
Can't say anything else.
I guess he thinks it's ok though if all the fat you have is between the ears.....like he has.

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I knew there was something I didn't like about Cowherd. He seemed like such a Narcissist, but I didn't really have anything to base it off of. Hes a D-bag.

I am willing to put my vices where my mouth is on this issue.

What was the number, 363?

I will make you a bet, Wade.

My numbers are 30 and 20.

Here are the ground rules.

If you have not done so in the very recent past, you must secure a visit to your physician in order to ensure that an exercise regimen is safe, and of course more specifically, at what levels.

You may recall that in my travels in the service, one of my jobs was as weight control/ physical appearance specialist. The simple/short version is that I was in charge of the fat-bodies.

You are going to get a posterboard, and create a grid. You will be putting 363 in the upper left hand corner, and creating a grid that goes DOWNWARD to 263... one hundred increments.

Now you are going to date it, beginning the day after your doctor's visit.

You can weigh yourself that day and replace the 363 with that number.

Now, take those increments, and date them. One each week. Graph it with a line. Post the board somewhere that you can put your scale directly underneath it.

You are allowed on that scale ONCE a week, without exception. The suspense will be killing you, lol---Trust me.

You must stay below that line. If you get above it, you must redouble your efforts the following week to get below it.

You must also report your results here, and share your plan and thoughts as you go.

My 30 and 20?

I drink a case of beer a week. I smoke a pack of cigarettes a day. I gotta draw a graph also. I'll do the beer first. (Drinking without smoking is NOT happening for me) 29 beers week 2, 28 week 3, etc. You go up, I go up. Down does not get you "extra" from me, lol. The cigs are "per day"

To the diet, you are probably an expert, I will leave you to your own devices.

To the exercise, I want to give you some tips. Document it. Create a fixed regimen that you can compare and contrast. Fixed distances, timing them, a fixed number of repetitions (on those machines that will put a new coat of paint on an old car without cardiovascular excercise)

Go to a swimming pool. (You mentioned bad knees) Walk it in the beginning. Just establish either a distance or a time. Something fixed, again, that you can document.

Why all the documentation? Why can't you weigh yourself but once a week? Why do you gotta tell us about it?

Motivation. Fear. Encouragement.

Why am I only betting 50 weeks when you have a 100 week chart?

If you do what I am suggesting, you will not need no friggin' 100 week chart. At week 50, you will be making your new chart, as an expert. You will understand when you get there, I promise. :thumbleft:

Mull it over. As to me, I will be on the honor system, as will you. The bitch for me is that folks like Non and Rock can confirm compliance by chatting with my significant other by asking her while she is playing poker online. Really. They will tell you the same thing, although I think Rock needs to deposit 5 bucks in his account in order to yap with her.

If you are not thinking along these lines, it's OK with me...I'll just continue with my guilty pleasures until something else comes along that could potentially motivate me to do something. This one motivates me because...well, because talk is cheap, and that would include my own.

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