Classic story

geoaidan

geoaidan

New member
Hello all,

I'm probably the classic story here. Grew up an average athletic guy, I played high school soccer, basketball, and track & field. Then, I went to college and basically led a sedentary lifestyle from that point on. It has been 12 years now since high school. I went from 200 (muscular) pounds to 360 pounds. Yikes. :svengo:

I'm not a stranger to the weight loss process- I lost 80 lbs when I was 16, over the course of 4 months. Kept it off until I enrolled into college. But damn that one sausage... I'll never forget that extra breakfast sausage that broke that diet. LOL (I ate one extra sausage... Next day, rationalized with myself... Said, "well, I had an extra one yesterday, it won't hurt..." The next day, I said to myself "well, I had an extra one the day before and so forth.." until the day I said "heck, screw it. If I gain weight, so be it." :banghead:

All these years, I said to myself "someday, I'll lose it all and get it back". I've always wanted to lose the weight, but never really got the willpower to see it through. I must have tried dieting 4 times in 12 years, but every time, it only lasted a few days then I'd say "ah, it's not worth the effort". :dupe:

But something happened 3 years ago. My first son was born. Then, to make things more pressing, my second son was born last year. So, now I have 2 kids in tow. While I am 31 years old, my wife is 43. Having said that, I realize that I need to be in top shape so that I can be there for our children while growing up and I'd really like to be there for them when they are adults as well. :grouphug:

So, this is it. Yesterday was the beginning of that "someday". I have been building up my willpower to get the big wheels turning. So far, it's been challenging. I am forgetting what it felt like to feel truly starved, and having that burning feeling. You feel it the most in the beginning, as most of you probably already know. It's somewhat like a vampire waiting for its next fix. Or a crackhead... Whatever floats your boat. :nopity:

I'm basically looking for a partner that is very serious about losing weight. It'd be easier if he was a male, and someone that has about 170 pounds to lose, as that's how much I want to lose. I'd really like to lose all of it within 1 year to 2 years maximum. I'm looking to do it healthy, the right way, and to keep it off. I also want to develop good eating habits, and a good exercising routine that is feasible with a working father's schedule.

Anyhow, this is me now: :spam: This is what I hope to be in the end: :flame:


Cheers,
George
 
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You're a can of Spam? :smilielol5:

That was funny to me.

Welcome to the forum. I don't know if you'll find 'a' weight loss partner... but there are a lot of people here either in the beginning or well entrenched in a journey to losing a lot of weight.

Anyway, there's a lot of great info and support to be had here. Come on in and join the fray! :party:
 
Phoeynx,

LOL, yep, that's me. :) Thank you for the welcome, very much appreciated. I'm looking forward to being a part of this.

Cheers,
George
 
Your emoticons are hilarious.
Just want to wish you much success and say welcome-I'm new here myself and just seeing other people's struggle with the same problem is really helping me stay motivated.
I too have vowed to "get it back!" I hope you are not starving yourself (you talked about that burning feeling) and that the hunger is only mild and under control-we all know severe hunger can lead to a big ol' binge later.
good luck and see you around
 
Brenda's Ready,

Thanks for your reply. :) Since Jan 1st, I started eating what is considered a "normal" portion per meal, and that itself is actually what I normally consider "tiny"... So, that has been a problem. I have always had a hearty appetite, even when I was in great shape & athletic back in high school.

For me, 6 slices of pizza, New York style, from Papa John's is considered average. 8 slices would be "satisfactory", and 10 slices would be "beyond grinning". Sad, I know. I wash that down with a super size diet coke, which is like almost 1 liters. I have been able to do that and maintain the same weight. (Been the same weight for a year now) Then, I'd snack on and off until 3:00 in the morning.

So, I realized that if I cut back to normal portions- as well as eating healthy food, it would make a huge difference for that 50% (eating) of the dieting effort. (As well as no snacking after 7pm) The other 50% (exercise), I am starting to get more active. Going for walks with my wife right now. Will build on that fairly quickly as time goes on.


Today's meal plan was:

Breakfast: Nothing- woke up late. (I am an insomniac, so most of the time, I wake up late, around 11am) That's something else I have to try to change. My work hours allows me to wake up late.

Lunch: Medium sized Caesar salad with a couple tomatoes, a very light sprinkle of low fat shredded cheese, and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.

Dinner: 1 box of TV dinner. Weight Watchers Smart Ones Fruit Inspirations TV dinner- this had Cranberry Turkey Medallions- small portions of turkey with cranberry sauce on it as well as small portions of vegetables. The whole box has 350 calories, 4.5 grams of fat.

Snack at 7pm: I had 2 cherry tomatoes, the kind that's the size of a grape. Also, a small can of Armour Smoked Vienna Sausages. (110 calories, 10 grams of fat, 1 gram of carb) Don't ask me how many grams of sodium!! (Heart attack festival)

That is a huge improvement over my usual triple cheeseburger combo (I'm that silly guy that orders a triple plus a DIET COKE) from Wendy's as well as munching throughout the night, killing a whole bag of salt n' vinegar chips as well as a half box of Oreos.

I have successfully so far, resisted doing that since Jan 1st. So, it's been a good 3 days so far. (Lost 4 pounds already)

My next step is to force myself to eat 6 small portioned "half-meals" throughout the day, (Instead of eating 2 large meals a day) as well as drink 10 cups of water... That would speed up my metabolism. Also, spicy sauces actually increase the metabolism system. So, I would include some of that on my food. On top of that, I'll be doing an hour long bicycle rides through town on a daily basis.

The mistake I made in the past was, being a pig, waiting too long, and making excuses for myself, and for letting it go on as long as it did. I'm glad that there are others waking up from this nightmare as well. :)


Best,
George
 
Foodwise, a couple things that have worked for me, ESPECIALLY for breakfast...

have a supply of hard boiled eggs on hand. A hard boiled egg and couple slices of whole grain toast (I get this bread from Trader Joe's that is made from whole wheat berry instead of flour. I love it), its light enough but puts enough in your stomach where your body isn't rebelling because you ate in the morning, or punching you in the backbone because you didn't eat in the morning.

Cottage cheese and some nuts & raisins or chopped up dried apricots. Or plain lowfat yogurt, with some honey added to sweeten it with the nuts & fruit.

Yes, I will do the bacon & eggs thing for breakfast, only I will have 2 or 3 slices of bacon instead of the 5-6 I used to have. Its a weekend treat for me and I just keep it in mind with the rest of my food intake.

I would also personally recommend staying away from that frozen or prepackaged precooked crap. I have a general mistrust of all frozen entrees, given the amount of sugar and sodium that is stuffed into even the 'diet' ones. The closer to its original state the better... and you can control what does or does not go into it. Yeah, yeah... bacon does not fall into the 'close to original state'... but that's a once in a while thing, not what I'm basing my main meals around. ;)

Again, that is just my 2¢ :biggrinjester:
 
Hi Geoaidan,

I just joined too, but I thought I'd say welcome anyway :)

The only thing I wanted to warn you about was that you don't seem to be eating enough. Take a look around the site and stuff but basically, I eat more than that and I'm 160. You're prone to losing patience with a change of diet that drastic; I think I would recommend 4200 calories a day for now. You're cutting your intake by 3/4, maybe 4/5. There are many reasons you should only cut a little at a time, 10% maybe; increased probablility in reaching your goal is foremost.

There is so much info here, you'll be able to do it if you stick with it and learn all you can. But the first rule of thumb: don't do too much too fast!

Good luck! :party:
 
You know, I have to agree here.
Sounds like you're doing awesome-I understand about packaged food, sometimes that is all there's time for, seriously-BUT...
What if, with that frozen dinner, you popped a bag of frozen steamable veggies in the microwave? I'm no nutrition expert, but last time I got fit I remember doing this helped fill me up a bit longer and added nutrition.
As for the Armour sausages, there's a stack of 'em sitting in my pantry, "Vienna Sausages" :drool5: I wonder what a good alternative could be. For me, the yogurt,cottage cheese, nuts etc. is doable. But chopping,preparing,steaming, broiling-where, or where, is the time?
Surely it will get easier (read faster) as the days go on.
Keep it up, geoaidan!
 
Phoeynx,

You do have a point about processed foods. I used to cook all the time. (I am the cook in the family) And, one day, I just got fed up with preparing food all the time. So, I just started to eat microwave foods- most especially since my wife and I don't really like the same foods. :( At this stage, it's more about portion control for me. My eyes are much bigger than my stomach. LOL

You're right, though, I should move over to completely natural foods. We went shopping yesterday, and 80% of the food was natural- this is very unusual, considering that we went from Pizza/pizza pockets/steak ummmm/fast food to this. It is such a drastic change for me. But, I am adjusting well so far, I am realizing that diet food can actually taste good. :)

It's funny that you mentioned the cottage cheese thing, I had that for breakfast. I started a diary in the diary section titled "Geo: From a Can of Spam to Exercising Demon" Something like that... I ate 6 times today, which was a change from yesterday and the day before. Worked out pretty well. :)

Thanks so much for your input, it is very greatly appreciated!! :) I'll check out that bread from Trader Joe's.

George
 
Gen,

Thanks for your message, much appreciated. :) I understand completely what you're saying. I did a diet a long time ago, which was much more drastic than this- I lost 80 pounds in 4 months. For me, the trouble is figuring out what portion is correct for me now at this age. I am eating as much as my wife eats right now.

This is what I had today:

Breakfast: 1 cup of cottage cheese with almonds, sunflower seeds, raisins, and a low fat granola bar mixed together. This produced a medium sized bowl (3 cups) of mix. This was absolutely delicious & healthy. Also had 2 cups of water.

(In between, I had 1 granola bar and 2 cups of water)

Lunch: Shredded lettuce with tomatoes, low fat sharp cheddar shredded cheese, salad spices, balsamic vingarette drizzle, almonds. This was approximately 4 cups. 2 cups of water.

(In between, I had some almonds and raisins & 2 cups of water.)

Dinner: Shredded chicken (in a can, like tuna fish) sandwich with whole wheat bread, and one slice of peppered jack cheddar & 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise. 2 cups of water. 1 Can of Armour Vienna Sausages.

(For snack, I had 2 slices of peppered jack cheddar, 2 small cherry tomatoes, 5 almonds and a few raisins (1 tablespoonful). And also had 2 cups of water.)


This deal works great for me. So far, I have been able to shift gears pretty smoothly. :) So far, the hunger pangs have really gotten less and less. Tomorrow, we're going to do a solid chicken lunch. That's my secret so far. :)
 
Brenda,

I tried steamed vegetables, they actually make me more hungry for some reason. :( I think my body is used to "heavy" food. I thought about cooking again, but I'm the only one that does the dishes as well as clean the house all the time. So, I don't usually have the energy to cook on top of that. So, I'm trying to find alternatives in which I can quickly cook heavy foods & feel satisfied. So far, the system I have been doing has been a good substitute.

When I cooked, I really liked to cook. Here are my two favorite recipes that I think could be modified. This is in the original state, so if you decide to modify, you know what to replace the ingredients with. :)


Check this out: Put 6 chicken breasts in a pyrex dish, put 3 tablespoons of Mrs. Dash's original flavor spices in. Pour 2 cans of Budweiser. Cover, put in refrigerator overnight. The next day, put it in the oven, covered at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Presto! For stronger beer flavor, I pour out the beer at the last 15 minutes and put in fresh beer and Mrs. Dash in. In the end, there is no alcohol in the chicken at all, it all cooks away.

Second favorite dish- Get some good steak, trim the fat off, cook lightly on pan on low heat. Take off pan, put in a crockpot. Add 4 cans of Hunt's 4-cheese pasta sauce. Cover. Simmer at low for 8 hours. In the end, you have steak that is super tender and has a nice Italian taste. This is Vienna steak. *note* the steak will shrink in size, so you'd need to take that in consideration.

Anyhow, enough about food. LOL On a more serious note, I am basically systematically teaching my body to be more tolerant of smaller amounts of food- I have learned that if you "crash the system" for the first 2 weeks, and increase portion slightly after the 3rd week, it is much easier to lose weight in the future, in the sense of not having cravings in the future.

It's kind of training with a 16 pound shotput ball only to throw a 12 pound shotput ball during competition. Hope that makes sense? :)


p.s. forgot to address the Vienna sausage substitute. So far, I have not found any. I pour out the liquid and shake off as much liquid as possible to cut down on the sodium.

There are other things that you can eat that are "finger food" in that sense- sardines, tofu pieces, cheese cubes, and beef jerky.

Unfortunately beef jerky is probably bad. Cheese cubes can be ok, if you eat lowfat and limit to 4 cubes. Sardines are great for you, but I shudder at the thought of eating sardines or tofu.

Maybe lowfat tuna fish or chicken in a can? Maybe you can drain a can of tuna fish or chicken, add just 1/2 table spoon of mayo to the can, mix well, sprinkle black pepper on it... And eat half of that and put the rest away? You could get wheat crackers and make yourself 4 small sandwiches.

Other than that, for a good snack, I would get 2 cherry tomatoes, a few almonds, a few raisins and 2 cubes of cheese. Fills you up as good as Armour Vienna sausage, except it doesn't leave that salivating aftertaste.
 
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Lots of great ideas

:hurray:
Thanks for all the great snack ideas.
I've been taking yogurt and mixing in some nuts or crushing a honey oat granola bar in it. good.
Would you believe after all this work, hitting the treadmill daily, etc., my kiddo had a birthday party tonight and I blew it.
I ate pizza. Two slices. Spaghetti. Not to mention cake and ice cream.
But the key is to forgive yourself and move on.
Normally I'd say, screw it, my diet's over. But not this time!
Sounds like you have a plethora of recipes and cooking skills-you're gonna do great.
later:cheers2:
 
I am with you amigo - similar story to you...but add about 20 years (I am 51) 350 now, with a reasonable goal (I hope) of 240 - plan to take 1-1.5 years to do this.

One meal suggestion - we had gotten from a 4 ingredient cookbook a while back:

Chicken tenders
1 stick butter
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 can French's french fried onions

We substitute a lite margarine for the butter, but leave the rest the same. Very tasty and relatively lo-cal.

Good luck.
Jim
 
Brenda,

Thanks, much appreciated! :cheers2: So sorry it took me a while to respond, it's been hard for me to keep track of everything on this site. Saw this for the first time today.

You're most welcome for the snack ideas!! :)

I know the feeling. I ate a little bit too much on my wife's birthday, not that much past- I did something different. In the past, I would order something that I knew tasted good and came in large portions. This time, I looked for what I knew would taste good, regardless of the portion- (usually the really tasty foods are in smaller portions) and went for that.

I ended up with a buffalo chicken sandwich and a side of BBQ beans. It was a BBQ place, so this was the best I could do. I didn't eat the bread. Just the meat and the BBQ beans. Tasted great. Felt very full afterwards (which was unusual)

Came home, weighed myself, and I gasped... I gained 3 pounds! So, I went outside for a very rigorous bicycle ride, and I mean, very rigorous. Rode full speed for an hour. Came home, took a shower and crashed. I was surprised to find that I had actually lost 2 pounds from that. So, I ended up having the same weight as I did the day before. However, before midnight, I made it... Ended up still losing a pound at the end of the day.

The moral of the story is, one could enjoy themselves... And if they over do it, they gotta make up for it like crazy. Consider it a punishment. That's how I do it to myself. I exercise like crazy... While I have come to learn to enjoy exercising, exercising excessively is something I do not really look forward to. It's that "excessively" part- And it really does help for me to think "boy, if I eat this, I'm going to have to exercise excessively to finish this off".

It's better to mentally tune it that way- better than "darn it, I ate too much... I'll deal with it tomorrow and get back on track tomorrow". It can open a can of worms- It can postpone the weight loss.. And stretch the "weight loss period"-- Until one day, after doing it so often, it may seem hopeless, and one would give up.

That's awesome that you're getting yourself "in it" this time around. I understand fully what it feels like to postpone a diet. I did that for the longest time, and boy... Felt terrible. But since I started to be accountable for my actions, wow... It truly is liberating.
 
Jim,

Thank you for your message, much appreciated. :)

Your goal is VERY REASONABLE. Weight loss is all in your mind. I have managed to lose 20 pounds in 14 days, and still feel satisfied. If you wanted to have some tips on how I did it, I have a diary in the diary sections- check out my screen name and you'll see where I have posted.

I would assume that you're under 6 feet, and over 5' 6"? If that's the case, at your age, a reasonable weight level should be around 200 lbs. Health experts will say it's closer to 185 or 190. But, that's a little bit unreasonable to project that at this point.

If you truly want to be at 250, I would strongly recommend that you aim for 220 pounds and aim to do it in 8 months. The reason for that is, it'd give you more motivation... And it'd increase the chances of you actually meeting your goal. There are some people here that lost their goal weight, only to realize that at their goal, that they'd like to go further... And that they can!

I have faith in you, Jim. Think about what you could do for yourself... The things that you have always wanted to do, but couldn't. I wish you all the best, and keep me posted on how you're doing. I'm rooting for you!! :beerchug:

Cheers,
George

p.s. Thank you for the recipe. I'll have to try that soon!
 
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