Hi - new Englishman on a mission to lose weight & be healthy

sittingstill

sittingstill

New member
Hi

My name is Michael, aged 27 from London, UK....

After being diagnosed with Type II Diabetes a few years ago I finally started to take drastic action last year by following a very healthy Vegan diet designed to reverse diabetes (as outlined by Dr Neal Bernard in his book 'The Reverse Diabetes Diet')....

The diet was awesome - just basically advocating eating really healthy food. I gave myself a 1500 calorie-per-day limit, and in tandem with exercise (which I had NEVER done before) I 'reversed' by diabetes and lost a TON of weight.

I was about 255 lbs with an obese BMI of 33.6 (I am 6ft 1in) when I started last April, and just as a goal I decided to stick to the diet for 100 days.

I managed to stick to it 95% of the time along with exercising 5 times a week, and at the end of the diet I was off all medications and weighed 187 lbs....and I looked really good and was super-healthy....

BUT - as often happens, after returning from summer vacation I went soft during the winter, stopped exercising and starting eating too much junk food. This has resulted in me coming back up to 233 lbs....

Obviously I hate having put so much weight back on, but I really hate how eating like this makes me feel....so I have chosen today to start my diet again....

This time I am doing a 5 month '150 day challenge' during which time I am hoping to lose over 70 lbs and reach my goal weight of 161 lbs (although my real goal is to just get back to the weight I was at during the summer)....

My reason for joining this forum is really for support: sticking to my healthy diet for 150 days is really a somewhat arbitrary first goal....I realise that the real problem is not falling back into old over-eating ways & continuing to maintain the new healthy lifestyle at least 90% of the time....

Once I start eating cakes and cheeseburgers and fried chicken I never freakin' stop....and its a roadI no longer want to go down....

I will be adding and maintaining a diary thread,and I am seeking support and communication from/with like minded souls....

Cheers!

:hurray:
 
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hi, My hubby has diabetes so good luck, also I am a junk food addict and am having to take a break off my bad habits..
Good luck from another newby.
 
sittingstill said:
Once I start eating cakes and cheeseburgers and fried chicken I never freakin' stop....and its a roadI no longer want to go down....
Click to expand...

I can totally relate to this! I started off slow, trying to replace most of my unhealthy choices with fruits and vegetables, and slowly I noticed that I was much more comfortable just eliminating certain foods altogether for a time until I felt like I was ready to have said foods in moderation. There are a lot of foods that I'm still afraid to eat just because I think that it will be a slippery slope if I do. But, for the most part I let myself have little "breaks" here and there where I can indulge certain foods within reason. It's been working pretty well so far, and I know I could be more strict with myself, but I want to make sure I don't end up giving up, either.

Welcome to the forums! This place has really made my journey much more bearable! :D
 
Thanks to everyone for your words of encouragement....

Addiecakes - yeah, it certainly helps to be able to relate these issues with like minded souls. I agree with the slippery slope analogy: I've had my most success dieting when I've allowed myself a day every now and then when I can have a 'bad' food or just relax my criteria a little....this is actually really good for putting off food cravings as there is always something you really want to eat but can't, so psychologically you can say 'well if I really want it I can have it in 2 weeks when I next have a designated eating day'....and so if you can then exercise restraint on the designated eating day and just have the one or 2 things you were craving in moderation, then you are fine (I think this really is just the moderation that people with healthy thin lifestyles enjoy!)....and the cravings slowly dissapate as time goes on and you get 'addicted' or 'used to' your new healthy lifestyle....

It's when you take the pot right off the boil, so to speak, and let that day extend to a week etc that you risk getting into your old bad habits....

Even after all the hard work I did last year there were still some foods that I was afraid to go near, like you say....these things really need to be eliminated completely as there is no configuration of eating them can ever be healthy or justified except once in a very blue moon (and really only AFTER you've made significant progress towards your goal weight)....

I think finding a level of change you are comfortable with and sticking to it is the key to success....even if its just 75 to 80% as strict as you were intending. You can always increase your efforts later as you get more comfortable / used to exercise etc

I think the most important realisation is that large scale weight loss, coming from obesity and/or unhealthy diet-related illness, is a long term LIFESTYLE CHANGE. It's really really hard work, you have to dig right down inside yourself and others for support, and there is no quick fix....you live a healthy lifestyle cutting out all the crap, and the weight will follow....

Statistically very few people are ever successful, especially keeping the weight off long-term, so any effective change should be viewed as a success & should be congratulated....
 
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Hey Michael! My name is Christina and I am your Biggest Loser partner! Lets kick some ass!

What's your plan during the challenge. Mine is doing P90X (a series of 12 dvd's and it tells you which to do on which day and it's a whole program). Also I think I'm going to add some cardio to that (probably using my sis's elliptical) and/or doing DDR (if it works with my tv) and the Wii's Just Dance.

Good luck, we can do this!
 
Hey just checking in! How's the week been going? You haven't been on lately. I hope everything is well!
 
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