jumpingjack1
New member
Fifteen years ago when I first quit smoking, I ended up gaining 50lbs. I ate way too much because I allowed my self the luxury of eating guilt free. I let myself be coddled by everyone who said "don't worry about the weight, it'll come off later - the important thing is you're not smoking". So between my guilt free binging, the stress of not only starting a new job, but moving to a new province, building a new house, and having a baby, I racked up a lot of excess weight. So I took up smoking again. But guess what - I didn't lose as much weight as I figured I would.
Then I got sick. I spent Boxing Day in the emergency room of the hospital back home while we were visiting over Christmas. That was 3 years ago. They told me that I fit the profile of a gall bladder attackee. They call it the 5 f's: female, fair, forty, fertile, and fat. I'm sure he went on to tell me a whole bunch of other things -- I know I walked out of there with drugs in my hand. But truthfully, I didn't hear anything after 'fat'. So, someone said it out loud. Said what I'd been thinking every time I had to look in a mirror (which I tended to avoid like the plague). How did a one-time aerobics instructor, weight lifter and all-round hot chick become this thirty-something, frizzled haired, baggy-eyed, lump in elastic waist pants???
Because the wait time for surgeons is months and months here, my doctor had advised me to cut back on fats to avoid having another attack while I was waiting to be seen. Thus began my 3 year long journey into the land of no fats. I mean no fats. If a food item contained over 4 grams of fat in a serving, it was avoided. I can't honestly say how much fat I was intaking in a day, but I'm willing to bet it was consistently under 15 grams - for 3 years. Of course, cutting fats from your diet, and never being much of a big meat eater meant that most of my calories came from carbs. Which apparently was fine for me. I managed to get from 220lbs to 145lbs and felt wonderful. I got a clean bill of health from the doctor and was told to even out my diet by trying to come up with a more balanced amount of fats/carbs/proteins.
I've now quit smoking again. I won't go into the horror that was Zyban - that's a whole 'nother story, but I figured since I was fit, eating right, working out, and so very very aware of my eating habits, that quitting smoking was the right choice. So in October I quit. It's now April. I'm now 180lbs. And I'm so damned mad I could just spit! I've gone up 2 clothing sizes and despite my best efforts, there doesn't appear to be any end in sight. And when someone says "don't worry about the weight, it'll come off later - you're not smoking, that's what counts", I could run them over, back up and run them over again.
Now I realize the weightlifting does have something to do with my increased poundage, and I'm not totally displeased with my body. I have a butt again. When I lost all the 'no-fat' weight, I lost my butt. And a goodly amount of boob. Now I've got my Scarlett Johannson boobs back and thanks to the multitude of squats done 3 times a week, I can crack walnuts with my J-Lo butt. And I've got a killer 6-pack just waiting for me to shed the 20 or 25 lbs of body fat thats sitting on top of them
I record everything that goes in my mouth on fitday. I only record my big calorie expenditures such as weightlifting and whatever aerobic exercise I do that day. I also record my lifestyle activities. And according to the damn software program, I'm burning 3000 calories per day, yet I only take in an average of 1400 calories per day. So how come I don't look like Nicole Ritchie's tinier sister? (not that I would ever want to look like Nicole Ritchie or her tinier sister).
For the past month I've been on a very strict diet. I've monitored everything that goes into my mouth and I've switched my weightlifting strategy from bulking to cutting. I've been faithfully going to the gym everyday and check my weight the same time every day.
Wanna know what's happened this month?
I've gained 3lbs.
And I've gone down 1 1/2 shoe sizes.
Then I got sick. I spent Boxing Day in the emergency room of the hospital back home while we were visiting over Christmas. That was 3 years ago. They told me that I fit the profile of a gall bladder attackee. They call it the 5 f's: female, fair, forty, fertile, and fat. I'm sure he went on to tell me a whole bunch of other things -- I know I walked out of there with drugs in my hand. But truthfully, I didn't hear anything after 'fat'. So, someone said it out loud. Said what I'd been thinking every time I had to look in a mirror (which I tended to avoid like the plague). How did a one-time aerobics instructor, weight lifter and all-round hot chick become this thirty-something, frizzled haired, baggy-eyed, lump in elastic waist pants???
Because the wait time for surgeons is months and months here, my doctor had advised me to cut back on fats to avoid having another attack while I was waiting to be seen. Thus began my 3 year long journey into the land of no fats. I mean no fats. If a food item contained over 4 grams of fat in a serving, it was avoided. I can't honestly say how much fat I was intaking in a day, but I'm willing to bet it was consistently under 15 grams - for 3 years. Of course, cutting fats from your diet, and never being much of a big meat eater meant that most of my calories came from carbs. Which apparently was fine for me. I managed to get from 220lbs to 145lbs and felt wonderful. I got a clean bill of health from the doctor and was told to even out my diet by trying to come up with a more balanced amount of fats/carbs/proteins.
I've now quit smoking again. I won't go into the horror that was Zyban - that's a whole 'nother story, but I figured since I was fit, eating right, working out, and so very very aware of my eating habits, that quitting smoking was the right choice. So in October I quit. It's now April. I'm now 180lbs. And I'm so damned mad I could just spit! I've gone up 2 clothing sizes and despite my best efforts, there doesn't appear to be any end in sight. And when someone says "don't worry about the weight, it'll come off later - you're not smoking, that's what counts", I could run them over, back up and run them over again.
Now I realize the weightlifting does have something to do with my increased poundage, and I'm not totally displeased with my body. I have a butt again. When I lost all the 'no-fat' weight, I lost my butt. And a goodly amount of boob. Now I've got my Scarlett Johannson boobs back and thanks to the multitude of squats done 3 times a week, I can crack walnuts with my J-Lo butt. And I've got a killer 6-pack just waiting for me to shed the 20 or 25 lbs of body fat thats sitting on top of them
I record everything that goes in my mouth on fitday. I only record my big calorie expenditures such as weightlifting and whatever aerobic exercise I do that day. I also record my lifestyle activities. And according to the damn software program, I'm burning 3000 calories per day, yet I only take in an average of 1400 calories per day. So how come I don't look like Nicole Ritchie's tinier sister? (not that I would ever want to look like Nicole Ritchie or her tinier sister).
For the past month I've been on a very strict diet. I've monitored everything that goes into my mouth and I've switched my weightlifting strategy from bulking to cutting. I've been faithfully going to the gym everyday and check my weight the same time every day.
Wanna know what's happened this month?
I've gained 3lbs.
And I've gone down 1 1/2 shoe sizes.
