posted on January 30, 2005 04:31:07 PM new
I've decided it's time to shed some excess baggage...and wondered if anyone has a good diet success story to share...
I read Linda's post about her brother who lost 90 pounds on the Subway diet!
Now, please don't tell me to vigorously exercise.. I already go to the gym and on occasion even sweat a little while working out.. and I hula hoop too! HA...
Care to share? How about diet pills? Any suggestions welcome.. Maggie..
posted on January 30, 2005 04:43:18 PM new
Linda's cousin....Linda has no brother.
But I wouldn't recommend that to anyone....I'd think it very well could be a very unhealthy to lose weight.
And with any 'diet' once you go off...if you go back to the old habits [eating patterns] it's just going to come back on. And I think we all have learned most do just that.
I'd agree with Weight-Watchers though...it's a well balanced...sensible eating plan and hopefully will not be a 'diet' that one goes 'off' of when reaching their goal weight. It will be a lifetime change of their eating habits.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Four More Years....YES!!!
posted on January 30, 2005 04:55:50 PM new
I will try by just cutting out the treats and watching my portions... I think you are right Libra.. the carbs are the culprit...
I never had a weight problem, eat like a horse and always seemed to burn it off.. but lately.. something is shifting, or else I'm getting shorter and just have less space to disperse the fat...
what a drag...
posted on January 30, 2005 05:02:38 PM new
Many people simply eat too much so paying attention to portion size may help. As a diabetic, I have to measure food to keep insulin levels under control and that has also helped me in maintaining a normal weight.
posted on January 30, 2005 05:07:47 PM new
No biggie, maggie. Just wanted to point it out so somewhere down the road of don't get accused of saying I had a brother. CYA...type of thing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Four More Years....YES!!!
posted on January 30, 2005 05:13:31 PM new
If you've been less active than normal...that will put weight on...without any change in diet.
Also...I don't know your age...and I'm NOT asking but if you're pre-menopausal or in that age range...the weight will slowly sneak on also. One of the 'change-of-life' issues some women go though.
But I agree portion control is what ususally helps the most.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Four More Years....YES!!!
posted on January 30, 2005 05:25:20 PM new
I suspect that stress may have played a roll in my ghastly gain.. instead of being the type that stops eating when stressed to the max.. I have found myself turning to sweets for comfort..
Did you know that a 10 pound gain is a whole dress size up!!!!
posted on January 30, 2005 05:59:28 PM new
As others have said, portion size, lost 50lbs a couple of years ago, mostly by cutting my food intake down to healthy levels... and less sweets.
posted on January 30, 2005 06:18:16 PM new
Atkins has been terific for me. Although I do a sort of intense version of the diet. I recently lost 35 pounds over three months by basically eliminating carbs from my diet. I've since reintroduced a few carbs back into my diet but not many.
posted on January 30, 2005 07:41:57 PM new
I'm not fat by any means, but I've lamented for a few years the fact that I can't wear the 33 inch Levis I used to wear..gradually, the old belt has increased to a 36..Last March, the wife comes home one day, says "I heard about this new diet, I'd really like to try it, would you try it with me? I don't think I'll stick to it if I'm on my own." What is it? I say. "Well, she says, you can have pretty much any meat or cheese you want, except for the first two weeks no bacon or pork"...OK, no big deal says I, what else? ..."Well, she says, no bread"...big deal, I figure..."and no carrots, or fruit, no potatoes, and no cereal". Wow, I said, pretty severe...is that all? "Well, she says, leaving the room, you can't have any beans, tortillas or beer". NO BEER?? ARE YOU INSANE?? I holler...
long story short, while not exactly fat, I lost 30 pounds in two months and have kept it off for almost a year on the South Beach Diet...my wife has lost about 20. We now have some high quality carbs and I get to indulge in the occaisional Guinness. Unless you're willing to make a lifestyle change, no diet will work for long. I can't imagine eating all the gooey carbs like we used to. This would be a tough diet for a vegetarian to follow, but it sure has worked for me....BTW, I had my first physical recently...fantastic cholesterol numbers as well as blood sugar. Although it's a low carb/high protein diet, South Beach is quite a bit different from Adkins regarding what kind of meat you can eat.
____________________________________________
Dick Cheney: "I have not suggested there's a connection between Iraq and 9/11..."
posted on January 30, 2005 08:07:15 PM new
Thanks for all the good advice and ideas, everyone.
I think I will go with a high protein, low carb diet and see how it goes.
I like turkey, chicken, fish and steak, not big on veggies except the green ones, could care less about potatoes or bread.. the challenge will be giving up the sweets and ice-cream.. and limiting my diet coke..to drink more water.. Maggie
posted on January 30, 2005 08:49:16 PM new
Thanks Linda, I plan on keeping the weight off. Like Profe, I really wanted to get back into my old jeans. I was at about 185 and decided to get back to my high school weight of 155. Once I got there I went ahead and took 5 more off just for good measure. It feels great to wear all my old 32 jeans.
Maggie - I'll give you a typical day for me when I was losing the weight:
Breakfast - 3 eggs, scrambled with shredded cheese, three sausage links (or sometimes three bacon strips) and a tall glass of Crystal Light (I'm partial to the lemonade flavor).
Lunch - Atkins bar (I like the choclate peanut butter bars), diet soda.
Dinner - New York Strip, small portion of veggies. Dessert - two cups of sugar free jello topped with redi-whip. Substitute chicken breast, pork chops, hamburgers with no bun (Heinz makes a 1 carb ketchup which is pretty good on burgers and Atkins makes a carb free steak sauce which is good on steaks) for steak.
Snacks during the day - string cheese, sliced pepperoni, deli sliced turkey and a snack called Protein Bites which is a small bag filled with a crunchy peanut butter tasting stuff - think rice krispies covered with peanut butter. Atkins also makes a low carb ice cream which (while not as good as real ice cream) is not bad. I, too, drink a ton of soda. Just couldn't give that up. I drink 3 to 6 cans of diet Coke and/or diet Dr. Pepper along with Crystal Light and water.
The thing I like most about the diet is that you can pretty much eat as much as you want as long as you don't eat carbs. So its a "non-hunger" diet. These days I've incorporated a few more carbs back into my diet and offset those my making sure I do some kind of exercise (usually sit ups before bed).
It feels terrific to be so thin again. I look younger, have more energy and its nice to hear the comments from everyone. Good luck with your diet, I think its a good thing.
posted on January 30, 2005 09:06:27 PM new
Fiset - As a fellow Crystal Light addict (iced tea with Lemon), have you tried the "On The Go" packets? They are great and keep me away from the soda (My other current addiction is Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi but trying to cut back on my 6-8 cans a day habit) especially when I am out running around. Just dump one in a small water bottle, shake and gulp.
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on January 30, 2005 09:36:22 PM new
fiset, thank you very much for the menu.
I don't eat pork, so I assume I can substitute it with chicken or beef?
No fruit at all? Or orange juice?
Do you have to order the Adkins bars from a health food store or off of the Internet? and the protein snacks as well?
posted on January 30, 2005 11:26:00 PM new
For starters you should rethink how you shop for food.
Never go to the supermarket hungry. Studies have shown people buy a lot more crap and junk if shopping on an empty stomach.
Its impossible to put away a bag of chips watching a movie if you don't have a pantry full of bags of chips!
If you do want chips or snacks for TV or a movie NEVER SIT WITH AN ENTIRE PACKAGE OF JUNKFOOD.
Portion out 1 or 2 servings of a favorite snack. Put it on your postal scale! Tell yourself how many calories are in what you plan to munch on then place it in a bowl and take the remainder and put it away back in the cupboard.
One of the biggest obstacles in portion control is the monitoring. How easy is it to sit with a bag of chips and by the time the movie is over so is half of the bag?
As long as you tell yourself how many calories things have before you eat them the high calorie stuff starts to become unappetizing making it easier to cut it out of your habits.
Read the labels on everything........
No diet in the world will ever be sucessful unless you have the support of the people you live with daily so they don't sabotage your efforts. If they could also loose some weight then make it a team effort.
posted on January 31, 2005 03:44:14 AM new
:: I lost 30 pounds in two months and have kept it off for almost a year on the South Beach Diet::
wow! that is exactly what I was going to suggest. Have never tried it, but heard it is easy to follow (altho expensive?) but they say the quick results are encourageing so you can keep uo with a dieting discipline much easier. WW is good, but the results can be slow coming.
posted on January 31, 2005 06:35:22 AM new
fenix - I'll check out the "On the Go" packets. Maybe that will help me cut down on my soda intake (but I doubt it!)
Maggie - You can absolutely subsitiute any of the meats you mentioned. I'm a "beef" guy but occasionally change it up by having chicken and other meats. Although its mostly steaks and hamburger for me.
Fruit is full of sugar, albeit natural sugar, and therefore is full of carbs. It was tough for me to give up apples and strawberries but surprisingly, the sugar free jello helped quench my sweet tooth when I craved something sweet.
I get my Atkins bars at a local health store because they generally have them on special. The Protein Crunch is something I found at our local super market, don't know if its available on the internet. I also forgot to mention that Atkins also makes a Shake. Again, usually sold wherever they sell Atkins products. The shakes are also very good and I would typically have one in the evening when I first got home from work (I liked the Strawberry and Double Choclate flavors).
The one thing about the diet (at least the way I did it) is that it can get expensive. Like most things, there are other cheaper products available that aren't the "Atkins" brand name but I just got used to the Atkins stuff and so continued using it.
Lastly, the diet I outlined above is just sort of what I came up with as something that worked for me. You can certainly have more carbs in your daily diet that what I chose to have. Here is a link to the Atkins site where they detail the "official" way to do the diet.
Also, as Profe mentioned, maybe the South Beach diet would work for you as well. I don't know much about that diet but have heard others say it works for them.
posted on January 31, 2005 11:38:23 AM new
The best diet I've ever been on? That depends on what you mean by 'diet', and what you mean by 'best', and what you mean by 'on'. OMG, that sounds like something a liberal pukehead would say. Let me elucidate. My 'best' 'diet' I was ever 'on' was called 'boot camp'. All I could eat in each 15 minute sitting and then they literally ran my fat ass off.
