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lauriejane
| Messages Posted (FreeWeightloss.com Discussion Forum): 2,379
Most Recent Post: Thursday, 4 September 2008, at 6:08 p.m. |
I started my recent diet about 14 months ago. I am 62 years old, 5'6" and my starting weight was 274 lbs.
As of Sept, 2007, I weigh 206.4 lbs. I have had a hard time losing since I got below 220.
The diet I am on is Nutrisystem. They send you a box of diet food every month. I am VERY happy with this diet so far and have been enjoying it.
It is not too expensive, from my point of view; it's about $259 a month plus you have to buy your own fresh veggies, fruits and dairy products. I am spending a total of about $350 a month on food all together, not much more than I used to spend.
It seems like a miracle to me because every other diet I have been on made me suffer in the extreme--ravenous hunger, sudden energy let downs, cravings, jitters, depression and feelings of deprivation. I think the difference has been eating more frequently (about 5-6 times a day), eating more protein and eating foods that are low on the glycemic index. It could also be that the food this company makes do not contain all the usual junk food chemicals that make you want to overeat. I am NOT trying to advertise this program to anyone and realize it might not work as well for someone else, but, for me, it seems to be the answer so far. It is perfect for a single person who lives alone and doesn't have time or energy to fool with shopping and cooking. (If you do decide to try it, mention my email address and I WILL get a discount--but this is NOT an advertisement for it because I do know that it doesn't work well for everyone).
I like to swim so I swim most days a week. I also work out 3 (early!) morinings per week in a gym (Bally's).
I believe that the best exercise is the one you'll do. I enjoy the exercise I do.
I live in southern California, near West Hollywood, land of the anorexically slim. I fight everyday to keep my self-esteem at a reasonable level in spite of my weight. It's tough to live in a world full of young beautiful actresses and models. I grew up in the film world and was considered outrageously fat when I was a kid although I was of normal weight (normal by non-film world standards). Self-image has been a tough fight for me but I know I am winning at this point. A sense of perspective and a sense of humor have been my greatest allies.
I gained my excess weight during a very stressful time in my life about 12 years ago when I was taking care of my difficult, ill, divorced elderly parents (2 households to deal with), working in a juvenile detention center and enduring the loss of my boyfriend of many years who died slowly of too many Marlboro Lights, as well as suffering through the loss of a close friend who was dying of AIDS.
It was a tough time to get through and I am ashamed to admit that I let myself go. I did not take care of myself and I gained 100 lbs in about a year and a half. Now I am finally trying to reverse the process and have fallen in love with life once again.
My worst problem is the stress of my job and my schedule which includes a very long freeway commute. I work in a detention center for mentally and emotionally ill kids (and just plain badly behaved ones, too). It can be a hard job. And everyone below the administrative level is a junk food junkie who loves to share. At the administrative level, the overlords who run the place are thin, under educated, manipulative bureaucrats. What a life.
Besides dieting, swimming, gardening and writing, I enjoy reading on many subjects, including, but not at all limited to: Good literature of any kind, high strangeness and fantasy, military history, Harlan Ellison's stories (yes!!!), Stephen King, classic novels, and good poetry, such as ee cummings, W.H. Auden or Stanley Kunitz.
I like to create and state my goals in terms of the experiences I would like to be able to have when I get slimmer:
1st goal--to be slim enough to fit into the seat belt of a roller coast because I used to love thrill rides before I got fat. I especially want to be able to ride the Desperado, one of the tallest, fastest roller coasters in the world, which was built right after I gained all of my weight about 12 years ago. This goal is all but accomplished since I am now slim enough to fit into the 44 inch seat belt. A recent attempt to ride the coaster failed when I went to LV and they closed the Desperado due to high winds just before I was leaving my hotel to ride it. But I will be trying again one of these days.
2nd goal--to get below 200 lbs and be able to rollerskate again. Not sure whether this will, in fact, be slim enough for that but believe that I will at least be close to it. I used to love to skate and I will do it again as soon as I feel I will be safe enough not to continually fall on my fat butt which is what happened over and over when I decided I'd have to give it up 10 years ago. Feeling hopeful again, I just bought the protective equipment that someone my age will desperately need to rollerskate safely. Now all I need is the helmet, which I have on order, and the nerve to ignore all of my friends' warnings.
3rd goal--to weigh less than 200 lbs to the point, wherever that may be, that I will feel confident enough to get up in public and read my written work. Not sure what weight that will be but I am looking forward to it. It is hard enough to expose one's talent (or lack thereof) without also exposing a fat body, too. I used to have the nerve to read my stuff at certain events and had great audience reactions but have lost my nerve since I gained my excess weight. Being obese has ruined what little social poise I had when I was younger and slimmer.
4th goal-- To be slim enough, maybe around 180-170 lbs, to fit in a co-pilot seat in an old fashioned WWII fighter plane and take a wild ride. Right now I do not think I could fit and would be too embarrassed to try. I love planes and there are companies in the southern Cal area that give loop the loop type rides in these planes so that will be my reward when I reach the appropriate weight.
5th goal--To jump out of a perfectly good, non-disabled airplane at 20,000 feet--with a parachute, of course. I am saving this ultimate goal, sky diving, as my reward if and when I reach my ideal weight, 140 lbs. Not sure if I really will have the nerve for this but want to find out.
6th goal--This is my ultimate reward if I get my weight down to 140 lbs and keep it there for at least one year: Liposuction/plastic surgery so I can look nearly as young as I feel. For me, this would be winning the final battle in the war to reduce my oversize hips and butt. There are some wonderful new technologies on the near horizon regarding liposuction so I may be just in time to try them. It will soon be possible to have liposuction without surgery--check out the Ultrashape website for an example of this.
7th goal--This would be my reward for maintaining my weight loss for at least 2 years: A vacation at a health spa, preferably Rancho La Puerta, a place to which I have wanted to go for many years.
Ultimate goal: To retire as a slim, healthy YOUNG old lady and go on a book tour to promote a self-published book of which I have just finished the rough draft. By the time I have all the weight off, I will have gotten the money together, and the final draft of the book polished up, to self-publish and start a whole new career. The book is called College Crazy and is a humorous self help book for college students covering all the college student problems all the other books don't. Let me know if you have any good anecdotes about problems students have in college, humorous stories or anything I could use in the book. I can't offer money for this but would send you a free copy of the book when it finally gets published.
Thank you for reading this far. You must be one of the rare literate (or patient) people. I salute you.
I will be posting soon about my upcoming ride on the Desperado. I will have my picture taken. My friends and I have agreed that it only counts if I ride it more than once.
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