Walk more. Eat less.

Hey, high gas and food prices may be helpful after all.

 Newsflash!?

Obviously, the person who wrote that hasn't shopped at Walmart lately....

My weight is in the normal range for my height for the first time in 10 years.  I'm not sure how it happened because I didn't diet, per se.  My  weight loss happened as a result of a gradual life style change over the coarse of a year.

Some of the changes I made were: 

• No more ice cream or cookies in the house.   Dessert is treated as just that, a dessert to be eaten on special occasions.
• I Cut my portions down 2/3's and stop eating once I am full.
• We eat two meals a day.
• If I'm hungry before bedtime I'll eat a small (100 calorie or less) snack at night. 

My weight is normal now.  I can now eat as much as I want because it takes less to fill me up.   I order dessert when we go out or when I have a special dinner or party at home.  This is what worked for me. 

America's problem with obesity is a relatively recent phenomenon, brought on by our country's shift to a service industry economy.  Time- and energy-saving devices combined with the outsourcing of meal preparation in the form of fat-laden fast food are the real culprits here.  Where tuberculosis and black lung were diseases associated with the Industrial Age, so obesity and it's resulting diseases (heart disease and diabetes) are products of the service industry economies.  In another hundred years we will be battling some other disease resulting from the information age, although we're already experiencing some of it (carpal-tunnel syndrome, etc.)

Ellis

Kids used to play outside all day.  Now they're sedentary.  Poor kids.

Kids don't have much of a choice anymore.  It's becoming dangerous to send them outside anymore and too expensive to enroll them in sports.

Well I thought I hit upon the perfect weight loss plan earlier this year: Divorce!

But then I got pregnant. Now I'm gaining it all back!

Bumps and bruises build character, send those kids outside!

dont sit on your butt all day and don't shove your face full of food. walk, eat smaller portions, say hello to a gym every once in a while, and if you cant afford a gym walk around! ... geez.

jbaldwin- you have an excuse =) your feeding for two

Avoid soda (even diet)

Use a small (salad) plate instead of a larger dinner plate. You can't fit as much food on it, but it's still enough.

Never eat until you're stuffed. 

Park far away from a store rather than getting as close as you can.

If you have to eat french fries, get a smaller size and don't finish them all.

As far as the kids go, It's pretty hard to send a child out to play when it's almost 100º . Also, parent's, don't make your child finish everything on their plate, but do make them finish the veggies.

But then I got pregnant. Now I'm gaining it all back!

This is the perfect excuse to eat whatever you want. The world record time for eating a gallon of ice cream is 12 1/2 minutes. Try to break the record every single day.

I put on 10lbs when I fractured my leg just below the knee and just can't seem to take it off now. Part of that may be because the knee still bothers me (doctor says that'll be permanent), which limits my exercise compared to what I used to be able to do. Like yesterday it was complaining up a storm because I sat on a bench that was too low and bent the knee more than it prefers to be bent since the accident (which also makes biking a not-so-fun sport anymore). I suppose I should be happy that my weight is steady and only on the heavy side of normal, but I still would love to get back to my pre-injury weight.

shwaine- im in the same boat you are. i dislocated my knee in march, put on extra pounds =( and its really hard to excercise to get it off, but i am also really stubborn and do it anyway, i take anti inflamatories because my knee swells to the size of a football (maybe i shouldnt do it?) but it heals... anything i do hurts it, but i will not allow myself to get fat :-) so through the sweat and tears i get up on the treadmill and do cardio, but non of the crazy stuff i use to do.

Shwaine -

I know your pain I had valley fever, I weighed 170 lbs. not all ripped but moderately built. I dropped to 141. Started to get better, couldnt exercise but boy did I eat. I now weigh 185lbs, and i cant get rid of it.

Lana, how can you tell if that's a woman or not? All I see is a genderless blob, and a picnic table bench in its last moments of existence...

Not true! It could be a guy wearing Kramer's invention, "The Bro."

Suggestion: love and support people for who they are. Don't judge by the outside; you never know what's going on inside. Unless you've had a weight problem, you have no idea how painful it is.

Freethinker

I couldn't agree more. 

I was too thin the first 50 years of my life.  Then I started gaining weight.  Too much in fact.  I'm back on track now and it feels great to be normal weight again. 

Overweight and obese people have my utmost sympathy.    I think food is the hardest addiction to break.  But, it can be done.  The first thing an overweight or obese person should do is START MOVING.  Even if it's only a five minute walk around the house, do it.    You'll feel an immediate feeling of accomplishment and pride.  Then do it again in a couple of hours.  Then again  the next day.  Move your walk up to 7 minutes, then 8 minutes twice a day.   Keeping moving until you can walk 30 to forty minutes at a time every day.  Before you know it your weight will start to drop and you'll FEEL LESS HUNGRY and more energetic.  You'll development NEW HABITS to replace the old ones.

Please try.   After all, walking is free.

 I've gained 45 lbs after I was forced to retire.  While working, I worked it off every day and weighed in @ 150 lbs, now I'm @ 195 lbs and wish to lose it.  I'll get rid of 5 lbs one week and fined it again the next.

When I was growing up, I never could put on weight no matter what I ate, in High School I was 5' 8" and never over 129 lbs right up until I was about 40 years old.  When I was trying for the CHP, you had to be 150 lbs and I just couldn't gain it until it was to late seeing that they stopped taking ones application @ 32 or 34, I forget which.

Now I have the weight and can't get rid of it.;=)))

 Train for a marathon..you'll drop every unwanted pound.

My knee can barely manage walking for a shopping run, which for me is usually a few stores for 2-3 hours. I'd hate to see what a marathon would do to it. I still can't get beyond the 2 resistance setting on the exercise bike without issues. My doctor just shrugs and says that's how it's going to be.