Hey, how about some good news.

[shoju]

Some of you, that are friends with me on the FB, know that I've been working to change my life.

I was (am) Obese. I'm 5' 7", and back in February, when I finally decided I needed to get on a scale, I was staring at 293.

This was me, last October. God knows how much I weighed. More than 293 for sure, since I had decided to do a little work on my weight before I actually had the courage to stand on a scale.



Now, I'll never weigh something like 130. My bone structure is just too big, too dense for that. My bone structure is suited for a football running back.

My first goal: Get out of size 40" W Pants / Shorts.
I accomplished that in May.

My Second Goal: Get to the 100's in weight again.
I should accomplish that by my birthday.

My Third Goal: Lose 100 Pounds.
Will come shortly after.

I weigh in this morning at 219.5 lbs. 73.5 lbs shed. It feels good. This past weekend, before nerd night, my wife snapped a pic of me.



Not the greatest pic in the world, but it's pretty easy to see the difference. No sucking in, No trying to do anything crazy to exaggerate it. Just good ol' fashioned weight loss.

[Hammerskjold]

Not the greatest pic in the world, but it's pretty easy to see the difference. No sucking in, No trying to do anything crazy to exaggerate it. Just good ol' fashioned weight loss.

Good stuff, do share some of your methods.

I used to do more walking\trail hikes and some weight lifting, but it's incredibly depressing how I can be quite lazy if I lose the momentum at times.

[shoju]

1.) I downloaded MyFitness Pal onto my phone. You can also use their website myfitnesspal.com. I track all my calories, exercise, weight, and measurements in that.

2.) I then just started eating better. I cut out as much fast food as possible. I swap greasy, processed stuff, for healthier alternatives. It costs a little more, but it's worth it. I love pizza, so I learned how to make a thin crust pizza on my own. Swap 1000 calories for the boxed delivery stuff for 400 calories for a flat bread / tortilla pizza, and I'm just as full. I love chips and dip. I swapped that out for healthier rice and pita chips (that are awesome), and salsa (black bean and corn salsa.... YES PLEASE), or Hummus (Roasted Red Pepper..... /drool). If we go out to eat, I look for healthy alternatives. I make sure that Portion Control is a large part of this for me. I never learned about that growing up. My parents are both very heavy. They never taught me about things like that. I learned while doing this. Changing out the box meals for a homemade version is HUGE. My kids love Beef Stroganoff w/ Mushrooms. A box meal, while not a "lot" of calories, is just loaded with junk. Making it from my own stew meat, and my own ingredients, and fresh mushrooms just makes it healthier. Sometimes, the healthier version is even more calories, but it doesn't have a ton of sodium, and ton of preservatives.

I eat more lean meat, more chicken, fish, etc... More Fresh Veggies. More Fresh Fruit. I'm a terrible jerk about making sure I know what I'm putting in my body. My wife says I'm the calorie Nazi.

3.) I make sure I'm not just a bump on the couch. I get out and exercise. I coached my son's baseball team. I go for walks. I get a lot of exercise at work just based on my job. I make sure that I log all of my exercise as well. I want to know what I'm doing to burn calories, and MFP calculates calories burnt based on my weight and measurables.

4.) I don't drink as much alcohol. I still enjoy a drink every now and then, but I'm not killing a fifth of rum when I do have something to drink, or drinking a 6 pack of hard cider, or whatever. It sounds silly, but my god the calories in Alcohol is staggering.

5.) I have support. My Wife never lost the baby weight after our daughter was born, so she's trying to lose that as well. My mother has lost 110 pounds, My dad is finally trying to get healthy. I have friends who are trying various thins to tone, trim, etc... And I have a friend who was a pitcher in Japan for a while, and he's great motivation even if only over Skype. Trying to do it on my own would suck.

The biggest thing for me was just changing my attitude about food. I used to not care, and I'd just eat whatever. I find I spend more time thinking about food now, and what I'm going to eat, and planning dinner, and planning out what I'm going to "snack" on than I did before. I decided I wasn't going to call this a diet, because a Diet is something that you quit, or finish. This is a lifestyle change, and I'm treating it as such.

Before I tried to rationalize my weight. My knees are bad, my ankle is bad. My shoulder was on the way to being a worthless joint. Now, I'm pushing through and I feel amazing. It doesn't hurt to walk as much. It will always ache, but the severe pain is gone.

My next "Lifestyle Change" is to quit smoking. That's going to be tough. I've been a smoker since I was 13, so.... 20 years. My dad owned a tire shop, and I worked there after school / summers, and would go over to the gas station to pick up stuff for the guys. The gas station knew where I was going, and never noticed when I started buying an extra pack of smokes along with it. Hell, Generic Smokes were 79 cents a pack. The guys didn't notice a buck less in change either. I "can" smoke at work (not at my desk), so that's tough. And I'm a Driving Smoker. If I'm driving, I smoke. and I drive ~1hr round trip to work every day. I'll get there, but it's going to be slow.

I just bought myself a digital slr camera. I'm going to use that as motivation to walk the bike trail we have here locally more often.

[Hammerskjold]

My next "Lifestyle Change" is to quit smoking. That's going to be tough. I've been a smoker since I was 13, so.... 20 years. My dad owned a tire shop, and I worked there after school / summers, and would go over to the gas station to pick up stuff for the guys. The gas station knew where I was going, and never noticed when I started buying an extra pack of smokes along with it. Hell, Generic Smokes were 79 cents a pack. The guys didn't notice a buck less in change either. I "can" smoke at work (not at my desk), so that's tough. And I'm a Driving Smoker. If I'm driving, I smoke. and I drive ~1hr round trip to work every day. I'll get there, but it's going to be slow.

FWIW, I'm also a smoker. The longest I quit cold turkey was for one year, and I stupidly started up again.

However, for 8 months now, I have cut back severely. I still smoke occasionally when it's 'guys night out', but that's once in a month or 2 months or so. (Social smoking is one of the more difficult bad habit to break, but it is possible to change it.)

I no longer buy a pack, and have severely diminished the urge to light up when I'm by myself.

For myself, I pretty much admit I can not quit cold turkey. I -can- however, cut back drastically, to the point of smoking maybe 10 cigarettes, in one year. Very possibly, less. To perhaps one smoke, for one year.

I'll tell you though, if you can make it through the first month with a drastic reduction in nicotine, the hardest phase is usually over. Just prepare for that extra crankiness for the first 2 weeks.

Good luck, and from one (now occasional) smoker to another, I support you sir.

[bldavis]

Thank you for sharing all this Shoju...i am in a similar boat, and have recently found myself missing my days back in high school when i could run 10 miles and not think about it (beyond being f-ing exhausted cause i was a mid distance runner...)

this might be the kick in my ass that i need to get moving and start working on my own weight loss

[Jester]

I'm glad you're getting to a size you're comfortable with. Looks like you've made some serious progress!

-Jester

[LochnarITB]

I can't adequately express my congratulations to you, my friend! I'm tearing up here. Much like your wife, I never lost the baby weight. Unfortunately, being male, that has a very different meaning. I never smoked, drank or did drugs, but food pretty much defines love hate for me. I got away with being very, very heavy for my first 30-40 years, but then came the desk job and working too much so I wasn't getting out walking 36 holes of golf or biking or playing tennis or any of the myriad activities I participated in that someone my size shouldn't be capable of. It caught up with me, with a vengeance, so I'm just overjoyed when I see someone get a handle on it like you are.

Grats!

[shoju]

Thanks guy, it feels good to lose the weight, and to show my children that being overweight doesn't define my life.

If any of you do go the route of using MFP, let me know via pm and ill gladly be your friend on there. Even having someone on there is a huge boost

[DeeBye]

Those flip-flops are like 3 sizes too large.


Good job on the weight loss!

edit: I like your Storm Trooper and Darth Vader shirt

[shoju]

Those flip flops were the only thing I could fit my fat feet in last summer sadly.

And thanks

[Lissa]

Congrats on the weight loss

I'll give you a little incentive to quit smoking...

The NRC states that someone working in a nuclear based industry is allowed a maximum of 2 REM of radiation a year to central cavity (ie, chest and abdomen) and head.

Smoking a pack and a half of cigarettes per day for one year will net you 8 REM of radiation to your lungs, 4 times what the NRC allows.

There's one of your major reasons why heavy smokers end up getting Lung Cancer.

Add to this, the lethal dose where 50% of the people subjected to it die (this is at one time, not over time) is 400 REM. At a pack and a half per day at 20 years, someone would have taken 160 REM in that time period to their lungs directly.

And yes, my goal is to scare the shit out of you about smoking

[Bolty]

And yes, my goal is to scare the shit out of you about smoking

Studies have shown* that scare tactics to change behavior don't work, for a number of reasons. I recall my high school "drivers ed" classes showing movies designed to scare the kids into driving safer by showing the HORRIBLE FLAMING DEATH that can occur with reckless driving. Doesn't work; every student figures "sure, but that won't happen to me." And most of the time, they're right!

For smokers, it's more that the nebulous cancer/health issues they can face are too far into the future, which is always some unknown point in time when it'll all catch up to them. Plus, there are those exceptions consisting of that one 95-year-old grandma who chain smokes and never has a problem. I've even heard "oh, by the time I'd get lung cancer, they'll have a cure for it."

Of course, the cancer and health issues come on very suddenly and unexpectedly, and by then it's too late.

Finally, of course, it's easy to ask "why don't you quit" to a smoker. Trying to beat an addiction is always brutal. Apologies if you're a former smoker and you went through it, but those such as myself who have never smoked don't really understand what it's like to be addicted to smoking. I hear it never leaves you. Ever. You could be smoke-free for 25 years and still crave it.

*citation needed, I know, but too lazy

[kandrathe]

And yes, my goal is to scare the shit out of you about smoking

Studies have shown* that scare tactics** to change behavior don't work, for a number of reasons.

...

*citation needed, I know, but too lazy

** Citation granted.

Since Shoju started getting all personal and stuff...

My father was an addicted smoker. He prevented me from smoking by making my indoor household duty taking out the garbage, and cleaning the garbage can (before the advent of plastic garbage bags). My mom's side of the family tends to be on the neuro-atypical, with them being pretty smart, but quirky. That is me. :-) So, I am smart, but I was socially awkward, and probably border line Asbergers. I was mostly one of those people who did not pick up on social cues, I was blunt, and didn't really see a need to filter my thoughts very well. Anyway, long story made shorter, I had then what is now called sensory processing disorder -- being overly sensitive to certain sensory stimuli. I grew out of it in my twenties when my neuro-development caught up with me (but I'm reliving it in my sons now). For the sensory stuff, through practicing TM, yoga and martial arts when I was at the University, I was able to almost entirely tune out almost all sensory stimuli.

Imagine, cigarette butts, ashes, coagulated with decaying food, and fetid milk as a pungent gray lumpy gravy. So I can't smell cigarette smoke without getting physically nauseous. Not so much fun being trapped in the car for hours either, for him or me. He either had to deal with his addiction, or with me barfing in his car. I had to deal with him being extremely cranky, or being physically ill. It was just one rift in our relationship.

For my work, since I'm in involved in mentoring students, I'm committed to avoiding anything addictive our culture struggles with in solidarity with those who need strong role models. Now, I'm even trying to cut out all toxins from my diet and environment. It started some years ago with Diet Coke, which if I drank more 2 cans within a 24 hours period made me really ill. I've cut out almost all sources of artificial colorings, flavorings, and unnatural additives.

[MonTy]

That's incredible, keep it up!

[ShadowHM]

Congratulations, shoju!

I just spent the weekend with an old friend who had bariatric surgery last winter in order to accomplish what you have done. He has lost 105 pounds now and has still got 50 to go. He is getting there but it has been a difficult journey. Good for you for doing it without that aid.

On the smoking cessation quest, please keep trying. I was able to quit with the help of my children's gentle nagging and unconventional use of the nicotine patch.* I hoped I was leading the way so my husband could follow suit. He did not. His autopsy results made it painfully clear that it was tobacco that really killed him, although the listed cause was pneumonia.** So do your best to cut back if you can't quit outright. Every l'il bit will help!



*I wore the patch for a whole year, ignoring the prescribed six week regimen. I reckoned that since much of tobacco addiction is also series of ingrained 'cigarette with' moments, I had to get through a whole year's worth of times/places/events where I normally smoked.
** Not intended as scare tactics, just as a reminder that every decision has consequences.

Edited for additional clarity

[Lissa]

And yes, my goal is to scare the shit out of you about smoking

Studies have shown* that scare tactics to change behavior don't work, for a number of reasons. I recall my high school "drivers ed" classes showing movies designed to scare the kids into driving safer by showing the HORRIBLE FLAMING DEATH that can occur with reckless driving. Doesn't work; every student figures "sure, but that won't happen to me." And most of the time, they're right!

For smokers, it's more that the nebulous cancer/health issues they can face are too far into the future, which is always some unknown point in time when it'll all catch up to them. Plus, there are those exceptions consisting of that one 95-year-old grandma who chain smokes and never has a problem. I've even heard "oh, by the time I'd get lung cancer, they'll have a cure for it."

Of course, the cancer and health issues come on very suddenly and unexpectedly, and by then it's too late.

Finally, of course, it's easy to ask "why don't you quit" to a smoker. Trying to beat an addiction is always brutal. Apologies if you're a former smoker and you went through it, but those such as myself who have never smoked don't really understand what it's like to be addicted to smoking. I hear it never leaves you. Ever. You could be smoke-free for 25 years and still crave it.

*citation needed, I know, but too lazy

While I never smoked, my Father started at the age of 17 and continued until the age of 49 when, after the death of his older brother to cancer, made a pact with his youngest brother, and the oldest son of his deceased brother to stop smoking. He got up one morning, pulled out one last cigarette, smoked it, and then never touched another. He's been clean now for 24 years, he admits that for the first couple of years it was tough, but now, he'll never go back.

[LennyLen]

I started smoking when I was 15, then one early morning (when I was 34) I went to have a cigarette only to find I was all out. It was snowing and was very cold, so I decided "Bugger that! Maybe I'll just stop smoking then." And that was pretty much it. In the five years since, there have probably been half a dozen occasions when I've had one after a bit of drinking, but generally I just never even feel like it any more. I guess I was pretty lucky.

[shoju]

Not going to lie, I'm pretty immune to the scare tactics. It causes cancer. In a lot of people. It's bad for my overall health. It's just not a good thing to do. I know that. I've quit for a year here, or a year there, or 6 months here, or 6 months there. When your upbringing is riddled with "Don't do [Insert some thing here], or you'll go to HELL!" Scare tactics aren't going to make me any more inclined to not do something.

The quitting isn't the hard part. It's the staying quit part. The problem is, I smoke the brand that I smoke, because..... I like the taste. As weird as that may sound to a non smoker, Camel Menthol Silver just tastes good to me when I'm smoking it.

that's why it's the next life goal to change. I ate, because I didn't know how to eat properly, or portion sizing, or the "why" of why things were unhealthy. Now I do. Now I know how to portion my food, and how to make sure that I'm eating balanced.

Next, is wrapping my head around making sure that I quit, and stay quit. Smoking is the last vice I have from a teenage life, and young adult life that was riddled with food, booze, drugs, and smokes.

People ask how I survived my "insane" (their word, not mine) Son of a Fundamentalist Christian Pastor upbringing. I became a pill popping, chain smoking, got my girlfriend pregnant at 16 musician who didn't give two shits about my own health or well being. All in all, at 33, almost 34, and the last thing I have to kick is Smoking, I think I've recovered quite well.

One step at a time, One foot in front of the other. The big thing for me, will be finding a way to quit smoking while I go back to college.... AGAIN. I'm going to get my Bachelor's in Digital Marketing sewn up. That should make me infinitely more marketable for new jobs. My Associates, while it's a good degree, and I'm not ashamed of it at all, just isn't enough to find myself in a position to do what I want to do.

[Hammerskjold]

Not going to lie, I'm pretty immune to the scare tactics.

Yep. In my neck of the woods, there's pictures of what can happen if you keep smoking etc, on packages. There was discussions on whether or not the scary pix should be bigger, or remove all graphics from all cigarette packaging.

As a heavier smoker back then, I'll say this for myself, those things didn't change my habits. At all. Actually depending on my mood and how the subject was broached, I might even trollbait 'em. 'I collect the pix like beanie babies!'.

I think people who never smoked, or did not get addicted to the nicotine bug, should understand this little thing sometimes. Nicotine addiction, is a form of addiction. Scare tactics, appeals to reason, vaguely puritanical platitudes, and anecdotes from a non smoker will rarely, change someone's addiction to it.

For myself I know it wasn't all genetics, it was also learned behaviour on my part as well.

But anyone who wants to help a smoker kick\reduce the habit severely? IMO you can help them the same way many smokers got into the addiction in the first place. Peer pressure. But positive peer pressure.

Hectoring will not help. Lecturing will not help. 'Scaring' won't do squat. 'Educating' people into quitting? That may have worked some in the 1960-70s. But in most cases, smokers -already- know cigarettes are not exactly healthy.

What I personally found more practical, and a lot more helpful? Listening. Non-judgemental support. Most of my friends who smoked quitting\severely reducing the habit themselves. Finding another outlet to distract\divert the old bad habit.

One step at a time, One foot in front of the other. The big thing for me, will be finding a way to quit smoking while I go back to college.... AGAIN. I'm going to get my Bachelor's in Digital Marketing sewn up. That should make me infinitely more marketable for new jobs.

Good stuff dude.

[Selby]

Congratulations! As someone who saw the light at 295 some years ago, I did what you're doing and while I've not been extremely successful at getting to my goal weight of 175, I hover around 195-205 and am in much better health than I was back then.

Keep at it, working the smokes down is a double edge sword as it can cause weight gain in some people so keep that in mind. One of my co-workers switched to e-cigarettes to keep the nicotine addiction fed and is reducing the actual amount of tobacco smoked.