Weight problems

DavidMn · #1 01-17-2006, 07:48 PM

So anyway, we're bombarded with messages about being thin and looking fabulous and all that jazz. Well, I'm not exactly sure which side of the fence I come down on there. On the one hand, I'm not exactly a small person at 6'4 275+, and believe me, being gay and big aint for the most part a formula for romantic success. Although in my case I've been with Derek for about 15 months now. We're both big guys and happy with each other, so I got lucky in that sense. But I do worry about my health and Derek's, especially since he smokes. As far as feeling forced to be thin to LOOK good, I dont feel that pressure at all. It's more of a health thing for me. I dont exactly wanna be dropping dead at 40 of a heart attack, so I've got to figure out a way to change my eating habits. Perhaps some of you could share stories about this if you so desire and feel comfortable doing so.

David · #2 01-17-2006, 07:52 PM

Weight is a crazy, crazy thing. It's unfortunate for those people for whom weight yoyos...bounced up & down with little rhyme or reason.

The one good thing about weight is: if you feel sharp pains in your abdomen for a period of several months & it shows no signs of abating, if your weight is staying constant there's a really good chance you don't have cancer.

EDIT: Oops, forgot to answer your question. Here's my advice for altering diet:

Eat as close as possible to the natural state of the food item.

In other words, don't buy a can of carrots. Buy CARROTS in the raw. Don't buy potato chips. Buy POTATOES in the raw. You don't necessarily have to eat the raw carrots & raw potatoes as is---you can cook them at home. But YOU do the cooking. Don't buy them canned or otherwise packaged. Don't buy breaded fish sticks in a TV dinner. Buy raw FISH. Take it home & cook it yourself. Do this with as much food as you can manage without driving yourself absolutely crazy. By cutting back sharply on processed food, you will drastically reduce calories, sodium & saturated fats & you will drastically increase fiber, "good" fats (omega-3, for example), vitamins, potassium, & dozens of other things you need.

Over time, your taste buds will change too. You will reach the point at which you throw your own raw vegetables into a pot of water & make your own soup & it will taste GOOD, & thus opening up a can of store-bought soup & trying to eat it will be like trying to eat a salt tablet. You will grow to dislike MANY processed foods if you avoid them.

Good luck, & Godspeed.

tynan88 · #3 01-17-2006, 08:01 PM

My weight is deffinitely an issue, I yoyo a lot due to stress and other conditions around me and I hate it to be honest. Often when I am struck with a bout of depression I become fatigues and can't do anything so I put on weight and eat more.

I generally think the focus should be less on being thin and more about being healthy because that is what counts both physically and spiritually. I mean many of those twigs in Hollywood are hardly what you could call healthy by any standards.

DavidMn · #4 01-17-2006, 08:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tynan88

My weight is deffinitely an issue, I yoyo a lot due to stress and other conditions around me and I hate it to be honest. Often when I am struck with a bout of depression I become fatigues and can't do anything so I put on weight and eat more.

I generally think the focus should be less on being thin and more about being healthy because that is what counts both physically and spiritually. I mean many of those twigs in Hollywood are hardly what you could call healthy by any standards.

Oh I know what you mean about depression and eating. That's a big reason I'm the way I am. Although now I'm on a good med, Selexa, that doesnt have too much of a weight side affect. But I'm not trying to blame McDonalds or anyone else for how much I weigh cause Ronald McDonald didnt shove that Big Mac in my mouth....

markolas · #5 01-17-2006, 08:10 PM

I'm only 5'5", so I can't really handle a lot of weight. I'm at 170 right now, which is at least 20 (and probably closer to 50) pounds more than where I should be. My waterloo is fast food burgers & fries. Those are my comfort foods, and anytime I experience any stress or emotional upset, I tend to find myself at the McDonald's or Wendy's drive-thru before I know what happened.

I'm attempting to stop with the fast food, but it's hard since I don't cook. It's either McDonald's or Lean Cuisine for me. And Lean Cuisine is okay, but I don't have to get out of my car for McDonald's.

DavidMn · #6 01-17-2006, 08:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by markolas

I'm only 5'5", so I can't really handle a lot of weight. I'm at 170 right now, which is at least 20 (and probably closer to 50) pounds more than where I should be. My waterloo is fast food burgers & fries. Those are my comfort foods, and anytime I experience any stress or emotional upset, I tend to find myself at the McDonald's or Wendy's drive-thru before I know what happened.

I'm attempting to stop with the fast food, but it's hard since I don't cook. It's either McDonald's or Lean Cuisine for me. And Lean Cuisine is okay, but I don't have to get out of my car for McDonald's.

mm A FISH sandwich sounds good right about now..

markolas · #7 01-17-2006, 08:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidMn

mm A FISH sandwich sounds good right about now..

I hate fish.

tynan88 · #8 01-17-2006, 08:24 PM

The Fish Sandwich is ewww...McDonald's does seem to putting out a decent range of healthier foods now, at least in regards to fat content and I am no expert but apparently some of the other indicators are really high though.

markolas · #9 01-17-2006, 08:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tynan88

The Fish Sandwich is ewww...McDonald's does seem to putting out a decent range of healthier foods now, at least in regards to fat content and I am no expert but apparently some of the other indicators are really high though.

I don't know if they have Wendy's in Australia, but I'm finding them to be a slightly healthier alternative. You can get things like chili and baked potatoes there, that you can't get at McDonald's.

David · #10 01-17-2006, 08:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tynan88

The Fish Sandwich is ewww...McDonald's does seem to putting out a decent range of healthier foods now, at least in regards to fat content and I am no expert but apparently some of the other indicators are really high though.

Check out the sodium amounts in some of those "healthier" foods at the fast-food joints. Same with Lean Cuisine & other diet frozen meals. Sodium--which is already skyhigh in TV meals0--is compounded when some of the fat is removed to make up for the loss of flavor. If you have high blood pressure--& David might, since he's overweight & approaching 40--you're better off avoiding the TV dinner stuff entirely. I used to love those frozen lasagna things with the garlic bread. Then I checked out the sodium contents & my eyes popped out of my head.

So, David, have you had your BP & your cholesterol levels checked? If you've been overweight throughout adulthood, that's probably the first thing you want to know.

goldie · #11 01-17-2006, 08:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David

Eat as close as possible to the natural state of the food item.

Great info, David. I TRY TRY TRY to do this. It's so hard! Or what I mean is, it's so much easier to open a bag of chips than peel a potato!

I do this not because of any weight issues, but just because I want to eat natural, unprocessed foods.

I do eat baby carrots every day, though. And my puppy gets a lot of those, too. She loves them.

DavidMn - best advice is moderation and exercise........exercise with a partners to stay motivated.... People say this all the time, but it really is true and the best way to do it.

HomerMcvie · #12 01-17-2006, 09:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidMn

mm A FISH sandwich sounds good right about now..

I LOVE McDonald's fish. It's the best fish sandwich anywhere! With extra tarter sauce, too!
Yeah, I'm 25-30 lbs overweight. I'm 5'10", and weigh 185-190. I was down to 160, about 5 years ago. I had to workout 3-4 days a week, and never ate anything but Lean Cuisine. I was hungry ALL the time.
My body wants to be 180ish. Weighing less requires CONSTANT effort.
Life's too short.....f*ck it!

theoneinlace · #13 01-17-2006, 09:52 PM

Getting healthy is my new years resolution, i'm cutting out on pop and processed foods and going for the sit ups hit and miss. but i'm doing lil things to like parking in the last spot at the stores and trying to put away things away more often up and down stairs hey its a start.

desertangel · #14 01-17-2006, 11:29 PM

Yup... what David said.

It has taken me almost a year to shed only 30 extra pounds. But those 30 were making me physically sick, so I was pretty motivated to lose it. I'm about Stevie's same build except I have bigger boobs. LOL! Sorry Stevie! The reason it has taken so long is because I let myself cheat now and then. I figured if I did that, over time, I would eventually adapt to a healthier way of eating for the long haul. And so far it has worked. The first step for me was staying away from the drive thru. Fast food was a major contributor to my 30 extra pounds, that and Ben and Jerry's on Saturday nights. And hey, I'm just as busy as the next person and not overly fond of cooking either. For my weight loss, I started by eating organic food and avoiding most animal products for the first several months. I saw the first 10 pounds go very quickly and was encouraged. After that I went back to regular food in much smaller portions than before, because organic is expensive. I'm not a snacker so that's not a problem. I also do a Weight Watchers thing where if I decide to cheat and have a hot fudge sundae one day that means the next day I eat light; yogurt and fruit for breakfast, salad for lunch and a small piece of chicken and some veggies for dinner. It's all about the trade offs. It really helps, you don't get as depressed about having to diet. I'm 5 pounds away from my goal and the only way that's going to come off is exercise. I decided not to tackle that until most of the weight was off just to make it easier. I HATE exercise. But it is easier now that I'm 25 pounds lighter. I've been working out at the gym 5 days a week for the last two weeks. Cardio twice a week and weights 3 times a week. I've lost a pound or two. But it's like that, you make a change and it takes your body about a month to adjust before you notice a positive difference. You just have to hang with it. At some point I will have to increase my daily caloric intake so I don't go too far the other direction and that will also be a strange thing to get used to.... eating MORE. My fitness coach said that doesn't mean donuts and hambugers, it means another chicken breast.

As for cooking, I learned to make things ahead. Think crock pot. I also cook things ahead and freeze the portions that can't be eaten soon enough. Sunday is generally cooking day for me. Just turn on the radio or put on a CD and have fun with it.

Speaking of such, I need to go throw a roast in the crock pot, so better get cracking. 5:30am comes all too quickly and my eyes are usually pretty bleary when I hit that treadmill at 6am in the morning.

Good luck to all who decide to start the new year with a diet.

Laura

catinthedark · #15 01-17-2006, 11:37 PM

I have found that the best motivation for losing weight is starting to work out. If you start to exercise regularly, you will see results. And that is a GREAT motivator to keep going. Really. Once you start noticing yuor clothes getting a little looser, you'll be like, wow - this is GREAT. MOTIVATION! When yuo start noticing muscle where you never knew you had it? MOTIVATION. And you'll probably be less inclined to ruin a good thing. Honestly, when I'm working out regularly (I run), I find it so easy NOT to eat crap - afterall, if I'm working out to be healthy, why would I want to negate my hard work by eating a cheeseburger? I don't - so, no desire. I eat really healthy - lots of fruits and veggies, lots of lean protein (chicken and fish), no sweets, no fried food. But my will power's not so good - so I buy nothing unhealthy. If it's not in my house, I can't eat it. That doesn't mean I don't indulge every so often - I love to go out for supper. And I go for drinks pretty often. But, when I eat out, I still choose healthy foods.

The right combo of exercise and eating healthy is the best and only way to lose weight. You don't need to begin with a marathon - start by walking a brisk 20 minutes everyday. You will see results, I guarantee. And the results will come even faster if you cut out fried foods, high fat foods, sweets, and too many carbs (like bread and rice and pasta). And then start building on your exercise. The equation is simple - if you don't burn off more calories than you eat, you will gain weight. Simple.

And one thought - remember it took you a long time to put ON the weight. It's going to take a long time to get it OFF. But hang in - you'll feel so much better and you will be so much healthier. Good luck.