Wanted: Fat Sailors

[NYCSavage]

My partner has lost 39lbs since February. She just makes sure she eats veg, no fried foods, no chocolate, exchanges full fat milk for long life milk, exchanged sugar for Canderel etc

Sounds bad, but every Tuesday, she is allowed to treat herself, which usually means a KFC or a Chinese takeaway. Now she has me on this diet and I have lost 7lbs since May but dont try half as hard as her, I will tell you though, Tuesdays are fast becoming my favourite day of the week! The shopping bills have increased though as she spends a lot of money on fresh fruit and veg.

EDIT:

Forgot to mention, she loses on average 1.5lbs a week, she doesnt set herself weekly targets, just focusses on the end result.

[DeepFrz]

Thanks Rebel Heart. It does feel good. At 68 I can do a lot of things that I couldn't do at 58.

[SaucySailoress]

This is great to hear about people who are doing this and who have done this successfully! I have reached my 'rock bottom' - I do not want to get heavier!!!

I'll post my weight every week, and I want to lose 0.5kg every week; and if I don't, I want you to shout at me. That's right, shout at me.

Food: I started by having a Hardee's Mushroom and Swiss Burger this evening... tomorrow I start for real. We have loads of fruit and veg in - we always do eat a lot of the stuff. Also whole grains, non-processed food, all that sort of stuff.

Exercise: Yesterday I swam my first km since the accident. Most days I either do 20mins on the X-track, or an hour of yoga.

Let's see if by making a promise, I can watch my behaviour patterns and catch myself out - see what I'm doing wrong.

[NYCSavage]

By adding peer pressure I personally think it motivates you LESS!

If you set a target of .5kg EVERY week, then you are putting unnecassary added strain on your task. Just set yourself a target overall weight, don't tell anyone your weight goal, just go for it. That is how my partner did it.

There will be times that you dont lose weight (time of the month when you have added water in your body) and there will be times when you lose more than .5kg

And when you get closer to your target weight, the weight loss will slow down, instead of losing .5kg, you may only be losing .2kg.

[SaucySailoress]

Originally Posted by NYCSavage

By adding peer pressure I personally think it motivates you LESS!

If you set a target of .5kg EVERY week, then you are putting unnecessary added strain on your task. Just set yourself a target overall weight, don't tell anyone your weight goal, just go for it. That is how my partner did it.
.

Agreed. But I have been trying the silent approach since February, and it hasn't worked for me. I am choosing to put pressure on myself - no-one need read my weight, but I will know that I have a goal that I have set for myself... if the thread dies, then I'll stop posting. And half a kilo a week is a sensible weight loss rate - and it will take nearly a year for me to reach my true goal of 18kg off.

I will take Ex- Calif's advice, and I intend to split it into smaller milestones of 5kg and reward myself well. I have also promised myself a bag of toffee coated popcorn every time I drop a kilo - and I already have the 19 bags in my treat cupboard!!

Perhaps if others have goals they have set, they might also like to share, and we can encourage (and berate) each other. Clearly this is not an approach that would work for everyone... only those who chose...

But, I wanna say, it's way cooler to hear motivational stories from sailors than it is to hear motivational stories from housewives (even though that is what I effectively am now, since I'm in the Twilight Zone between quitting work and sailing off)!

[zeehag]

wow....somaby hard working folks ....i do a yoyo thing with my weight--lol--we are patterned to eat somuch from kid hood by our parents--we have to reprogram when we are really wanting to do the deed on wieght---lol---but the body has to want ot lose the weighrt too--lol--2009 i lost 60 pounds by willing it off--stillsame amount of exercise--riding bike and kayaking ---lol not fr--eating mydove darkchocolate--the morsels are good because there is only one at a time--get the need for rchocolate out of the system and still lose weight. i find if i only eat what i crave, i lose whether i crave ice cream , pizza, or what. bod wont crave what it doesnt need. trendy stuff is always bad. i do not go there.
moderation is key, as extremism causes backslides.....

[NYCSavage]

I would like to wish you the best of luck on your task, remember though, it may seem like a chore at times, but you will do it if you are strong enough.

I am going to ask my partner to take a look in here, she seems to know a lot about this than I do, maybe she could give you a few starting tips? I'm just a bloke that eats what is put in front of him.....so technically, I am on a forced diet! (not complaining as I still manage to eat large portions and my trousers are now too big for me!)

[Sabbatical II]

Originally Posted by NYCSavage

By adding peer pressure I personally think it motivates you LESS!

I don't agree! It motivates some people less. I am someone who is motivated by everyone knowing my goals and then at the point of giving into temptaion, I think about how foolish I might feel when I don't succeed. Different strokes for different folks.

Kate, you can do it !

Greg

[SaucySailoress]

Originally Posted by Eleebana

I don't agree! It motivates some people less. I am someone who is motivated by everyone knowing my goals and then at the point of giving into temptaion, I think about how foolish I might feel when I don't succeed. Different strokes for different folks.

Kate, you can do it !

Greg

Thank you Greg - you have summed up my motive perfectly.

[DeepFrz]

I think you have to think about what you will do when you reach your goal. Its important to realize this is a lifestyle change and not a diet.

Kate, I wish you luck. You are changing a lot of things at the same time. I hope that works for you. What is your strategy if you don't meet your target for the week?

[sv-Mystique]

DeepFrz - you hit it on the head and as I stated you have to get right with it in your head or you will never succeed. I think I read someone has 19 bags of carmel corn in the cupboard. Are you kidding me - give it away to some kids. Lifestyle change is just that there is no treating yourself to garbage that got you to where you are trying to come from. Go read the label and post back what the carbs, sugar and salt grams are per serving.

[Sabbatical II]

Originally Posted by sv-Mystique

Lifestyle change is just that there is no treating yourself to garbage that got you to where you are trying to come from. Go read the label and post back what the carbs, sugar and salt grams are per serving.

The problem is in the affluent western world we become accustomed to excess and think it is normal. Everyone supersizes at the convenience store. Everyone snacks and eats deserts even though there is little nutritional value. Well they don't in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Rwanda or Botswana (I picked landlocked countries hoping that no one will be on CF). Can someone tell me the percentage of fat people in those countries? Our affluence in the western world means that we have time to waste on the couch in front of the TV with a milkshake and a packet of chips in hand. To reach a healthy weight range should not be difficult for most people. Retraining our brains on what is normal is a good starting point.

Greg

[DeepFrz]

Something I forgot to mention is that my weight loss was not a symmetrical loss. The first 5 k came off quite quickly and then it slowed down. But there were times when I wouldn't lose anything for a while, then after a month or 2 my weight would start dropping again. I think that is another pitfall of the "diet". One can get discouraged during the times that the body seems to want to hold on to the weight.

[BlueSeas]

I believe the true secret behind high water consumption success in weight loss is the extra exercise you get going every 15 minutes to relieve yourself, thus taking us back to the intake vs burn equation!

I am with you on the need to lose. I could easily say goodbye to about 30 pounds. Can't convert that to kilos because of the US war on drugs...

For me, increase exercise has always seemed to do the trick. Decrease in appetite, just seems to happen as I exercise (yes I have done this before!). Guess I will have to use that lifetime fitness center membership I have. You know...the one I haven't used in a lifetime!

[Starbuck]

There has been a lot of good, common-sense advice in this thread, and a minimum of ho-kum (that's Yank for "rubbish"). But often it's the fat between the ears that is the hardest to lose.

Habits are usually not so much successfully "broken" as they are successfully replaced by different, healthier, habits. "Instead of this, I'll do that." So a few mild changes can have a large cumulative effect. Adapt to a few food substitutions, and then make a few more, instead of coming home with five grocery bags filled fruit & vegetables that slowly rot in the fridge because you can't make such a drastic change so quickly.

Movement/exercise need not be intense to deliver significant results. Moderate exercise will increase one's metabolism for hours afterward, which burns more calories, even when your butt is back on the couch. You'll also notice a rise in energy level, which makes the couch less attractive anyway. Funny how the exercise never is attractive beforehand (or there's "not enough time" for it), but afterward, we're always glad we did it, and more productive the rest of the day because of it, and never miss the lost hour. Oh: exercise moderates appetite, too.

Psychologically (more than half the battle for most of us, eh?), the habits we fall into are sustained because there is a "payoff" in it for us: emotional comfort, validation, whatever. So look for/be conscious of/bring to memory the payoff in your 20-minute walk ("I felt great afterward") or your stir-fry dinner ("That was quick, easy, and I don't feel stuffed") to create some positive reinforcement for yourself.

Accountability is not a bad thing: you're less likely to let yourself off the hook if you know you'll be telling someone else about what you've been up to. Some of you super-men may not need it, but for us mortals…

Creating a reward system is a great motivator: someone mentioned a "cheat" meal on Tuesdays. Or put the money you saved buying beans & rice instead of meat & ice cream into a jar, and label the jar with some reward you will buy for yourself. Whatever works for you. Should you treat yourself like a little child with stickers on the fridge-mounted chart? You'll be surprised how much this can reinforce good behavior (now I'm back talking about "payoff").