Sunday, February 22, 2009

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

letter to LHC fellow diet sufferer

Hi Sissy,
I am so sorry you are having so many problems with your weight and believe me, I truely understand the frustrations. I weigh 280lbs and at 53 it's not just the looks (although of course I want to look much better) but now it's my health that is breaking down.

That's a good idea for us to take this to pm's because all this is personal and other people who don't have this problem don't need to know. I just briefly checked out your eating plan and to me it's kinda like the Slimfast programme I signed up for (but I buy the products). I was all happy and wanted to make a difference in my weight in the New Year's and after a few days I had fallen by the wayside and went back to my emotional eating. Of course I hated myself and chewed myself out for having no will power and asked myself why do I continue to do this to myself you know: guilt, guilt and more guilt,lol

Just like you say, knowing all about why you eat as you eat in your professional life doesn't have any effect. Out of all the weight loss programmes and diets and just plain doing without, plus belonging to many weight loss support forums none of this makes a difference when it comes down to feeling miserable and going thru the house looking for something "good to eat."

I would be much more fatter than I am now if I wasn't so lazy ie I won't go in the kitchen and make myself muffins and cake or anything else so at least I save calories that way. I am also too lazy to get in my car and go into a shop and get my goodies. I will pay my daughter good money to stop and get me food and listen to her bitch me out about it. Now how lazy is all that. I will stop along the way from work at a coffee shop in the take out lane to get goodies but then I have to hide them so DH doesn't see them and bitch me out (thus making me want to eat even more, (cutting off my nose to spite my face.)

If I have to stop for gas I will get some pastry, hide it and later afte everyone is asleep, bring it out, eat it and afterwards beat myself up about it.

Does it seem to you that there is two people, one who wants to be a good healthy weight, be able to buy nice small sizes in the cute clothes we can't fit in now and so forth, and then this little evil demon who sits around and says, "but it will take months and months and months to get to a decent weight, have a slice of cake or pie now and tomorrow you can go back on your diet."

You know I have a brand-new recumbant bike sitting right here in the living room, so what's stopping me from getting up off the recliner and doing something to help myself.

I guess what we are both trying to say is, what is stopping us from doing what we have to do. I can look ahead and visualise myself as thin, wearing the kind of clothes I want to wear, and feeling human again so why can't I reach for the brass ring???? Why am I such an obstacle to myself???

Sissy if there is any way you can get your weight down now I hope you can do it because when you get to my age, you get high blood pressure, osteoartheritis (which is made worse with extra weight) and feet, knees and legs that don't want to hold you up. Any little thing makes it hard for me to breathe and having asthma makes it worse. As far as I know I don't have diabetes but it's in my family. I also have a fatty liver....so again why is it SO HARD to stick to a diet and lose this weight that is slowly killing me???

Presently, like you, I am trying to lose some weight again. This time using Slimfast bars, healthy food and more fruits and veg and hoping nothing comes in the door that calls my name (pizza, ice cream, cookies and candy etc). I don't even have to buy this stuff. Even tho DH bitches me out for my weight, he cooks delicious meals that are heavy and fat-laden (southern-style cooking) and brings me treats and I have told him not to do this, and to keep the ice cream out of the house.

Anyway I also have a function to attend as you do, and I don't want to show up looking like this. As you have seen by my profile I originally come from Bermuda and of course the heat and humidity will kill me at this size and also, like you, I don't want anybody I know down there to see how much I have let myself go. In October my brother and his wife celebrate their 25th wa and are having a big party. I havn't been home since before 9-11 and so I have to make this effort, can't wait until the last minute.

Maybe we can set goals and write each other for support esp. in the light of getting ready for these family functions

Take care and thanks for your nice long letter and know that you are not alone at all and we have to beat this problem for once and for all right?????
Linda xxxxx

Monday, February 2, 2009

Making another try

My brother called last night and said he wanted me to come home for a week in October because he and Tina were gonna celebrate their 25th w.a. on the 17th. Amanda and Max are coming, and her friend Danny wants to come too but he will have to pay his own way, no free ride for him

This means I have to do something about my weight and I don't want to go down there looking like this as there are ppl who haven't seen me in years and I look a terrible mess. Plus it is hot down there and I have enough trouble getting around here in the cold weather without huffing and puffing.

Today I weighed myself and I was 280lbs. I have really let myself go and I feel very unhealthy and not up to facing life at all. I am so sick and tired of starting meal plans and getting nowhere and falling back into my old ways. Now I have a concrete reason to get real about losing weight because if nothing else my pride won't let me go home without a good deal of this fat gone.

I also have to start putting money aside so I don't go down there broke. I don't spend much money on myself but this past week I have been handing money out just so Gene or Amanda will do things for me eg. for Amanda to do my wash, I handed out $20 just so I wouldn't have to do it myself.
I also gave her $10 just so she would bring me two pastry sticks from Honeydew Donuts.
I had Gene cash my last weeks pay and told him to take $40 out for himself. Then he picked up my pills for me, another $40. So there went $80 from my $150 checque, After spending $80 there, and frittering money away on Amanda getting her to do things for me I only have $20 left which will go in the gas tank. That's all I got from my last weeks pay and I have a right to be pissed.

Gene's sitting on $25,000 and hoards money and if he lends you something he wants it back. I agreed to give him $400 out of my $800 disability money to help with monthly bills. How I ended up giving him more money is due to my dumbness and laziness. This has got to stop. I need to get out there and handle my own money like him and Amanda do.

Gene is always going to Fox woods and wasting money, no matter how much he bitches about money. He also buys himself cases of beer, nothing said.

He pays all the bills except the phone bill which I pay. Month before last it was $150 which I understand because over Xmas phone calls overseas are necessary. This month's bill is $166 which is understandable but it was because I spoke to Momma for a while after she had her eye operated on. This month there will be no overseas calls and the bill should go back to under $100.

Amanda is sitting a lot better than she lets on. She was laid off a couple of weeks ago but cashed in her IRA and has over $3,000 here in about 8 different checques. I am the only one who knows about this because I told her not to say anything to Gene or Mike. Both of them would rob her blind and I will never hear the end of it from Gene who would hound me forever about she should pay into the house. So long as he knows she is waiting for her unemployment cheque to come in, he won't say anything much except the usual shit I have to hear from him from day-to-day.

Some people would say I am wrong not to say anything to him because she is living here scott-free except the $20/week she gives the landlord extra for water use and he lets her park on the property.

But as I said he is very unreasonable when he knows you have any money and wants everything and all it will cause is more loud fights and shit around my head which I am so fed up with that I could SCREAM. He has $25,000 in the bank for Christ's sake. All he wants is to get his tentacles on more and more money while pleading more and more poverty.

Patti's 20mg extra of Celexa must be kicking in because I am feeling very angry about how I am being ripped off in life because I am so easy to take advantage of. Amanda is the same to a lesser degree because she won't do anything for me without something back in return. I have two greedy money-grabbing people in this house and I will have to find the strength to be as greedy and under-handed as they are.

I told Amanda to get a car with that $3,000 because her's is shit. She will also get income-tax money back and I told her to claim Max and get as much as she can. Last year she let Mike claim Max and she ended up in the hole.

Why do these two people do exactly what they want with their money and then they have the balls to reach for mine as well and I am so ignorant that I don't know how to grab for myself and I allow my money to be taken away by them.

I will still give Gene that $400/mo that I promised because I should help with the house bills, that is only fair. But I also think what I make in my job should be MINE because nobody helps me with my medical bills and here I am doing without while everybody else just goes and gets what they want with theirs.

Amanda always has the best of clothes and underwear and is always betting more and more toiletry items and here I sit in raggedy clothes with 2nd hand shoes and feel guilty if I get two new bras and girdles for myself when she spends $50 for a bra etc.

Maybe I am angry enough now to take some of my life back because I am sick and tired of being fucked over by the whole world especially by people in my house who shouldn't be taking advantage of my poor mental health.

If I don't let them take my money they won't get it. I just feel so screwed by people who are ruthless when it comes to getting what they want and even if it is again st my nature I need to become ruthless myself just to keep from being taken advantage of.

Guess I need to go take my shower and get on up to Stop & Shop to cash my own cheque and get my disability money for Gene plus the $160 that Amanda borrowed from him to help pay for work on her car this past weekend. So he wants $560 from me. Amanda said she will pay me back the $160 and I will MAKE her give me back this money. No letting it slide because I am too beaten down by life to persist and make a noise until it is in my hand. I have to think about myself nowadays. After all these two look after themselves very well when I have nothing

Friday, January 23, 2009

Stress eating.........this is my whole problem in a nutshell

Stress and Weight Gain: How Stress Can Affect Your Weight

Can Stress Make You Fat?

By Elizabeth Scott, M.S., About.com

Updated: October 3, 2007

About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by the Medical Review Board

There are several ways in which stress can contribute to weight gain. One has to do with cortisol, a stress hormone. When we’re under stress, the fight or flight response is triggered in our bodies, leading to the release of various hormones.

Whether we're stressed because of constant, crazy demands at work or we're really in danger, our bodies respond like we're about to be harmed and need to fight for our lives (or run like heck). To answer this need, we experience a burst of energy, shifts in metabolism and blood flow, and other changes.

If you remain in this state for a prolonged amount of time due to chronic stress, your health becomes at risk. Aside from a host of other dangers, chronic stress can also cause weight gain -- which is why some products like Cortislim are marketed as diet aids.

Chronic stress and cortisol can contribute to weight gain in the following ways:

    Metabolism -- Do you feel like you're prone to putting on more weight when you're stressed, even if you're eating the same amount of food as you always have? Too much cortisol can slow your metabolism, causing more weight gain than you would normally experience. This also makes dieting more difficult.

    Cravings -- OK, you're stressed. Do you reach for a nice salad or a pint of Ben & Jerry's? I'll bet on the latter. People experiencing chronic stress tend to crave more fatty, salty and sugary foods. This includes sweets, processed food and other things that aren’t as good for you. These foods are typically less healthy and lead to increased weight gain.

    Blood Sugar -- Prolonged stress can alter your blood sugar levels, causing mood swings, fatigue, and conditions like hyperglycemia. Too much stress has even been linked to metabolic syndrome, a cluster of health concerns that can lead to greater health problems, like heart attacks and diabetes.

    Fat Storage -- Excessive stress even affects where we tend to store fat. Higher levels of stress are linked to greater levels of abdominal fat. Unfortunately, abdominal fat is not only aesthetically undesirable, it’s linked with greater health risks than fat stored in other areas of the body.

Stress and weight gain are connected in other ways:

    Emotional Eating -- Increased levels of cortisol can not only make you crave unhealthy food, but excess nervous energy can often cause you to eat more than you normally would. How many times have you found yourself scouring the kitchen for a snack, or absently munching on junk food when you’re stressed, but not really hungry? More on what causes emotional eating.

    Fast Food -- Experts believe that one of the big reasons we’re seeing more obesity in our society these days is that people are too stressed and busy to make healthy dinners at home, often opting to get fast food a the nearest drive-thru instead.

    Too Busy to Exercise -- With all the demands on your schedule, exercise may be one of the last things on your to-do list. If so, you’re not alone. Americans live a more sedentary lifestyle than we have in past generations, yet our minds seem to be racing from everything we have to do. Unfortunately, from sitting in traffic, clocking hours at our desks, and plopping in front of the TV in exhaustion at the end of the day, exercise often goes by the wayside.

Fortunately, there are things you can do to reverse the pattern of weight gain and actually reduce your stress level and waistline at the same time.


Wednesday, January 14, 2009

letter to my therapist

Dear Sara,
I am trying hard to understand how I feel these days. I feel as tho I am in a little world all by myself with people coming and going around me. People telling me what to do, what to eat and hassling me. I am taking Xanax when I work, not much when I am home so I don'r think I am zoning out on Xanax. I've been taking this drug for years and it's not worth it to make myself more on the sidelines of life than I am.
This is supposed to be the section of the year in which I start to feel better. I felt better when I was hopeful enough to start a diet which I do every New Year's but after a few days I fell off the waggon and never climbed up on it again. And my mood and motivation is such that all I want to do is sleep when no one is around to bother me and sit in the recliner and watch reality shows. I don't even spend much time here as I would normally.
It's like I feel like saying something to somebody and since I just don't talk anymore without thinking thru what I want to say, I go thru it in my mind (especially if it is a complaint or a topic I might talk about) and realize what kind of answer I might get and decide to say nothing.
eg: what sense does it make to complain about my situation. Anything that can be done for me is being done. Pills can only take you so far. My weight situation is my fault, if I mention this I open myself up to a can of worms which I don't feel like dealing with. No sense saying I don't want to go to work because I out to be glad in this economy that I have a job to go to at all and lets face it if I didn't have that structure I wouldn't get up at all or shower or even talk to anybody.
It just seems to me that its getting harder and harder to deal with the aggravations of life so I run away from them in my mind. I have no hope anymore that things will get any better, just worse and I haven't got the energy or motivation to climb out of the hole I am in.
I guess I am just resigned to living as I am. I feel like even if I was 120lbs, feeling great and having a good life I would still go to bed and sleep until someone turned me out on the floor. I don't think there's any hope for me at all. I think there's nothing left in anybody's bag of tricks that will give me the energy or optimism to cope with the stuff I have to cope with. Far better to just shut up and let what everybody else does go past me, as long as they leave me alone when they do it. Such a sorry sack of shit I am

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Don't know what is wrong with me

I ate everything under the sun today. I feel very depresed. I did 20min on the bike this am. Here is what I ate (see if I can remember everything 8-(

breakfast: SF bar
later on: 1/2 can fruit cocktail and about a cup of yogurt
+ some cornbread lying around, 2 pieces, buttered and microwaved
+Lean Cuisine lasagna dinner
+ salad
+ another SF bar
+ rest of fruit cocktail and about 1 c. yoghurt
+ 4 slices of some glutin-free bread that my brother left behind, with butter
+ about 2-3 c of mini-vanilla wafers
+ one ice cream sandwich
+ one left-over hot dog (the meat only, not the whole thing)
+ i can of sugared soda
There's probably some stuff I left out

I just feel depressed, left out, run over, ignored, fat and ugly and guilty that even tho I know all this, I haven't got the self-control to stay away from stuffing my face when I am not hungry.
Normal people eat to satisfy hunger, I eat to fill up the big hole in myself that says I am worthless.
No amount of motivational self-talk works. No image of a thin me wearing fashionable clothing and nice shoes etc. helps. When you are depressed you are depressed.
Just a few days ago I was gung-ho to make a big difference in my life. Shortest diet I ever fucked up. Usually lasts longer than a few days. I am so useless. Can't even take control of my own life

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Didn't do so good tonite

I have only started my diet last Friday and did pretty good until this evening. I had a trigger and when I get upset about something I have to deal with that I can't handle I turn to food. This time it was my grandson, who bless his heart and I love him better than anything on this earth, was really acting up. He is 4 and mildly autistic and today I just didn't have the patience and little kids pick up on this and they act out. Oh I should say that my daughter and grandson moved back in with me about 2 months ago.

Anyway having said all that, after I had a perfectly good supper, I ate a Slimfast bar, then a bag of popcorn, and then was going to eat some vanilla wafers, but I went and ate another Slimfast bar. After this I feel so guilty and wish I knew how to deal with my emotions in some other way besides eating. It's always been like this and skinny ppl don't understand that trying to distract myself with other things just don't cut it.

What I just ate was a small drop in the bucket of what I would eat at night if I wasn't on a diet so if you compare the two, the 220 + 220 + 250 cals isn't much (650 cals) However I did ride my bike out od guilt and drank a glass of water. I will take the battle back up tomorrow.

Monday, January 5, 2009

I cheated today (but it was worth it...)

I worked today and forgot my Slimfast bar but for lunch I had one of those 90 cal diet bars, you know the little skinny one-bite ones made by Quaker Oats.
Breakfast was my usual shake but I added 1/2 banana
Supper: I had my left over Chinese food left from the day before and here's where I cheated:
DH made pinto beans and cornbread and I just had to have some. I ate 2 small wedges but I tell myself my scanty lunch made up for it, lolz. He also had some collard greens and pork chops (fried, I didn't eat)
snacks: 1 c lowfat vanilla yoghurt, too lazy to put any fruit with it
later on, one Slimfast bar

I am doing pretty good for now but that's the way it always is for me. I start out with a good gung-ho attitude and it gradually fades away. I am just hoping I can keep it up long enough to make a difference. I am making myself wait until Friday to weigh myself. The first loss is always water weight but as long as the needle on the scale goes down, it's all good to me.

I don't do good with water. Maybe 2-3 cups, I usually drink a lot of other liquids but I know I should make room for a gallon of water and squeeze it in

My exercise program is going ok, still 15 min am, 30 min pm. On my days off I will do 30 min in the am, when I don't have to rush out to work 8^D

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Second day



breakfast: Slimfast shake
lunch: Slimfast bar
supper: Chinese veg w/chicken which I divided for tomorrow. I cheated and had some rice, maybe a cupfull? 8^0
6pm: big lettuce salad, I had nothing but lite Italian dressing on it
8:30:1/2 Slimfast bar
10pm: youghurt, 200 cals
11pm: other 1/2 SF bar

Waters: 2-3+

Exercise: 15min cycling in am, 30 min. in pm

Made it thru first day


breakfast: one SF shake
lunch: Slimfast bar
supper: 1 lg. house salad w/grilled chicken

night-time snacks: 1 Slimfast bar and one small apple

I only got 4 waters in not counting the other liquids I drank thru the day

Exercise: Rode my bike 15 min in am, 30 min in evening

It's the New Year.....time to diet, lol

I decided to set up another Blogger account so that I would have somewhere to put my Slimfast diary. At least I know how this goes and I know what's enabled. Many spaces don't allow much in the way of pimping your space out, making it look nice.

I'm gonna go and get the few things I posted at Slimfast later. DD wants to use the comp now