Day 33 of Phase 5: Weeping for Japan, so who effing cares about the scale today, cause, really, overeating is idiotic in light of current events! And my new dieting motto. Plus the only times I figure it's okay to binge/overeat.....

I'm a Japanophile. If you read this blog, you already know that.

You can imagine I'm really upset, really upset, after watching the news and learning of the terrible disaster. I'm in tears.

Right now, don't care about food, exercise, water, or the scale. I'm gonna spend my time praying and figuring out which is the best relief agency to donate to, and then maybe I'll wanna eat and drink and do the normal stuff.

Just another reminder why having let our eating and bodies get out of control was so stupid, immature, dumbass, and insane. So many more important things in life.  Having to take so much time to correct years of being face-stuffing idiots mean less time paying attention to other things that matter more.

Being fat is stupid. There I said it. Getting fat was dumb and a waste of time and money. Not gonna get fatter. Not gonna stay fat. Cause it's DUMB. I'm tired of being a dumbass who has to spend so much time correcting for past mistakes about FRICKEN FOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It wastes valuable, valuable time that 1000+ people no longer have cause of an earthquake/tsunami.  It wastes valuable, valuable money that millions and billions could put to better use in this world.

Overeating is idiotic. OMG, so stupid. We obese people are fricken idiots for having done it to ourselves and for still doing it when we still do it.

Instead of the Susan Powter tagline, I'll tweak it to: STOP THE IDIOCY!

So much energy, time, and money to establish habits about food and exercise that we should have done when we were kids, teens, by age 18. Decades wasted (in my case) in pushing food into my mouth, damaging my body.

Now it takes up hours of my day to learn and establish what I should have gotten down to a routine in the 1970's. How to eat. How to move. How to handle stress. How to not overeat.

Basics. I'm wasting time fixing damage and establishing basic habits.

STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPID! Overeating is STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPID!

See what happens when I'm upset and weepy. I get really mad, too.

Anyone stressed by the news or life, remember this (which is now officially my new dieting motto):

OVEREATNG IS AN IDIOTIC, BRAIN-DEAD,  HABIT-DRIVEN, EMOTION-FUELED, REASON-DEPRIVED, STUPID-ASS RESPONSE TO ANYTHING THAT IS HAPPENING IN LIFE!**

And I have no appetite. Which is probably a sane response to bad news.

Anyway...when you think you're stressed and wanna stuff your face today, think about Northern Japan and anyone who might be in that tsunami's path. Yeah, THAT is major stress, people. Not your hangnail, your dumb boss, your nagging spouse, your dead car battery, your bad hair day, your ill-fitting wardrobe or sagging skin or bad internet connection or my leaky roof or diving property values.

Real stress. Ask our soldiers in the Middle East. Ask relief workers in various nations. Ask people starving in third world countries. Ask some tsunami survivors whose house got swept out to sea....

Perspective.

I want to thank my government for its offer of help and the military assistance already on route.

My sympathies go out to the Japanese people and nation today. God bless you as you recover.


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**Note: The only events I can think of that justify overeating are these: 1. You know an apocalypse is coming with famine involved and you're fattening up in preparation to survive it. 2. You're an astronaut going on an interplanetary trip and need to fatten up to survive the long-term sleep involved before you wake up on Mars. 3. You're a top athlete preparing for some grueling event and you need to carb load and get some weight on to make it through the various trials. 4. You're gonna do a survivalist reality show and need to bulk up to make it through the lack of food for several weeks.

If you don't fit those categories....overeating is not justified. 

In fact...even if you WERE starving, actually starving, about to die from lack of food, overeating will KILL YOU.You gotta bring food in gradually.

Fewer than 20% of Americans Get Recommended Exercise Levels...and where does the cycle start? Do YOU exercise?

Sitting here watching the ABC Evening News. There's a report on a study on exercise/obesity.

34% of us are obese. (I am. Severely obese. need to lose 7 pounds to just be plain "obese".)

Less than 20% get recommended exercise.

Of course, the states with least exercise are among those with the highest rates of obesity and diabetes. The ABC report is online now (just checked):

Regionally, the problems are even more pronounced. Inactivity runs rampant across the U.S. South and Appalachia, where nearly 30 percent of people reported that they do not get any physical exercise -- not even light activities such as golfing or gardening.

"That's probably even an underestimate of the real problem," said Dr. Antronette Yancey, a professor at UCLA who serves on a board that supports first lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" campaign. Yancey said that in self-reported data, participants often vastly overstate their actual activity.

Studies show that people  underestimate the calories they eat and overestimate their activity. So...we eat way too much and we move way too little. Not surprising, right?


What they don't correlate is: Which came first?

Do those of us who are obese stop moving cause we got fat from eating too much/too much crap? Or are they fat cause they stopped moving and are eating crap?

I use to exercise when I was normal weight and when I was "just overweight", dance a lot, bike, swim, etc...when I had the energy. As I got fatter and made poorer food choices, moving became HARD. Energy plummeted (especially as my hypothyroidism worsened). The fatter I got, the more painful/difficult it was to be on my feet, move. And the more self-conscious I got, the less I wanted to move.

I had to force myself against a huge wall of lethargy to start Pilates in 2008. It was defying my inertia, and it was hard, and some days the energy was so low, just getting going was an ordeal. I did little else...at home or weekends. It wasn't until I addressed my macronutrients in the summer of 2010 that I felt my energy change. A change in thyroid meds helped, too. (Not more, just a different combo). Energy began to increase.

For me, fixing the FOOD began to fix not just the weight but the ENERGY issue. I wanted to move suddenly. Not like a fidgety hyper person. Like a more NORMAL perosn.

So, they really need to LOOK into this.

Gary Taubes in WHY WE GET FAT puts the cause and effect the other way around. People get fat and stop moving, not that they don't move and get fat. He tags the obesity on a bad diet, which leads to low energy (he gives the science case studies where this happens in experimental animals....it's interesting stuff) and conservation of energy by not moving.  One review of the book notes this:

Taubes makes the very interesting point that obese people are sedentary not because they are lazy, but because their energy stores are locked up (insulin traps fat energy and makes it inaccessible).  They simply don't have enough energy to exercise and therefore don't want to.  I agree with this.  Our patients who lose weight become much more interested in moving. You only need to read a few weight loss blogs to see how frequently obese, sedentary people turn into avid exercisers, even marathoners. 

I noticed this. As I ate better and lost weight by dieting, I felt more energy and WANTED to do more.  It was changing the diet that was key to the energy that then led me to be able to pump up my activities.

It may just be a double-arrowed trend--goes both ways. BUT...I think people need to consider that moving less, doing less, sitting still may come about BECAUSE one got fat.....and then that feeds into more fatness cause the diet is out of whack and what we eat is just plain BAD for us (not just too much, but unhealthful).

If you wanna see the CDC report, HERE.

Well, just some thoughts....

If you have not incorporated regular (daily?) exercise into your weight loss/heath plan, why not?  What is your roadblock?

Mine was low energy. Totally no motivation due to lethargy. Pain in feet and knees (now hips) were a factor. For a while, my muscles were  a mess due to statins (pain ALL THE DAMN TIME). Off the statins, no chronic muscle pain, but my joints are kinda a mess from decades of obesity.

What prevents you from moving/sweating/walking/jogging/dancing/Pilates-ing/Yoga-ing/weight-lifting/surfboadring/biking?

And please look at yesterday's post to give feedback on what type of item you 'd like to see in a giveaway. So far, one person said "exercise or fitness item" and one said "gift certificate to Amazon." THANKS. :)

Day 20 Phase 4 Challenge: Another small downtick, so weigh-in for Challenge should be my best yet! R.D. Delighted with me! A dose of deep optimism; A Lazy Saturday with NPR while Hubby Works On Book, and pretty much the only stuff you can do to help your loved ones choose to eat more healthfully when they refuse to commit....

Tanita-san: 228.8

Yesterday:
calories: 1074
exercise: rest day
hunger: very little appetite
mood: very, very good

My appointment with the R.D. went great. Her scale showed a 5 lb loss. Energy is zooming. Sleep is good. Mood is amazing. She said, "Well, my job doesn't get better than on days like this." I was pleased. Since I'm still crazy motivated, she said we could schedule the next meeting in 2 weeks, rather than one week, and then see if I only want monitoring once a month or whatever I desire.

I have never felt this "high" on a healthy eating plan. I've been steadily losing for over a 6 months, and it just seems to get better the more I try and the more I learn about my body and its needs. I'm sure there is loads more to learn, but I am feeling genuinely psyched and optimistic about goal NOT being a pipe dream..and that, in itself, is a major change. In the back of my mind, even when I mouthed optimistic affirmations, I didn't really BELIEVE THEM, not fully in my brain, and not in the depths of my heart.

I believe now.

It's cool and overcast, and hubby does his work on the 2nd edition of his textbook Saturdays early, so I put on NPR and enjoyed the last bit of Car Talk, then Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me! (My fave funny NPR program, and the "fake news" blurb about a Menudo member was so hilarious, I almost dropped my eggs wile cooking), and after some non-comedic stuff (the one old abuse, yowza, that was painful), there's the lighter/funny Says, You.

I woke up totally NOT hungry. For some folks,this is par. Not me. My appetite tends to be ready for breakfast. I looooooove breakfast. I adore having breakfast. I am eager for it.

Today, meh. Not so much. So, I chopped my veggies, got the pan ready, made my egg and egg whites very pretty, like a sombero, with the veggies embedded into the round "brim" of eggwhites and the "crown" the egg yolk. Had papaya and raspberries on the side. Great Brazilian Safira Bourbon java.

Trying to decide if I should just shoot my weigh-in to A today or wait til tomorrow? I'm always nervous I'll miss the deadline. Well, I'll think on it.

Had a long chat with my eldest sis yesterday. She's been anxious and vexed for years about the obesity of her two kids. I explained my journey a bit, and how for me, just making a bit of change, trying out stuff, learning, getting into regular exercise..it was a process, not a "fell swift" sort of thing. And that I had to learn this stuff--what goes on in my brain, what goes on in my hormones, how much I needed to cut back to lose roughly X a week, the effects of macronutrients on hunger and progress. I tried raw foods. I tried vegetarian most-days. I tried higher dieting calories. I am doing now lower dieting claories. I tried low carb, lower carb, Zone-ish carbs, High Carb/low fat. I find lower carb (not induction low, but lower than average for sure) works best for my Insulin Resistance, while allowing me the fruits and yogurt I love and the occasional whole grain I enjoy.

I said all she can do is not have crap at her house (which she does, deny it as much as she likes, she does--soda with sugar, chocolates, white crackers, and when we get together, Cuban pastries, cookies, etc). I said the only thing in her control is to control her own environment, so that when the son visits and daugher are home, and they want something, there's nothing on hand but what's healthful. If there isn't junk there, then they can't have it, unless they buy it and bring it themselves. That puts it on them, not her. She can say, "I have salad fixings and some chicken. Want some?" She can keep veggies and fresh fruit and offer that. Maybe cut it up and put it out to tempt. She can keep water front and center, not juices or sodas. She could have sugar free fudgsicles or Jell-o to offer as a "sweet treat". (I guarantee you that my niece and nephew are I.R. as well, as they have abdominal obesity and I've seen the darkening skin marker on nephew.)

I said, "That's all you can do. Be someone who refuses to stock, store, display, or offer crap."

Because, ultimately, we choose what to eat.

We can call it a craving or a preference or a stressful day or TOM or whatever, but when the food goes in the mouth, we made that choice. You can blame your mom for giving you crap growing up, but you can't blame her once you're old enough to think of yourself as more independent, your own "self", and are able to make your own meals (and by age 15 we pretty much are staking out our territory , and we could all make our own sandwiches, salads, beverages, etc, unless we're handicapped in some way.) By age 18, barring disability, you eat what you choose from what's at home. The worst choices...they're on you, not mom, not dad, not nana.

So, we hope our loved ones make better choices and spare themselves the agonies of increasing girth and limited mobility and incipient heart disease and diabetes (and heart disease and diabetes runs in their Pa's side of the family). But you cannot force. YOu can only encourage and support and NOT be a food-drug dealer.

Give your loved ones love and real loving food, which is not cakes/pies/crap. Real loving food helps them be well and live longer...

Happy Weekend, folks!