Weight Loss Challenge

[Pyrate81]

Honestly, your words come across a little snarky and a bit close-minded.

It wasn't about rejecting your advice. I think you missed part of the message. My taco bell scenario seemed to have fallen on deaf eyes. Did you not understand that food is/was/can be a drug? Can you fathom that it takes an immense amount of willpower to not have a snack before bed every night? By snack I mean a bowl of cereal, or a sleeve of cookies with milk, or 4 bacon cheeseburgers from Wendy's, or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a tall glass of milk, or half a dozen donuts, or a second dinner, or 4th meal from taco bell? For some of us, weight loss is a mental game and/or a struggle because we don't think the way we are eating is "bad" or do not think we are excessively overweight. Some of us are "programmed" to eat a certain way cause that's what we were taught or somehow learned to eat that way(I blame my parents). Let that sink in for a minute.

My kitchen is on my way to the bedroom. It takes a lot for me to not stop in for something to chew on every night. For some reason there was a stronger urge for me to cook up a pound of pasta and eat the whole thing than there was to just walk by and go to bed. That's why I don't keep pasta or pizza or bread or snack food in my apartment; so it's not there for me to eat it.

When I was down to 200 pounds and looked at new pictures of myself vs older ones, it finally dawned on me that I was "fat" and larger than I really thought I was. Did that prevent me from gaining the weight back? Nope, cause I hadn't fully assimilated my new lifestyle and reverted back to old habits.

Also, sometimes people NEED to actually cut out specific foods to become healthy or to stop adversely affecting their health. The person who becomes diabetic needs to cut out(at least temporarily) cake, ice cream, etc to lower their blood sugar. The 40 year old with high blood pressure and is in danger of a heart attack needs to cut out eating bacon cheeseburgers at lunch every Friday. Maybe someone hits 38 and suddenly becomes lactose intolerant and needs to cut out dairy.

Some people may have looked in the mirror one day and thought they looked overweight and needed to make a change. Changes began in the instant the decision was made. For some people it's easy to make sudden changes in their lives and others are more of a type to make changes over time or struggle mightily with change.

But that's exactly what I mean. If you cut out things completely, at least from my experiences (and friends who have lost weight) you are way more likely to go rampant when you do eat those things. It sounds that way from what you just wrote as well....

There are 2 parts to what I said, the first part was addressed. The second part is here:

This is true and is a cause for people to "yo-yo" their weight. For myself specifically as an example, my balance comes in the extremes. I may not eat pizza for months then have it 3 times in a week then not have any for anther 3-4 months. This works for me, but probably doesn't not work for most. I didn't keep the weight off the first time because I didn't know what to do with myself after I did lose it. Which is another reason why people yo-yo. They think they can go back to old eating habits or don't have a post loss plan.

This thread was meant to chronicle my journey and be an inspiration to others while recruiting supporters and cheerleaders for my own selfish reasons.

I've been a fatty for 2/3 of my life, how long were you "fat" for?