Got on the scale yesterday

[Rich Engelhardt]

and......

We have a local store called Marc's. It's sort of a supermarket/grocery store.
They have a big old vintage scale in the front of the store.
It goes up to 300#.

Last January I had issues with my legs and went to the doctor. I knew I'd blimped up, but, I wasn't ready to see 330# on the scale!
Anyhow, doc sent me to a wound center to get my legs wrapped & the rest of the Winter was pretty much sit around with my feet elevated and veg out.

I had to go back and forth to the wound center for 6 weeks. Over that 6 weeks, I managed to lose a few pounds.(5)

In July I joined the local Natatorium and started swimming every morning for an hour or two.
I kept getting on the big scale and watching the needle sail past the 300# mark.

Welp....yesterday by gum, I climbed on that bad boy & was all smiles when it stopped @ 299!

I'd joined the 30# club!

I celebrated by getting myself a Three Musketeers bar!

My next goal is 280# -the 50# club & Denny's Grand Slam w/extra has browns!

[Frederick Skelly]

Good for you Rich! Keep at it!
Fred

[George Bokros]

Good going Rich. I will keep you from overeating at lunch on Tuesday.

[Ted Calver]

Go for it, Rich!! It feels great to shed some pounds.

[Todd Mason-Darnell]

As a guy who 12 years ago went from 225 to 150, I can say good job and keep at it.

I am sure you are getting tons of free advice, so a little more won't hurt ;). To be successful and keep the weight off, you don't go "on a diet", you make a lifestyle change.

[Jim Koepke]

Getting it off and keeping it off are difficult tasks.

Currently my weight is in the 215 Lb range. It was in the 260 range not long ago. Since bypass surgery a few months ago a lot of things have been out of my diet. Eating sugar free foods help. Eating sensibly helps. One of my problems is I am used to eating almost all the time. Those late night commercials on TV for pizzas and hamburgers do not help.

jtk

[Ole Anderson]

Good work, keep at it! Two words: Portion control. I am now diabetic, although never over 195. Currently at 170, largely from cutting back on sweets and starches. Used to eat a full baked potato, now I share one with my wife. Used to buy bags of cookies, now I pass them by at the market. Still have a terrible sweet tooth, but I don't drown it, I just tease it with just one cookie, not a half dozen.

[Lee Ludden]

Congratulations on the weight loss!

This past summer my wife and I did a program through her work health program called Naturally Slim. I was a huge skeptic from the start, but she talked me into doing it with her. It was a 12 week program and it wasn't so much about specifics of what to eat or when, but rather a look at how thin people stay thin and what systems those of us of more significant stature can incorporate in our lives to maintain proper weight.

Basically, the program taught me these few eating essentials:
1. Chew slowly. I had always been the first one done with my meal. Since you can't taste the food once you swallow it, and taste is really what we usually crave, chewing slowly allows less food to have more impact on our appetite.
2. Eat slowly. Put your fork or spoon down between bites. Divide your meal into 3 or 4 sections and take a few minute break after each section.
3. Don't worry about wasting food. This was a big one for me. I typically would always finish everything on my plate. The question is, would you rather waste the food by not eating it, or waste the food by adding unnecessary fat to your body. If there are more calories than you need, it is going to get wasted - period. Over time you will learn the correct portions so as to not do either. My wife and I will now typically share an entree at a restaurant rather than each order one. This saves both money and calories.

I started the program on June 1 of this year and weighed in at 252 pounds. When the program ended on Aug 30, I had dropped a total of 51 pounds and cut over 5 inches off my waistline. I have always exercised, but didn't change anything about my workouts during this time. Another point of the program is that while exercise is very beneficial, is not a huge factor in weight loss - you cannot exercise off a bad diet. I figure I saved over $1000 just this summer in food costs alone. I still eat pretty much the same foods I always did (just less of them), although I do limit desserts and sugary items to a few times a month.

So far it has been 3 months since I ended the program and my weight has stayed between 197 and 205, so I feel pretty confident the basics of the program have worked well for me.

As I said, I was a huge skeptic of all "weight loss" type programs, but this really worked and I'd recommend it to anyone who is not just interested in losing weight, but making your goal weight your new normal.

Lee