Discussion Board

Amen, brother. Amen.

Today's Update:

After two days of zero walking I set out to do some today. I walked a whole mile. Half this morning, half this afternoon. It felt good. There was a hint of soreness in my knees and hips. My foot still hurts. But I do not think it was too much. Tomorrow is a very busy day for me and I doubt I'll get any walking in. I am determined to take it easy on this front until I am sure I've recovered fully.
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Monday is Soup Night!! It is fast becoming my favorite meal of the whole week. Everything goes in the pot. A scoop each of 13 bean soup mix, chickpeas, quinoa, dehulled barley, brown rice, millet and whole wheat macaroni, along with any vegetables I have around, and some vegetable base Better-Than-Boullion. Today's vegetables included spinach, green peas, and a butternut squash. There is always enough left over for another meal or an in-between meal snack.
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My normal weigh-in is every other Wednesday. I stop by my doctors office on the way to my volunteer work at the food bank. We're closed the day before Thanksgiving, but we're open tomorrow as we're giving out Thanksgiving dinner baskets, so I'll weigh myself tomorrow instead of Wednesday. I have a bit of apprehension about it. If you remember, the two weeks before my last weigh-in I was over-focused on rushing the 100 pound milestone. I believe I was trying too hard. I had increased my weight loss to 5 pounds a week during those two weeks, but at a cost. I have done an excellent job in the two weeks since then of putting out of my mind the need to rush the next 7 pounds to that 100 pound milestone. I have eaten more food. Three meals a day instead of two, and snacks if I feel hungry in between. I have no idea what to expect when I step on the scale. Many times I've been happily surprised to see a big loss after weeks of eating this much. But I'm still not used to losing weight while eating my fill. Will I coast on in and hit 100 pounds? I don't know!! Will one day less on my weigh-in period be enough to keep me just shy? I don't know!! I do know that my frame of mind is so much better about it than 2 weeks ago. I will be pleasantly surprised if I make it, but not at all disappointed if I don't, because if I do not hit it tomorrow, I'll surely hit it at my next weigh-in.
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Speaking of Thanksgiving Dinner Baskets at the food bank... We're giving out 200 of them tomorrow, and I am having serious thoughts about that. I am struggling with reconciling my dietary changes and beliefs with the food we give out at the food bank. We give out unhealthy food to unhealthy people and call it good work. I'm not sure I buy it any more.
I am turning my health around by throwing off the diet of rich people and eating like the poor people of the world. My diet is healthier than it's ever been, and it's cheaper than it's ever been. It seems to me that if people are so poor they can't even feed themselves, wouldn't it be better to teach them how to feed themselves healthier food for less money? Sure it would! Instead, we have an attitude that everybody, no matter how poor, deserves to eat the unhealthy diet of kings and queens. I've determined that after the holidays I am going to rethink my involvement at the food bank.

-Norm

Good luck with your weigh-in tomorrow!

Your dilemma about the food bank is an interesting one. Everyday when I leave work I call my wife and ask her if she needs anything from town. So far I haven't really had a problem with buying her what she asks for. (burger, hungry-man dinner, etc.). The other day when I was at the grocery store, she asked me to pick out something for her to have for dinner. I couldn't do it, I couldn't pick meat for her to eat. I finally told her if she didn't pick, I wasn't getting her anything. I don't remember what she eventually asked for, but I'm sure meat was involved, and that was OK, it was her choice.

Norm,

I was noticing your comments on the Food Bank - are you familiar with the program that EarthSave did with the Sacramento food bank?
http://www.earthsave.org/index.html

Jeff and Doc McDougall were involved.

Perhaps it might plant the seeds - ways to make the food healthier at your food bank.

If this has been brought up before - I apologize - I wasn't sure how and was too lazy to search your journal for previous replies on the topic.

By the way - I'm a big fan of the baby step approach - and I love the presence of mind - if not this week then next week.

I'm also glad that you did not totally give up on the walking - experimenting with it and finding a way to make it work for you is fantastic. I've had to do this with running - it's had to call myself a runner when I can only for 20 seconds and then have to walk - but I'm avoiding the injuries that a lot of new runners get.

Happy holidays.
Vic

victw,

That is an awesome idea and I'd love to do something like that at our food bank! I'm going to look into it further.

-Norm

There are some things we just don't talk about. This is true for everyone, but when it comes to fat people there is a whole other world of things you just don't talk about!!! But today, I am going to!! So if you don't want to read about the nasty boil on my butt... please stop reading and skip to the next post!!!

That was your only warning!!!

Okay... it started about 6 months ago and has been festering since then... are you still with me? Okay, good!! Truth is, there is no boil on my butt!! And honestly, if there was, I wouldn't talk about it openly. Really. But I wanted to share this with my closest friends first, and I figure if you're still reading this, you might be one of them! I weighed in today and the scale read three hundred eighty five point eight pounds. That means I've lost one hundred point two pounds! I hit the biggest milestone so far on my journey home! I'll update my weight ticker tomorrow and announce to the others the big news, so you who are still reading this keep it under your hat till then!!

-Norm

OMG, I am going to burst like a butt boil. But, I will keep the secret.

Your secret is safe with me. What a fantastic secret it is! I feel like dancing and singing and shouting to the world. But will wait till you say 'go'. Happy McDougalling!

woo hoo!!!.

Let me know when I can celebrate with you out loud. That is fantastic!!

Doin' a furtive Happy Dance!

Quietly saying- Whoo Hoo!!!!!!

Hope noone else heard!!

whispers WOOT!!! way to go.

AWESOME NORM! Yea!

Heh, awesome, gratz!

But the funny thing is, I was totally with you about the putative boil. Not so much that you were gonna talk about it ... but I think any of us who have been ridiculously obese know: there are some gross and disturbing things that can sometimes happen when you've got parts of you that are hard to reach for regular washing, and other parts of you that overlap each other and don't get as much fresh air as we'd like, and still yet more parts that get subjected to greater pressure and friction than mere human flesh was ever designed to withstand. Throw in a bit of diabetes and/or some circulatory disease, and it can get pretty durn real.

Of course most of the time one doesn't share these trials and tribulations with anybody, because short of an emergency, why would one?

I'm actually working up a blog about being really fat and losing a bunch of it with plant based eating, and I'm thinking of keeping it fairly anonymous, expressly so I can talk about some of this stuff without humiliating myself too badly.

Yay!