What's different this time?
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I dont know what if anything will be different this time but I am trying. My wife and I are going on a cruise in 2 months. I talked her into driving 20 hours to the port because I am afraid of trying to fit into an airplane seat. I am 6ft 3in and 415 pounds today. It has been a week, lost a little over 10 pounds. Trying to keep the momentum going.
I flew to Florida last year to take my family on a Disney vacation. I was 380+ lbs at the time, and shorter than you, so I was most likely wider. The seats are a little snug, but if you're sitting next to your wife, you can most likely raise the armrest between the two of you. Also, you can request seat belt extenders.
I'm hoping that next time I fly, I won't need them! But I figured I would share and maybe save you a 20 hour drive. If you're super concerned, you could call the airline and ask about it. It should be doable and not too uncomfortable, though!
Thanks for the advice, we made up our minds about driving. Gonna be an adventure, we are going to Gatlinburg and Stone Mountain on the way down. Then Charleston SC on the way back. It is adding 3 or 4 days to the trip but now I am kinda looking forward to it.
I have been measuring every chair at work trying to find 1 about the standard airline chair size. Last time I was on an airplane was about 10 years ago and I was about 340/350. I remember it being snug but not stupid uncomfortable. Hopefully I will get to the point that I dont have to worry about it.
You will be in my neck of the woods then. Gatlinburg will be fun if you have never been there. We haven't been in years because it gets played out in a hurry although we have talked about returning recently. I like that indoor putt-putt golf place. I haven't been to Stone Mountain since I was a teenager. I really should plan to go again myself.
We will be at Stone Mountain September 7th, they are having a daisy festival that day and then a blazer show on the mountain that night. Looking forward to it.0 -
I have a few things that make it differant this time. For one my son is also very over weight for a 15 year old so me and him are both changing our diets to loose weight. My wife is also joining in this time too to loose what little weight she needs to loose.
I got out on high blood pressure medicine this year. I told my wife I would loose weight and realized one night it was a year ago that I told her I would try to loose weight and never even tried. My back has been hurting quite a bit the last year or so and finally I realized you can just count calories to loose weight after watching the people on my 600 lb life do it so many times.
So now its been a lil over a month and me and my son are both down over 30lbs and feeling better. You get used to eating less which is amazing cuz before I'd never even dream of eating so little. I found that making dinners at home allows you to eat quite a bit more compaired to going out to eat. Now that I have been doing it for so long I don't ever see my self going back to how I used to be. That life was miserable.
The the little bit of weight I have lost has been life changing, no longer does my back constantly hurt at work anymore and everything fits better. My son is a lot happier too now. There is no stopping now.3 -
This time I really want to keep it off and carry on with the good habits I am learning.
Last time I got to a "nice" weight (still over weight though) then I got pregnant, divorced and made redundant and I hit the comfort food cycle of eating.
I definitely won't get pregnant this time, I'm recently remarried so not expecting a divorce and if I'm offered redundancy I'll take semi-retirement.
I can't fail really
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There is no stopping now.Jackie9003 wrote: »I can't fail really
I feel the same way. The only way to fail is to absolutely stop. It was so dumb of me in the past to make a mistake and then quit. I have made many mistakes this time but not one of them has stopped me because they aren't a big deal.
I think one of the things that has benefited me is that I am not stubborn about what I am doing. If something is not working that well I am completely open to changing it. I don't quit. I learn and then I adapt.
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I think the biggest part, at least to me is actually wanting it. Before I'd try to change my diet to loose weight but I never really deadicated my self to it. I always gave into temptation. It was the same qhen I quit smoking cigarettes, tried for years but not really untill the last time I was finally done living that life and put real effort in. Like any other drug, the less you do the less you crave and food is the same way.
Trust me I still have some bad days but they are few and far between. I figured I was eating around 4500 calories a day before which is mind blowing, but I never even thought about how many cals I was eating when I ate like that. These forums have given me quite a bit of insite on what needs to be done to loss weight.0 -
I guess I really had a couple hings that kind of made me start this time with the desire to really stick to it.
The first being my overall health (mental/physical/emotional). I'm finding that the heavier I get the more my depression seems to bother me. I also have been having pretty painful hip and knee issues for the last year or so, and my blood pressure has been back and forth between being too high. I can't live like this forever, and it will eventually kill me probably sooner than later.
Second reason being that we went to Hershey Park at the end of June with some friends and I literally couldn't ride just about any of the rides. That took a real blow to my self esteem, that is already quite fragile.
Lastly, my daughter is pretty heavy for her age/height. I want her to start doing better, and so far I've been a *kitten* example to follow.0 -
I think the major difference for me is paying attention. I'd thought of myself as eating healthy-enough without actually tracking any numbers. I'd always resisted counting calories because I was "doing fine."
weirdly, I think what helped is getting my finances and budget together about 1.5 years ago. I figured out a system that worked for me to know exactly what I was spending and saving each month, got a little obsessed with it, and now it's second nature. watching my weight and inches go down feels a lot like watching my savings grow.1 -
Good thread idea.
This is my and my wife's billionth's diet, but it actually seems to be working for once. I started at 300 ish and am down 40+ with no hiccups yet in motivation or results. Kinda amazing, actually. We knew that doing the same ole thing would result in the same ole problems, so we changed things up:
- Really committed to logging every single calorie and never exceeding our #'s, which for me is 1600. We put aside allllll the other variables like "which foods" and just focused on that one thing - the number. I never go over 1600. I will literally cut 1/8 off a 40 calorie piece of Dove chocolate to make it fit within the 1600. The number has become sacrosanct, and we've only blown it twice in several months. We take that number seriously, like gospel. We know that staying in the habit of treating that number as a very important thing is what will make this effort work.
- We finally realized that our diets do not fail while we're dieting; they fail when we stop dieting. We've always been in a habit of taking a weekly or bi-weekly off day. They always started out pretty reasonable and then evolved into cathartic gorge-fests that got completely out of control. Then one day there'd be a gorge fest that was so utterly insane that the scale got put away, and that was the end, whether we knew it or not, and whether we found out thta day or a week or month later. We decided that while we'd be lenient with ourselves in terms of, if we're out and about and eat too much, no big deal, just log it and move on, we'd actually have no scheduled off days or cheat meals. This has worked out well. We're always on our diets and I think that has helped. We never intentionally take cheat meals, although sometimes they just spontaneously happen. But rarely.
- And then the game changer, IF. Our weakness has always been nighttime snacking. We sort of slithered into IF, as opposed to adopting it all at once. It started with an idea of cutting down on nighttime snacking, then eliminating it entirely, then going full IF and not even having milk in coffee. For months we've been doing zero calories outside the 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. window. That narrow (for us) window allows us two generous, satisfying, "normal" meals that don't feel punishing at all, and a couple of snacks. For us, this works better than spreading the calories thin throughout the day. It took a while to really get used to not having any food the other 16 hours, but our bodies got used to it and now we're not even hungry outside the window. IF has really been a good appetite suppresant for us.
- We are avid amateur chefs, in fact for both of us it's been a main hobby, and we had to come to the painful decision that that had to go for a year or so. We "know" what healthy, low calorie food preparation is, we just weren't doing proper portion control. We decided to accept our own limitations and order meal delivery for a while. This has worked out well. These days, there are meal delivery services with very good food. Not at a level of what we'd make ourselves, because we historically have been really into gourmet cooking, but good enough to feel satisfied and not punished. All these places deliver calorie-controlled, reasonably healthy meals that take 90 % of the work out of structuring a good diet day. Someday we want to go back to our own food, though. But only when we know we're ready for it.
In the end, I think the structure of IF has been the game changer. I think long after we've gotten to the destination with our weights, we will keep doing that. I don't know if it'd suit everyone, but for us, the rigid pattern of finishing dinner and that's it until the next brunch has pulled a lot of things into a workable structure that were very hard before and eventually caused diet breakdowns.
Finally, we've learned to be humble about it. It's very easy to get into a mindset like "We're doing everything right and we'll just keep doing it until we reach our perfect weights." The truth is, no matter how good the plan is and how easy it seems, a diet is always one meal or one day away from collapsing. This time we are avoiding the hubris and the announcing of results to friends, and all of that, and just focusing on grinding out successes day in and day out without fanfare or arrogance.2 -
Sorry to post this because I don’t advise it but the last time I flew, I didn’t want to ask for an extender so I simply wrapped the seat belt around me and pretended it was fastened...this was so dangerous and so stupid but I didn’t want to bring attention to the fact that I needed an extender....oh, the things we do to hide our extra pounds....0
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conniewilkins56 wrote: »Sorry to post this because I don’t advise it but the last time I flew, I didn’t want to ask for an extender so I simply wrapped the seat belt around me and pretended it was fastened...this was so dangerous and so stupid but I didn’t want to bring attention to the fact that I needed an extender....oh, the things we do to hide our extra pounds....
I tried that once back when I first outgrew the standard size. Also admit to it being stupid. The FA caught it immediately and brought me an extender. It ended up shining a bigger spotlight on my largeness. Lesson learned.1 -
I wish I had a great answer for what's different this time. Maybe it's less fad diet, maybe it's concern about ending up on My 600 pound life, maybe it's the fear of being bed bound in my 40's, maybe it's the fear that I'm letting my family down, maybe it's a little bit of everything.
This time though I'm determined to make this work and I've been slowly regaining so much that I had lost. So many people don't realize how much you lose when you're nearing or over 400 pounds.
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ConfidentRaven wrote: »I wish I had a great answer for what's different this time. Maybe it's less fad diet, maybe it's concern about ending up on My 600 pound life, maybe it's the fear of being bed bound in my 40's, maybe it's the fear that I'm letting my family down, maybe it's a little bit of everything.
This time though I'm determined to make this work and I've been slowly regaining so much that I had lost. So many people don't realize how much you lose when you're nearing or over 400 pounds.
I don't get that you are letting fear dictate your actions when I read your posts. You seem empowered.2 -
Differences for me..... 1. I am learning to love myself, the process, the food I eat, the thoughts I have, and the actions I take. I am patient, kind and understanding with myself like I would be with my best friend. 2. Recognizing the difference between my PFC thoughts and my Habit Brain Thoughts. 3. Learning and practicing failing forward and overcoming perfectionism and overwhelm. 4. I have developed a very strong compelling reason, and have answered some very powerful related questions and I review them daily. 5. I am using visualization daily, and always asking myself what actions I took to accomplish my weight loss. 6. I have developed affirmations that help me deal with difficulties I am having with certain types of foods and quantities. 7. I am practicing my awareness of my hunger and fullness, and am working on not buffering with food. 8. I am making a plan daily, and following it, including contingency plans for situations that are difficult to deal with. 9. I am 100% Committed to myself, my plan and my goals. Commitment is the willingness to be uncomfortable and overcome all obstacles or options that stand between me and my goals. 10. I am journalling daily - - my thoughts, assessing my progress, trying new things, and modifying as things don’t work or need improvement.
I am now creating the life of my dreams in an easy and relaxed manner and in a healthy and positive way! This is an experiment, I have nothing to lose in achieving my goals and dreams!4 -
Jackie9003 wrote: »This time I really want to keep it off and carry on with the good habits I am learning.
Last time I got to a "nice" weight (still over weight though) then I got pregnant, divorced and made redundant and I hit the comfort food cycle of eating.
I definitely won't get pregnant this time, I'm recently remarried so not expecting a divorce and if I'm offered redundancy I'll take semi-retirement.
I can't fail really
It would appear that the death of my ex-husband is something I didn't factor into the mix......
I'm not quitting but I'm struggling to stay on track and struggling to be organised and plan ahead with my meals so we've been hitting the takeaways and convenience foods. After the initial shock, and then declaring how important it is to be healthy and look after yourself, the last few days have been very much f**k it, you only live once.
I'm sure this is just part of the grieving process, but I am very much aware this could be a trigger event that leads to my downfall - at least in the short term.
I do keep reading through the posts in this group though, and that is really helping, so thank you to everyone.5 -
Jackie9003 wrote: »Jackie9003 wrote: »This time I really want to keep it off and carry on with the good habits I am learning.
Last time I got to a "nice" weight (still over weight though) then I got pregnant, divorced and made redundant and I hit the comfort food cycle of eating.
I definitely won't get pregnant this time, I'm recently remarried so not expecting a divorce and if I'm offered redundancy I'll take semi-retirement.
I can't fail really
It would appear that the death of my ex-husband is something I didn't factor into the mix......
I'm not quitting but I'm struggling to stay on track and struggling to be organised and plan ahead with my meals so we've been hitting the takeaways and convenience foods. After the initial shock, and then declaring how important it is to be healthy and look after yourself, the last few days have been very much f**k it, you only live once.
I'm sure this is just part of the grieving process, but I am very much aware this could be a trigger event that leads to my downfall - at least in the short term.
I do keep reading through the posts in this group though, and that is really helping, so thank you to everyone.
The bolded part is the part that matters for your long term goals. Don't quit.
Your short term goal is to grieve and take care of yourself. If it needs to means takeaways and convenience food that is what it means.1 -
I saw a thread on the boards and thought it would be interesting to hear what's different this time for the larger losers.
Most of us have tried and failed in the past. What's different this time around that makes it easier for you?
My son. He's 2.5, and the cutest little thing I've ever seen. He loves to rough-house and run and laugh. I want to do those things with him without feeling like I'm going to pass out. I want to stick around to see him graduate highschool, college...or to do whatever he's going to do in his life. He is my motivation, and I've been so much more successful this time around than I have in the past with my weight loss.
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The difference for me this time is that I have made up my mind that I am really doing this!...some days are more difficult than others but it’s all good....my weight is going down and I feel better than I have in a long time....having MFP and family support helps a lot...you have to eat less but you must keep your head in the game!2
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So the biggest difference for me this time is the largest losers support. I always wanted to lose weight. Everytime I would walk up stairs and breath hard I would say to myself I need to lose weight. I have used MFP off and on for probably 5 years. I have lost close to 100 pounds and gained it all back again. I dont know anything more today than I did 4 years ago about weight loss. I never found or participated in any kind of group before though. I always did it on my own and it always failed. This time I found LL and at least so far it has kept me more engaged, and brought me back from falling off the wagon a lot quicker.7
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conniewilkins56 wrote: »Sorry to post this because I don’t advise it but the last time I flew, I didn’t want to ask for an extender so I simply wrapped the seat belt around me and pretended it was fastened...this was so dangerous and so stupid but I didn’t want to bring attention to the fact that I needed an extender....oh, the things we do to hide our extra pounds....
I hear ya. I actually stole one (I plan on giving it back when I don't need it) so I wouldn't have to ask. I keep it in my backpack just in case...Some of those seatbelts are way shorter than others.2 -
I never thought about “ taking “ one lol......maybe when I fly next time I won’t need one!....0
