@goldenfrisbee Motivation.....prove him wrong.

spospo1 wrote: »

@goldenfrisbee Motivation.....prove him wrong.

I was thinking the same thing.

It was seeing a photo of myself that got me back to goal this time. It was the challenge to myself that I would finally, at the age of 58, stop the roller coaster of weight loss and weight gain and learn to maintain that keeps me going.

When I reached my optimal weight 4 years ago I was taken off my blood pressure meds and the Dr.s quite talking about pre diabetes. A couple weeks ago I noticed blood pressure isuues again and thought I need to fix this before I have to go back to the Dr. again.

One Thanksgiving weekend we were at Yosemite. My son was taking us on the hike to upper Yosemite Falls he had enjoyed with his friends family on a camping weekend. 5-10 minutes in I was gasping for air, my knees felt like they would explode, and I finally told my family I had to turn back. That day I swore that some day I would make it to the top of Yosemite Falls. My family calls it the day everything changed. I was already playing around with WW on-line. Almost 2 years later we did the hike. I was at goal weight

I found out I weighed more than some of my male training partners I also had a vacation photo come back where I thought I was looking pretty good, but my extended stomach said differently!

Needing a seat-belt extender on a AA flight from LaGuardia to Dallas.

The first was a picture taken of me when I was in Bermuda in June 2002. I keep a copy of it on my fridge as a reminder of where I was and where I *could* be again if I don't pay attention. I decided I was going to "start watching what I ate". Whatever that meant.

What REALLY pushed me over the edge was going in for a doctor's appointment (pre-op for an upcoming surgery) in October 2002. He made some notes in my chart and then had to leave the room for something. He left the chart laying there so I decided to look at it. I mean what else could I do?

When I saw this, "This 54 year-old obese white female...", I knew that was going to be the LAST time a doctor described me that way!

I had the surgery the second week of November and the next week, on Wednesday, I walked into a WW meeting with the same leader who had seen me reach goal and lifetime in 1993. She smiled and welcomed me back without ANY comments about the fact that I was WAY above my goal weight.

I reclaimed my Lifetime status (within 2 pounds of goal) on September 1st, 2004 and was 3 pounds below my goal weight on September 15, 2004.

The rest is history. But it's been almost 14 years since I've seen myself described as "obese" in a medical record!

I got a WW membership as a birthday present from DW six years ago. At that time, I had 5 and 3 year old daughters, and 5 and 3 year old grandsons. I was admittedly a little offended, but, when I sat back and looked at everything, it was definitely needed. I was really out of shape, and it was difficult even playing with my girls. My first pass got me down 50 pounds, but I've since found about 20 of it back. I've been trying to get back in the game the last few weeks, with some success, but I'm still not playing the game by the rules. But I am playing the game again.

goldenfrisbee wrote: »

"At your age it is highly unlikely that you will ever get down to a healthy weight, so see if you can drop about 75 lbs and get to 250" .

That comment floored me! I'm 55 ... is it really that unusual for people of our age to NOT be able to get down to a 'healthy weight'? I think we should both prove him wrong!!!

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As for my 'moment', I've always described it as 'flipping a switch'. It happened in May 2012 so I joined WW. I had 105#s to lose. I dropped 80+ in the first 2 years, hit 10 lower (briefly) in the next year, then gained 30#s over 3 months (while on a lot of yucky drugs - prednisone and multiple, high dose antihistamines). I have had since Nov 2015 to get my act together and I've struggled! I've had 3 week runs of being OP, and a 4 week stretch more recently, but I haven't seemed to really get it together.

As of today, I've been on track for 3 weeks. While that sounds like other times in the last 9 months, it feels different. I don't feel like it's such a constant struggle. I'm focused on getting back to a weight where I felt good (and I'd really like to get back into all the clothes in my closet). From there, I'll aim for goal. Also, I've gone back to the gym, and that's a great motivator. Nothing like having sore muscles, to feel like junk food is overrated, and to bring a sense of pride that motivates. Dare I say 'the switch has flipped'?

This last year has REALLY made me wish I knew what causes my switch to flip. I always said I wished I understood it, and that I hoped it never flipped back, and when it did, there just didn't seem to be anything I could do about it. It just was. This is something I need to figure out ... or getting to goal will be a temporary victory!

goldenfrisbee wrote: »

Today's topic: Was there an event or a comment or whatever that made you say to yourself "I've got to change my life and get my weight and eating habits under control"

Which time?

December 2010 topped out at 400.8 lbs. Couldn't believe I had let myself go like that. I was always hungry no matter if I just got up from a big buffet lunch or dinner. I had a good idea I had sleep apnea b/c DW was waking me up afraid I had stopped breathing and I had.

Lost some on with WW online but still fighting it big time by March or April 2011. Had a sleep study done and sure enough severe OSA (Obstructive Sleep Apnea). My sleep therapist when I first met with him said he had drawn blood from deceased people that had more oxygen in their blood than I did mine was at a level of 58 during the study. He said frankly I don't even know how your sitting in front of me. You are a very lucky person. So I said yes I'm blessed and I know it. We worked out a vpap machine October of 2011 and I had already joined Goad in July of 2011 but was not getting anywhere.

Not until I began to do an intensive study on Sleep Apnea and it's effect on weight did I discover that sleep deprivation can have a tremendous effect on weight gain. Within 48 hours of starting on my VPap machine my ravenous appetite had subsided and the weight began to drop off.

I had no idea until I found this article somewhere which read like this

The reasons why inadequate sleep may lead to weight gain is a research area of great interest and not fully understood. There seems to be a connection between sleep loss and hormonal changes that affect appetite and satiety. In a tightly controlled study from the University of Chicago that included 12 healthy men, researchers found that limiting sleep to 4 hours a night resulted in changes in the appetite hormones leptin and ghrelin, and increased hunger as well as cravings for high carbohydrate sweets and salty foods.1 In another similar study, healthy men reported greater hunger and had higher ghrelin levels after sleep deprivation.3

So while I have a long way to go 100 lbs loss has made a huge difference in my attitude toward life and of course how I feel. Lot's of GoaD's have heard my story about this but getting a proper nights sleep is pretty important.

Not an event or comment, just a growing dissatisfaction with my weight. The hardest part about joining WW was acknowledging that I couldn't do it on my own.

No not really. Like a lot of guys I was living in denial. Yeah sure I had a "pot belly" and more but no real "come to JC moment" as such. I joined WW with friends after having done a number of other approaches. I didn't want to be in public in a swim suit so I will give ya that.