Cost of Treating Obesity Soars

Yes it does.

72 Pounds

My weightloss is finally picking up again after a long dormant stage. My trip to Texas and Arizona sort of put me off my weightloss for a little while. Didn't gain...but didn't lose. Here's to losing!

Top snacks consumed by children under 6:

I thought this was an interesting list. My top snacks when I was 6? Probably ice cream followed by chocolate peanut clusters.

Top snacks consumed by children under 6:

	In 1987	In 2007
1.	Cookies	Fruit
2.	Fruit	Cookies
3.	Milk	Milk
4.	Juice	Crackers
5.	Candy	Juice
6.	Carbonated soft drinks	Popcorn
7.	Ice cream	Candy
8.	Crackers	Ice cream
9.	Cake	Chips
10.	Chips	Fruit rolls/bars/pieces

Change of taste

The five foods/beverages that have increased the most in the snack diet of young children today compared with young children 20 years ago:

1. Fruit rolls/bars/pieces
2. Yogurt
3. Crackers
4. Bars
5. Bottled water

The five foods/beverages that have decreased the most in the snack diet of young children today compared with young children 20 years ago:

1. Carbonated soft drinks
2. Ice cream
3. Candy
4. Cake
5. Fruit juice

Source: NPD Group

Mississippi Gains

I just read that Mississippi is at the top of the list of the most obese states in the U.S. at 32.5%. Eight of the 10 states with the highest rates of obesity are in the South.

I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to figure that one out. All of my ex-favorite foods are all southern dishes and they are all fattening: Chicken fried steak, Tex-Mex, hush puppies.

Now I'm getting hungry.

Staying Focused For The Long Haul

I thought this was a great blog post by a lady by the name of Lynn Haraldson-Bering. Here is an excerpt from an entry titled, "Staying focused for the long haul."

I had so many feelings floating around in my head when I weighed 300 pounds – inadequacy, anger, and overall helplessness. I vacillated for months between accepting my body as it was and choosing to lose weight. I journaled tough questions: How did I feel about my body. How much did I love myself? Was I worth changing for? It was difficult and often uncomfortable work, I won’t lie, but once I was honest with myself and became better acquainted with the emotions that bothered me most, I was ready to lose weight.

Read it here.

1 more pound

One more pound and I'll hit a total of 70lbs lost since January 21. That's quite a milestone for me. The ability to walk further and move around easier is really pretty noticeable to me. It gives me the motivation to keep going to reach my goal weight (which is a ways off yet).

I see overweight people on the street and in stores and I just want to grab them and tell them that there is a way to take it off. It's not easy but it can be done and that they will feel so much better physically and mentally. Literally a weight off their minds.

No Extensions

I recently made a trip to my home state of Texas with my wife to visit our adult children. The last time I did this I needed a seat belt extension in order to wear one during takeoff and touchdown. Not so this time!

It was so weird not to have to ask for one and still have plenty of belt left over. Also, I was able to put the tray down from the seat in front of me without it resting on my chest. Ha! This is when it totally hit me how much weight I've lost

Alabama Slammer

Ingredients

1 packet Medifast French Vanilla shake

1-2 tablespoons sugar-free amaretto syrup

1-2 tablespoons sugar-free peach syrup

1/2 cup cold water

1/2 cup ice

Method

Pour ingredients in blender and mix until smooth.

64

Weigh in this morning: 64lbs lost.

Lean and green BBQ

Gotta hankerin for a BBQ...the "Lean and Green BBQ." Medifast's "Take Shape For Life" program features 5 Medifast meals and one "lean and green" meal. Nobody ever said it couldn't include BBQ, so that's what I'm doing a lot of this summer. My favorite summertime lean and green?

6 ounces of BBQ chicken breast
Green salad
1 cup of grilled zuchini

Make a dry rub out of onion, garlic and chili powders and rub on the raw chicken breast. Grill until done. Slice zuchini, brush with olive oil and grill until just tender.

62 Pounds

And the weight keeps coming off! 62 lbs lost since January 21. Yes, super and duper!

60 pounds

60 lbs. Sounds like a lot of weight when I say it out loud. It is a lot of weight. I like to use my 20lb cat sand container analogy. When I buy cat sand for our 4 cats (!), I buy it in 20lb containers. Pick up a 20lb cat sand container sometime and feel the weight of it. Now imagine carrying 3 of those around with you all day. Walking across the parking lot. Climbing stairs. Getting dressed.

I say, goodbye to 60lbs. May I never see you again.

257 and holding

I was down to 256lbs a few days ago, but I'm now holding at 257. Cmon weight! What's the deal? It couldn't be that little bit of wine I had over the last couple of days could it? Ugh.

Obesity reaches down to youngest years

Nationwide, about 17 percent of U.S. children are overweight. American teens have higher rates of obesity than their peers in 14 other industrialized countries. The culprits are no surprise: fast food, snacks and sugary sodas. U.S. children also tend to lead sedentary lifestyles, spending hours in front of a TV or computer screen.

Good article here.

250s, meet Randy. Randy, meet your 250s

I weighed in this morning and the scale said 257lbs! That's 57lbs since I started my program!

Shout hallelujah and pass the nutrition bar.

Weight off my mind video

I put together a video that I uploaded to YouTube over the weekend. It's short and gives a little synopsis of my weight loss journey so far.

53 pounds and a new website

Weigh in this morning: 261 ....can you say, "whoopee!" ?!

My new website is up: www.weightoffmymind.org and here's my personal Take Shape For Life site: www.weightoffmymind.tsfl.com.

Onwards and downwards!

"Very obese fliers on United may have to buy 2nd seat"

That was one of today's headlines in USA Today.

I remember the feeling well, when a ticket taker at an airline counter told me that I may have to buy two seats. You don't know humiliation until something like that has happened to you.

In other news, I am down to 262 as of this morning. That totals 52 pounds since January 21.

www.weightoffmymind.tsfl.com

Diet Pepsi and Orange Shakes - not a great combo

Where did summer go? Now it's cool and grey up here in Or-eh-gone once more. That's alright, I can enjoy that too.

I weighed in this morning at 267 lbs. up from 264. I'm guessing I'm holding on to some water. I made a mock-oriental lean and green meal last night that was a little heavy on the sodium.

I'm trying to get all my water down (The Target brand of water flavor packets are the best). I had an Orange shake this afternoon - not my favorite. I forgot to bring a can of creme soda with me so I bought a diet Pepsi out of the machine here at work to mix with the shake. Ugh! Not horrible, but not great. I hate diet Pepsi!

I'm going to try to be a little more stringent with the food plan and see if that doesn't loosen up this mini plateau a little.

www.weightoffmymind.tsfl.com

The great wait

I shuffled into the bathroom this morning for my morning weigh in and shower.

Does anyone else feel a twinge of fear when you step on the scale and wait for the answer to pop up?

Back before the digital era, you'd step on the scale and the little dial would almost immediately point to your weight. Now that it's all digital, I first have to tap the scale with my foot to zero it out and then step on it and then...wait.

It's just a few seconds, but they are incredibly long seconds before the amount you weigh flashes on the little screen.

My number this morning was 264 lbs. That 50lbs in 10 weeks. Congratulations to me.